Ebay member "hopmeup"

[JThiessen]

They were 49.95 for a 6.6V/4600 2S2P pack, plus only 7 bucks for shipping. Very cheap.

Yes, I looked at theirs. 16.50 per cell, without tabs. My LHS has a couple for 19 with tabs - and I'd almost rather do business locally. This is the second time I've been burned (by poor customer service) purchasing batteries online.

[sikeston34m]

Originally Posted by JThiessen

They were 49.95 for a 6.6V/4600 2S2P pack, plus only 7 bucks for shipping. Very cheap.

Ok, let me make some speculations here as to what happened. I was building/selling home made A123 packs on Ebay for awhile in the beginning. I robbed these cells from the original round of 36 volt Dewalt tool packs.

Even built and used a few myself. They performed well and sold well too since I was able to undercut most people on price. (including hopmeup)

Hopmeup had the 6.6v 4600 mah packs set at the suggested retail of $119.95 I believe it was. They were NOT moving any. I watched them for ages as long as I was selling them. That's what I do when I'm working with a product. It pays to know what the competition is doing.

Well, a LONG period of time went by. I stopped selling the custom packs when the price of the Dewalt Packs went up alot. It became hard to compete pricewise.

I would still check in on hopmeup from time to time. They began to drop their price, but they still weren't moving any product.

A couple of months ago, Lincpimp was looking for A123 packs. So I decided to sell him the packs that I had on hand. They only had a few cycles on each, but had set on the shelf for a few months. I made a deal with him and he wanted them.

Before I shipped them, I decided to check their status with a volt meter. They were Dead! 9 out of 10 cells were bad. I don't know what happened! What happened to the ever tough, never dying A123 cell?

In my Opinion, what you purchased was Hopmeup's OLD original stock that they couldn't move at $119.95 a pack. Agewise, If I were to take a guess, I would guess they are about 2 years old.

[sikeston34m]

If you want to verify the age. Open a pack and look at the date that is burned into the outside of the cell casing.

The date is right under the A123 logo, and it will look like it was done with a wood burner.

The original batch will say:
A123
FS300001-001
FB0610070-7-1$

In the last line, the FB06 is the production date

Feb. 2006!

Check it out.

[JThiessen]

Originally Posted by sikeston34m

If you want to verify the age. Open a pack and look at the date that is burned into the outside of the cell casing.

The date is right under the A123 logo, and it will look like it was done with a wood burner.

The original batch will say:
A123
FS300001-001
FB0610070-7-1$

In the last line, the FB06 is the production date

Feb. 2006!

Check it out.

Yep...FB0606 and FB0608 on the ones I have taken apart.

I hope this is an isolated case. I can understand limited warrantees on batteries, since people tend to kill them. I'm not sure how I feel about blocking for feedback. I guess it's his way of saying, "if you aren't happy with me, shop elsewhere". He wouldn't want to get another neutral or negative feedback against his store. As much as he sells to happy customers, why take that chance ?

I agree. Batteries would be very tough to warranty. I'm upset with the somewhat childish nature of the way he handled it.
My response to his last note was
"Not a chance of revoking my feedback. You need your ratings more than I need your cheap price".