farm and fleet batteries

The “what battery should I buy” post comes up every so often so I figured I’d share my recent experiences with Farm and Fleet batteries. About 3 weeks ago I had the Original battery in my Titan start to get really weak. Heading out of town, I wanted to get it replaced. I Had a $50 giftcard from F+F and its close to my house so I ran over to pick one up. Put it in, truck starts. Great. 3 days later and I’m stranded with a dead battery. argh. Jump it and get it home and pull out the multi tester thinking my alternator is bad, nope. battery is junk. Pissed, I jump start the truck to bring it over there in hopes that they would install a new one in good faith for the inconvenience. While waiting in line, I over-hear the guy in front of me who is buying tires will get in right away so I think I might have a chance. I get up to the desk and explain that the truck is outside and wont start without a jump and kindly asked that they replace it for me. the guy starts givin me the 3rd degree over the whole deal and tells me that it will take 7 hours or I can bring it back tomorrow. WFT?!? its a 10 minute job! anyway, I hate arguing with people over stupid chit so I just walked away to do some other shopping.

Brought the battery in the next day and exchanged it for a new one. works fine. problem solved

Round 2
Had the battery die in my plow truck on Sunday. Thinking I was just unlucky with the 1st battery I bought at F+F, needing salt and in a hurry, I swing by run in, grab one, get my salt and I’m out the door while the plow truck is still running outside. I had the tools with in case I got stranded on the 45 minute trek to my moms house to take care of her drive so I could swap it out, but as long as it was running, no need to change the battery. Finished my route beat and battered after a 19 hour shift of snow removal. When I got home, thinking I am smart, I put the new battery on the charger. Instantly it shows green so I throw it back in the front seat of the truck. Monday comes and I get a call that evening for more snow removal. brutally cold and the last thing I wanted to do was swap out the battery. Hop in the truck and she starts. SWEET! go take care of the drive, make a quick 50 and decide to call my wife to see if she wants to meet for dinner. Get to the restaurant and I start eyeballing a spot where I can see the snowblowers from the inside so they dont get jacked and pop the clutch out a little too fast and it dies right in the middle of a parking lot. $%&*! ok, no big deal. new battery right here 10 minutes and its in. Got it in just as the wife shows up and shes asking WTF I am doing. told her what happened and got in the truck and it wouldnt even turn over. ARGHHH! so she gives me a jump and I let it sit for a few minutes after parking it. ate dinner, came back out and it slowly turned over, but started. Got home, turned the truck off and tried starting it. stone dead. back out to my moms to celebrate her b-day, I was telling my sister the battery problems I was having and she said my nephew just bought a F+F battery and that one was junk too! WTF?!?! I still havent returned the one out of the plow truck, but I think I am going to have to speak to a manager when I do.

sorry for the long winded story, but I had to share.

What were the dates stamped on the battery, they stamp the month and year made on the battery somewhere?

I just went through their warranty stuff yesterday. Platinum Series 7 year warranty/3 years free replacement. Found out they do not honor the the purchase date. They strictly go by the manufacture date stamped on the side of the top of the battery. So if you purchase a battery that happen to be on the shelf for a couple months (like I did) SOL on the time difference. My battery is 2 months out of the free replacement based on the stamping, and just a few days from the purchase date. Given that is was a couple days, I thought customer service would prevail, plus the fact I was replacing my other battery. Nope – warranty procedures are strict warranty procedures. So FYI – Check the stamp on the battery before you buy!

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What were the dates stamped on the battery, they stamp the month and year made on the battery somewhere?

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I probably broke the cardinal battery buying sin by not looking for that info!
The one I needed for the Nissan had reversed posts so I asked the guy for help finding it and he brought it out of the back room. The second one I picked up, I just grabbed off the shelf. Thinking a new battery is a new battery and they probably sell quite a few off the shelf, there is no way I’d get 2 bad ones in a row. WRONG

While complete garbage, thats good info to know. thanks Randy

My two Marine batteries I bought at Fleet Farm in Hudson have the date purchased etched into the plastics. I thought they would have used that date.

My batteries are 7 years old so they might have had a policy change too I guess.

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My two Marine batteries I bought at Fleet Farm in Hudson have the date purchased etched into the plastics. I thought they would have used that date.

My batteries are 7 years old so they might have had a policy change too I guess.

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Brian – I was informed yesterday that they did make a manufacture change about 2 years ago. That is why they have no flexibility in their warranty. They do not get any assistance from the manufacture, so it is what it is.

Gottcha …and that stinks for the consumer.

…back to Walmart.

Are Farm and Fleet you are talking about the same as Fleet Farm? I thought they were different stores.

They are different stores, and I appologize. I was talking and FARM & FLEET. I am so accustom to seeing F/F for Farm and Fleet, that I did not consider the Fleet-Farm aspect of it. Sorry

When met my wife after several Friday night dates that involved Farm and Fleet stops.She ask me if I ever shopped any were else.Checked out one night an the total was seventy some dollars.Told the check out gal I forgot some thing.She asked what,I said don’t know but it’s under $100,must have forgot something.They always carried better than average items.But about the time they remodeled the stores locally to make them look more like Kmart the Quality of the products took a nose dive.Many made in the USA items were replaced with crap from China.They replaced Goodyear air hose with made in China.Wonder if that happened to the batteries as well.As they have moved from more rural areas they seem to become more of a discount store than ”farm” supply store.Last set of tires I got there took 3 1/2 hours to install and one leaked.Finally took it to a tire shop and got it fixed after they tried twice.Now I might spend $50.00 a month.I have been using AC Delco lately with pretty good luck.

update had a minor disaster to deal with in my house causing me to redo the bathroom, xmas shopping, work, etc. kept me from getting that 2nd battery returned. christmas morning at 1:00 AM, I needed to go out plowing. pull the battery (which was presumed good) out of the titan and put it into the plow truck. wouldnt start. registered 40 % charge on my meter. Ok…hadnt driven the truck for a while, the alternator in the ford would charge it up. Jump start it and 2 hours later, I killed the truck. Stranded at 3:30AM christmas morning with another dead battery!!! AS luck would have it, I threw the charger in the truck with a couple of LONGGGGGGG extension cords and found an outlet on my customers house to get it going. At 25 amps, I sat there for 20 minutes waiting for it to get enough juice to start. Yesterday, I returned BOTH batteries and picked up a couple of Rayovaks from Batteries Plus. Installed them, both trucks started (which was a pretty nice feature btw) and the plow truck is registering 14.77 volts to the battery. Hopefully my troubles are over.

Let me say this.. one … I had a farm and fleet battery from a truck that I bought from a guy from church, who was a bean counter.. two, it was a POS.. three.. my other friend from church worked at the US Weather bureau, here in LaCrosse, and he and I both agreed.. DIE HARD PLATNUM or Gold or what ever the top of the line battery was.. NEVER FAILED.. ever.. sorry but its the truth..

currently I have a walmart battery in my one suburban and I am terrified each morning that it won’t go.. It hasn’t let me down yet.. but there is a ton more of winter to come.. and if I had the beans, I would be at Sears this after noon buying a different battery.. even though this one hasn’t failed me . One failure is TOO MANY..