Ken - As suggested many times. Read, read, read. Not all batteries by the same brand are imported. Many are slowly or have been shifting production to China. Also, the word "for" is most often erroneously used in translations when it should be the word "from".
Does one know what is and what isn't? Not always and that is why we try and deal reputable sellers. The reference above was that a good number of your posts refer to counterfeit products - again things that could have been avoided if you did some homework first.
Simon is liked and trusted around here and if you are looking for other Ali sellers you should be asking for references from the more experienced people here instead of looking for grammar as a clue for honesty and dishonesty. FYI - there is actually a post on BLF that depicts trusted and recommended sellers. It would be worth searching for :)
Ebay is not ONE store, it’s thousands of sellers. When a seller has 100 - 1000 - hundred thousand sales, and almost 100% happy customers, I can’t see why I should not trust them?
The seller with the, maybe fake Eneloops, is a new seller, still over 70 sales and 100% happy customers. He had a good price, I did order some Pro AAA batteries first, they was good, all checked out. I then ordered the 8 pcs in question, no reason to believe he is selling fakes.
I still buy stuff from Gearbest.com yes, why not? They have fixed all issues I have had with them, and I have seen they have fixed issues others have had with them also. I buy from BangGood also.
But back to Ebay, 330.000 sales and 99.7% happy customers…the changes is good that they are selling legit stuff.
The sellers in Japan is more like, one guy, going to the store, buy some batteries, and sell them on Ebay for a profit. But since they are in Japan, it’s unlikely they will fake Eneloops, when they can buy the real deal most likely cheaper then fakes ones. The two other sellers has over 4000 sales and over 1000 sales, and 99.7, and 99.6% happy customers. Why should I not trust them?
But it’s a free world (for most of us) so believe what you want. My goal is always to buy real stuff, so I don’t need to use lots of time on the buy after. (Like with thees 8 pcs of Eneloops, hours of testing, using time here to write, reply, run more tests etc, then maybe contact the seller, see if we can make a deal, if not open a case etc etc. It is not fun).
And since you only have purchased fake product ONCE in your lifetime (it what you are saying, get burned once, never more) you must have a good list of good sellers of all kind of products. Why not share it?
When I first sign up on this forum, one of my first thread was a thread there I asked for name on honest sellers on Alibaba. No replies. I do believe there is honest sellers on Alibaba also. I have also asked for names of other good stores/sellers here on this forum, in different threads, but I have no long lists of stores/sellers beside they I use. (some names I can’t use since I live in Norway, so if they don’t send to Norway, or if the shipping is extremely high, I can’t buy there, thats that)
But back to you with your large list of only honest sellers. Name me some stores/sellers that sells batteries, flashlights, power banks and other stuff.
Finding a trusted seller is definitely the best way to go with Chinese merchants. Otherwise it’s just like playing the lottery. You may get lucky… or you may just be throwing your money away. Fasttech has been decent and does better than most at weeding out fakes and is pretty good about having accurate lumen ratings though I haven’t ordered from them in a year or so. Shipping times were a mixed bag. Banggood has been okay but shipping times are typically too long, usually over a month except the items that ship from the US warehouse but they charge more than the same item coming from their China warehouse which I don’t care for. I also had an order of quadcopter parts that didn’t fit and they wanted pictures or a video and I just don’t have time for that garbage. For a $5 part I’m not going to spend an hour proving that you shipped me the wrong stuff. My time is worth more than that. DX just takes ridiculously long to ship and fakes are not uncommon so I stopped buying fro them years ago. The only one I’ve never had a problem with is Simon. Communicating the details of the order might take a day or two if I’m not online at midnight but he always gets it right and shipping is way faster than the others. He’s always given me free ePacket shipping (you just have to ask) which has always had my flashlights at my door in Michigan in about 15 days. I think the longest was 17 days. Like others have suggested “For” is probably just a translation issue but I sent Simon a message asking him to clarify. I’ll post his response here.
I have dealt with a few overseas sales from merchants with 100k plus sales and great reviews. I have been asked by them when I complained about a product if I would keep it, take a refund and write a great review… Will not do that to pad their stats. Oh, the refund would come after the great review!
Just to inform you…my Eneloops in questions was not fake. Running a refresh on the batteries, gives me around 800mAh per battery now. And the second package gives numbers from 700 - 740, so just like the other normal white Eneloop AAA batteries I have (thats not fake).
Sure the other batteries also will hit 800mAh after I run a refresh on them also.
Okay I just got the reply from Simon. As I assumed, every battery in his store is genuine. No clones. No fakes. Shipping will be slow because of all the new regulations on lithium cells but all here probably know that by now. Every battery he sells is the real deal. Oh the “For” thing is because they are not legally allowed to use the brand names. If they just list it as a Sony or Samsung or LG they can be sued for trademark infringement.
I can see why you would think so but you must not know Simon. I would think so too except that Simon told me so himself. The details may be different than his English skills allow him to properly elaborate on but he told me the batteries he sells are all original. No fakes. I’ve only bought flashlights from him. Lots and lots of flashlights. I’m sure there are others here who’ve bought batteries from him that could chime in but . I’ve never heard of him selling anything fake. If any other Chinese seller told me they were real I would still be skeptical. Simon isn’t just any Chinese seller. He doesn’t’ even lie about lumens! Just make sure you are buying from his Aliexpress store and not some other Ali seller. Anything from Ali outside his store and you’re right back to the lottery. His store is http://www.aliexpress.com/store/330416 There may be other honest sellers there but I don’t know them… and I don’t like gambling.
Thanks for your help, but could you now Please Delete your post?
I cleaned my cookies as you said and all was well - Just to see I clicked on the ru link that I had given, and now have the same problem again - So I have to clean the cookies again.
Never, ever, click on an obfuscated link (or any link where you can’t see what it’s going to connect to).
Look at the bottom of the window if you’re using Firefox.
Copy and paste into a text file if nothing else — see where it’s going.
Poking at this there are a whole lot of variations out there: ru.ali… ru-ali …
Some may be affiliate-link tricks that route your order through them so they get a payment each time you buy something.
Some are spoof fake sites. I’m not going to mess with it further. BE CAREFUL. It’s not paranoia. The Internet is a mine field these days.
Grade A: Batteries perform to manufacturer specifications.
Grade B: Batteries under-perform or have other defects.
Grade C: Batteries are used, repackaged, salvaged, or damaged.
Manufacturers bin their batteries. The A bin is reserved and difficult to obtain. Battery Bro only cells Grade A cells. Many online suppliers, especially those in China, sell Grade B cells or lower and do not tell their customers….
————end quote———
PS — wow. I’m going to start a new thread about this site.
EDIT: here it is, with credit given to folks in this thread:
Shipping will be slow because of all the new regulations on lithium cells but all here probably know that by now. Every battery he sells is the real deal. Oh the “For” thing is because they are not legally allowed to use the brand names. If they just list it as a Sony or Samsung or LG they can be sued for trademark infringement.
