APC by Schneider Electric Reviews

What an incredible wait for a simple fix. Do not buy from these people. Their stuff is not worth your cash. I purchased a UPS that smells like melting plastic, which is a serious hazard. Now they're saying I have to hold tight for another month before I can get it swapped out. I want a full refund and I'm filing a formal complaint.

Over the past quarter century I've relied on dozens of APC Back-UPS systems for computers and workstations both at home and in the office, plus they've powered my home theater setup for the past fifteen plus years. I also run several Smart-UPS X three thousand watt units in my office data center. Right now I've got eight Back-UPS units at home and twenty five at the office. Historically I could count on getting four to five years from the batteries. But in just the last half year I've had to replace four brand new batteries from Schneider Electric that were still under three years old. Just today I swapped out one that was two and a half years old. Given that Schneider's warranty is only two years, I'm stuck just replacing them regularly, and these run fifty to eighty bucks per unit. Their website claims to expect three to five years though. My replacement batteries sit in our smaller data room where we keep the temperature at a nice sixty five degrees. I'm worried this might be a pattern going forward.

The equipment itself is acceptable. But the customer service is absolutely dreadful. They don't respond, not even through enterprise support channels. When they do answer, it's with answers that make no sense. They're useless when it comes to helping with software glitches.

I have to say how utterly incompetent they've become. I'm completely done with them and only buying Vertiv equipment going forward, and their support team has never let me down the way APC has.

I bought a fifteen hundred watt unit initially to safeguard my computer and storage drives in an area prone to severe lightning. Set it up along with their monitoring software and registered it. Three days went by and we got struck by lightning, which damaged my routers, modem, and my computer's processor. I reached out to support and the first thing they asked was what model and serial number my registered unit was. A replacement arrived a week later. I took my computer to Apple and they replaced the processor under their warranty. I replaced my modem and routers. In August 2023 I set up and registered the replacement unit. By April of 2024, my replacement suddenly failed catastrophically with no weather involved. I contacted APC support again, provided the model and serial numbers, and they walked me through unplugging everything and the battery. Even after that the second unit had clearly quit. They said they'd send another replacement in five working days. At that point I decided to purchase a different UPS brand since I don't feel I can count on this company anymore, and I'm not comfortable dealing with this much recurring downtime.

Stay away from this company. This is my second APC unit that's given me trouble. It said the battery needed replacing, so I got one. Now with the new battery, it's not operating properly at all, neither on regular power nor on battery backup. I asked for help and got zilch for seven days. When I finally called to arrange a return, they only then sent me something, but it was worthless advice. I want to send back the battery but here's the problem: they have to approve it first and they can just say no if they want. There's also a restocking fee plus I cover shipping costs, so it might actually be more expensive to return it than to just throw it out. That's disrespectful to customers and the planet. I've written feedback on multiple platforms and will keep sharing my experience wherever possible so people know what they're getting into. I can handle a product that breaks, but zero customer support combined with hostile return rules is completely unacceptable.

Really frustrated with how they've treated us. We have three of their popular three kilowatt UPS systems and all three went bad around the same time. We started getting error messages pouring in at crazy rates every couple of minutes from each unit. We tried everything: adjusting alert settings, flashing new firmware, cycling power while staying late to keep business running smoothly. Nothing worked and the emails just kept multiplying, eventually hitting around eight thousand over one weekend alone. Then all three units started reporting internal hardware issues out of nowhere. Their suggestion? Replace all nine batteries across the three systems so you can figure out if it's the UPS or the batteries. So we'd be spending forty-five hundred dollars just to run a test for them? No thanks. We're switching to lithium ion options from a different vendor now. It feels like APC has gotten too big and doesn't care anymore. After multiple exchanges with Schneider and APC, I feel completely dismissed and disrespected, especially after following their guidance and asking them to acknowledge this email flood bug they created.

APC used to be the obvious choice for anyone needing UPS or power distribution gear. I made the dumb choice of ordering straight from them rather than through a reseller. Total nightmare. Their site said stock was available, but somehow it wasn't. Responses were incredibly slow and all the support is handled overseas. I spent three weeks trying to get a shipping date, then finally they just added a tracking number to my order and marked it shipped. Here's the kicker: that tracking number was for a package that departed Miami to India two months before I even placed my order. My stuff was supposed to go to California. A mistake in the database? Doubtful. And get this, their representatives told me that I should be the one reaching out to the carrier about the tracking mismatch. This is legitimately absurd. Nothing about any of this makes sense. I won't purchase anything from this company ever again, not even a basic power strip. I'm going to make sure everyone knows about this fiasco whenever I get the opportunity.

My order arrived within the first hour of the three hour delivery window they texted and emailed me about that morning. The delivery person was courteous and had a great attitude.

Invested twenty grand in solar equipment that's being ruined by a failing inverter cooling system. This is a design flaw that Schneider has known about for over a decade. When I reached out for support, they basically told me that once the warranty expires, they wash their hands of it and suggested I pay a third party shop to fix their mistake. That left me no choice but to talk to a lawyer about consumer repair rights.