Turnigy LiPo quality?

[Jeremy Harris]

I wasn't too subtle, here's what I sent, and the reply I got today:

"Order ID: **********

Name: Jeremy Harris

Question: Why must I return defective goods purchased from your warehouse in Germany to China?

The postage cost of posting a dead and useless battery to China is very high. Posting it to Germany, which is where I purchased the battery from, would be very much cheaper. I purchased nearly $500 worth of batteries (12 packs) from your German warehouse because the shipping cost was affordable from Germany. Three arrived with faults, one is totally dead. I am extremely unhappy with the quality of these batteries and with the high postage I now have to pay to return the faulty one to you for replacement.

Is it possible to return the faulty battery to your German warehouse?

Best regards,"

Their reply:
"Dear Customer,

Thank you for your email.

We are sorry to know that one of batteries from your order #2001881432 seems defective on arrival. To open claim file for you, please send us photos to show the voltage readings for each cell of the defective battery. The front side of the battery, the warranty code, connected cables and tester have to be shown on the photo. There's no need to send back the defective battery. Our warranty team will check the photos. We would offer store credit for the item if it is found to be defective.

Looking forward to your reply for further assistance. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us."

Jeremy

 

[gtadmin]

Thanks Jeremy, though it is more subtle than I was thinking :lol:

Cheers mate,
GT

 

[gtadmin]

From cs@hobbyking.com

Thank you for your email.
We have received your request and one of our support staff will contact you shortly.

*We are currently experiencing a high volume of emails. It may take 2-3 days before we can respond to your email. We thank for your patience during this demanding time.*

Your support ticket ID is: xxxxx

A few upset customers methinks

 

[Jeremy Harris]

I got the same automated reply when I emailed them on Friday, so my guess is that it's their standard reply. They emailed me back with that answer early this morning (GMT).

Jeremy

 

[mdd0127]

It's really nice that they're allowing you to send photos instead of shipping bad batteries everywhere. It sounds like someone might have shaken up their customer service a little bit recently. Congratulations on common sense prevailing in your situation. :wink:

 

[knoxie]

I think its more likely that Jeremys public airing of his problem had to more to do with it as I am sure this forum filters back to them in some way, I doubt whether they would offer this to everyone who experiences problems though, its certainly an odd thing for a supplier to do. The very best suppliers will ship a new item right away and arrange for the return (ideally at the same time as the new item is delivered) Amazon do this, It can only be effective for higher value items however in an instance where someone has spent 500 dollars in one order I dont see it as being a problem if part of the order is faulty.

It doesnt help Jeremy as much as he would like though as he needs replacement cells not credit, why dont they ship new cells? we have run this issue many times on the forum its always a risk buying batteries in this way whether directly or indirectly however it does seem as if HK are addressing it :? and 2 days is std response times for e-mail tickets for many companies even ones based here in the UK.

Hope you get it all sorted soon Jeremy, I have had no issues with my packs and wont hesitate to get another set when i need to.

 

[liveforphysics]

The whole concept of mailing around known-damaged LiPo packaged by unprofessional shippers as part of a standard warranty return process kinda makes me cringe.

For those folks who remember the early years of HobbyCity, all it took was a simple email to tell them you got a bad cell, and they put a new pack in the mail to you free of charge. Same with all the parts they sold.
But... this system didn't work very long after people took advantage of this trust-based system to turn every pack purchase into a 2 for the price of 1 deal...

 

[Jeremy Harris]

The whole concept of mailing around known-damaged LiPo packaged by unprofessional shippers as part of a standard warranty return process kinda makes me cringe.

I thought of this over the weekend, when I was wondering whether to send the pack back. It's puffed slightly and is clearly unstable, so in all conscience I couldn't put in the post without declaring it as potentially hazardous. My guess is that I'd not be able to ship it back at all if I were honest about declaring its true state, so to send it back I'd need to lie on the customs declaration...............

Jeremy

 

[gtadmin]

The whole concept of mailing around known-damaged LiPo packaged by unprofessional shippers as part of a standard warranty return process kinda makes me cringe.

I thought of this over the weekend, when I was wondering whether to send the pack back. It's puffed slightly and is clearly unstable, so in all conscience I couldn't put in the post without declaring it as potentially hazardous. My guess is that I'd not be able to ship it back at all if I were honest about declaring its true state, so to send it back I'd need to lie on the customs declaration...............

Jeremy

My sentiments exactly, especially as mine is noticeably puffed. Now a n00b, question or two: how do I properly dispose of it? And what caused it to puff?

Cheers,
GT

 

[liveforphysics]

The whole concept of mailing around known-damaged LiPo packaged by unprofessional shippers as part of a standard warranty return process kinda makes me cringe.

I thought of this over the weekend, when I was wondering whether to send the pack back. It's puffed slightly and is clearly unstable, so in all conscience I couldn't put in the post without declaring it as potentially hazardous. My guess is that I'd not be able to ship it back at all if I were honest about declaring its true state, so to send it back I'd need to lie on the customs declaration...............

Jeremy

My sentiments exactly, especially as mine is noticeably puffed. Now a n00b, question or two: how do I properly dispose of it? And what caused it to puff?

Cheers,
GT

Well... as far as safe methods, it should be fine to simply bury it, or leave a lightbulb across the discharge leads (for a day or two) until it's out of energy and then throw it in the trash.

