Generac generators / tech support

[K8MHZ]

I remember reading (likely here) that Generac will no longer offer tech support to anyone that is not a dealer.

Today I get a call from my cousin. He has been approached to become a Generac dealer (he owns a mobile home sales place and a couple mobile home parks) which involves paying Generac money and going to school. (To learn to sell them, not to learn to fix them)

He doesn't sell generators.

There is also a Generac dealer on the same street less than a mile away. He said something about going through that dealer to go to school and become another dealer. He is also about 5 miles from a Home Depot that is a Generac dealer. He said that Generac told him that he would not be selling the same models as Home Depot. (Which I don't understand)

Obviously Generac is changing the way they do business.

 

[richwaskowitz]

If they do offer tech support to non-dealers I would not know. They never answer the phone or return my calls.

 

[augie47]

At one time Generac handled the RV generators (excluding "portable") as a completely separate division as the residential and commercial including dealers.

 

[svh19044]

It's been this way for at least a couple of years, and I believe Kohler and Onan are both the same for standby generators.

 

[bullheimer]

do a search for this and theres word where it costs plenty to become a dealer. i have asked about it last year and you have to go to there school which is the major expense. dont recall the exact amt but i got sticker shock

 

[B4T]

Generac has gotten really picky with the way they do business..

When I first became a dealer (8) years ago.. it was a more dealer friendly corporate world..

Now to do service you have to pay $1200.00 to go to school and then go back every (2) years for updates..

Tech support won't even sell you parts if you are not a service dealer..

I can buy "maintenance kits".. but so can Joe Homeowner..

They send me a "confidential dealer price sheet" every year.. but if I buy from Norwall online.. I save about $200.00.. :rant:

 

[goldstar]

Generac has gotten really picky with the way they do business..

When I first became a dealer (8) years ago.. it was a more dealer friendly corporate world..

Now to do service you have to pay $1200.00 to go to school and then go back every (2) years for updates..

Tech support won't even sell you parts if you are not a service dealer..

I can buy "maintenance kits".. but so can Joe Homeowner..

They send me a "confidential dealer price sheet" every year.. but if I buy from Norwall online.. I save about $200.00.. :rant:

This is right on the $$$. Generac is interested in SALES - SALES - SALES. When I placed my first order as a dealer I checked the price they gave me against an on-line distributor's price and was able to buy the unit for less at the on-line dealer. Go figure!!! I confronted them about it and their answer was "Oh, the reason you can buy for less from them is because they buy about 75 units a month - they can offer you a higher discount". Long story short, they reduced the price. OH, and BTW, after you spend that $1200 on schooling you'll have to stock your truck with about $2K in parts, 80% of which you'll probably never use.

 

[iwire]

On another forum a Generac employee came on trying to defend some of the practices they have.

In the end IMO all he did was prove that the only thing they care about is money and not one bit about quality or customer service.

 

[templdl]

Interesting.

Generac has three plants within 25 miles from where I live. The Main plant in Waukesha, WI is in the process of building a fairly large addition and they have been given a lot of press about how they are expanding and the great number of people that they are hiring. I've seen mega postings for job openings. But true to form I don't believe that their pay scale is even close to being high enough to be able to hire good knowledgeable people. It's almost as if they are just filling chairs.
I have no complaints about their product and do believe they are exceptional but have not heard a lot of positive things about them as an employer. There seems to be quite a bit of turn over which leads me to believe that is the reason for your concern about support. I've been in there area for some 30 years and haven't seen any improvement from what I gather.
If Generac would make it their priority to hire competent people and not try to cut corners by trying to do it as cheep as they could I think that Generac quite likely would blow the competition away.
This is what has always intregued me about the company, they manufacture an exception product for the price but they have a ways to go with regard to technical support and customer service. You wouldn't believe the number of adds run for customer service, inside sales, sales, technical, and I very suspicious of quality of support they are hiring as I know somebody who is more than qualified and never have received a response to a resume which makes me wonder what it takes to be qualifed.
But I wouldn't hesitate buying their product but would do so with the understanding that the product support is slim to none.

 

[iwire]

But I wouldn't hesitate buying their product but would do so with the understanding that the product support is slim to none.

Have you actually had hands on time with their equipment?

The quality is poor at best.

 

[goldstar]

Have you actually had hands on time with their equipment?

The quality is poor at best.

If you're comparing the quality of Generac products to Kohler, B&G or Cummins I'm sure you're correct. However, they've carved themselves a niche in the residential marketplace. Getting homeowners to part with a buck is tough. Getting them to part with $3-$6K for a generator is even tougher. And, it's not like you can tack on a 20% margin for yourself because HD is out there pushing their products in every store, so HO's know what the prices are. Then comes the cost of installation, permit fees, etc. and now you're up in the $10K area. If you want to bump up to a Kohler or B&G you're automatically $200-$700 more (before mark-up) for the cost of a 20 KW unit.

