Are you afraid of 1-800 numbers written on the sides of equipment?
“Do not return to the store, call us!”
Have you ever tried it?
I have, let me tell you about it.
Our family lives multi-generationally in a house in rural central Ontario, Canada. In our home we have a well pump, a sewage ejector, two sump pumps - and that’s before you turn on a single light or heat the place. Before Tina and I moved in, my father in-law decided that he wanted a generator and he invested in a new Champion 9000 watt electric start generator. A licensed electrician installed a Generlink which is a collar that fits around our hydro meter. A cable is run from the generator to the Generlink and a few breakers are turned off (hot tub, mainly) and power outages go from a potential disaster to a minor nuisance.
A friend and I are passionate about the secondhand economy and small engines, and decided we wanted to turn our mutual interest into a side hustle - tuning up generators that needed TLC (or just maintenance) and then selling them for a (negligible) turnaround. It’s a great way to beat the winter blues and get to know each other's working style better.
Champion as a brand name has a solid reputation, and due to my father in law’s experience with his Champion model 100203 we decided to focus on Champion generators. We had heard about the supposed ease of getting parts and support, the reliability of the generators themselves and that there is a Burlington Ontario parts and service centre.
Our first project is a Champion CSA40045 - it needs a recoil assembly (because who wants that?) and a handle (because how can you lose that?!?). I started calling Champion - which has extremely convenient hours, by the way, 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday - on Monday Jan 20th. And again on Jan 22nd. And twice more on Jan 22nd. And several times on Jan 23rd. And twice on Friday Jan 24th. Each time I got through to a live human being within 5 - 10 minutes, and they were professional, courteous and knowledgeable.
Here’s what I found to expect:
-you can email Champion or their representatives, but you won’t get an email confirmation response.
-you may not get the same representative twice.
-you won’t get an extension to call someone back at.
-you won’t get an order number/invoice number/reference number, so you won’t be able to reference your conversation with the next representative you speak with - you’ll start from square one each time.
-you may get the feedback if you call for a status update that an order hasn’t been started for you, so this isn’t a “fire and forget” kind of situation - make sure you follow up with Champion.
-Champion’s Twitter feed appears to be monitored during the business day and as a result, I was able to get quicker feedback from their Written Communications Specialist on Twitter than I was on their 1-800 number. In writing. In an email.
-there’s a time gap between you making your order (remember, the one with no order number, invoice number, reference number or confirmation number) and you getting the email saying that “...your parts have shipped and your tracking number is…”. Based on my experience thus far, this gap is forever. I'm still waiting on my parts or any acknowledgement they could be coming.
Here’s what I’ve noticed about Champion’s equipment:
-physically well built, rock solid. The carburetors have real metal components! Their gas tanks are metal. The frames have nice thick tubing. The wheels are durable. The engines run smoothly. The electric start is incredibly convenient and such a “nice to have”.
-everything is easy to work on yourself - you don’t need a degree in mechanical engineering to change the oil or an extra arm to change the spark plug.
-the digital displays are really nice and give you plenty of information (hours, for example).
-crazy amount of support - I can get parts and the manual for my C46535 built in 2007, same with my CSA40045 built in 2008 and my CSA42412 also built in 2008.
-there’s a huge variety of wattages & sizes available, so you can work out a balance between size/weight/etc and your needs.
In my experience so far, I’m very impressed with Champion generators - they’re great!
The jury’s out on support.
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