However, the fun way to do it is to put it in a safe place and start increasing the voltage in it until it blows.

 

[gtadmin]

....
Well... as far as safe methods, it should be fine to simply bury it, or leave a lightbulb across the discharge leads (for a day or two) until it's out of energy and then throw it in the trash.

However, the fun way to do it is to put it in a safe place and start increasing the voltage in it until it blows.

Thanks Luke. I might give the last one a miss though ....

Cheers,
GT

 

[Lessss]

Take it to your local battery disposal facility or mail it back to China COD.

 

[MitchJi]

Hi,

My sentiments exactly, especially as mine is noticeably puffed. Now a n00b, question or two: how do I properly dispose of it? And what caused it to puff?

Cheers,
GT

Well... as far as safe methods, it should be fine to simply bury it, or leave a lightbulb across the discharge leads (for a day or two) until it's out of energy and then throw it in the trash.

However, the fun way to do it is to put it in a safe place and start increasing the voltage in it until it blows.

Don't throw it in the trash !

It should be disposed of by a proper battery disposal site, which in many areas is free. A local Home Depot might take it.

 

[gtadmin]

Take it to your local battery disposal facility or mail it back to China COD.

It'll be drained as Luke suggests and then taken to the local tip, which has a battery disposal store, even if HK informs me they want it posted back! Just hope they only want photographic proof similarly to Jeremy. :: crosses fingers ::

Cheers for the advice guys,
GT

 

[gtadmin]

Quick update. Email from HK ....

Dear Customer,

Thank you for your email. We are sorry to know that one of batteries from your order #XXXX seems defective on arrival. To open claim file for you, please send us photos to show the voltage readings for each cell of the defective battery. The front side of the battery, connected cables and tester have to be shown on the photo. Please also provide us photos to show the warranty code of the defective battery and the parcel box with postage slip. Then we will pass all information to warranty department for advice.


If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Best Regards,
.....

Cells now read 0.000, 0.037 & 0.669 for a total of 0.706V . Width of pack is 33.4 mm vs 28.0 mm for a normal pack. Currently stored in a metal cabinet in the middle of the yard until I can take it to the battery return this weekend.

Cheers
GT

 

[dogman dan]

It's not going to do anything bad unless it's being recharged. Discharged, it's just some stuff in a plastic wrap.

 

[gtadmin]

It's not going to do anything bad unless it's being recharged. Discharged, it's just some stuff in a plastic wrap.

Thanks for the reassurance. I was a bit concerned as it was puffing further!

Cheers mate,
GT

 

[gtadmin]

Received an email from HK customer support informing me that they had made an exception in my case and
1. I did not need to send my defective batteries back to China
2. They credited my account by $55.20 US
8)

IMO, excellent customer service and I hope everyone else's issue is resolved positively.

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Not so good for me, I've just had an email from them saying they want me to post the defective pack back to them, although they have said I can post it to Germany, rather than China, which will save a fair bit on postage. I don't like the idea of posting a puffed LiPo pack at all, really, but if it's the only way I can get a credit then I I guess I'll just have to hope that it doesn't cause a problem.

Jeremy

 

[gtadmin]

Sorry to hear that Jeremy. Am a bit confused as to why mine was positive but not yours??

GT

 

[Hyena]

I sent them a photo of my blatently DOA pack (4 of 6 cells dead) and they said they'd lodge a claim and get back to me if there was any progress on it. That was a week ago and I've heard nothing but when I logged in to my HK account this morning (25C zippys are back in stock ) I found my account had been credited $56.

So yeah, anyone who's made a claim I suggest you log in to your HK account - they may have already reimbursed you and not followed up!

Did you end up returning your pack to get the refund Jeremy ? I'm sure it got lost in the post if you didn't :wink:

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Yes, I posted mine back to Germany last week. Following your post about only noticing the refund I logged in to HK this morning and found they'd refunded me for the duff pack, too.

Now I need to order more packs. You can never have too many LiPo packs hanging around, looking for a good home..................

Jeremy

 

[El_Steak]

I just received my 4 turnigy 20c 6s 5000mah packs today. Eventhough the 2 shipping boxes where seriously damaged, the 4 packs where in perfect condition with all cells at 3.86-3.88v

I'm lucky, with 19 packs ordered so far, not a single dud cell.

Although not at Ping's level yet, hk has improved its packing effort. The packs were in a box with air bags, then several layers of bubble wrap then individual cardboard boxes and a last layer of bubble wrap.

The packs i received last year had no extra air bags or bubble wrap, just the little white cardboard boxes hanging loose in the big box.

 

[liveforphysics]

Now I need to order more packs. You can never have too many LiPo packs hanging around, looking for a good home..................

As a guy who just ordered another 8 packs, I can firmly agree with your logic my friend.
If you don't know the number of LiPo packs you own inside of +-10packs, you're in a good place.

 

[dogman dan]

Wish I could practice what you preach. I try though. Currently have 20 lipo packs around. About 20 more might be just about enough. 8)

But I'll be paying for what I have now till at least next year.

FWIW two 6s packs I just got for the death race arrived perfect. So looks like 6s 5 ah 30c turnigy from the USA warehouse is currently a good choice.