Costco's Interstate GC2 Battery Story
Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2020 3:16 pm
My battery saga started when two of my four 6 year old Interstate GC2 batteries failed. My volt meter showed zero volts on two of them. They came with our Trek when we bought it in late 2014. They were dated in mid summer 2014. I figured I’d replaced them with 4 more Interstate GC2 batteries from Costco based on the service they gave me so I pulled them out, drove them over to Costco and exchanged them for 4 new ones (the core charge of $15/battery was waived because I gave them old batteries). $394.31 out the door. I brought them home and put them on charge while I cleaned and painted the battery compartment. The next day, I greased the posts with dielectric grease and put them in making sure to put the jumpers and watering system back in just like I found them. All was well. Everything worked and the inverter panel simmered down to idle. I was all done! At least I thought I was.
A friend asked me if I’d read the reviews on these batteries on Costco’s website. I hadn’t seen them because Costco’s website doesn’t make them visible on the same page they show the battery. In fact, they don’t show any reviews for this battery – unless you poke around a little. Here’s the link to the reviews: https://www.costco.com/interstate-6-vol ... 76406.html
I read through them and learned that 17 of the 25 reviews were only one star and those reviewers had very bad luck with these batteries. Many said they didn’t last a year before needing replacement.
So, back to Costco. At the desk I gave them a lot of grief about the lousy reviews that were showing for the batteries I just bought. The fellow in the auto dept where I went next said I could return the batteries anytime during their 12 month warranty – no questions asked. All I’d have to say is I wasn’t satisfied. At that time I was told my old batteries had already been picked up but they would refund the core charge instead. He said it didn’t bother him that 17 out of 25 people reviewing these batteries only gave them one star because only people that had a bad experience were likely to leave a review. I laughed at him but he may not have been able to tell with my mask on.
I’m a frugal guy that doesn’t like to waste money on buying the best if it’s not necessary, I saw the light after reading the reviews! I’d always wanted a set of Trojan T-105s and had asked years ago while buying a battery for my mower at the Continental Battery warehouse near me if they carried Trojan golf cart batteries. They did and their price wasn’t bad (this was several years ago). I went by there again the day after visiting Costco to see if they would still sell to me directly. They said sure and quoted a price of $145 cash (He said they retail for $165). Core charge jumped to $29 apiece though. $174 outright without a core. They only had two Trojan T-105 batteries on hand but expected a skid of them to come in the next day. I bought the new Trojan batteries when they came in – 4 at $145 + $29 core = $174 x 4 = $696 (Ouch!).
The next day I took the Interstate batteries back to Costco and that’s when the trouble started. They didn’t have my old batteries to give me back and they refused to return the $15 core charge for the old batteries. Their logic was because the core charge was a wash at the time I purchased their batteries, they couldn’t return something they didn’t charge me for. My argument was they took something of value from me and I wanted it back. If they couldn’t give me the batteries, give the money they credited me on the sales slip for the core charge. I dealt with the regular guy at the auto desk first. Then he got his supervisor who wouldn’t budge either. Then the supervisor got the store manager who couldn’t understand why I was asking for compensation for the old batteries I’d turned in. By this time, I’m yelling and screaming how I was getting screwed out of the core charges! This dance went on at least 20 minutes before the auto department supervisor gave in just to get rid of me. I thanked him kindly, grabbed the return receipt, and got out of there before he changed his mind. Overall, A very bad experience. When I first talked to them about returning the batteries I specifically asked about the getting my batteries or the core charges back. The fellow I talked to told me they’d already been picked up but he never took the time to go look. I would have rather had those batteries to exchange for the Trojans and got full credit for them. The automotive supervisor told the store manager the cores had just been picked up the day before so there may have been a chance to get them back if the fellow I spoke to first had taken the time to look for them when I asked about returning.
I still need to put the Trojans in which I’ve gotten pretty good at (I don’t have a slide tray) but hooking up the jumpers is still a pain. I have to work from the pictures I took before I touched them to make sure they’re right.
An alternative to the Trojans that sound interesting are Crown batteries. Their Crown CR 235 battery sounds very comparable to the Trojan T-105 and the cost is better – if you can find a Crown Battery dealer, I couldn’t. The Crown website isn’t much good without giving them your contact information and I didn’t want to do that.
