Epoch Fail
I bought a kit to convert a Ryobi lawnmower, but it took over a month. The plusses: like others, I appreciate that my lawn mower is working again and has more power and pep. When installed, the kit is great and I’m really hopeful that it will last longer than the original lead acid battery set. Assuming that it doesn’t need to be replaced in a year or two, it should be more economical than relying on the short-lived (but expensive) lead acid batteries. But as others have discussed, the install is very complicated and the company provides little support. The best option is third party YouTube videos. There’s no way we could have done this on our own, and this conversion was only possible because we have a retired neighbor who has the skills and tools to do it and enjoys this kind of work. It not only requires a good understanding of electronics, but some very specialized tools. This is not a job for novices.
Beyond that, I had a truly horrible experience with the company itself, which won’t post my review on their website, so I will post this where I can so potential buyers can make informed decisions. Their support is terrible. My order was shipped in three packages, the first of which arrived a week before the others and contained just the battery. This wasn’t well explained, so I called Epoch and their sales manager, Nick, called me back immediately and confirmed that the other parts of the kit were on their way, but about a week behind. We decided to start the conversion process with just the battery over the weekend, and quickly realized they had sent the wrong one.
This is where things started to unravel. I talked to Nick again on Monday, and he was super nice and apologized profusely, and said they would get a new battery out to me immediately and send me a new tracking number. He emailed a label to ship the wrong one back. It took over a week and more calls to Nick to actually get that new battery shipped out, however. In the meantime, the rest of the packages arrived, and I got the kit and the charger. However, the charger did not look like the one on their website, which gives precious little info (no product number, for example, for you to check whether it’s the right one). So I called Nick again and sent him a picture, and he apologized again and said they had also sent the wrong charger. So this went back in the mail as well, and he told me that the battery, which somehow had NOT yet been sent even though he had earlier told me it had gone out days ago, would be packaged together with the new charger. It took me days of nudging him to finally get the tracking number for this package.
So now it’s been weeks. A week later I finally get the correct battery but the charger is not in the package. More calls, and Nick is becoming increasingly less responsive to me now. He doesn’t respond by email at all, so it takes multiple calls to get him to look into the issue. He apologizes again and assures me on a Friday that the charger will go out today and he’ll send me the new tracking number. He says it should be there by Wednesday. I start calling again on Monday when there is no tracking info still, and later will discover that they don’t actually ship it until Wednesday, and it takes another week to get to me. In the meantime, no one at Epoch will take my calls or return them – Nick calls me back once that week with more assurances that he’ll send a tracking number, but never does. I understand that it must get annoying to have a customer constantly calling you, but to be fair, I paid $1000 for this kit a month ago and I STILL DON’T HAVE A FULL KIT. All I’m asking for is some assurance that the right part is on its way to me, and given that they have repeatedly told me that it’s in the mail when it wasn’t, I have good reason to be stressed and frustrated with these people. It’s spring and the grass is growing fast, and I’ve been without a working mower for a month.
When the charger finally arrives, it turns out to be THE SAME ONE I returned earlier. More frantic calls (Nick never returns them) and eventually someone in their customer service office confirms that they’ve changed the color and style of the charger, but it’s the right one. This is the same one I had in my hands weeks earlier, but their sales manager told me to return – before he stopped responding to me at all. I hand it off to my neighbor, who finishes the install in just a couple of hours. It charges up and works great.
This company is a total joke and is managed by people who are either incompetent or overwhelmed – but either way will hide rather than fix their own screw-ups. I’m thrilled to have my mower back in one piece and working, but the stress these people caused me was epic. I really hope I never have any reason to deal with Epoch Batteries ever again. If you can get a similar product from anyone else, do it.
Date of experience: May 01, 2025
