Complaint Review: Schumacher Electric Battery Chargers

 My Schumacher XC10 "automatic" battery charger charges at 16.0 volts, way too high to be safe and also too high that it damages the cells in my battery. I followed the directions. A car battery should charge not much more than 14.5 volts. Anything more at >1 amp can damage the battery. Also, my charger does not auto shut off when the battery reaches its "full charged state" as it is designed to do. It boils water out of the batteries and I commonly have to add distilled water. I have stopped using the charger. Today, I read with a voltmeter that my XC10 charger was charging my car battery at 16.0 volts and 2.5 amps current. Unsafe and damages perfectly good batteries. I'll never buy again and will keep my boating friends from purchasing Schumacher.

I recently discovered the rather expensive Schumacher battery charger i got several years ago DESTROYED a $150 auto battery. 

It only puts out 10v on the 12v settings.  Which will totally ruin a battery as i have learned the hard way.

It's out of their very short warranty period.   So i am SOL.   Even tho this thing has only been used recently.

Looking around the net i have come to one conclusion.   Schumacher is a terrible company and won't stand behind their products.

Schumacher battery chargers are total junk.  Avoid them.  

Buy a Diehard.

Don't get ripped off. Or SUED!

What a bunch of SCUMBAGS!

*UPDATE*

SCHUMACHER THREATENS CUSTOMERS WITH LEGAL ACTION FOR FILING A TRUTHFUL AND FACTUAL CUSTOMER COMPLAINT, SCHUMACHER THEN LIES REGARDING THE FACTS OF THE COMPLAINT, ALL OF THIS ARROGANCE TO DEFAULT ON THEIR WARRANTY. RESPONSES ARE IN BULLITS
Shantel D. Bill, Esq.
Associate General Counsel
(224)612-7250 direct dial
(847)299-5830 direct fax
bills@schumacherelectric.com
May 4, 2011
Via Email and UPS

Re: Cease and desist with your false and defamatory public comments regarding Schumacher Electrics Products
Dear Mr. Sions:
This letter serves as your legal notice to cease and desist all further actions, including, but not limited to, making false and defamatory statements about our company and product on public websites or any other public forum. See Exhibits 2-3 attached hereto. If you do not cease with making your false and defamatory statements and post retractions on all websites in which you have posted incorrect information, we will be moving forward with formal legal action against you. Further, do not continue to contact our company and harass our employees.

        I have the legal right to file a customer complaint against your company that legal right is the U.S. Constitution article 1
        You do not have the legal right to deny me my right of free speech under the U. S. Constitution.
        There are no false or defamatory statements in the customer complaint. All statements are true and correct and backed up with prima fascia evidence, audio telephonic transcripts and photographs of the damaged chargers.
        However if you can find any truly false statements in the complaint I will be more than happy to edit the postings after a mutual agreement.
        Your intention to bully or intimidate me into allowing your company to breach your 3 year warranty with threats of legal action based on the false information in this letter will involve legal action against your company and the whole mess will be shared with the mainstream media both nationally and locally. I think you would agree this onerous threat against a senior disabled customer of 59 years would further blacken your company image.
        Our claim of breach of warranty and customer complaint against the company, would take legal precedence over your claims of lible and slander because there is financial injury on our part and since the posting is factual and truthful there is no case for slander.
        We can solve this economically and peacefully to our mutual benefit by Schumacher Electric simply honoring the 3 year warranty and sending the replacement charger.
        Upon receipt we will gladly take down any posts you request.
        We have had a long (59 years) and happy relationship with Schumacher until now and we would gladly like to resume.
   
Please allow this to serve as a summary of the facts within our companys possession. On or about April 6, 2011 you contacted our company alleging you purchased a PSW 2550 wheeled battery charger from Amazon that was damaged. You explained that Amazon would not take your damaged unit back. As such, our customer service department attempted to assist you within our company policy, which is that a customer must provide proof of purchase in order to receive a warranty repair or replacement. When asked to provide proof of your Amazon purchase, you could not provide your Amazon customer order number, which is given with every purchase at Amazon, either by Amazon directly or a third party Amazon vendor. In fact, you could not provide any proof of purchase, Page 2 of 10 such as a receipt or credit card statement to show you actually purchased this unit and it was within the warranty period.

        Your version of the facts are not the truth. To be facts they have to be true. I sincerely hope you do not plan to file a false complaint and perjur yourselves in court. That would make matters much worse. My Attorney would seek damages far in excess of this ridiculous dispute over a $50 difference in the chargers.
        That is materially false. Amazon sold the charger through a third party that had a different return policy than Amazon. There is no alleging that we in fact purchased we have the order number 002-7719547-8565042, and we offered it but Bob graciously offered to send a replacement immediately. It took a week to arrive. This is not Amazons problem it is Schumachers problem. Amazon is great.
        This was the second charger we received that was damaged and defective. Amazon had born the expense of return shipping on the SE-4022 and we were angry that Amazon was paying for the poor quality of Schumacher. Instead of burdening Amazon with your quality problems we decided to send the PSW-2550 directly to Schumacher, since it was your responsibility and clearly a manufacturing, not a shipping problem. That is why we sent it direct to Schumacher.

Despite the fact that you could not comply with our company policy, our company went above and beyond and agreed to issue a Return Material Authorization (RMA) to obtain your unit and send you a brand new PSW 2550. Due to this transaction, our company paid the shipping costs for the return of your old unit, sent you a new PSW 2550, which retails at approximately $200, and paid the cost to ship the new unit to you.

