I see what you mean. Thanks for answering.
I have to admit... They make a lot of mistake but sometimes they are really funny... Today i received my answer and they made a HUGE mistake...
They read another case and then they wrote the answer on my case.
They said item (not TF battery) is out od stock and they offer me $120 gift card!!!!!!! 
Obviuosly i'm a honest man so i answer that they made a mistake and i want only batteries or full refund ($9).
Before placing my order I asked for confirmation that future TF Flames orders will be protected, and got a yes. Shipped out 8 Nov and now look what I got.
I've already opened a case.
At least they are Protected in Plastic!
Protected batteries say they are protected on the side. This is a scam. They hope some people don't notice like many of their other items. They have to make their money back they lost on the group buys somehow.
I have only been offered 10usd gift card because the batteries can be used? WTF. I bought these to gift to my friends with lights for xmas. Now I have to give them my xtars and buy more. Why did some get refunds or full gift card amounts and I get offered $10. I bought 3 pairs. Thanks for your help summer- NOT. I feel an agenthex style rant coming
Finally got offered a partial refund. $15 usd. Which I am accepting because I am over dealing with the stupid cs staff. I feel these batteries are worth a $1 each and I imagine thats all DD pays for them. It took many messages over days to get this outcome. That is not good customer service when others got refunded the full price. Mine were also posted after DD became aware of this battery issue.
Hmm...*scratches head*. I wonder how come... Summer helped you right?
I also got a gift card for my Sunwayman V10A, comfortably above the price i paid in fact enough to cover another pair of batteries. The light can't do NiMH at all. All 3 times i have gotten values about 10-20% above the paid price. Buy other cells then....i got 18350s/14500s.
We need a cut-to-the-chase rep., from DD who will be receptive to Summer's strong suggestions.
Too many CS reps. are involved, with service all over the page. Not acceptable!
Just how hard is it to send a memo (highlighted) to each reps. cubie?
Crap can the, "well, how 'bout this, then how 'bout that, then how 'bout 5 dolla gifty, gifty?" Refund, or send the right product, and at least give some common ground service to all the customers who have battery issues!
I haven't received my batteries yet, and I'm pissed-off for everyone else!
It sounded like Summer had this under control, but cannot possibly reign-in all the variables with DD CS.
Good God, DD! Have you no shame? Credibility is at stake here. Care to step-up to home plate, and hit a home run?
Is there any consensus on how DD is supposed to handle this? It seems people are getting handled differently despite the same problem. What is to be accepted if the cells received are unprotected? Full refund? How about protected fakes?
Confused.
As far as I know Summer was not involved in my refund offer (which has yet to be processed).
i also received the fake and unprotected TF flames :-(
How do you know that it is fake? Did a cap test?
not yet, but I plan to do it soon ..
however, are those with short flames, no hologram and without protection circuit
take a look at this picture..
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/4080/fakeddtfflames1.jpg
It's not new. I got 8 of those what you've just mentioned in my hands. 2 of them tested to be just below 2300, and surprisingly the last batch of 6 i got nearly 2500mAH (I tested 2 of them picked randomly).
If they are fakes, then i really wish they'd make more of them. heh...
I've got 8 more coming though.... plus one pair of UF XSL 18350 because of some "excess".
I know it is not new, I just wanted to report it :-)
I am glad to hear that these cells are usable (except that they are not protected and therefore different from what we ordered) and are not just junk :-)
although, as you well know, the capacity measured in the first few cycles does not say everything about the quality of a cell, you've got to test them after some use?
hehe...it'll difficult to use them for even more than 10 cycles in a year....so it'll take a year or 2 to report back how it ages in situ. I've got quite a number of 18650s esp now it's times 2 for these TFs (8 x 2 = 16). It seems strange, but i hate swapping a few cells across a whole collection of lights - screwing/unscrewing is tough. I'm not expecting anywhere near the Panny NCRs though.
Someone bought 20 cells, so that's 20 x 2 = 40 for him.
I just put 3 fresh ones into my fried ray SR3800 in DD and i got nearly 6 amps...What the?! (one day really need to find time and solder the DRY driver in there). Managed 4.9A in the UF P60. All w/o tailcap switch in the circuit as it's just testing, of course.
I understand ;-)
I also do not make a lot of cycles on my batteries, I use pretty much only in the summer .. on my bike.
ordered Nov. 3rd, received protected today. What is the over and under protection set at on these batts?
Dunno...but not very critical as long as it works. Just use a DMM to short it out, it should just spike a bit and read 0.0A very fast. That's the single most impt aspect of PCB protection for usage in budget lights. I have 4 chargers and the cheapest one stop at 4.15-4.18V (slightly under charge). There could be some which overcharge, but once you determine that it won't go above 4.24V even when left in the charger for 6 hrs after after green then you are pretty safe.