Brand new Harman Advance... and im not happy with it

It's astounding how poor Harman has handled this situation.

 

Sorry guys I missed a whole portion of comments my phone is screwed up never updated me (phone must be a harman) lol

Anyway its straight out thru the wall into a clean out tee directly into 2 45s straight up after that . I have to take a picture its complicated. But I shifted the vertical pipe about 3 inches right to accommodate the 45s. I have no play left. If I lift the stove an inch the 45s will lift and I cant bend that pipe anymore

 

In no way am I defending Harman, but as an Operations Manager for a small independant business equipment company its up to us, the dealer, to keep the customer happy and we deal with the manufacture. Its very unusual with the brands that we sell, but sometimes there is just a dud machine that rolls off at the wrong time and we make it right with the customer and then we deal with the manufacture to make it right with us. This includes replacing a machine once in a blue moon at OUR expense.

Harman makes XX amount on a given device, that wont change too much. The dealer then makes whatever they can in selling to the customer and that can vary greatly. Its your dealer that charged you 4400.00, not Harman. Also dont think for a moment that your dealer is "is friendly and trying his best to make me happy". He is screwing you royally while smiling.

 

Harman is ultimately responsible for the actions of their dealers and happiness of their customers. I place blame on them.
Funny how Harman controls how low a stove can be sold for but not how high.

 

I did not know that.

 

Agree to disagree on that one.

I believe in standing by what we sold and making it right with the customer. Its not up to them to have to fight with the manufacture, that is our battle if it is needed.

 

Hang tight guys going to take pictures now, then we can have an install pow wow. We should all skype and take the tour of my install

 

Never complained about paying the price for the stove. Complaining when for that price the company Is giving pizz poor service

 

That's what I have gathered by reading these forums for as long as I have. You often hear of dealers throwing in pellets and what have you as a work around on stove pricing.

 

Could be a price protected product. I never understood that. I mean I know why they do it but fair trade is fair trade.

 

Heres the photos. This install is thru my exterior wall with an attatched unfinished garage behind it. Exterior walls are sheathed with homosote board so wind sheer braces where used and absolutley needed. My install was directly in the path of a brace. Stove could not be moved anywhere else in the living room due to a deck , windows and roof overnhang. The black and white wall you see is new because of the brace the corner studs had to be notched to accept a 4x8 x 3/4 piece of ply wood for the fact I had to notch into the 6 inch wind brace at least 4inches deep to accept the wall thimble. Pay close attention to the vertical exhaust pipe, it was pre existing thru the roof from my old stove. In order not to have to cut a new hole in the roof and patch the old hole I made it work with some 45s luckily. Notice the height and angle of the vertical pipe compared to where the horizontal pipe exits the thimble. This was an extremely hard angle to hit. Now lets talk stoves and options in my next post

 

As said earlier an accentra is the only stove that will just slide in and match up with the exisiting pipe, but accentra is not my style and I dont want it.
Xxv.... I love this stove almost as much as the advance, the xxv collector sits at 8inches plus. The problem is that wall thimble is sitting in the notched out wind sheer brace(try and picture that thru the wall) the thimble cannot be moved up because of the brace above it, the brace even with other measures taken in the corner of the walls cannot be removed per my engineer I hired and the town inspector as they where worked with closly on this install. Third if moved up and inch the 45s would also be moved up which would have to make the vertical pipe swing right some more to accept. The pipe cant be bent anymore to much stress on the joint as it is. Luckily no leaks at that joint
P series. Ok stove but I dont want to settle. But if I went with p series the collector sits around 5 inches which means the dealer has.to provide a raised hearth pad which I imagine they wont. The wall thimble cannot be dropped down any to accept the collector at 5 inches, look at picture one and how I had to notch the floor trim to accept the wall.thimble! You have About an inch of room in the wall before the wall thimble hits the 2x6 floor plate studs. Not hhappening. This is why I am so angry with harman

 

I assume going up and then out is not an option?

 

If harman wants to supply the pipe and pay my roofers sure..

 

Chit Lordz...hang in there, once it is up and running, I expect you will drink the Harmone Kool aid! Good luck Bro and don't leave us, I would miss your straight forward posts!

 

true...pellets aren't for everyone.

Although I am a bit confused in that the outlet for most of the Harman units are all in the rear, and the same height from the floor, so, if just the height considerations are an issue, it shouldn't be an issue with another unit.
Someone said above after all this rig-a-maroll you've had to go through, you will likely never be satisfied with the unit, even if its fixed perfectly.....possibly correct. Any noise or flutter, etc. Couple that with the fact that, IMHO, you paid considerably more than you should have, I find I cannot disagree with you much in your analysis above.
I do have to say that the great majority of folks buying Harman's don't have the issue you have had, otherwise they would no longer be in business. I am also a bit surprised Harman hasn't really stepped up here as well. They cant really supply you with a new Advance, since they arent produced anymore, but I wonder if any dealers around have any they can somehow obtain.....
You did your own install, so its unlikely the dealer/Harman would pay for more mods to your home.
If you do the chargeback on the card, make sure you make the unit available to the dealer for pickup. I would suggest against doing the chargeback and making the unit unavailable to the dealer....the legal axe swings both ways there.
I find this whole situation unfortunate, weirdly both for you AND the dealer. If you send the unit back and get your money back, the dealer is still stuck with a unit that has/had issues, and then THEY are stuck with it......(Im a dealer, so maybe a bit biased)

 

I dont think the dealer is thrilled this isnt fixed. Agreed it seems they are doing their best, but abilities arent the same for everyone either. No dealer wants pizzed off customers. The dealer is somewhat "hand-tied" as they have to follow the Harman protocol to get this stuff fixed.
I wish I could tell you how that stud is fastened.....is it tack welded in, is it screwed in, no idea.....Ive no Advance here to look at....but the folks at Harman know.....maybe not the warranty guy, but geez, someone in the factory put these things together for literally YEARS!
Ugh. Freaking horrible.

 

But thats just It lousy non of the heights on the exhaust are the same besides the accentra. Ive downloaded every spec sheet

 

Also I have called 3 dealers in my area none of whom have advances or know much about them. I offered to pay for a second opinion way before the stud snapped and they all say the same. Where not touching this with a 10ft pole

 

yea, I DO understand that.....if someone else comes in, all for the big $55 we get paid for the warranty work, not only do we own the stove we made no profit on, in fact, lost money on, you'd also have one dealer blaming the other for what they did/didnt do. I also am a bit surprised noone knows much about the Advances. Ive sold them since they came out, very little problems, but as for the minutiae of how that stud is attached, etc, I dont know either....never, ever having had an issue with one....
also, its arguably the busiest time of year for service....