When Storm Kanda cut electricity to shops across Chonburi province on 20 October, thousands of owners reached for backup batteries they had bought from KraiCharge. Many found empty corners instead. By Sunday, 7,357 customers had reported that their promised systems were missing or unusable, turning a weather emergency into a major dispute over a business that sold power security by subscription.
KraiCharge offered shops a 5-kilowatt-hour battery package for ฿64,000 (about €1,400), including installation and a three-year maintenance plan. Customer receipts show the firm took in at least ฿538 million from 8,420 buyers. Provincial commerce officials say the storm has prompted the first broad comparison of those sales with installation records and equipment on the ground.
In Si Racha, shopkeeper Alonso Alfaro said he had paid in March after the firm promised installation before the wet season. On Tuesday, the storm left his small grocery without power for nine hours; the company’s service line gave him a reference number but no technician. “I had the receipt, the empty wall and a freezer full of melting ice cream,” he said. “The weather did the accounting for us.”
The outage meets the sales pitch
The storm brought gusts of up to 84 km/h (52 mph) and heavy rain to parts of the eastern seaboard, knocking out power to 21 industrial-estate blocks and surrounding commercial streets. KraiCharge had advertised its systems to noodle stalls, pharmacies and family-run shops as protection against precisely that kind of interruption. Some customers said they had also paid for a small display unit that never appeared.
A review of installation registers by Chonburi commerce officials has so far matched just 1,063 battery units to the 8,420 customer accounts. The officials cautioned that the count is preliminary: the company says some systems were held at regional depots or installed by subcontractors whose paperwork has not been entered. Customers have supplied invoices and dated photographs, while officials have visited 17 commercial areas to check equipment in person.
Junnu Nyman, KraiCharge’s managing director, said the storm exposed a “serious delivery and record-keeping failure”, but disputed that most customers had been abandoned. He said 5,900 systems were either installed or awaiting final connection, and blamed a shortage of electricians and delayed imported components. The company has paused new sales and promised to publish a customer-by-customer delivery schedule by 2 November.
“We did not set out to sell a promise instead of a battery, but too many customers received exactly that.” — Junnu Nyman, managing director of KraiCharge
The company has offered a full refund to buyers whose installations are not completed by 15 November, along with a 12-month extension to maintenance plans for customers who already have working units. Its shares are not publicly traded, but two Thai lenders confirmed they had suspended new credit to the business while they review its delivery figures. KraiCharge employs 240 people, including 68 installation technicians.
Refunds and a repair plan
The company’s problems have not stopped neighbours from helping affected shops keep trading. In one row of Si Racha storefronts, owners pooled refrigerated space and shifted frozen goods to a nearby minimart with a generator. Ümran Bakırcıoğlu, who runs a stationery shop and received her battery in June, said she let three neighbouring businesses charge payment terminals from it during the outage.
Commerce officials say they will publish a verified list of installed units next month and have asked customers to register claims by 8 November. Péter Szőke, a small-business adviser who has helped owners organise receipts, said the straightforward refund pledge was welcome but needed a clear timetable. “People want to know whether they should wait for a battery or buy another one before the next storm,” he said.
KraiCharge says it will put 40 technicians on a dedicated installation and repair roster and make its depot stock available for inspection. For shopkeepers, the next test will be less dramatic than the storm: a working battery, delivered on the date promised, before the lights go out again.
