Buying laptop batteries on ebay - Never again!

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I'm sure that most here are wise enough to avoid this route, but I needed a new battery for the Dell Latitude I recently repaired.

So a few pertinent points:

1. The OEM battery runs about $100+ from Dell for the 34WHr model. There is also a 47WHr model that costs probably $150+.
2. Dell claims that only they sell OEM batteries. (maybe also their authorized resellers who service enterprise clients with equipment leases)

Well unsurprisingly, eBay is absolutely flooded with Chinese sellers who are basically selling counterfeit/generic versions of every Dell battery in existence. The WHr claims are all over the place, with generic versions of the 34WHr, 47WHr, and some even claim to make a ~58WHr version. You can't even know which model they are selling because they spam the titles and descriptions with every battery model (34GKR, PFXCR, F38HT)

Prices range from $18 shipped to $120+ shipped (for the exact same battery).

So I noticed a few things about the counterfeit battery listings that made me realize the direness of it all:

1. Most ads used the exact same stock photo.
2. Most ads used the sort of "jagged" font-face indicative of someone on a computer that is not configured to input English.
3. Most ads claimed a location of "US, US". The ones that were specific to a city often claimed to be in NY or CA.
4. Most ads had a surprisingly good seller rating, usually around 98% or higher, but with a LOT of sales in the last 12 months (tens of thousands of sales). If you looked at only the negative feedback, you could see that SOME sellers were accused of selling counterfeit batteries, but some were sparking clean.


Well I decided to be risky and found a listing that claimed to sell a "New Genuine PFXCR E7440 Battery For Dell Latitude...". Price around $35 shipped so right in the middle of it all.

It ships out from Flushing NY, a few days pass, and on arrival the darn thing was WARPED. If you put it on a flat surface, it would wobble back and forth. It was also suspiciously light weight... almost as if the cells inside it were not genuine.

I contact the seller for a return, and then I notice yet another warning sign: they only seem to respond between the hours of 8PM to 8AM central time. Sure they could be a night owl, but then again I can think of a region in this world where those equivalent hours would be day time.

And yup - the communication I had with the seller made it obvious that I was dealing with a Chinese merchant who had a friend or family member in the US do all their shipments.


Anyway to wrap it up, I'm currently on my 2nd return with this seller since the replacement they sent out was also warped.


But to provide a decent ending to it all, I found a small company in GA that does used tech wholesale and they were able to get me a lightly used but in great shape battery for $30.
 
Ironically.......

The Dell Latitude laptop battery I bought from Amazon for $22 only lasted 13 months.

The second on I got on ebay for $18, and it's been a peach!

It's like russian roulette with these things....
 
There is a HUGE industry in China, of taking used laptop turn in batteries (by the millions and millions from Chinese consumers). They remove the battereies from the battery packs, charge them, and get rid of the "totally" dead cells. The batteries that still have life, are then repackaged and sold to American consumers as "new" battery replacements. They are also wrapped in plastic and sold as new 18650 batteries for flashlights. Most laptop batteries use a bank of 18650 batteries.

If you are handy, there are tutorials online how to rebuild these laptop battery packs. Basically, you buy new Sanyo(made in Japan) cells for about $5 each, times however many battery cells that your laptop came with. About $25-40 to do it yourself with premium, brand new, made in Japan Sanyo or Panasonic cells.

There are also rebuild services if you are not handy, such as Batteries Plus and others.
 
Drop shippers in US selling Chinese products. They have no inventory in US, just take orders for Chinese business,or as you say, a relative in US. If you try to return it, you will see a China address in most cases.
 
Originally Posted By: TTK
Drop shippers in US selling Chinese products. They have no inventory in US, just take orders for Chinese business,or as you say, a relative in US. If you try to return it, you will see a China address in most cases.


In most cases they do have a return address in US. I've only seen one that ask me to ship back to China and after I complain they just refund me without asking me to ship it back. It is likely the guy is new to the business of drop shipping.

For mission critical stuff I usually buy from Amazon, they are better at customer service and will eat the cost themselves including return shipping.

