Questionable Vendor behavior

[UBMag]

A man ordered and payed for a 48V 20Ah Li-ion battery pack form chineese vendor using paypal.
After a long wait the battery arrived and the man stored the battery for a little while, since other parts for his build had not arrived.
Then when the build started he found that the battery only gave a total output of 30-some volts. This was the standard rail-mounted alu-case chineese packs.
He asked a local ebike-shop what to do. So the shop got the battery and checked it out. Before they opened it, the man got the Vendor to agreed to them conducting a investigation by opening the pack. The shop found several big problems:

* All the cells had moved inside the shrink and pushed against the padding protecting the BMS from the cells. The packaging and enclosure was both unharmed from any external impact, so this must have happened during assembly or prior to final packaging from the vendor. (Cells was not secured inside the plastic-plates inside the shrink, so only friction was holding them in place in the first place) As a result several cell-tabs had got forced together by the kintetic force of the cells at impact, and shortened three tabs, and put these cells into voltage reversal.

* The inside of the inner shrink and cells was also covered in eltrolyte, obviously from a leak (probably as effect of the damage).

The shops conclusion:

The man ordered a new product with agreed spesifications, and the vendor therefor is obligated to deliver that product in working condition for the amount agreed and payed in advance using paypal.

* Reversed cells "might" be turned back, but will never function correctly and sefely inside a pack. And are in constant danger of flipping back or shorting during use.
* Leaking cells are dangerous and should _never_ be used or tried "rescued" in danger of internal short, fire or other unwanted outcome.


Vendor got a written statement from the shop, but keeps pretending that the pack just needs to be balance charged without BMS, and will not agree to replacing it... After the man has had several emails with the vendor, they will only consider the replacement, it the man sends the internal cell-pack back to the vendor. And they will then send "replacement" cells back without BMS or external casing. (Shop informes that sending damaged unprotected 13S 20Ah pack is strictly forbidden by shipping code, with good reassons.)


Is there anything here that I missed, or got wrong? This seems to be a straight forward case of bad vendor behavior by not taking any responsibility for a defect product, making every excuse possible to not take responsibility....

(edit: To clearify: What I am wondering is: Is any of my conclusions in this case wrong, in face giving the seller right in not replacing the pack free of charge???)

 

[dnmun]

why do you have to discuss it this way? i cannot even figure out what you are trying to say except you wanna invoke sympathy and outrage against the manufacturer but you don't even name them so nobody knows who made the pack and avoid.

are you asking for help in fixing the pack or did you decide not to repair the pack?

when you say reversed, do you mean the pouches have a negative voltage expressed on their output? how is this negative voltage sustained?

 

[UBMag]

why do you have to discuss it this way? i cannot even figure out what you are trying to say except you wanna invoke sympathy and outrage against the manufacturer but you don't even name them so nobody knows who made the pack and avoid.

are you asking for help in fixing the pack or did you decide not to repair the pack?

when you say reversed, do you mean the pouches have a negative voltage expressed on their output? how is this negative voltage sustained?

(yes. The neg. and pos. inside the cell has switched polarity making the voltage of the cell reversed.)

Well. Because I think all vendors should have a chance of cleaning up their mess before hanging them out as "bad" publicly. And before that what I am wondering is, and would appreciate feedback on is:

Is there anything here that I missed, or got wrong?

I am just about 100% on that this is not possible, but the vendor does not agree. So what I would love feedback on: -Is it in fact possible (outside my knowledge) to repair both these problems without sacrificing safety, performance specs. or lifespan compared to a new undamaged item?
(edit: I am sorry if this did not come clear in my original post, fixed.)

 

[dnmun]

is the manufacturer going to send replacement pouches for the repair and will you do the repair yourself or hire this ebike shop to do it? i guess you found how hard it is to ship them back.

 

[friendly1uk]

So not a bmsbattery thread?

Your supplier is making odd requests. You send the battery back, not bits of it. Then they send a new one. They are making it impossible. Plus you have no transport options. All I can say is unlucky. Stop protecting the supplier so we can avoid them.