Bad battery from AliExpress.com

egroover

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 12, 2016
970
575
56
UK
I've got a Liitokala battery although bought from a different store, Liitokala Direct or something. I knew when I bought it that if there were problems down the line I'd probably have to resort to a credit card claim. My battery is also 21700 based, 48V 15Ah and I paid I think about £92 for it including VAT and delivery. Looks like now it is £133 plus VAT a huge increase over just a few months. My topcashback cashback has just been confirmed so getting £4-5 there. I'm restricting current output to extend the battery pack life and reduce the likelihood of the pack developing a fault.

So many Liitokala shops it seems, many perhaps are using Liitokala cells but assembling the batteries themselves or possibly just reselling them. Lots of Chinese trade houses resell factory capacity by placing large orders and then reselling in lower quantities.
Have you left a review for your purchase on the sellers feedback page ? If you haven't and are still eligible to do so, you could email the seller to say you are going to leave an honest review sharing your experience of it going wrong after 8 months with zero assistance from seller to help resolve the problem - This should put off some new potential customers for the seller, the seller might be more inclined to assist you if you can come to some arrangement so that you do not leave a review (ok I get it, it doesn't help future customers alerting them to a unhelpful seller blah blah..)
 

Bonzo Banana

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 29, 2019
733
428
Have you left a review for your purchase on the sellers feedback page ? If you haven't and are still eligible to do so, you could email the seller to say you are going to leave an honest review sharing your experience of it going wrong after 8 months with zero assistance from seller to help resolve the problem - This should put off some new potential customers for the seller, the seller might be more inclined to assist you if you can come to some arrangement so that you do not leave a review (ok I get it, it doesn't help future customers alerting them to a unhelpful seller blah blah..)
My battery is fine so far...

Like anything there is a failure rate, maybe mine will last years or perhaps fail early too. I've seen forum posts where people have bought high end batteries or expensive ebikes that had batteries that failed. I'm sure there is a greater risk with cheaper battery packs mostly. I seem to remember people who bought those Gtech ebikes were having their batteries fail all the time. Then you have Bosch batteries that self-brick if the charge gets too low, i.e. you store it uncharged for a few months. Then you have battery packs with bluetooth modules that are always taking some current so can really deeply discharge a battery pack if you are not careful and destroy it. Lots of ways of having a duff battery pack of which going too cheap is one possible route.
 

PC2017

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 19, 2017
1,300
327
Scunthorpe
spending anymore money
Apologies if some one has covered this, I did read all comments however I did skim a few. I too second BMSbattery that is my 48v (paid £150) some China sold only LG brand cell, it's 2 year old and works well. What payment method did you use? I believe paypal has 180 days to file a claim, gather as much evidence as possible. If you used a card debit or credit you can file a "chargeback" I have never used this option but if you are unsuccessful, nothing ventured nothing gained.
 

billyboya

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 10, 2016
974
88
72
uk
Apologies if some one has covered this, I did read all comments however I did skim a few. I too second BMSbattery that is my 48v (paid £150) some China sold only LG brand cell, it's 2 year old and works well. What payment method did you use? I believe paypal has 180 days to file a claim, gather as much evidence as possible. If you used a card debit or credit you can file a "chargeback" I have never used this option but if you are unsuccessful, nothing ventured nothing gained.
I take it you have not read all my posts, this battery was only 8 months old, also its too late to do a feedback, as no where to do it, Plus I always got to chat to an agent 8 in all, also sent several messages to seller, plus e-mail, also an agent said they also sent a mail to the seller, asking him to get in touch, yet again nothing. now they have stopped me contacting an agent. I was also told to upload images of the battery plus a short video, to a web site which I did. Now I have no way of chatting to a human, as like i said they seem to have stopped me from asking them questions. all these 8 agents I chatted to all said same thing they will help me. But nothing has been done at all. its really bad you cant get to chat to a human, just stupid Bots. and they are just programmed to tell you a certain amount of questions. if anyone knows how to contact a human on AliExpress please post here. Im just waiting now for 1 item I ordered. and will be closing my account.
 
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Bonzo Banana

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 29, 2019
733
428
Apologies if some one has covered this, I did read all comments however I did skim a few. I too second BMSbattery that is my 48v (paid £150) some China sold only LG brand cell, it's 2 year old and works well. What payment method did you use? I believe paypal has 180 days to file a claim, gather as much evidence as possible. If you used a card debit or credit you can file a "chargeback" I have never used this option but if you are unsuccessful, nothing ventured nothing gained.
I think it should be pointed out if you use a payment processing company like paypal even if you paid by credit card then even if you spend over £100 you don't have credit card protection you are reliant on whatever paypal can do for you. Also if you wanted to take paypal to the small claims court it would be difficult as not based in the UK. So using paypal can severely limit your ability to claim back money on faulty goods. It's good protection for non-arrival of goods but not so great for claiming after sometime of ownership. Now that ebay has their own payment system I'm not really using paypal at all now.
 
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