Odyssey Warranty is as worthless as their batteries!!!

[DrGonzo]

First off this is not a stab at STM as I know this is not at all their fault.

So here is the story,

About 6-8 months ago I purchased one of STM small sealed batteries. I was relocating mine behind the rear pass seat and needed a sealed battery. I know Austin has had good success with it so I decided to buy one. Got the battery installed and wired in no problems. Finally got the car running, drove it to BRG2011 and back "12 hours round trip" The battery is strong and never had an issue with the car starting.

Last month I got some engine knock and started to tear into the engine to find the problem. Battery was unhooked as I had to drop the pan to look at the bearings which requires removing the starter. For about a month the car was down doing various repairs and part installs. I finally got everything back together about 2 weeks ago. Hook the battery back up and it's dead...WTF!! Nothing was hooked to the battery for the last month now so why is it dead.

So I put the battery on my digital charger on slow charge and let it charge "8amp" for 12 hours. "This type of charger shuts off when battery is fully charged". Next day I come out to check on it and the battery is 2% completely charged...WTF!! 12 hours and it will only hold like 2 volts. Within 30 min there was no voltage on the battery at all. The damn thing drained itself!!!

OK so the battery is fried for some reason. I called STM and spoke with Brian. He states I need to contact Odyssey directly for the Warranty claim, No Biggie, not the first time I had to contact the manufaturer. For two days I tried calling and finally got through. Lady at the office says I need to call the manufacturing plant to speak to them about the warranty.....:confused2: and that the warranty has to be processed thought the person I bought it off of!!! OR I can take it to a local dealer "Which there are none around me. Odyssey's website only shows like 5 states that have dealers. Now I'm getting dizzy from the loop I just went and starting to get a little P'd off!!!

So I call Brian back at STM and let him know what Odyssey told me. He calls them for more info on the warranty claim. Here is what I am now told:

1. I have to ship it to STM so they can ship it to Odyssey. I have to pay all shipping!!!

2. The battery is not made for vehicles but motorcycles and snowmobiles!!
If you go to Odyssey's website and click on Auto/LTV the PC680battery is listed there: Odyssey Drycell Car Batteries (http://www.odysseybatteries.com/applications/auto.htm)
If it was not made for auto's then why do they have the option for SAE automotive terminals??

3. Odyssey tells STM that the battery should be on a trickle charge when not in use and stored. Ok, when is unhooking a battery for a month timeframe considered storing the battery??

Design specs from their website

Odyssey design:


2 year full warranty
Rugged Drycell sealed design
Military grade
Vibration resistant
60% more starting power
Deep discharge reserve power
2 year storage life
8-12 year design life
Can be mounted flat or upright


All bolded items have just been shown to be false in this case.


I am not going to stop fighting this issue as this is total BS. I paid $150.00 for a battery that lasted 6-8 months on a vehicle that is not raced,dragged and barely even driven. I don't have an electrical issue so there is no reason for this battery to be dead.

So right now I have a 5year old Walmart special "Neverstart" Lead-Acid battery sitting in a turkey basting pan "As it leaks when on charge :p " in the trunk just so I can start my damn car!

I should have just gotten a Braile or a Optima!!!

[IPD]

nice fail. definitely sticking with a yellow top.

[Hans@GZP]

I've never had luck with any expensive battery. I just stick with the cheap ones and replace them every few years. If they die, I just slam them on a charger for a day or 2 and see if it holds a charge. If not, no biggie... just buy another for $40. I've gone through Optima yellow and red tops like candy. Sure, they will warranty them, but it's not worth the hassle. If an Optima dies, it's really hard to bring it back to life.

[Chris@Rvengeperformance]

i've run a lot of neverstarts in the past. if you don't discharge them completely you can get 5 years out of them. i'm running an autozone gold battery (group 51) and it seems to be good so far. I've killed it 5 or 6 times and it comes back every time.

I don't know what the obsession with fancy batteries is. Good marketing I guess.

[BigTyla]

Fancy batteries are a waste of money IMO. I have no problem with buying mine from good 'ol Wal-Mart.

[green-lantern]

I've had great luck out of my red top Optima. I've drained it several times (this year at BRG) and it's always came back. It takes longer to get it charged up but it takes a long time to drain it.

[Jimvr4]

I'm running a Duralast Gold from Autozone too. My last one was a POS Optima Redtop that died AND leaked all over my batter tray and supports :mad: So much for the theory that it's a DRY cell :rolleyes3:

[green-lantern]

I hear so many people say they have had trouble with their red top (or Optima in general) but I honestly could not be any happier with mine. Love it!

