Those red tops always fail. If I were to buy an Optima battery, it would be a yellow top.

 

Wow, what a world! I have had good luck with all my vehicles' batteries over the years. Sooner or later, they'd fail and I replaced them with the best wet battery my auto parts store carried. I maintain them religiously so they don't dry out and I watch for leaks though I have only had one that cracked. And it was in my golf cart! I drive my vette once a week and check the battery every few days with no tender/charger, whatever. It starts every time. I almost bought an Optima this summer for my motorhome but the guy at Advance said he wouldn't recommend it because of it's expense and with the knowledge my motorhome is parked a great deal of the time. He suggested their best stock batteries which I then bought for my motorhome engine compartment and two others in the coach compartment to run the rest of the electrical connections in the MH. No problems with any of them. I tried Interstate for the engine and it failed after only ONE month of use. It tested defective and they gave me my money back and I bought the ones I have now. Use what you want but you never really know what's going to happen with a battery.

 

Hi 3rd_Vette, I apologize for the delay in responding to this thread. I'm generally engaged in several dozen threads on as many different boards at the same time and because of that, I prioritize my activity, starting with private messages, followed by threads I'm already engaged in. When I have all of that covered, then I begin to look for new conversations like this one.

As you indicated in this thread, you were previously active in another thread where you noticed one of my posts. In that post, I asked folks to contact me if they had questions about our batteries and I meant it. Had you opted to contact me regarding your situation via private message or through that thread, I could've responded much sooner. I did see your post in the previous thread, but since you asked if you should've bought another brand of battery, it appeared to be a general question, which was answered by someone else and not directed specifically to me. I'm not allowed to comment about other specific brands of batteries anyway.

I'm sorry to hear you purchased your battery 350 miles from your home, but our customer service folks do arrange local testing and warranty service every day for people who move or for other reasons are unable to return to their original retailer. It is standard practice to charge and check all batteries returned under warranty, because many returned batteries are just deeply-discharged and work fine, when properly recharged.

warpster is correct in his analysis of our warranty process. We would love it if every authorized Optima retailer was willing to provide warranty service on our batteries, regardless of where they were originally purchased. I'm sure Apple would feel the same way about ipods purchased at Target and returned to Wal-Mart. This is a policy set by retailers, not the manufacturer. I don't know the specifics of your situation or the people you are dealing with, but at this point, I cannot circumvent the warranty process and short of doing that, I don't believe I have any answers that will satisfy you.

If anyone has any questions regarding our batteries, please don't hesitate to contact me (really!).

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.facebook.com/optimabatteries

 

You bought your battery at an authorized dealer/distributor (regardless if it was a retail store or not).
You took your defective battery to an authorized dealer/distributor (as required by the warranty), who knew full well where you purchased it because you presented your original receipt (as required by the warranty). No, it wasn't the original retailer you took it to but the Warranty says if there isn't one nearby they will send you to another dealer.
That dealer/distributor obviously determined the battery was defective (it makes no difference to YOU how he came to that conclusion) since he offered you a warranty replacement.

Any problems that dealer/distributor has with the Optima company is his problem, not yours.

Personally I wouldn't take the battery anywhere. The closest I'd come would be to offer to let them bring my battery back to me but I wouldn't accept it back unless it came with a written statement acknowleding it was defective and a coupon for a free replacement.

And finally, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, any company that forces you to bend over (forward or backward) would NEVER get my money again. Right or wrong, their battery is listed as an applicable battery for a C5. If they want you to jump through hoops then you need to spend your money elsewhere.

JMHO

 

Sorry to hear about your problems, I have a Red Top and so far so good

 

I've had a red top for almost 5 years w/ no problem; however, I keep the maintainer on it a lot of the time. I think problems arise with the AGM type batteries because people treat them like a wet battery. With a good wet battery you can unhook the negative cable and leave the car sit for a month and it'll be ok. With these glass mat batteries like the red top they don't tolerate being idle w/ a 30ma drain. So IMHO if your going to have a red top and the car's is going to sit then I'd invest in a maintainer. My $.02

 

So who sets the policies to be an authorized dealer?? The retailer? Any GM dealer will exchange an AC/Delco battery.

 

In reply to everyone, I was going to be willing to return the Yellow Top had the guy that warrantied my battery 10 days ago called by last Friday. He never called and my "good heart" is not as willing. I suspect that once he finally got off his butt and talked to Optima and faxed my original receipt for the Red Top (defective) to them, they must have agreed to take the Red back as a warranty exchange. It would have beed nice to have let me know what was going on rather than to let me sit and wait. Now, here it is Monday and still no call and there is NO WAY Im calling them to see whats up. I have the Yellow Top that seems to be working just fine, unlike the Red Top ever did. I also have a receipt that states I have received the yellow top as a warranty replacement and made payment in FULL for the difference. Thus, I now feel I really own the Yellow Top and have no obligation to return it. (I guess Im just too much of a nice guy). Regardless, I really hope the yellow top lasts at least 3 years and I don't have to go through this again. In the future, i will just buy the AC Delco and be done with it.. I really like NO hassle warranties! Optima is NO WAY a NO hassle warranty. You need an "approval" first, then the chuckle nut at the warranty dealer has to test the thing for a few days and give an opinion. If I was to be on the road somewhere on Route 66 (I-40) and have an issue, I would not have the time to go through all the BS that Optima requires.. Thank you all for the opinions and responses.

 

I would also wonder about where you bought the battery. Wallmart has a apparently policy of making manufacturers of their products cut corners and make a cheaper version of a normal product. Just so they can undercut prices. This is a generality but rumor is that they strong arm providers to keep the costs down so maybe the Optima guy can enlighten us on that issue???

 

Mine was bought at Sams Club (ie WalMart). There are NO Sams Clubs near my home in Oregon. I "was" going to buy one at Costco since they are so easy with returns, but they have QUIT selling Optimas! Gee, I wonder why! The guy at the Medford Costco said it was because of the failure rate and they finally got tired of dealing with them. Kinda makes ya feel all warm and fuzzy inside huh? All I can say is, this is the LAST Optima Ill own, (unless it craps out in the 3 year over the counter, jump through hoops warranty). In other words, If I have to pay Optima any more $$$, Im done. These are twice as expensive as the AC Delco and as I see it, not as good.. Lesson learned..

 

Wal-mart is pretty ruthless with their suppliers, it's basically their price or the highway. However, it's not Wal-mart's policy to make suppliers cut corners on quality or re-design of a product. A supplier, in order to meet a price point, may make changes to their product or design a product specifically for Wal-Mart but this is done up-front before presenting to Wal-Mart. Their is such a thing as a charge-back where Wal-Mart charges back a supplier for defective goods. Wal-mart tracks a suppliers sales daily and they keep a close eye on the return rates as well. You will not last long as a supplier to Wal-Mart with a poor sales or return rate. Many companies refuse to sell to Wal-Mart but their volume of sales is hard to resist for many.