Lau Chan is giving me great customer service so far

[izzzzzz6]

Hi everybody
My name is James and i am very new to this forum. I live up in the mountains in the french alps.
I have just had a very good experience with Emma who works with Lau Chan and i must say that things are working out very well for me. Here is my story so far.
I have been reading and researching endlessly for one week now, trying to gather information before purchasing what i need to build my 2000W/1000W off road heavy-duty e-mountainbike. I plan to use two Goldenmotor hub motors for steep off road climbing, the front motor can be put on a second bike for friends when not needed. Anyway:
Whilst about halfway through my research, i spotted a 48V 30Ah Lau Chan battery on ebay, it had a make an offer starting at 750$ so i offered 705$ (US$). I immediately regretted making this offer although a great price. I had realized that what i really wanted was more expensive larger cells such as the prismatic cells, i am prepared to find my own cells and BMS and assemble my own pack. I don't like the idea of a few cells dying in a pack full of hundreds of cells, larger cells usually can supply more current. Also with rough off road riding i was afraid that some cells could shake loose from their spot-welds. I had asked Lau Chan about a BMS upgrade and a bigger charger but was still regretting the purchase of the pack. Recently i have been in-touch with with at least 10 different battery manufactures and suppliers, i have many quotes on samples and i hope to start selling batteries in europe. For this reason i knew what i wanted, one of the problems was that the shipping quotes that i have been getting have been OTT.
Whilst waiting for Emma to reply i came across a post on this forum saying that under a different name Lau Chan had been selling some packs made with Prismatic cells, so i thought i would give it a try. I contacted Emma and explained a little more about the batteries intended usage and that i would really prefer prismatic cells if possible.
The reply came with photos of prismatic cells. Emma said it would take a while yo build and it would be more expensive, which is normal. I provided her with 5 options to keep the price down such as, i will assemble the pack myself, perhaps just go for 20Ah or another option was to ask for shipping by surface mail? i am currently waiting for her reply. My point is that by me changing my mind on an object i had purchased on ebay she had the right to ship the original battery, however she has provided me with great customer service and it looks like i will get exactly what i wanted. It looks like Lau Chan is getting it together. I am going to suggest to them to join the forums, although their english is not as strong as some of the vendors so if they join i would go easy with them and keep it simple.

 

[izzzzzz6]

Pics of the prismatic cells that they have offered to build the pack with. I am waiting on the exact specifications, will let you know how good these cells are meant to be soon!
James

 

[needWheels]

Hi James. Look, I completely understand you don't want to feel horrible about spending $700, I felt the exact same way after spending $400 with him and was desperately trying to find a way to justify it. If you still can, ask for your money back as a PayPal refund doesn't cost him anything - perhaps offer to pay the $5 in ebay listing fees. (then order a Headway pack instead with true, proven 5C capacity)

If you read the several threads about Lau (and his multiple identities) around here, you'll see that the pre-sales part of the customer service is never a problem, especially once he has your money. Everything is fine and good, until it's not, and then he'll never get stressed about it - you will.

Mr. Lau is not the factory, he is not even in the same country as the factory and is just a drop-shipping agent with no easy ability to cover/replace defective parts. He lives in low-income government housing and has no inventory of spare parts.

So good luck if there is anything wrong with the shipment when you get it, he ships stuff un-insured and you are responsible to return anything that has a problem at your expense back to him before he ships anything back to you. He will also try to get you to pay more for shipping.

I'm still waiting for a replacement charger, now almost six weeks later, still has not shipped yet, so it will be a few more weeks at the soonest. Are you willing to wait 2 month if there's a problem with your pack? How about spending over $100 to ship it back to China or Hong Kong?

Also there is the huge problem that Mr. Lau now claims all the previous 18650 packs as he has sold are very bad and should be avoided at all costs. I wonder how long until he claims that the early prismatic packs he sells are no good and should not be bought.

from his listing this month vs his 18650 listings last month:
View attachment lau-do-not-buy-800.jpg

 

[jimw1960]

Since Izzz has posted the same pro-Lau propaganda on a couple of threads. I'll be interested to hear his opinion after he receives his cells.

