Bosch Batteries - The Truth from Bosch

dlm

Having a Bosch Battery, which came fully advertised with 4 Year Free replacement I paid well over the odds for a top range £160 battery i was just a little disappointed when it fails after two and a half years.

Your initial port of call was the dealer - but It had been replaced whilst on holiday, and that really was too far to go.

I initially contacted Varta - as they are the same battery, the dealer had put Varta and not Bosch on the invoice. Varta would have replaced worldwide, no question and were about to when they noticed it to be Bosch S6.

I then approached Bosch, slow to respond at 11 days later and after a nudge. I was told in no uncertain circumstances that the Warranty they advertise was not valid.
Jack Rice from Bosch UK, stated that Bosch Products have a 12 month warranty from the date of MANUFACTURE......NOT SALE! They will determine this from the barcode build date.

Knowing that I had the receipt - he did ask for further proof I had collected it IN PERSON...a photo perhaps? I was unable to clarify, as he stated that unless I could prove this he would not reply - and never did respond to my reply. A brush off really.

Some of you may or may not realise, that from Factory build to Your car - that 12 months will mostly - or almostly be spent in shipping, distributing, sitting on shelves and redistributing to your dealer, a little more shelf sitting until you turn up. Some can be approaching two years - in fact if you look at dealer agreement contracts it does say to charge the batteries and you can see they fully expect them to be on dealer shelves for much longer than you would think!

It does appear that in the UK, Bosch do not belive their products will reach the customer without failing - hence date of manufacture rule - the clock is ticking straight after they build it.

As it is a premium product - cheaper alternative was £45, as apposed to Bosch £160 - What is the point in buying Bosch????

The Cheaper Battery had 2 year Nationwide warranty - it still would have not been replaced, but they didn't claim to. And at a quarter of the price - you don't mind!! The Warranty is also TWICE that of Bosch!

So Why buy Bosch??? As far as I can see Bsoch UK have destroyed their own USP, by renaiging on warranties which is its' selling point, by not trusting their own product to last 12 months by using date of manufacture as a get out of jail card - suggesting lack of faith or quality? So without Quality and a Warranty - you pay 4 times more for Bosch because?

You THINK you are getting something better than you are. Ripped Off, Stitched Up, Stung - Call it what you will. Buy the cheaper battery, with the better Amps.

Emails are available if anyone doubts!

agrinnall

So who was it that offered the 4 year free replacement?

Minrich

What battery is it for £160 , very few bosch batteries are that price. The last two i bought for my landrover and golf were about £70.

stator

Your contract is with the place you purchased the battery.

dlm

Its' a big one for the van, and the S6 is their flagship agm battery. Average price for mid to top range is around £120-130, cheap ebay ones are £45-55 delivered.

Bosch stated the warranty, but it appears although they did not state on the advert (I cannot post pics or links yet) it does not include the UK from what I can gather from their damage limitation expert who emailed me today - yet to confirm this is the case. If so, WHY we should be excluded from the rest of the world? and secondly - that should be made clear on the advert that UK is excluded. All it states is, that the 4th year is an extra and 3 years is standard. I have the 3 year warranty card with the receipt, which is worthless as Bosch state I must prove it is under 12 months old from MANUFACTURE.

To me, it seems alot of ducking and diving for what is albeit an expensive battery RETAIL, COST to Bosch is probably £30-50. VARTA can do it (same battery) why not Bosch?

stator

Take them to small claims court. If you have the paperwork you will win. Or more likely they will settle before it gets that far

Car_54

stator wrote: »

Take them to small claims court. If you have the paperwork you will win. Or more likely they will settle before it gets that far

But .... As you yourself pointed out, his contract is with the retailer, not Bosch. He needs to contact the retailer before he thinks of suing anyone.

dlm

stator wrote: »

Your contract is with the place you purchased the battery.

I currently don't live anywhere near where the battery is purchased. It wouldn't be worth them replacing. Because Bosch advertised it not under their dealer - but under their own name unconnected with the dealer - I considered they may possibly be able to offer some alternative.

Interestingly - when I mistakenly contacted Varta having not read the label on the battery, (they are same battery) they were happy to replace at any of their distributors - only the label was a Bosch.... Varta were going to replace, and sort out the credit with the dealer through his account.

Bosch made sure there were conditions that were impossible - such as the validity of a 3 year warranty relying on the battery being under 12 months from Manufacture (not sale) which is ludicrous.

I don't mind if they want to do that and ruin their own business, if half of these people knew what they were doing, then people like me would have failing businesses to buy and sell.

What I feel is important is this:

If they have little warranty of no discernable length unless scanned, they why pay a premium? If you look anywhere, UK people buy Bosch MAINLY for the quality and warranty. Yet Bosch have admitted that this isn't the case (presumably in UK alone) in which case, why are we paying top prices if they are as bad as Bosch make out?

I think people need to know what the reality is, so they can make an informed decision based on fact, not disappointment and misleading sales ploys. As it stands, a cheap £45 battery has a nationwide 2 year warranty - a Bosch DOESN'T and may not have any - in fact you never know how much you have left unless you call and have the code read. It may already have expired - and cost 4 times more??

Imagine if you bought a car - say a merc with a 10 year corrosion warranty, it rusted in 2 years, and you returned to Mercedes to bve told 'Ah, Yeah, but it isn't covered as you are in the UK, the warranty is for the rest of the world only. It only has 12 months from Manufacture, and most are two years old before they are sold' There would be riots!

George_Michael

dlm wrote: »

Having a Bosch Battery, which came fully advertised with 4 Year Free replacement I paid well over the odds for a top range £160 battery i was just a little disappointed when it fails after two and a half years.

I would hazard a guess that you were looking at the Bosch American website and not the Bosch UK one.
The US website does state the 4 year free replacement warranty:
https://www.boschautoparts.com/en/auto/passenger-batteries/s6-high-performance-batteries
but there is no mention of this on the UK website:
http://www.boschcarservice.co.uk/repairs/batteries-s6.php

londonTiger

US consumer laws are very good for motorists, lemon law makes it very easy for buyers to return junk cars and have every penny they spent refunded, including legal costs. They have far longer warranties and also force a lot of factoriy defects to be fixed by carmaker such as the AUDI TSFI piston ring issue that made cars eat 1L of oil in 600miles in some cases!!

US Audi wre forced to fix it, UK/EU Audi not so.

The VW emissions was busted in the US where as were silent in EU.

londonTiger

i can see the advertised warranties on ECP site and other sites

s3 = 3 years
s4 = 4 years
s5 = 5 years etc.

These are retailer warranties I beleive some people have claimed their warranty in the past. They only give you s pro-rata refund for the remaining time left in your warranty.

E.g. s3 battery went kaput after 2 years (3 year warranty). You'll get 1/3 of the money you paid for it refunded or credit towards your new battery.

Very few will actually claim the warranty, if their battery dies they will go to the nearest motor factor and buy a replacement battery as they need the car working.