I haven't hunted this down, but scuttlebutt has it that all these
lead/acid batteries come from only one or two places - regardless of
brand. Anyone know the truth of it?

John

On 10/11/2013 10:47 PM, Dennis Haynes wrote:
> You would be hard pressed to beat both the price and warranty service of
> batteries from Wal-Mart. If you really want to feel good about the deal get
> a price for this battery from Interstate. Same exact battery.
>
> Dennis
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> John Graham
> Sent: Friday, October 11, 2013 11:40 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: VLVC - Battery experience with WalMart
>
> My main vehicle is an '88 Vanagon Camper, but I am also the main motor
> consultant on my wife's Toyota Sienna.  So my tale is about the battery on
> the Sienna.
>
> Yesterday it failed to start the beast; charging it didn't help.  My verdict
> was the battery needed to be replaced.  It had come from WalMart and it was
> close by so off I went.  I found the needed new battery on the rack,
> purchased it (for $99) and loaded in my trusty Vanagon.
>
> Now here's the interesting/happy part.  I took the old battery back to the
> customer service counter expecting to only get my $9 core charge back.  The
> service person waved her little price gun at my receipt and then my old
> battery's bar code sticker and then played with her register keyboard for
> what I thought was longer than needed for a $9 core charge.
>
> She proceeded to hand me a $60 refund (I guess there was some warrantee left
> on my old battery that I hadn't calculated).  I guess you can tell that I'm
> not that attentive to all those details, but I'm sure the battery was over
> 2+ years old.
>
> So I guess my takeaway from this is that if your dead battery came from
> Walmart, you may get a refund when you purchase your next one if there is
> some warrantee left.  Who knows - maybe I just got lucky with the right
> service person, but next time, if they don't scan the old battery, I'll ask.
>
> I hope your next dead battery experience is as good as mine was.
>
> John Graham
> '88 Vanagon Westy - Charlotte, NC
>
> --
> <http://johntakesgreatpictures.com>
> .
>