[dbest671]

The 94 has a Diehard Gold, found the receipt for it and it was 7 years old before it finally went. We bought Autozone premium battery which lasted all of 6 months. Read some horror stories with Optimas, so we didn't want one of those. Ended up getting an Interstate and never had an issue. It was one of the first things we bought for the Spyder also. That car can sit for months with no trickle charger and still start right up. I think only once the battery got drained because the door was left opened.

[DrGonzo]

So I got word from Brian at STM. He spoke with Odyssey and come to find out I can take it to any BatteriesPlus store to get it tested and replaced......

So after all of the conversations with Odyssey on the phone they just now disclose this information...WTFH!!!

Major prop's goes to Brian at STM for taking the time to deal with Odyssey and their pain in the ass clueless customer support.

So I'm off to hopefully get this thing exchanged! Wish Me Luck!!!

[green-lantern]

Good luck, if they give you any shit then sic the ape on them.

[DrGonzo]

Ok So I took it up to Batteriesplus and after a few phone calls they found out they can warranty the battery, now here is the kicker!! when I brought it in ans they tested it it had 5v. Odyssey states that any battery under 10v is considered abused and not warrantied!!!

You Fucking dirt-bags!!!

Batteriesplus is trying to get it to hold a charge over 10v so that they can process the warranty but unless they have some magical battery charger that charges differently than mine I screwed!

So how many people have seen a dead battery have more than a couple volts??? Isn't that the point of it being dead!!! I mean shit if it had 10v when I first tested it I would have just thrown it on the charger and been done with it as obviously it can hold a charge!!

Directly from their warranty:

A battery with an open circuit voltage (OCV) of equal to or less then
10.0V will be deemed as overdischarged and void from warranty due to misuse and/or neglect.

From their product specs:
-Deep discharge reserve power

So how do you claim something has a deep discharge but than void the warranty if used within it's stated specs!

This company is a fucking joke and I can't wait to tear into some assholes come Monday Morning over at Odyssey!

[green-lantern]

Well this is good to know. I'll never buy from this company.

[i3igpete]

wow, that sounds like a shitty cop out. looks like i'm also sticking to my $40 flood light batteries.

[DocWalt]

Don't buy directly from Braille, buy from Deka, significantly cheaper for the same batteries.

Sucks you got the run around on this. Fucking Odyssey.

[DrGonzo]

So I went to pick it up from Batteriesplus and they got it to charge to 12v but within 10 min it was back down to 5v. So I am screwed with this battery.

When Odyssey opens on Monday I am going to tear into them royally for this BS!

[JasonY]

So what is the best battery than doesnt stand more than 3.5" tall on its side?

Jason

[Nytron]

Those batteries are easy to kill if you don't charge them on the correct mode (agm) and slow charge (2 amp). If you leave them sitting they will be fubar'd. Optima redtops have the same issue.

Go to autozone and get a Duralast Gold battery, one of the few good things they sell there.

[KeithMac]

Can`t you run an SLA motorcycle battery of some description?, we use GS and Yuasa at work, bikes are often left in the showroom for 6 months during winter and start straight up with no problems (we only sell GS and Yuasa, cheap sealed bike batteries are not worth the hastle..)

For me, I bought a sealed battery box, put my full sizes Bosch S4 Sliver battery in the boot with a vent line outside the car. Battery is 3 years old and has never let me down!.

[11secondFWD]

I dunno. I have a 680 odyssey in my talon and it is my race car and weekend driver but does go a couple weeks at a time without being started and does great. I also have had times where I had to start it over 10 times in a row due to a bad tune, big leak and big cams and the battery never missed a beat. I dont have many accessories at all and dont have much being pulled from it though and its a 4 cyl. But I never bought one for years because of bad things I heard but it has worked great. When it sits for weeks it is still hooked up. ALso, I let it sit for over a month in my attic when I was building my new engine and I put it back in and it started great. And after sitting for over the month that is when I had to start the car 10 times in a row because of above info. So I think its great. It might just have been a bad one? I dont know. BUT the warranty info you gave is shit. I cant believe they are fing you over. They cost only 100 dollars even on extremepsi.com when I got mine but are now 125 EXTREME PSI : Your #1 Source for In Stock Performance Parts (http://www.extremepsi.com/store/product.php?productid=21845&cat=0&page=1).

As far as the redtops on a 3S I dont know why anyone has a problem. I had mine for 4 years and it was great and then I put it in my intrepid for over a year and it is still running great. The intrepid sits for months. It has also been killed by leaving stuff on by me and always charged great. ANd most importantly, with the 3S (my FWDTT) I would let it sit for months all winter (it gets to below 0 degrees here) and when I would come back from school every 2 months or so, I would fire it up and take it for a little drive and the first crank it would start wonderfully. That was after months of sitting in freezing weather, hooked up and then started in freezing weather at the first crank on a 3S.