        The customer (us,) has received 2 damaged and defective chargers and Bob was handling the customer complaint and warranty claim in an exemplarary fashion. Bob graciously offered an upgrade from the PSW-2550 to the PSW-3060. We graciously accepted. Of course, it never arrived. Instead another PSW-2550 with a long gash on the back panel arrived.
        Well of course you paid the shipping, it was a seriously damaged brand new unit, and under warranty. That is your responsibility. Amazon has paid the shipping costs associated with the SE-4022. Did you pay them back?

Upon receipt of your new unit, you continued to call and harass multiple departments and employees of our company stating that you were still not satisfied with our product and that you believed you were entitled to another new, upgraded unit. Sending you an upgraded unit at any point in time was never agreed upon with any employee at our company. At that point in our dealings, we indicated we could not provide you with any other units and that we had gone above and beyond to provide you a new unit from our Illinois warehouse, which was in good working order and brand new condition.

        A customer complaint is not harassment it is your companys to handle customer complaints and warranty issues. We were promised an upgrade to the PSW-3060 by Bob in a recorded telephone conversation. We did not ask for an upgrade, Bob offered it to us as long time loyal customers. Do not propagate that lie.
        It is not above and beyond to fulfill the legal obligations of your product warranty. Above and Beyond is giving up your whole months income because a stock customer DKS you (doesnt know), lies that he bought 1000 shares of IBM and it dropped. As a stockbroker I had to pay for his false trades. Anyway.
        Basically your company made a promise you did not keep and that made me very mad, so I complained. I never used profanities just raised my voice to parity with ODonnell. That is the truth, play the tape.
Despite everything our company has done to assist you, sent a rude email to our companys CEO, Mr. Schumacher, which is attached hereto as Exhibit 1. You also posted factually inaccurate, false, and defamatory statements on various websites, which are attached hereto as Exhibits 2-3.
        What everything! All your company has done so far is cost a month of time, fought and argued, and sent another damaged charger.
        There are NO false, inaccurate or defamatory statements. These postings are a customer complaint and warranty issue that Schumacher refuses to handle. If there any statements that you qualify with me, that are any of the above, we will be happy to edit and revise them, providing they are TRUE.

It is clear under the law that you can be pursued legally by Schumacher for making false and defamatory statements. It is one thing to state you disagree with a customer service policy or to believe you were not properly assisted as a customer, but to make blatantly false statements about our product, which are factually inaccurate and to which you have no knowledge, this rises to another level. You are damaging Schumachers reputation and goodwill when you make these statements and we will go to the full extent of the law to civilly prosecute you, unless you formally retract your statements on all websites and other public forums on or before Friday, May 6, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. cost.

        It is NOT clear under any state or federal law, because you are making false statements and since your company has no proof of the facts, such as tapes or photos. You have no case or Schumacher will file a false complaint and commit perjury in court. That will cost the company much more than an amicable settlement.
        If in fact Schumacher is so concerned about their reputation then start now. Treat the customers right, never lie, be nice and remember, the customer is always right.
Sincerely,
John Sions II
*UPDATE*
SCHUMACHER ELECTRIC REFUSED TO COMPLY WITH NUMEROUS BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU REQUESTS FOR AN ANSWER TO OUR CUSTOMER COMPLAINT FILED 3 MONTHS AGO, DESPITE THE FACT THAT SCHUMACHER ENJOYS A B+ RATING WITH BBB!!!
SCHUMACHER ELECTRIC HAS CONTEMPT FOR THEIR CUSTOMERS AND THE BBB. SCHUMACHER ELECTRIC DEFAULTED ON OUR 3 YEAR WARRANTY.

 Buy a Diehard.

Dont get ripped off.

Please allow this to serve as a summary of the facts within Schumacher's possession. On or about April 6, 2011 Mr. Sions contacted our company alleging he purchased a PSW 2550 wheeled battery charger from Amazon that was damaged. He explained that "Amazon would not take his damaged unit back." As such, our customer service department attempted to assist him within our company policy, which is that a customer must provide proof of purchase in order to receive a warranty repair or replacement. When asked to provide proof of his Amazon purchase, he could not provide his Amazon customer order number, which is given with every purchase at Amazon, either by Amazon directly or a third party Amazon vendor. In fact, he could not provide any proof of purchase, such as a receipt or credit card statement to show he actually purchased this unit and it was within the warranty period.
Despite the fact that he could not comply with our company policy, our company went above and beyond and agreed to issue a Return Material Authorization (RMA) to obtain his unit and send him a brand new PSW 2550. Due to this transaction, our company paid the shipping costs for the return of his old unit, sent him a new PSW 2550, which retails at approximately $200+, and paid the cost to ship the new unit to him.

Upon receipt of his new unit, he continued to call and harass multiple departments and employees of our company stating that he was still not satisfied with our product and that he believed he was entitled to another new, upgraded unit. Sending him an upgraded unit at any point in time was never agreed upon with any employee at our company. At that point in our dealings, we indicated we could not provide him with any other units and that we had gone above and beyond to provide him a new unit from our Illinois warehouse, which was in good working order and brand new condition.

Despite everything our company had done to assist Mr. Sions, he sent a rude email to our companys CEO, Mr. Schumacher, along with other rude emails to other employees in the customer service and sales departments. He also called our company and spoke in an unacceptable manner to various employees. He has posted factually inaccurate, false, and defamatory statements on various websites, including this site. Mr. Sions has stated incorrect information regarding the quality of our product regardig components and manufacture of our product.