My Parts Rant

I buy a 5 year car battery for $100 in Feb 2012.
It has 3 year free replacement and 2 years of pro rate.

So the battery goes bad in 4 years at Feb 2016.
I am now in the pro rate period so they tell me that they will take $20 off my new battery.
$100 / 5 years is $20 a year and since the battery is 4 years old I have 1 year left on the warranty or $20.
But wait the battery is now $120. So I pay $100 for a $120 battery.
Still OK with me as I got $20 off the price.

Fast forward to 4 years 6 months July 2016.
My new battery is now only 6 months old but it goes bad.
I take it in thinking I am in the 3 year free replacement.

But no.
Even though I just paid $100 for this battery 6 months ago we use the original purchase date for warranty.
Your battery umm I mean warranty is now 4 years 6 months old so we will give you $10 off the purchase of a new $120 battery.

So I have now paid $200 for what was originally a $100 battery and since I am 4 and a half years past the original purchase date you tell me this 5 year battery is only worth $10.

I could understand if you gave me the replacement battery for free that the warranty would revert back to the original date.

So................
Do all battery warranties work this way and I am just making a mountain out of a mole hill.
Or are these people crazy if they think I am paying another $110 for a battery.

If that had just told me the warranty policy I would have paid full price 6 months ago and got a new warranty.
I could spit nails right now.
 
That's just the local policy of some manager on a power trip Get in touch with someone in the company at regional headquarters.
 
I would ask to talk to a manager or even go above his head to the company. That sure sounds like they are robbing from you as a new battery should have a new warranty. But in todays world way to much of this stuff happens. Tom
 
Check out Interstate batteries. Where I work any replacement batt/warranty batt gets punched out with the CURRENT date, all warranty starts over. Don't need no stinkin' paperwork!
 
Start in right now, get to know the manager of your favorite parts store; mine is O'Reillys, I kid and joke and josh the manager every chance I get.
 
No you got $20 off a new battery with a new warranty. Due to the old battery going bad before its time. You should be on the "new" warranty of the "new" battery. Someone doesn't understand how it works or is just being crooked with you.

You do have the receipt for the "new" battery don't you.
 
Makes you want to go but another $100 battery and next week return the junk one as a failed one lol. We had a water heater with a warranty that started leaking but was under warranty. The plumber told me that the warranty did not extend to the one he put in, just like your battery scenario.
 
Sounds like a typical Walmart song and dance. Their battery warranties seem to be what some newbie jerk at the Customer Service counter says it is.

Guess I shouldn't be too rough on them though. I once grabbed an old decrepit battery to turn in for a core, and the guy scanned it on his own initiative and found it was still was two months within the three year free replacement. So-I got a freebie when I had assumed I'd be shelling out a hundred bucks for a new battery.
 
I had a guy at WalMart try to pull something like that on me, even though I had more warranty left. I went to a different WalMart and talked it over with the dept. manager. Walked out with a new battery with a new warranty for $40. Apparently the managers have flexibility on warranty when they want to use it.
 
I have had batteries go bad under warranty and it is as others have said. New battery, new warranty unless you bought additional insurance like they have on tires. I bought some Pirelli tires at Snears and at least one had an aneurysm. Got a new tire, but had to buy a new road hazard policy to go with it.

Either the manager or worker misunderstands battery warranty policy, or things have changed, or someone is deliberately cheating you.

Another example: If you buy an appliance at Walley World they ask if you want an extended warranty. If the appliance goes bad often you just take the bad one back to the store and exchange it for a new one. Usually if it goes bad after one month you have to send it in or take it to a repair facility even if the normal warranty is for one year.
 
I think either some pin head at your dealer does not understand the process or they are trying to pull a fast one. You should be able to take the battery to any dealer for that brand and swap it in based on the punch out date, without a receipt. I use NAPA or interstate batteries because they are the two brands available locally, I have traded in both brands in different stores than I bought them in, in different towns and different states, never had any problems.
 
On the pro rated part of the warranty, that is always based on the full list price of a battery BUT , they rarely if ever sell batteries at full list price. Thus, a pro rated warranty is usually not worth the trouble of even asking about if said battery is out of full replacement warranty. That is how batteries were warranted at the dealerships I worked at.
 
You can thank two lawyers in california for the complete up ending of Battery warranties. Battery sales are now 2 or 3 year free replacement with no legal need for the pro rate statement. You can search for the law suit that caused this and catch up to modern times. Warranties all changed to reflect the agreement in this "class action" law suit. And, warranties have always been based on the original date of sale. It is in the fine print. Anything else is up to the seller.

For 35 years we did battery pro-rates by dividing our current selling price by the number of months and multiplying by time used subtracted by selling price. Even high school kids at the front counter understood it.

Not anymore.
 
From what I hear they are requiring recycled lead in the batteries and they just don't hold up well. correct me if I am wrong.
 
That's normal here. If you use a warranty the origonal time frame stays in force. Same with tires and warranted time auto parts. You get a so called discount and no extra warranty for the extra money you paid. I've felt like spitting a few of those nails myself years ago. I no longer bother with the warranty. The better half holds a grudge better than me so anytime a salesman asks about purchasing an extended warranty she looks them straight in the eye and asks " WHY , you won't make it good anyway."
 
OK, you are wrong.
Think about this:
Lead is mined from the Earth. It has to be extracted from ore, smelted, purified, and then used in a battery or whatever else.
Recycled lead starts out with a greater purity than ore. It is more easily refined and purified. Why would it make any difference whether it was mined or recycled???

Lead is an ELEMENT. It does NOT "wear out" so to speak.
 
Our local NAPA store has the same policy. The best time to negotiate a new warranty on a replacement battery is when I buy it, not later when it has failed. As others have said, if the pro-rated discount is too low, just buy a new battery outright to get a new warranty.
 
(quoted from post at 13:41:56 07/24/16) Makes you want to go but another $100 battery and next week return the junk one as a failed one lol. We had a water heater with a warranty that started leaking but was under warranty. The plumber told me that the warranty did not extend to the one he put in, just like your battery scenario.

Yes that is the way water heaters guarantees work, for sure. I also thought batteries were the same and this story sounds right to me, but I have only had a couple of battery failures so maybe I am wrong on that. But the two failures I have had both worked as described (no new guarantee on the replacement) and neither was from Walmart, either.
 
(quoted from post at 10:12:51 07/25/16) Our local NAPA store has the same policy. The best time to negotiate a new warranty on a replacement battery is when I buy it, not later when it has failed. As others have said, if the pro-rated discount is too low, just buy a new battery outright to get a new warranty.

The NAPA warranty is if you get a replacement battery during the free replacement period the warranty of the replacement battery has the same warranty beginning date as the original battery. If you get a replacement battery during the prorated period the warranty starts over the month you get the replacement battery.

Credit for the remaining prorated battery is determined by dividing the original purchase price by the total number of months of the original battery's warranty period. They then apply the amount of credit you have from the remaining prorated period and apply it to the new battery at the current price. The result is that the amount you paid for the original 72 month warranty may now only pay for 60 months at the new battery price. The result is that the last 6 - 12 months of the original battery warranty is absolutely worthless.
 

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