Lipo fraud from China?

[kaszal]

I've used several reliable far east suppliers before (e.g. rcstation, stellamodels, velrip) but I got these cells from a different seller and suspect they are counterfeit :thumbdown:

1. The labels are blue instead of red and a different style to the photo.

2. The labels look badly printed, cut out and stuck on (see photos)

3. ROAR approved sticker is missing.

4. The cells weigh 22.5g LESS than advertised!

The one on the left is one of my current cells and the one on the right is from the new supplier. I know buying abroad is a risk but I contacted the seller beforehand and everyone is entitled to get the genuine item they are buying. I won't name them yet because I'm still waiting their reply.

Has this happened to you? Have I been done or is this just normal manufacturing variances? Any helpful comments welcome :)

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m134/kaszal/Picture1.jpg

[kaszal]

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m134/kaszal/IMG_1581.jpg

[break down sam]

how much did you buy them for?

[bodgit]

I would not be too keen to charge those in the house. I also noticed the diamonds on the left hand packs seem more square than the diamonds on the right hand set. As for the five year old who cut out the label .
Treat that set with extreme care.

[kaszal]

Intellect 7.4v 3800mAh 35C Li-Po £23 plus shipping

I imagined it was possible to offer older spec. cells at that price e.g. to clear old stock to make way for the new mega capacity 60C cells :eh?:

[kaszal]

I would not be too keen to charge those in the house. I also noticed the diamonds on the left hand packs seem more square than the diamonds on the right hand set. As for the five year old who cut out the label .
Treat that set with extreme care.

OK, best not to mess around with Lipo.

Will let you know what they say!!

[Big G]

1 is 50c and 1 35 or 25c too :D

Orion quote
UP TO 90C DISCHARGE RATE THANKS TO NEW BATTERY SEPARATOR TECHNOLOGY.

Perhaps the difference in weight is related to the C rating?

[Nas]

I just stopped buying from abroad i bought a battery pack for £23.00 from hobbyking and got a customs charge of £19.00!!! really ....... off.

[kaszal]

1 is 50c and 1 35 or 25c too :D

Orion quote

Perhaps the difference in weight is related to the C rating?

No, the one on the left is mine from RC station or Stella I think. The one on the left is the new one 35C.

90C wow! Are those like £100?

[mattybucks]

Yes the orion 90'c are expensive, but the all top quality lipos are. The SMC 60c Saddle Packs retail at £79.99 but you can tell the difference.

[sosidge]

They look dodgy to me. Intellect always produce a very professional pack with the correct markings on it. You should contact Intellect directly about it.

It's ironic that Chinese industry not only counterfeits Western products - it also counterfeits its own products. Brands like Hobbywing and Intellect have been developing world-class stuff, and now eBay is littered with fakes.

[SlowOne]

They look dodgy to me. Intellect always produce a very professional pack with the correct markings on it. You should contact Intellect directly about it.

It's ironic that Chinese industry not only counterfeits Western products - it also counterfeits its own products. Brands like Hobbywing and Intellect have been developing world-class stuff, and now eBay is littered with fakes.+1 We all need to be very careful when it comes to buying from eBay and other sites where there is no direct clue to the provenance of the seller.

Please also remember that if you import something directly from outside the EU, you are deemed to be the importer. If anything goes wrong, and there is a claim on insurance, the insurance company will come back to you as the importer to demand redress. This was the subject of an alert from the BRCA concerning an actual case where this was decided. Please don't argue with this on here and spoil this thread - it's a fact and any opinion you have will not change the Law!

I believe that if you bought it from eBay you can put a complaint on them - others have reported doing so on other forums. Hobbywing report that they spend quite a bit of time getting the fake sellers taken off eBay, so if the cell turns out to be a fake and that was your source, you might get something back. I'm more concerned that I get what I think I ordered, and because this is so rife now, these days I only order from the EU official importers anything that is made in China - speedos, motors, car kits and cells mainly. HTH :)

[kaszal]

Thank you for your comments.

