Please understand they use the absolutely cheapest shipping service available, maybe even to the point of declaring the contents as “something not li-ion cells”. FastTech only quotes me shipping for cells via two carrier services, “PostNL” airmail or “China Post” (slow) ground shipping, and neither is free so this is the reason those sellers are using hacks for super cheap shipping.
I’ve got almost the same capacity at 2A, but the curve looks quite different. Wondering which cells are really under wrapper. Funny enough voltage curve is higher for the most of the time. Will try to use HKJ data to compare.
PS. The closest match by curve in HKJ comparator was Sanyo NCR18650BF/BL 3350mAh, but not by looking at them. I think I’ll need to unwrapp them.
Got my 30Q and 25R half refunds, but in the 25R case the cell appearances didn't convinced the AliExpress Case Management Team. My photos were very clear and well focused, so fuck with that and them. They bite the bullet because capacity was different, sent them combined photos of my Lii-500 result display shots.
There's some cylindrical li-ion cell crime syndicate out there in china. They're mass rewrapping cells, obviously. Hope they get spanked, preferably soon.
I will be very interested in your findings as i got the same 18650`s from that store and they were all 5 x lobed top, all there capacity’s were above 3200mah.
Roll the dice!
I wonder what cycle life we can expect from all these unknown cells. Main problem here is: do we need to go through all this uncertainty? :-| If we could get the cells in their original OEM wraps at least we would have a nice chance to get a datasheet and we wouldn't feed those criminals.
I received fake 30-Qs and fake VTC5s/VTC6s from both Liitokala stores on Aliexpress. I filed several disputes. Two transactions were PayPal guaranteed and PayPal refunded my purchase.
I had ordered 8 VTC5s in a separate order and didn’t use Paypal. Regarding that order, I was asked to return the products for refund but unfortunately the shipping cost outweighs to purchase so i let it go.
There is that old saying “If it’s too good to be true”….
I learned from it. Aliexpress buyer protection is a joke and Liitokala “official store” sells fakes.
wstrachan, that old saying has nothing to do with truth unless we believe in it (I don't).
Conversely, where I live I learned “the saying of the three Bs”: “Bueno, Bonito y Barato”, which translates into “good, beautiful and cheap” all at the same time. And you can believe I do generally find amazing true deals like paying €1.25 for five USB micro-B to type-C adapters, keychain ready, in multiple colors plus S&H included. :STAR:
AliExpress buyer protection is what it is. The bad sellers are usually uncooperative and you need to provide clear proofs of the problem and be in the know of the corresponding dispute procedure intricacies, all of which takes time. However, if you let them go with the loot for free I believe you're only giving them further reasons to continue with their shitty behaviour.
I have a question: is it easy to recover your money via PayPal claim? This could be really interesting to get cells for free and bust their scoundrelly tactics.
I got a pp refund… I explained, without much scotch, the situation…
Pp refunded me but said they weren’t penalizing the seller. So yeah,I got some free unknown batteries… But the seller felt no reprecussions
I think its best to go for a 50% refund if you put in a Aliexpress claim for fake battery’s, it doesn’t leave you open to the old “return it and we will refund” argument.
good question, these fake Panasonic NCR18650B i got (4) all come in at over 3200mah with highest 3350mah, i originally thought maybe sanyo but they have 3 loped tops and the fakes have 5, curious.
Something's very wrong there. I understand PayPal adds up a small fee to the price but, if they are refunding crooked orders without recouping the money from these AliExpress' criminals, sellers and their endorsing AliExpress Case Management Team colleagues included, this may not last long and I wish so.
I did get to keep the two orders of batteries when filing the claim on paypal though I don’t really know what they are or if they are safe or not. The rub is, just as others posted, the seller was not penalized whatsoever.
I have made claims through aliexpress before and seldom was my proof accepted even though clear pictures and video was provided.
There are bad sellers everywhere, especially when batteries are concerned but I did not expect a “Liitokala official store” to be a BS seller.
I would very much like to get these aliexpress sellers in trouble.
wstrachan, I'm pretty sure the batteries are safe to use and of decent quality. They come from inland known (chinese or whatever) cell OEMs, I believe. Like Shenzen Yongdeli (Yodeli) and Chang Jiang FST (can someone find CJ FST's official website? Thanks). Look at some Chang Jiang FST cells (penta lobe tops found!):
Seen some 3350mAh specced cells from them, too.
Of course pretty sure cells from these OEMs are a lot cheaper. This doesn't gives them the right to pass them as what they're not.
Will try to ask HKJ if he can check my data against his. If Barkuti is right with those chinese sources, HKJ will have a lot of work to do to test them.
Hello, unfortunately I got fake cells from liitokala Official Store (217753), ordered 30 25R’s (M variant) in 08/07/18 and received them 07/08/18.
First sight I knew something was wrong, the shrink wrap had the famous lines and upon closer inspection the top is 3 lobed but with wider lobes.
Weighted two of them with a ‘’precision scale’’, 46.7g and 47.3g :person_facepalming:
I charged two of them and discharged in the EBC-A10, confirmed they are fake cells, first one gave 2631mAh (8,42Wh), the second gave 2681mAh (8,52Wh) both at 10A discharge, the cells got really hot, measured between 60~70ºc with a infrared thermometer (20ºc Ambient).
Proceed with opening dispute, demanded full refund and uploaded some evidence.
Discharge test.
First and last time buying batteries on AliExpress it’s just no worth the hassle…
I can hear you VictorW. Hope you can manage to achieve something better than me, but that will depend on your chosen beliefs.
I was going to be polite but while writing this up someone rang the bell and when I returned, all my post was gone. So bear with me.
I filed a “product not as described” dispute and requested half refund.
Since I had two brand new genuine Samsung 25R cells I submitted comparative Lii-500 capacity tests plus top and body photos, now filed in the product feedback. See them below. Please note there's no need to send feedback by the time you receive a product, please don't do this unless you are able to properly know if the product is right, you have like a month of available time to submit feedback (and properly spank their asses if required).
The AliExpress Case Management Team motherfuckers ridiculously did not accepted my “appearance not as described” claim, obviously they need coke-bottle glasses (and mind reprogramming). They did accepted “capacity not as described”, though.
My particular above experiences were influenced by spirits. Lesson learned. But please, don't go with the can't be arsed to open dispute or whatever negative thoughts, if it happened to you is because you attracted it, so defend your nuts! :-D Could the allies have won WW2 with such kind of pessimistic thinking?
I know mortuus, but here in Brazil there is no legit supplier of 18650. One 25R is 11usd and gearbest and so on don’t ship here, I tried AliExpress… Well you live and you learn.
I’m dragging this dispute until I can or until the mindless robots at Ali support shut me down
here.