Would I rather sell and install a better made and higher quality unit ? You bet. However, I've found that when you start talking in the $10-$12K area for a generator installation, most HO's start thinking portable generator and less convenience. Frankly, if HO's want to purchase their unit from HD, I'll do the installation. If they want to purchase it themselves on-line, I'll do the installation. If they want me to purchase the unit and GC the job I'm making at lease 20% on the order.

 

[templdl]

To be truthful just the residential equipment they have customarily made.
Since they have gotten into the smaller end of the industrial/commercial I haven't.
I am not surprised be the comments that have been made though. I have been quite intregued that they have been able to do as well as they have over the years and had a gut feeling that their product support was slim to none. They are growing, doing some massive hiring, and have the funds to build additions.

I would like to make farther comments regarding them but they would be from my gut feelings and not factual. But I have known those who have submitted resumes that are more than qualified with experience in electrical distribution systems field with transfer switch experience, engine back ground, NEC knowledge, etc experience that one would expect would be an asset to them as well as good fits for the positions but were never as much a replied to. So, you wonder what the competency requirements that they have for their staff if they are not interested in qualified people.
I don't know what they are doing right that makes them as successful as it appears. I doesn't make sense.
But their business plan must be working for them so why should they change.

 

[iwire]

I don't know what they are doing right that makes them as successful as it appears.

They are the least expensive, for many that is all that matters.

 

[Daja7]

Have you actually had hands on time with their equipment?

The quality is poor at best.

The quality of Generac has improved dramaticly in the las 3 to 4 years. Kohler is a higher quality product but is the type of quality that you will rarely need or use. Most customers will not pay the extra expense when given both cost estimates. You can become a deal for just sales with no money for training or service. You will not be able to by parts but that is never an issue. I have aligned myself with a service dealer that loves warranty and repair work, i hate it so he gets it all and i can offer my customers complete service after the sale. All you have to do is buy one Generac a year to maintain dealer status. I have sold and installed about 100 units this year and only bought one though them directly. My local supplier stocks them and i buy about $150.00 to $200.00 less than direct when you include freight. This should make no diffence to Generac as they still sell the same amount of generators

 

[brantmacga]

A word of caution before becoming a generac dealer:


We used to be; not anymore.


The short story is, we had a generator quit running while still under warranty. Called generac, no problem, they sent us the parts. Ended up being the wrong parts as the serial # parts build sheet didn't match what was in the generator.

Ended up getting what Generac said was the right parts, and it still wouldn't crank. We replaced EVERY part except the engine itself, under Generac's direction, and it still wouldn't run.

We called in another dealer who does nothing but Generac install/repair; that's their entire business; all of their tech's are factory trained. They determined some of the parts still weren't right, replaced again, and still it wouldn't run. They're scratching their heads telling me they've never seen this before, and that the whole unit may need to be replaced because now its just a mess of thrown-together parts that may or may not work with each other; again, generac sent these parts and recommended these replacements.

So during the 6 weeks this is all going on, with generac sending parts over and over, telling us they may have sent defective parts, the warranty runs out. Generac washes their hands of it, and leaves us with an irate customer.

The end.

 

[hillbilly1]

Now on some of their units, you have to enter a code on initial startup to make the Generator work, if you don't have this code, you have an expensive brick!

 

[iwire]

The quality of Generac has improved dramaticly in the las 3 to 4 years.

Wow, they must have been real crap back then because any of the new ones I see are built very cheaply.

In my personal opinion Generac is low cost junk. Might as well get a Harbor Freight unit.

 

[WIMaster]

We used to be a generac dealer and had factory generac trianed techs.
I have one of their units at my own house and had issues with it.
I asked one of our techs about it and he gave me the fairly useless tech manual (that is pretty much a longer re-worded version of the troubleshooting guide in the owners manual) for it and said I should call the support #, but also said that I would be wasting my time doing so... He was right!
I found the answer to my problem with help from the people here http://www.zillerelectric.com/forums/index.php instead.

As was stated earlier it should have been a warranty issue but they refused to deal with it. :rant:

IMO all they care about is the up front $, after that you are on your own.

 

[iwire]

Now on some of their units, you have to enter a code on initial startup to make the Generator work, if you don't have this code, you have an expensive brick!

Yes, ran into that when the boss had one put at his home, I was sent to get it running. I had to call in to get the code. I wrote the code and all the other info in the transfer switch and inside the genset enclosure.

 

[electricguy61]

I recently installed a 20KW Kohler using a 400amp Generac ATS. The ATS seemed well built. The Kohler generator was awesome. Very quiet.

The generator service people I've spoken with tell me that Generac's quality has improved in the last couple of years (as was stated above)

In this case, I was dealing with a customer willing to pay for quality (on a $5M house, what do they care for a few extra $K)