I'm impressed by the number of clearly illegitimate battery deals on Amazon. Some of them are obviously too good to be true, even given Chinese dumping. Don't know if the problem is knockoffs, don't even know how products can be knockoffs nowadays when it's all made in China anyway... But obviously many of them are just substandard batteries.
So what's your favorite online retailer for batteries? Or your favorite battery seller on eBay or Amazon?
Of course I want low prices, but I don't want to waste time and money trying to find a good battery. Seems like it's a big mess, that on Amazon one cannot really tell what's a good battery and what's not.
Sometimes if you scroll waaaay down and read the fine print, it will say "compatible replacement", or some other words that mean that you're not actually getting what is in the big picture at the top of the page.
Depends on what kind of battery it is. I am in the US so I look at US suppliers.
For gel cells - the things that go in most every "computer" UPS under
1000 VA or so, house alarm systems, etc - I order from Digi-Key or Mouser, either Panasonic or Power-Sonic brand. I've been unhappy with every other brand of these that I've tried.
For NiMH AAs, the only online shopping I've done is a pack of Eneloops from Amazon. As far as I can tell, I got genuine cells, and their performance has been as expected. Make sure it says "sold by and ships from Amazon.com" in the listing; I think there's a check box for that, which you can use when searching.
For a Li-ion battery for an older cell phone, I sighed deeply and bought from the seller with the most sales and best feedback who stocked that particular battery on eBay. I'm pretty sure I got a genuine battery, but it had an old date code; it had probably been sitting on the shelf for a couple of years. It took a few charge cycles to wake back up, but it is doing as well as can be expected.
I don't think I've ever bought alkaline / carbon-zinc primary batteries online. I've checked prices from online-only sellers, but in the small quantities of AAA, AA, C, D that I use, it's usually just about the same as going to the local discount store. For coin or button batteries, the local prices seem to be vastly inflated vs. online, but then the minimum shipping charge cuts in. If I happened to be ordering something else from Digi-Key or Mouser, then it might pay to order a coin cell from them.
For NiCd power tool batteries, I had my existing packs rebuilt by a local Batteries Plus store. I don't know what kind of cells they used, but they work a lot better than the worn-out original ones, and the rebuild price of about $35 was better than the new-pack price of $50+.
The last time I was involved with buying lead-acid traction batteries several years ago, I think the place where I worked got them directly from the manufacturer (Enersys, nee Hawker, nee Gates). That seemed to work OK.
Standard disclaimers apply: I don't get money or other consideration from any companies mentioned.
snipped-for-privacy@att.net wrote in news:maf2ro$u9m$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:
Talking about eBay. Yep, definitely something to look out for.
Yeah, I have been hitting the "USA" button when sorting eBay results. Mainly because I don't want the order to take forever to get here. Partly for fun, I recently ordered 5 (200 V 10 A) diodes shipped from China for $1.50.
Yep, same strategy here. Sometimes I checked their feedback for that particular item. Not necessarily easy when they have tens of thousands, though.
That brand (probably Chinese) is falsifying reviews for its products.
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They are verified purchasers, but... Notice almost all of them are either first, middle/initial, and last names. Then click on "other reviews" and you can clearly see that they are all the same person.
"I can see for miles and miles and miles, Oh yeah... la la la"
snipped-for-privacy@att.net wrote in news:maf2ro$u9m$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:
There must be some folks getting paid to write false reviews on Amazon. If it sounds too good, etc. you just need to check the "other reviews from this buyer" (in the five star category) and you will invariable see that they only have one review for that particular product, or just reviews on all of one seller's product, and usually all written within the space of a week or less...
This is Amazon's fault IMO for making the system easy to game.
I depend on the reviews when buying on Amazon, but sometimes vetting the reviews is so time consuming it is just easier to find a retailer that depends on trust to stay in business.
"Ms. Carole Adamowicz has left 47 product reviews and they are all 5 star. Raving reviews of all 47 products, coincidentally, all sold by EcoClean Solutions."
From Amazon's own forum...
NYT article on false reviews The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy
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Forbes They claim 300 reviews costs $6,000!
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services and Amazon pulled many, although not all, of his reviews from
Indeed, many authors will recognize the phenomenon of the malicious one-star review designed to sabotage their book. Although Amazon
coming from other authors who see self-publishing as a zero sum game in which if they lose out if another author does well. Others may come
their idol, or from grifters and trolls who just get off on attacking strangers in public.
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