This is not only on Chinese drop shipper. I once bough a furnace draft fan from a company in Chicago who send me a "compatible" one instead of the exact one I ordered (at a premium over other listing), with wrong flow, power, frequency, etc and refuse to return without restocking and return shipping. Amazon pay me the difference out of their pocket.
 
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Ebay has become less reliable for just about anything as of late.

It's the wild west of sites anymore.
 
Funny, I bought several over the years and they all worked fine till the power cord frayed at the computer input. Battery life was ok in all of them honestly and I found you could much more cheaply buy cheapos at $13 and replace needed that way than get stuck for OEM
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that frayed in about as short a time . Buy off an outfit that has a large sales record with good reviews and free shipping. You can buy a lot of $15 batteries for $100 and the way those OEM s tear up, NO WAY
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I've had great luck over the years with two amazon battery and accessory sellers--uBattery and PWR+. I would not pay full OEM price for a battery, that's for darn sure. That's almost as bad as OEM ink for the printer.
 
Coincidentally, just received a CWK replacement battery in the mail drop shipped from a WalMart affiliate. Reviews and prices were all over the place, so I went with an economical choice that met the specs. Working just fine. So far (knock on wood).
 
I've (knock on wood) had good luck with ebay so far for laptop batteries.

Current one in my Gateway now is finally on it's way out after 4 years.

Need another one for the gateway and my son's hp G56 laptop-will nose though Amazon, but may still go with Ebay again with laptop this old....
 
You tried to cheap out and took the bait of a fake knock off battery. Deal with it.
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I recently bought an aftermarket battery for my MacBook Air. Feels cheap, looks cheap but seems to work for now. At the price I got it for, I can replace it every year for the next 4 years and still be cheaper then original from Apple. HAHA.
 
I've had mixed results on eBay. But no bad units from Amazon/CWK. Yeah, a bit pricey, but if the laptop is working well, a new battery is just the thing
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well, I got a replacement generic HD battery recently for a Lenovo/Thinkpad L410 I-5 8 gig 256ssd that I maintain, as the 3 yr old one was now 1 hour yield, and the instructions with battery said run down to 90%, NOT TO DEAD, then recharge, etc. and the battery will last better. Just FYI.
 
Originally Posted By: bubbatime
There is a HUGE industry in China, of taking used laptop turn in batteries (by the millions and millions from Chinese consumers). They remove the battereies from the battery packs, charge them, and get rid of the "totally" dead cells. The batteries that still have life, are then repackaged and sold to American consumers as "new" battery replacements. They are also wrapped in plastic and sold as new 18650 batteries for flashlights. Most laptop batteries use a bank of 18650 batteries.


This is unfortunately 100% true.

I have also seen it with Sub-C Ni-MH and Ni-Cd cells as well.
 
Originally Posted By: bmwjohn
well, I got a replacement generic HD battery recently for a Lenovo/Thinkpad L410 I-5 8 gig 256ssd that I maintain, as the 3 yr old one was now 1 hour yield, and the instructions with battery said run down to 90%, NOT TO DEAD, then recharge, etc. and the battery will last better. Just FYI.


Interesting...
 
Originally Posted By: daves87rs
Originally Posted By: bmwjohn
well, I got a replacement generic HD battery recently for a Lenovo/Thinkpad L410 I-5 8 gig 256ssd that I maintain, as the 3 yr old one was now 1 hour yield, and the instructions with battery said run down to 90%, NOT TO DEAD, then recharge, etc. and the battery will last better. Just FYI.


Interesting...


I've heard this too, 20%-80% is where you want to keep them.
 
I picked up two HP replacements from amazon for both our laptops. The one is kind of finnicky as in sometimes it chooses not to charge. But other than that they last between 1.5-2 hrs on a charge (the old battery was maybe 30 mins), about 4 months in.

I also dissembled one of my old laptop batteries and got 6 sanyo 18650's out that when charged individually they are holding charge and working very well for flashlights.

I try to unplug my laptop and actually use the battery now, I think the reason the one battery was so shot that my wife never unplugged it, and it never got used or cycled.
 
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