I insult to Injury

As if  being back in Maryland after such a short time away was not enough, I had another surprise when I hopped into the truck to retrieve Makayla from my son yesterday. The battery was dead!

Dead!

I put a trickle charger on it and drove the Jaguar to get the dog. It was a nice enough day to enjoy having the convertible top down and the car needed gas anyway. 

When I came back, the charger indicated that the battery should have been fully charged--but it wasn't. The voltage read just over 9 volts. Something bad had definitely happened. I suspected a bad cell--but the battery was only months old. Then I worried about the electrical system of the truck.

I removed the battery from the truck and returned it to the chain where it was purchased, receipt in hand. The battery had a 48 month warranty and it had been purchased in May 2021. Yup, 5 short months ago! 

The agent at the store was a very concerned when I set the battery on the counter and announced that ti was dead. As he retrieved the testing equipment he said it was probably low on charge and that I might have a short or that some small light that was left turned-on. His optimism about not having to replace the battery under warranty was soon dispelled as the machine very quickly showed the symbol with the words "Replace Battery." He was very nice and we discussed that it was only 5 months old and it was one of their more expensive batteries--running $200 (ok, $199.99 for the purists). He handed me the new battery and said, go on, I'll take care of the warranty paperwork. In the end, it was one of the easiest exchanges that I have done in a long time. 

I have a new battery that has 43 months left on the original warranty. I wish they would restart the warranty date when something is exchanged, but I guess that would actually be getting something for nothing. I'm just glad that I had the receipt.

So after wasting the better part of the afternoon, the truck was again up and running with a new battery. I would say that it was at no cost--but that would not consider the time and gas that it took for me to diagnose, remove/replace, and drive to get the replacement battery.

Nothing is free.

And to think, I could have been on a beach in Florida and not discovered the battery was dead until I was getting into the truck to go to work after returning from vacation! That would have been exciting!

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD