Where's Ping?

[sierraskies]

Does anyone know what's up with Ping Batteries? I've read many comments about his fast and friendly service, but his website now shows "Closed for maintenance", and he hasn't replied to a couple of emails I sent a few days ago. He does show just a couple of items on ebay.
Thanks!

 

[kbarrett]

He's gone strictly to ebay, asfact. More money there than doing custom packs.

He said he might restart the retail stuff when he has more product.

 

[Toorbough ULL-Zeveigh]

out playing table tennis with his twin brother whose name I forget at the moment.

 

[TylerDurden]

:lol: :lol: :lol: Too funny, round-eyes!!!

(as opposed to: two funny round eyes)

 

[sierraskies]

I just got a reply from Ping - he said " I didn't feel well from 2 week ago. And doctor said I was so tired that I need some rest. So I spent most of time to sleep and cannot reply every email in time."

He also says there's a shortage of cells for the next 4-7 weeks, so things might be a little slower.

In the meantime I just ordered a pack from Foxx Power. Should be here next week.

 

[dogman dan]

We put out the word and now he is slammed. His battery is worth the wait in my opinion. The olympics is screwing with everything in china, so I am not suprised. Given the prices folks are bidding for his ebay batteries, i'm sure glad I got mine earlier.

 

[swbluto]

As stated on his eBay auction,

"Before the Olympic Games, EMS won't ship batteries by air for security reason. The items have to be shipped by UPS that cost more, but your item will be delivered faster. "

Which means the shipping cost will be higher which will eat into his profits(Maybe to the point of loss, depending on what his profit margin is.). This would influence him to hold-back stock until it becomes more profitable when the EMS lifts this restriction. Also, the supply shortage might be explained by either selling stock too quickly(perhaps due to recently rising market prices) and/or a true supply shortage that might have been influenced by the quakes in China(i.e., perhaps the powder manufacturer is based in South-Western Asia?).

It's just a guess.

 

[swbluto]

He's gone strictly to ebay, asfact. More money there than doing custom packs.

He said he might restart the retail stuff when he has more product.

:lol: I'd find that extremely funny if that were true. Though the average bidding price might be higher than his average eBay price, eBay already charges at least 3.5% extra, in Final value fees and whatnot(The actual average fee percentage is probably around 4-4.5% with the initial value fee and other upgrades), at his price range than if he were simply to sell at retail. And, it'd be quite easy for him to adjust his "Retail prices" to at least partially the eBay prices and cut out the 4% in eBay fees in the process! So, yeah, if anything, keeping his retail as a supplement would only amplify his profits if he were to charge accordingly(He actually sells less per watt-hour at higher watt-hours on eBay suggesting the low voltage/low-amphour(36v, 10 ah) batteries are more profitable, the kind of retail orders he's been getting).

 

[needWheels]

Ping emailed me back just the other day on an enquiry saying they were out of cells for awhile so they could not make custom packs for a bit. I can lookup the exact quote if anyone cares.

Also consider because of the Olympics they have to use UPS for shipping so the cost goes up radically and China is cutting back factories for the Olympics to reduce pollution temporarily.

So maybe easier to buy after the Olympics in general I guess?

I sure wish I could afford LifePO4 !

 

[hardym]

Ping's ebay site still has no batteries, but I found this new vendor with similar Duct-Tape batteries, curretly auctioning selling at $400 + $120 shipping to US.

http://cgi.ebay.com/LIFEPO4-Electri...ryZ11332QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Is this for real? Anyone purchased one of these before?

Theres a 14 day money back, but that comes with probalby paying the $120 shipping.

I've written the seller about the 4 different discharge numbers listed for the battery to see which one is correct.

Mark.

 

[dogman dan]

It looked to me like two different sellers. But the pic is the same. Deja vu all over again. However, it could be where all pings stock went. Who knows?