Ebay member "hopmeup"

[JThiessen]

Ok, this is going to be one of those "rant" threads. Over the last couple months, I purchased a total of 6 A123 battery packs on Ebay from "hopmeup". I had some issues with 3 of the packs, in that cells completely lost voltage after the first run. I did not measure the voltage of the packs when I recieved them (error!), and I did not overly concern myself with running them too low, as all the rage was about how tuff these were. I did not run them completely dead - I just treated them the same way I ran all of my Nimh's. My first run(s) with them were fantastic. They ran at what seemed like 100% for about 20 minutes, until all of a sudden, there was only 20%. I then drove the truck the 150 ft back to my "pit" and removed the batteries. I may have been the reason the cells went bad - but I dont know for certain, so I emailed them asking about warranty, just to see what my possibilties were.

The first response was "Hi, We will only replace these if they arrive with the voltage to low. Once you charge the pack, there is no further warranty."

I responded to that note with" What exact voltage is too low for a 2S2P pack, and how does one tell by measuring voltage if one cell in a series/parrallel pack is bad". I also went on to explain that I was not after a warranty replacement since I had in fact charged the packs, and had actually taken one apart and fixed it. I just wanted help figuring our why the packs were bad, and possibly a price break on purchasing a new one.
5 days went by with no response, so I left them neutral feedback on the last pack I bought - I gave thier shipping/delivery/etc high ratings, but low on the communication. In the explanation, I stated that I was only unhappy with the packs and the way they handled it.

So, its getting to be crunch time for me to get my stuff ready for the upcoming three day weekend, so I figured I'd just bite the bullet and order one more pack from them. But, I found that they had blocked me from buying from them! An email to them for an explanation as to why and their response "Hi, You were blocked for feedback. You can have it removed by eBay if you tell them you made it in error. When that is complete, you can contact us and we will remove the block. Dan"

This REALLY torqued me off. I did not leave them BAD feedback, just not positive. Their customer service really stinks, and they can/will hold me somewhat hostage just for being honest.

Another thing that makes me wonder, is that it looks like they burry negative/neutral feedback. IF you page through their feedback, they appear to have several hundred sales a day of RC parts. With all the competition out there, I highly doubt they sell that many parrts.

I went ahead and filed a dispute with them, just because of their lame duck approach to this. We'll see if Ebay even takes it serious.

Ok, I'm done ranting now!