Crown CR 235 = 235 AH at 20 Hour Rate, 63 lbs, 18 month warranty, $15 core charge.
https://deepcyclebatterystore.com/crown ... t-battery/
One question that’s bothering me – the posts on the Trojans are date stamped “J0” J is the 10th letter of the alphabet. From what I’ve learned, batteries are stamped with a date code for the month they were shipped. The first digit is a letter representing the month – A=1, B=2, C=3 and so on. My question is how could I have batteries with a date code of October 2020 in September? I’ll be running that by Continental the day after Labor Day.
A friend asked me if I’d read the reviews on these batteries on Costco’s website. I hadn’t seen them because Costco’s website doesn’t make them visible on the same page they show the battery. In fact, they don’t show any reviews for this battery – unless you poke around a little. Here’s the link to the reviews: https://www.costco.com/interstate-6-vol ... 76406.html
I read through them and learned that 17 of the 25 reviews were only one star and those reviewers had very bad luck with these batteries. Many said they didn’t last a year before needing replacement.
So, back to Costco. At the desk I gave them a lot of grief about the lousy reviews that were showing for the batteries I just bought. The fellow in the auto dept where I went next said I could return the batteries anytime during their 12 month warranty – no questions asked. All I’d have to say is I wasn’t satisfied. At that time I was told my old batteries had already been picked up but they would refund the core charge instead. He said it didn’t bother him that 17 out of 25 people reviewing these batteries only gave them one star because only people that had a bad experience were likely to leave a review. I laughed at him but he may not have been able to tell with my mask on.
I’m a frugal guy that doesn’t like to waste money on buying the best if it’s not necessary, I saw the light after reading the reviews! I’d always wanted a set of Trojan T-105s and had asked years ago while buying a battery for my mower at the Continental Battery warehouse near me if they carried Trojan golf cart batteries. They did and their price wasn’t bad (this was several years ago). I went by there again the day after visiting Costco to see if they would still sell to me directly. They said sure and quoted a price of $145 cash (He said they retail for $165). Core charge jumped to $29 apiece though. $174 outright without a core. They only had two Trojan T-105 batteries on hand but expected a skid of them to come in the next day. I bought the new Trojan batteries when they came in – 4 at $145 + $29 core = $174 x 4 = $696 (Ouch!).
The next day I took the Interstate batteries back to Costco and that’s when the trouble started. They didn’t have my old batteries to give me back and they refused to return the $15 core charge for the old batteries. Their logic was because the core charge was a wash at the time I purchased their batteries, they couldn’t return something they didn’t charge me for. My argument was they took something of value from me and I wanted it back. If they couldn’t give me the batteries, give the money they credited me on the sales slip for the core charge. I dealt with the regular guy at the auto desk first. Then he got his supervisor who wouldn’t budge either. Then the supervisor got the store manager who couldn’t understand why I was asking for compensation for the old batteries I’d turned in. By this time, I’m yelling and screaming how I was getting screwed out of the core charges! This dance went on at least 20 minutes before the auto department supervisor gave in just to get rid of me. I thanked him kindly, grabbed the return receipt, and got out of there before he changed his mind. Overall, A very bad experience. When I first talked to them about returning the batteries I specifically asked about the getting my batteries or the core charges back. The fellow I talked to told me they’d already been picked up but he never took the time to go look. I would have rather had those batteries to exchange for the Trojans and got full credit for them. The automotive supervisor told the store manager the cores had just been picked up the day before so there may have been a chance to get them back if the fellow I spoke to first had taken the time to look for them when I asked about returning.
I still need to put the Trojans in which I’ve gotten pretty good at (I don’t have a slide tray) but hooking up the jumpers is still a pain. I have to work from the pictures I took before I touched them to make sure they’re right.
An alternative to the Trojans that sound interesting are Crown batteries. Their Crown CR 235 battery sounds very comparable to the Trojan T-105 and the cost is better – if you can find a Crown Battery dealer, I couldn’t. The Crown website isn’t much good without giving them your contact information and I didn’t want to do that.
Crown CR 235 = 235 AH at 20 Hour Rate, 63 lbs, 18 month warranty, $15 core charge.
https://deepcyclebatterystore.com/crown ... t-battery/
One question that’s bothering me – the posts on the Trojans are date stamped “J0” J is the 10th letter of the alphabet. From what I’ve learned, batteries are stamped with a date code for the month they were shipped. The first digit is a letter representing the month – A=1, B=2, C=3 and so on. My question is how could I have batteries with a date code of October 2020 in September? I’ll be running that by Continental the day after Labor Day.