Massive fraud on 18650s in the Littokala Aliexpress stores!

Should I dispute the purchase through AliExpress or through paypal?

No one answer. They're reading these posts too! Shhhh. PM each other. ;)

I got Aliexpress judgement:

  • They agreed with me that the cells are counterfeit
  • They didn’t accept my evidence that IR is higher because they wanted a movie instead of photos
  • They proposed a resolution: full refund
  • They asked both me and seller to accept or reject the proposal

So it’s still open.

Well, I’m done with liitokala. I ordered a 26650 on 1 Jan, and they’ve repeatedly told me that it’s almost here, in spite of the fact that the tracking number was bogus. I finally demanded a refund, and now they’re just shovelling all this crap at me in messages on aliexpress about how they’ve proved to me that I received the package (they haven’t) and we’ve talked on the phone (we haven’t).

This was the Official Store (217753). I’m never ordering anything from any Liitokala store on aliexpress again. I can overlook selling new batteries as 30Qs, even if they don’t look exactly like them, but have pretty similar capacity and max current. That might not even be the store’s fault. But when their customer service (Ashley Zhang) thinks I have no capacity to tell her lies from the truth, I’m done. With the whole brand. When my Lii-500s need replacing, I’m not buying Liitokala chargers.

Buyer beware.

Send Richard 'RMM' (Mountain Electronics) your address. I'll contact him to order one of these for you:

http://www.mtnelectronics.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=59_108&product_id=679

I don't need your info. This one is on me.

Thank you. I appreciate the offer, but I gave up on getting the Liitokala battery months ago and bought one from either mtn or liionwholesale.

I’m less annoyed about losing $6 or a battery than I am about the horrible “customer service”.

They're on my black list too. Thank you for relaying your experience and great to hear you got the batteries you needed!

So I did all this with mine and they all work. They must be a pretty high current cell to run a Q8 on one cell. I’m not feeling quite so bad about it now.

good to hear you got your money back.

so where is everyone getting some good quality batteries that will work in the BLF Q8 or others?

Thanks i’m searching right now for a reputable source for my first purchase.

There's quite a few...Moutain Electronics, is the best!

But Orbtronic was good too.

I'm sure you'll get a number of other suggestions.

Sweet thanks Broodmaster. I will check those out now!

Mountain Electronics

Li Ion Wholesale

IMR Batteries…

are 3 trustworthy sites for US buyers. Fair prices, good communication, and fast processing/shipping.

I’ve had dozens of great transactions over the last year with all 3.

My Battery-Resistance-Voltmeter-Internal-Impedance-Meter-LCD-Rechargeable-SM8124A arrived today and, using it, I took measurements of the six LiitoKala Factory 30Q batteries (Table 1), and six 30Q batteries purchased from Orbtronics (Table 2). The tabulated data indicate two things: (1) The LiitoKala Factory batteries are not 30Qs, and (2) the SM8124A resistance meter (a) provides consistent internal resistance readings that are reasonable, and (b) is a valid tool for comparing batteries.

Table 1 - LiitoKala Factory Store 30Q

Internal Resistance Measurements (mΩ)

Cell Trial One Trial Two Trial Three

Trial Four

Avg

1 27.8 29.0 28.9 29.1 28.5
2 25.5 25.5 25.4 25.4 25.5
3 25.5 25.4 25.5 26.6 25.5
4 27.7 27.8 28.0

28.0

27.9
5 26.3 26.2 26.3 26.2 26.3
6 25.2 25.2 25.2 25.3 25.2

Table 2 - Orbtronics 30Q

Internal Resistance Measurements (mΩ)

Cell Trial One Trial Two Trial Three

Trial Four

Avg

1 11.4 11.4 11.4 11.3 11.4
2 11.4 11.5 11.3 11.4 11.4
3 11.4 11.5 11.4 11.3 11.4
4 11.4 11.4 11.4 11.4 11.4
5 11.7 11.7 11.7 11.9 11.8
6 11.5 11.4 11.4 11.3 11.4

A reading was taken for each battery sequentially in each trial. The SM8124A advertises an accuracy of 0.1 mΩ for this measurement range.

That's interesting! So, how do the forgeries rank among similar capacity cells from Korea and Japan?

Ashley, thanks for the introduction. Should your career as Lii CEO flounder, you certainly could have a second career as a model. I, for one, believe everything I read on the internet.

@Broodmaster, this looks like an LG 3000mAh 10A cell.

So a good cell, but not a very high current cell, such as the 30Q.

So, I would request a refund and linking Active AI’s as the proof to Aliexpress and provide a refund.

Thank you for the comparison! Fortunately, most of my lights are under 8 amps. Although, I have two D4s (Nichia and Cree). For whatever reason, I can't get more than 10A with real 30Qs, VTC5s, 25Rs, 20Rs, so these fakes don't deprive me of much with the current collection. Lol

It's great to have additional ammunition with test data above!

You’re going to avoid the whole brand because you bought from a fake store? This seems a bit extreme…

The real Liito Kala store is 133859, not 217753.

I received mine and they were clearly fake so I filed a dispute through Aliexpress using the positive end of the cell as evidence and describing the lack of serial number. Aliexpress stepped in and agreed with the seller because the seller apparently provided a “authorization file / purchase invoice from the brand owner” (Samsung). What should I do to provide more evidence? Should I remove the wrapper or would that make it worse?