I've emailed eBay and also the manufacturer.

I've been stung... ouch :o

[superdez]

I've used several reliable far east suppliers before (e.g. rcstation, stellamodels, velrip) but I got these cells from a different seller and suspect they are counterfeit :thumbdown:

1. The labels are blue instead of red and a different style to the photo.

2. The labels look badly printed, cut out and stuck on (see photos)

3. ROAR approved sticker is missing.

4. The cells weigh 22.5g LESS than advertised!

The one on the left is one of my current cells and the one on the right is from the new supplier. I know buying abroad is a risk but I contacted the seller beforehand and everyone is entitled to get the genuine item they are buying. I won't name them yet because I'm still waiting their reply.

Has this happened to you? Have I been done or is this just normal manufacturing variances? Any helpful comments welcome :)

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m134/kaszal/Picture1.jpg

Having some authority on matters of counterfeit products from china, I would suggest that the cells are indeed counterfeit. You should be able to get a refund from paypal. To support your case you should email the pictures of the cells to intellect and have them confirm that they are indeed counterfeit. As one poster suggests do not in any circumstances attempt to charge the cells.

Edit to add

The level of Chinese counterfeiting can have huge variation in quality. The cells pictured are some of the least sophisticated counterfeiting I have seen in a long time

[kaszal]

Reply from eBay seller battery_international...

"Yes I got several inquiries about it as they are genuine intellect as we take the goods from official distributor and if you are wondering I can give you their emails so you can make sure it is 100% real. thanks"

They gave me a contact email for the distibutor "tqrc"

I've forwarded this to Intellect (info@ip-battery.com)

Edit: this is the item 400226941158

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intellect-7-4v-3800mAh-35C-Li-Po-inboard-battery-pack-/400226941158?pt=Radio_Control_Vehicles&hash=item5d2f6278e6

[kaszal]

Apparently they are geuine :o

I got a reply from IP-battery...

Thanks for your email, and your support of our batteries.
The battery you has bought is a genuine one.
Just that we are changing our whole line of product to new packaging design,
you would find it not matching with webpage information.
Please feel relax, if you refer to the attached photo for the appearance of our 2011 racing battery.
Thanks again for your purchase of our batteries.


So everyone, please feel relax :lol:

[mattbrown]

Apparently they are geuine :o

I got a reply from IP-battery...

Thanks for your email, and your support of our batteries.
The battery you has bought is a genuine one.
Just that we are changing our whole line of product to new packaging design,
you would find it not matching with webpage information.
Please feel relax, if you refer to the attached photo for the appearance of our 2011 racing battery.
Thanks again for your purchase of our batteries.


So everyone, please feel relax :lol:


Sure its not a fake email account sending you that?

Just to be safe!:lol:

[Welshy40]

Personally I would advise not charging this unless its in a lipo sack charging case as these batteries do have tendancy to get biggger quickly.

I'd advise paying the correct amount form a good supplier like DMS in the future so you know that what your buying is a good product.

[kaszal]

Sure its not a fake email account sending you that?

Just to be safe!:lol:

It's from this one info@ip-battery.com (info@ip-battery.com) on their website here...

http://www.ip-battery.com/econtact.php?action=contact&act=contact

Phew!

[sosidge]

I think they may have got the wrong end of the stick...

This reads as if they thought you were worried about the label being blue instead of red. When really you were worried about the amateurish label and incorrect weight.

Apparently they are geuine :o

I got a reply from IP-battery...

Thanks for your email, and your support of our batteries.
The battery you has bought is a genuine one.
Just that we are changing our whole line of product to new packaging design,
you would find it not matching with webpage information.
Please feel relax, if you refer to the attached photo for the appearance of our 2011 racing battery.
Thanks again for your purchase of our batteries.