 

[needWheels]

I think Izzz is for real. A mod can easily compare his IP address to where he claims he is from (which sounds wonderfully exotic btw)

I recognize the same desperation that I had and wanted to give Lau the benefit of the doubt and prove everybody wrong.

Unfortunately I proved myself wrong in the end, and even worse, it's not over yet. PayPal dispute starts tomorrow and my negative feedback on his account will end any PayPal buyers protection when he drops below 98%, so I suggest Izzz gets a refund ASAP.

 

[jimw1960]

I think Izzz is for real. A mod can easily compare his IP address to where he claims he is from (which sounds wonderfully exotic btw)

I recognize the same desperation that I had and wanted to give Lau the benefit of the doubt and prove everybody wrong.

Unfortunately I proved myself wrong in the end, and even worse, it's not over yet. PayPal dispute starts tomorrow and my negative feedback on his account will end any PayPal buyers protection when he drops below 98%, so I suggest Izzz gets a refund ASAP.

I thought your battery was working OK except for the charger and he was going to send you a new one (some day).

 

[needWheels]

I thought your battery was working OK except for the charger and he was going to send you a new one (some day).

Did you miss his statement above that 18650 are poor quality and not to buy them because they have 90% reduced lifespan?

It would be insane to keep a battery that he insists will only have 10% useful life.

 

[dogman dan]

Pardon me for rubbing it in, but the idea that 18650 packs with hundreds of tiny cells don't last reliably is sure some fresh news. Pings high prices don't help you any either.

 

[jimw1960]

Good point. Looks like Mr. Lau shot himself in the foot with that one. My 36v/15Ah Lau battery still works OK after nearly 9 months. Probably only about 50 charge cycles, though. Nice to know it could die any time now. not my primary battery anymore anyway; I have a couple e-bike projects in work and use it mostly for testing. If you do get a refund and go for a headway pack, let me know. I'm ordering several 48/20 headway packs next week for my projects plus a few extras for local e-bikers. They're coming by the slow boat, though, so won't be here until mid-july time frame. In the meantime Ping is king.

 

[needWheels]

Pardon me for rubbing it in, but the idea that 18650 packs with hundreds of tiny cells don't last reliably is sure some fresh news. Pings high prices don't help you any either.

Yup but it's startling to see it in print on the page of a seller who just a few weeks ago was selling 18650 pack.

I mean that's some serious, serious gall.

Oh and this was his reply when I questioned him about the statement:

We have tested the battery several time to make sure it is OK before shipping

We guarantee we will solve the problem soon if it has any problem

So, do not worry about it

I guess I'll get the same kind of replacement as I did with the charger (nothing after a full month, not even shipped yet)

 

[dogman dan]

Good luck getting your money back from him. You have read the jimmywu thread right?

 

[needWheels]

Yeah I figure I am going to be out at least $150 on this between return shipping and ebay fees.
But I think I can give a pretty good dispute with ebay, I am pretty much counting on him resisting it all way unfortunately.

 

[izzzzzz6]

I can't even remember what happened here it was so long back but if i bought that pack i must have got a refund in the end.
I ended up looking into lifpo4 and then got lipos from hobby king because it was getting complicated organising a group purchase.
I destroyed a load of those by running them too low and now i bought 80x 21700 samsung 40T. I'm going to try to run without a BMS but with careful cell monitoring. I'll be putting together a fast charger which can also power a balance charger made up of 20x individual cc cv step down modules. I like the ones with the lcd display. the 12A ones are v nice but a bit pricey so may go with the 5A ones to charge at around 3A cc for balancing. then just fast charge from a 1200W cc cv supply at 84V at around 1000W or less.
The pack will be 20S and up to 4p for now but up to 8p for larger machines. i would like to try to keep it in 1P strips that connect to a bus bar, this way hunting out weak cells will be much easier.
I was going to solder but have now decided to build a microwave transformer (MOT) spot welder with dual trigger (& lcd display) on the time switching controller.
Ordering the rest i need to build the pack and need to go to the dump for a mcrowave.