Fraudulently labeled NiMH AA 'purple' batteries on eBay

spiker

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Mar 8, 2010
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Just wanted to give a heads up on a batch of batteries purchased from a Hong Kong dealer on eBay. They were purple and labeled 2800mAh.

First indication I had something was wrong was they felt very light in weight. I put them on a digital scale, and found they weighed 19 grams. 2000mAh AA's usually weigh 28 grams and up.

Charged up a set and put them in my GPS. Less than 2 hours later they were kaput. Put them through a few more cycles to break them in, and same result. My PN-40 usually goes 8-10 hours on a pair of NIMH batteries (my old ones are 2200-2600 mAh name brand cells).

Put them on my MAHA C777PLUS-II charger/analyzer. In repeated tests of several different sets of the batteries, all sets showed a capacity less than 700 mAh. This was using the standard MAHA charge cycle ('fast charge', I guess), and a discharge rate of about 350 mA/hour. Using the same test cycle, my old Tenergy and Nexcell AA batteries show capacities over 2000mAh.

These batteries weigh about the same as a NiMH AAA battery, and have about the came capacity, so the manufacturer has apparently cut corners and put an AA casing around an AAA battery, and fraudulently labeled them 2800mAh capacity. A new low in Chinese junk cells.

I've bought generic cells before off eBay, and while they often didn't come up to claimed capacity, they usually came close, and were useable and cheap. It looks like that no longer is a viable option - the manufacturers/dealers will just plain outright lie and sell intentionally mis-labeled cells that are not even true AA batteries.

Some photos of the bogus cells:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48209865@N05/

spiker
 
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45/70

Flashlight Enthusiast
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Oct 9, 2005
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Um, just in case you weren't aware, FleaBay is one of the worst possible places to buy batteries. I guess you know now, huh.

Unfortunately, your experience is quite common. Even if the batteries appear to be what they are advertised as, often they are fakes.

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Live and learn. :sigh:

Edit: Welcome to CPF! :thumbsup:

Dave
 
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HKJ

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What about cutting one battery open and take some photos? Could be interesting to see if it really is a AAA battery inside.

And :welcome:
 

brted

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You should definitely contact the seller and, if that doesn't work, file a dispute with eBay so that they can flush that seller and his lousy fraudulent products out of the system. It will probably take a while because the guy will send you some new batteries first which may be as crappy as the others.

I got a Zeikos charger "free" with a Fenix flashlight I bought on eBay. Those batteries were advertised as 2900 mAh and tested out around 800. The seller sent me another charger and 4 more batteries (only after I mailed my batteries back, paying postage out of my pocket) just as bad as the first ones and I dropped it. I left a bad review on Amazon for the charger and batteries and saw that other people had the same experience, also measuring that the batteries were underweight.

I feel bad for people who don't know any better and have no way of measuring the capacity. They might wind up just thinking rechargeable batteries are junk and more trouble than they worth. So definitely make life difficult for this seller.

Lastly, never buy no-name rechargeable batteries without hearing some legitmate positive reviews.
 

vali

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Seems to me they are 800 mAh and they just added a "2" there.

I dont buy in ebay either (normally), but the only time I did I got real eneloops for 9 € from a german shop (4 pieces and free shipping).
 

mcnair55

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I have been lucky and use a brand called Instants bought off the bay,been using and buying them off the same seller for well over 3 years and all is good.

Mine are 2100 mah and I asked him a couple of years back if he had any higher rated like 2700 mah for my camera,he told me not to believe all the hype and that many claim to sell higher but just fooling and at the time 2100 mah was about a good industry standard.

Never had a problem with the AA/AAA I have had off him.Had about 10 sets in total and I use them in every thing I have in the home.(TV Remotes-cameras-telephone etc etc) and of course some of my lights.
 
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spiker

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Mar 8, 2010
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I'm working with the seller to get a refund, and want to give him a chance to make it right. If he doesn't come through, I will post the seller name here. That said, these guys apparently sell under numerous identities, and the batteries are sold by multiple dealers...

spiker
 

spiker

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Mar 8, 2010
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I cut one open, and it is full of a black paste. Definitely not an AAA in an AA case. Must just be a very low grade chemistry...
 

jerry i h

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Ahem. Humbly suggest you avoid "bargains" on Ebay or elsewhere. Stick to sellers that are well known here on CPF, and I can guarantee you that you will get value for your money.
 

spiker

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Mar 8, 2010
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Thanks, I'd pretty much figured that out by now.

I've bought other inexpensive items direct from Hong Kong/China on eBay before that were adequate in performance, including NIMH batteries years ago that performed more or less as rated. I simply had not realized the NIMH marketplace had become so riddled with frauds and cheats in recent years, WRT to unbranded or pis*-poor-branded batteries coming out of China. I'll get my money back from these guys via eBay/Paypal claim, and will spend it with one of the reliable domestic suppliers in the future.

In the meantime, I plan to post photos and descriptions of as many of these low-grade batteries as possible on Flicker, so that at least some potential buyers can be warned off (judging from the large number of sales and surprising amount of positive feedback these sellers are seeing, there are apparently a lot of easily duped battery buyers out there).
 

wshyang

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Jun 17, 2012
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Stupid arse me, I got some of these too D:

I found this thread while searching about on how best to file a claim against these sellers of misrepresented NiMh batteries.



I got a bunch of these batteries from another seller "ichiban_shop" (http://www.ebay.com/itm/230719946570?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649), they are of a different brand.


Running them through my Lacrosse chargers revealed that they are not quite close to the 2800 mAh batteries as advertised:


https://plus.google.com/photos/109895457565038745336/albums/5757214599496598273/5757214606996667010
https://plus.google.com/photos/109895457565038745336/albums/5757214599496598273/5757214615930771010
https://plus.google.com/photos/109895457565038745336/albums/5757214599496598273/5757214622023025218


Some of my 5 year old very well used and worn out batteries still deliver better capacity than this. What should be the best way to go about filing a dispute?
 

qwertyydude

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Aug 10, 2008
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1,115
I did think in that too, but they should weight about the same as a high capacity NiMH AA.

Not necessarily, I have some old nicd's 600 mah cells from the 90's when I used them for running RC car remotes before nimh was affordable and comparing them they are lighter in weight than high capacity nimh.
 

wshyang

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Jun 17, 2012
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Opened a Paypal dispute and during the process Paypal informed me that 'Your seller is currently unable to respond to this dispute. By escalating your dispute to a claim, you are asking PayPal to review the case and decide the outcome.'

Sounds bad. I am having a bad feel that I probably won't be seeing my money anymore…
 

wshyang

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Joined
Jun 17, 2012
Messages
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Opened a Paypal dispute and during the process Paypal informed me that 'Your seller is currently unable to respond to this dispute. By escalating your dispute to a claim, you are asking PayPal to review the case and decide the outcome.'

Sounds bad. I am having a bad feel that I probably won't be seeing my money anymore…
 
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