So everyone, please feel relax :lol:

[kaszal]

Yes, I thought that too so I emailed back asking about those two points.

Seems even good manufacturers slip up from time to time.

[SlowOne]

It is also possible that this is a genuine IB product trying to gain sales off the back of their BRCA/EFRA approval. What makes me suspicious is the weight. the main cost of the cell will be the battery that goes in it, so doing something different with the case and label is not a cost issue. It would be much cheaper to make a cell with a lower performance, and to differentiate that by changing the label, so they know which is which. Send the good stuff to your distributor, make more profit by selling other stuff direct.

Have you considered asking Paul Worsley? I am not sure he would answer (he would spend all his time on e-mail questions at the rate this kind of scam is increasing!) but it might be worth a try. HTH :)

[Garry]

There are some cheap NiMH stickpacks available through eBay from China and Hong Kong, which claim they are 3000mah on the label. However, open up the pack and the cells are printed with 1700mah NiCD on them.

I'd always be wary of imported LiPo packs having some similar issue - as overloading a cell (like running it in a car you thought was fine, but puts it right on the limits) makes it pretty likely to fail.

[kaszal]

Had several replies back and both the supplier AND the manufacturer are being evasive about the poor labels and lower weight issues.

Time to get a refund?

[wheelspin]

Go for the refund. They sound well to dodgy too risk charging or putting in car. A label does not reduce the wieght by as much as you have noticed.
Also try to contact other buyers from his feedback who left feedback for the same item see if they have issues.

[kaszal]

Got the refund but had to pay £8 to send it back to HK!

Surprisingly, still no satisfactory reply from the manufacturer IP.

The distributor won't acknowledge why I would reject these batteries (right) so battery_international gets a thumbs down.

Lesson learned. I'll use use a good UK model shop in future.

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m134/kaszal/Picture1.jpg

[luniemiester]

I ordered some Intellect 45C 5200 saddles from them before i read this thread, mine arrived a couple of weeks ago and they are the genuine ones, can't understand why they would sell both proper ones and fakes?

[kaszal]

Yep, for a company like IP it doesn't make sense to produce amateur batteries. I don't believe they investigated it properly.

[kaszal]

Now I appreciate why it's better to buy from a reputable UK model shop...

This is the eBay feedback I left "20g underweight, poorly produced label, refunded but cost £8 to post back to HK"

...and here is the message battery_international just sent me "what to do with the negative feedback, i dont make the intellect ok"

What a joke.

[Mouton]

You start off by writing that you have previously bought from RC Station, Stella and Velrip etc and that this is the first time you have encountered a problem. Because of that, you will only by from UK sellers in the future.

Question, how to this make RC STation, Stella and Velrip less reliable?

[kaszal]

Parts are no problem but I think it's better to buy expensive, high risk items like electronics and batteries from a local distributor.

[jamie 6.5t]

hi hope it still works it makes me so cross that some people think that they can and do get away with things like this especially when its a major component in an RC car :o

[kaszal]

No, I sent it back. I didn't want to charge it, let alone race it at a club.

Anyone looking at the rubbish label might assume it was fake.

[SlowOne]

Well done for being so persistent and getting (most of) your money back. These sellers rely on most people not doing that, just shrugging their shoulders and writing it off to experience.

I am not surprised at the manufacturer's reaction. The Chinese copy things routinely, it's a major problem for everyone. It is possible that those cells contain an IP-made cell, so they are not keen to stop the sales, or to admit that they have supplied to someone making a 'false' case and label.

Buying things made in China through accredited EU distributors is very different to buying from China. We can't really avoid the first one, but we should steer clear of the second one every time!

Thanks for coming back and telling the story, very interesting.

[kaszal]

2011 BRCA list and item description on eBay below...

(IP and battery_international are very naughty)

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m134/kaszal/2011BRCALipolistp12.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m134/kaszal/IntellectLipoboughtoffeBay.jpg