Green Bean Battery Warranty Grief

Anyone have experience dealing with Green Bean battery and their lifetime warranty transfer? I was told if it was not initiated within 7 days from purchase, they would not honor it.

Nowhere in the documentation they gave to the purchaser did it mention the 7 days.

I contacted them two days after I titled the vehicle in NJ. NJ makes you schedule all paperwork since covid.

Anyone have success making them honor the warranty transfer when you are slightly beyond those 7 days?

I have legal services through work that I can utilize, but it makes me sick that companies use loopholes to get out of honoring warranties.

 

Thanks for your replies. I agree that warranty=cost and it’s something companies try to avoid. I will see what their reply is to my email is and share here. Hopefully they don’t want forums like this to reflect negatively on customer service when there are lots of low cost battery swappers out there. If you can’t manage customer relationships how do you justify the premium price and it makes me a little apprehensive about an actual warranty claim

 

So it is mentioned online under that online document. Makes the conditions easy to change at any moment by editing a website. My issue is the purchase came with a 3 page writeup and not a word mentioned there. Only thing mentioned was a lifetime warranty and all of the exclusions.

So I don't disagree with this. There are LOTS of exclusions in the three pages I have from the buyer and to some extent it is fair. They don't cover any transfer of the battery, breaking open the case, long periods of inactivity...

I will wait for a response from GBB and hopefully share some good news.

Chances are that this Prius, with 260K miles and a battery installed in 2020 will have the battery outlast the vehicle, so the warranty won't matter much. Its more peace of mind and also might also help if there are issues far from home... but actual warranty work I expect takes time.

I had two other Prius with Dorman remanufactured traction batteries. Both were 2007 and the battery was installed in 2015. One I sold in 2022 with a working battery and the other had one bad cell that I replaced in 2022 and it survived another 20K miles until the car was sold. I expect that this battery might still be functional until 2027.

 

Looks like my discussions with Green Bean Battery has come to an end. Its not one I am happy with.

After my initial call, where I disclosed the purchase date was 9 days prior, I was sent a warranty transfer application. It asked for, among other things.
A bill of sale ( I have a notorized one from PA)
The seller's registration (why would I have that? I wouldn't provide that to a buyer or any other personal information)

They were unwavering on their 7 day rule, expressing the issues with paper trails. I told them I am still in contact with the buyer, but policy is policy.

I let them know about this thread. They didn't seem to be too concerned.

So the outcome is this. No exceptions. The warranty ends.

If you are considering Green Been Battery I cannot recommend them. I feel like they used a loophole to invalidate a warranty that the original purchaser paid for and was expressed as something that added value to the vehicle.

If I were to be in need of battery services, I would consider using a local service that comes by for half the cost and puts in a replacement battery with a 6 month warranty. I think some of these guys may even work out of their basement, but if they follow some common sense rules, anyone can recondition batteries. It helps to understand how the process works and ask them what they do. It should be more than replacing individual cells that clearly are bad.

My final suggestion is to decide on your own how much you value the services provided by a company like this. On the upside they were responsive and answered the phone and had online chat. I wasn't routed to some overseas answering service.

On the downside, screw them and their 7 day rule. Also, and even more annoying, why send me an application when you are going to deny my transfer in the first place? And when I send a message that I will share here later with a list of concerns to be escalated, why send me yet another link to the application. F'ers. Was I being taunted? I will never ever ever do business with them. Make your own decisions but be informed as you can.

 

My email response to GBB that was sent to plead my case


Hello

I wanted to voice my concerns with the warranty transfer program. I bought this vehicle from the purchaser of the green bean battery and it was sold to me with a transferable lifetime warranty. The car was driven to NJ and titled there on 12/16/23. I called about the transfer on 12/19/2023

On a subsequent call today I learned for the first time that the warranty transfer had to start within 7 days of the original purchase date. That was the prior Saturday 12/09/2023

I know I will be told that the warranty can no longer be transferred based on some information online. The original documentation provided by the seller and provided to me never mentions anything about a time limit or the existence of one

It leaves a sour taste in my mouth that a company can put these limitations on the transfer and I am asking for this transfer to be honored. I will be in touch with my workplace provided legal counsel to understand what rights I have in this situation and I may choose to share my experiences, good or bad, with various forums online that I frequent. I had no prior issues with green bean battery and considered it to be a premium product

Please let me know how we might move forward

Thank you

 

I am going to take this comment a little personally and let you know that I do more research than I probably should. I know your example is of someone who bought a car without really understanding anything about it. I understand the car, just as I know you do. I see that you have lots of posts here and provide good advice.

My problem with this whole situation is that companies provide warranties at their convenience, sell them as one thing and then don't really support that. There was really no loss in the chain of custody of this warranty. It didn't change hands multiple times. I know you see the companies side in this, and I understand.

I guess I could have been focused on getting in touch immediately with this company but I chose to take the time to make sure that this car had the needed repairs ASAP to make sure it got on the road the week later.

What they should do is limit the warranty, giving you an option to get another 3 to 5 years at a discount for a refreshed battery pack. Nobody expects this to last 10 years.

On another note, I do appreciate the comments about buying new. There is nothing better than new. But also realize that some of these cars have a value that isn't much more than the cost of the pack and, even though these cars are reliable, there are other failures. If I do one day own a pristine 2nd gen with 150K miles or less, I will open my wallet also for a new pack.... although now that I think about it, I could just install a strap and move it to the next Prius. I seem to be a prisoner of these cars anyway.