I believe alot of people have other issues when they kill batteries and such or just got a bad one or something. I have bought like 3 batteries in over 7 years for 2 cars. Cheap ones work great too. My moms talon has some cheapo though and it has worked great for many years.

I only have the odyssey for weight reduction in the race talon. If not I worried about weight and want to mount in the car I recommend the large redtop if in the engine bay and dont care about weight get a cheap one from anywhere really.

[i3igpete]

I would personally trust the cheapo batteries from walmart or autozone to have more rigorous QC than odyssey or optima. simply because if there is an issue they will lose so much more money due to the sheer volume of how many they make.

[YoshiBishi]

Weird.. my battery died too. Last time I drove it was to your place and back DrGonzo.

I think your house might be surrounded by some kind of battery killing field.

[DrGonzo]

Yeah when it worked it worked great! No problems starting and I only really drive the car on Fridays to the local meet so it sits there all week long and still no problems starting. Car was a complete rebuild and nothing extra "Big Stereo,carputer,etc" are installed so no reason it should have died on me like this, especially considering it was not even hooked up!

When I find time today I am going to call them and raise hell about their BS warranty.

[IPD]

I would personally trust the cheapo batteries from walmart or autozone to have more rigorous QC than odyssey or optima. simply because if there is an issue they will lose so much more money due to the sheer volume of how many they make.

reverse psychology? by this logic, i suppose apple products have the most rigorous testing out of any single brand pc manufacturers.....

[UTRacerX9]

Don't spend the money on the Odyssey battery. The Hawker series is the same battery and the last one I bought about 1.5 years ago was $70 vs $139 for the Odyssey. They don't last long if they are ever deep discharged, even if you always store it trickle charged.

[DrGonzo]

Now that is where Odyssey is scamming people with their mis-information. Their website states clearly on in the description "Deep Discharge Capabilities" but than the warranty voids it if over-discharged!?!?!?!

[IPD]

Now that is where Odyssey is scamming people with their mis-information. Their website states clearly on in the description "Deep Discharge Capabilities" but than the warranty voids it if over-discharged!?!?!?!

so their warranty is like nissan's for the GT-R's transmission after using "launch mode"? lol!

[UTRacerX9]

Now that is where Odyssey is scamming people with their mis-information. Their website states clearly on in the description "Deep Discharge Capabilities" but than the warranty voids it if over-discharged!?!?!?!

Well, it can be done, but in my experience, it never holds as much of a charge afterwards as it could before. When dealing with such a small battery, every little bit is needed. I'm sure their larger SLA batteries can handle several deep discharges before it has an effect.

I think, over the past 8-10 years, I'm on my 4th or 5th Odyssey/Hawker battery. The first one I had blew up after being daily driven and parked outside at work everyday (hot TX sun), the plastic casing was bulging and had small cracks in it. 2nd one I stopped using the Stealth as my DD, so sometimes it would sit for a week or two before being driven. My alarm drained it down apparently and I didn't have a trickle charger at the time. After I charged it back up, it never held as much of a charge, and it just got worse and worse until I finally had to replace it. From then on, they've all been trickle charged, but life expectancy still seems to be far shorter than what they advertise.

[Jimvr4]

Redtops don't last too long after a few deep discharges either. I ruined mine when my remote top prototype kept ignition ON all day a couple of times. It ended up leaking and couldn't even keep the car running after a jump start.

[IPD]

Redtops don't last too long after a few deep discharges either. I ruined mine when my remote top prototype kept ignition ON all day a couple of times. It ended up leaking and couldn't even keep the car running after a jump start.

this is why i'm planning on getting a yellow top next time.

<------post 3,000

[DocWalt]

this is why i'm planning on getting a yellow top next time.

<------post 3,000

Yellow tops are much more well suited to regular car use.

disturbing. I had (this is post 1501) exactly half the posts of you and I'm third on the list.

[IPD]

apparently i'm going to take chris's spot as the official post whore of 3/s-dom.

[speedy25]

Dont forget to file a complaint with your states attorney general AND the state where Odyssey's headquarters is. I have had good response from their offices in helping to resolve problems with bad companies.

-SP

[YoshiBishi]

You know, it has been extremely hot these past weeks. That probably didn't help the battery's life.

[green-lantern]

<------post 3,000

What a f-ing postwhore! Don't you have terrorist to kill or something?


The customer service sucks so I'm not buying one. You pay the price for dicking the customer around. Word of mouth can be a bitch. If my redtop died and they did this shit I wouldn't buy one again. Lucky I can't complain about it though.