ComplaintsforThe Battery Center, INC.

• Initial Complaint

  09/27/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Date of order: April 27,2023 *********** is Battery Center **** Their website is ***********************************. They also operate under the name Battery Guy using the site batteryguy.com. I ordered through Battery Guy, but the branding of the batteries and the return shipping address was Battery Center.I bought three Power Sonic batteries, and seven of the Battery Guy (actually Battery Center) brand. The Power Sonic batteries tested fine. All the Battery Center branded batteries arrived nearly completely discharged. Based on date codes and some testing, they appear to have been in storage for about 17 months without any charging. The typical shelf life for these is 6 months without maintenance charging. The capacity of the batteries that I got was about 3/4 of the rated capacity. I returned all of the Battery Center batteries. They refunded my money but denied any wrong doing. But I am stuck paying for the shipping both ways, which is over $50. Most people do not check the capacity of batteries, so I know they can sell my expired returned batteries to the next victim with no money lost to them.Also, batteryguy.com has a product called "Power-Sonic PS-***** F2 | Rechargeable SLA Battery 12v 18Ah" where they have linked the technical specification sheet for the PS-*****S version of the battery, which is a premium long life version that has been discontinued by Power Sonic. So I know they can't be selling it. I told them about this on the phone and they said they would fix it but they didn't.It would be nice to have the shipping cost refunded. It is batteryguy.com order #******. They refunded me $124.21 out of the $211.83 that I paid, since I kept three Power Sonic batteries priced at $25,25, $6.50, and $6.50, and they didn't refund any shipping charges. I had to buy a Priority Mail large flat rate box to return them.

  Business response

  10/05/2023

  Battery Center, DBA Battery Guy is one company but we do operate as two separate divisions under the main company, Battery Center .  To clarify further, Battery Center is specifically for wholesale and industrial distribution customers, while Battery Guy is for website retail customers and all orders are placed online.
  This customer placed an order through ******************** Guy for several sealed lead acid batteries, including Power Sonic brand and also our Battery Center brand, which are manufactured and labeled specifically for us. These batteries come from overseas and due to the shipping supply chain issues over the past couple of years, many of these batteries were in transit on the ocean for several months.  So although ordered in 2021, they were not received here until 2022.  We charge all of our batteries when received in if they have been in transit for lengthy periods of time. We also rotate our stock and top charge our inventory every six months.  Uncharged batteries discharge at a rate of 2-5% per month so the batteries received by customer were at of the rated capacity as customer claimed, then the batteries had been charged less than six months ago. 
  When we received these batteries back from the customer,each one was voltage and load tested.  Although not at 100% capacity initially, all seven batteries were able to be charged to capacity over 24 hours.  This is typical industry standard.  Sealed lead acid is frequently shipped with partial charge as the equipment that they are used in (ie. backup systems, security systems) typically trickle charges the batteries to capacity.  We informed the customer of our findings, but we still refunded in full for those batteries.    Since the customer kept the other batteries from this order (the Power Sonic brand), we did not refund shipping at that time, nor did the customer ask for a refund for shipping. 
  
  We would like to state that we are celebrating 30 years of being in business, and we did not get here by scamming or cheating our customers, or selling defective products.  That is why we have so many five star reviews.  We value our customers and try  our best to always provide the best customer service.  We are happy to refund this customer the shipping charge that he feels that he was owed of $50.00.     We have sent the payment through our financial system today to the customer (via his email).
  
  Lastly, our technical specification pages were added when our website was built over ten years ago.  We did not realize that the PS-12180S spec sheet was linked to the standard PS-12180F2 listing and we do appreciate the customer informing us of that. We are having that information updated.
  
  

  Customer response

  10/09/2023

   
  Complaint: 20657182
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  Although I believe the refund of $50 is fair, the justification for what happened is a lie. That shouldn't go on record as it is. You can't be in business selling lead acid batteries for 30 years and not know what sulfation is. Sealed lead acid batteries have a typical shelf life of 6 months without maintenace charging give or take depending on the storage temperature, after that, permanent loss of capacity results due to sulfation to the point where the capacity is now less than the battery's rated capacity. The batteries I got were near 1/4 state of charge, which is about right for a year and a half of storage without any charging. So a 9 Amp hour @20hr rate (AH) battery had about 2 AH of charge left in it. After charging, it had 6.3AH@10hr of capacity instead of the specified 8.5AH @10hr rate. That is 3/4 of what it's supposed to be. In case you don't know batteries and are confused, lead acid batteries have less capacity when discharged at a faster rate, and I used the 10 hour rate for testing.

   

  Of course they charged up normally. But they only charged up to 3/4 of the rated capacity. The batteries were stuck in transit for months during the pandemic and began to sulfate. I understand what happened. Now the capacities no longer meet the specification except be honest about it and put them on sale. Also, that wrong datasheet is still linked on the site despite me mentioning it months ago.

  
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************************

  Business response

  10/30/2023

  We have already provided two refunds back to you:

  Refund for returned batteries ($124.21) was issued on 06/2/23

  Refund for shipping ($50.00) was issued on 10/05/23

  Although we do appreciate your customer feedback, we respectfully disagree with your statement.  Our company takes pride in providing top-quality products and ensuring customer satisfaction.

  If you feel that we have not been fair in our dealings with you, please us know what more we can do and we will be glad to address.   Your original request was for a "refund" and we have completed that request.

  We consider this complaint now handled and closed.

  Battery Guy 

  Customer response

  10/30/2023

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and the business did resolve my request by issuing a refund for the shipping cost for the expired batteries. However the hours of time spent testing batteries and dealing with the situation involving non conforming goods was significant as well.
  
  *******************************

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