Post
by BestCPAPprice » Fri Aug 16, 2013 8:55 am
Hello,
I work for BestCPAPprice, and I want to take this opportunity to present our position on this issue and to affirm that the batteries that we sell are in fact Lithium Ion Polymer technology and not NMH as the original poster (for privacy reasons, I will refer to him as "Mr. S") is claiming. We have been selling these batteries since 2010, and have hundreds of them in the field. They have had a very good service rate or we would not be carrying them. In addition, we offer a full one-year warranty on our batteries, versus six months for some that are sold by others. Mr. S is referring to the fact that the case on his battery has the words "Portable Power Station" instead of "Super CPAP Battery Pack" like some of the earlier versions had on the case. I can assure everyone that these are the exact same batteries that we have been selling all along. The manufacturer has used several different iterations of wording on the case through the years, but this is the very first complaint we have had about what was written on the case not being the same as what is shown in the picture, or that the battery was heavier than the weight listed online. The fact remains that it is still a 12V LI Polymer battery with a reserve capacity rating of 266 w-hrs. We have had many very favorable reviews from CPAP users who were surprised at the long run times they were getting with their machines. Mr. S never complained about any performance issues with his battery, just that the wording on the case was different and that the battery he received was slightly heavier than what was listed.
Mr. S ordered this battery from us on July 11, and it was shipped the next day. On July 20 we received an email from the customer saying that we had sent him a "used / like new" battery. He wanted a second battery shipped immediately, with a UPS return shipping label. We promptly responded with the following email:
"I am sorry for your concerns.
I can assure you that all of the batteries that we sell are brand new. They come to us directly from the manufacturer overseas, five batteries to a carton, with no additional packaging aside from the travel case. We do take care to wrap them in bubble wrap and a sturdy carton to assure that they will arrive safely, but we do not package them in any type of fancy packaging. This allows us to pass on the cost savings to our customers. You will find that competitors are pricing similar batteries for $400 or more, and only giving a six-month warranty.
If you want to send us some photographs showing the areas that you are concerned with, we would be happy to evaluate them. Aside from that, we cannot send a second battery until we get the original one back from you. You can send it back to us through our product returns address, which I will provide below. If we find that you were somehow shipped a used battery, then we will refund your shipping and send another battery immediately."
We received no follow up from Mr. S until July 28, at which point he had changed his tune to say that we were selling a battery from a "copycat company". =>
"I'd like to return this. Something about it is not right. The specs for the battery say that it should weigh 2kg which is 4.4lbs. This unit weights 5.4lbs which makes me think that it is actually Nickel Metal Hydride and not Lithium or you are getting your batteries from a copycat company in China. In fact the unit doesn't say lithium anywhere.
Not happy."
We responded with the following:
"I can assure you that the batteries that we sell are Lithium Ion, and are not from a "copycat company in China". FYI, you will find that almost all of these batteries are constructed and assembled overseas. The specs that you are viewing were actually from the 222-w-hr batteries that we previously carried. Those had a lower LI content, so they weighed less. Thank you for bringing that to our attention - we will update the specs to reflect a more accurate weight.
These batteries typically hold a full charge for months at a time. Nickel Metal Hydride, while sometimes having similar reserve capacity to a LI cell, typically lose their charge much more rapidly while not in use.
If it has not been used, you can certainly send the battery back to us for a refund minus a 15% restocking fee per our Return Policy."
We were then answered by an email threatening to disparage our product on the online CPAP forums, and calling the restocking fee "exhorbitant",
"How about I go online to cpap forums and explain your justification of a exhorbitant %15 restock fee? You pictured a battery that says Super CPAP Battery and then Li-ion but mine shows no Li-ion on the battery. BTW Li-ion batteries weigh less than NMH.."
...to which we replied"
"Have you used the battery and found that it does not perform up to standards, or are you basing your assumptions purely on the fact that it does not say Lithium Ion on the case?
The photograph on the listing was taken when we first began offering the batteries from Owell. There have been several iterations of the verbiage on the battery cases over the years, with some saying "Super CPAP Battery", some saying "Super Portable Power Station", and others saying "Portable Power Supply". FWIW, we could pay extra to have whatever we want etched onto the battery case - even our logo could be placed there - but we would have to pass that cost on to our customers, and we do not think most customers are interested in paying extra for our advertising.
If you do a Google search on "CPAP" and "Return Policy", you will find that a 15% restocking fee is well within the norm. Some charge more than this. We have to account for the cost of shipping the item to you (since you got free shipping), evaluating it after it has been returned, and returning it to stock. Also, we have had incidents in the past where customers purchased batteries to use for a weekend trip, and then wanted to return them when they were done with them. We are not in the battery rental business. I apologize if this upsets you, but the return policy is clearly stated on our web site."
In reply, we received this little gem from Mr. S:
"You expect me to f____g believe that a manufacturing company is going to skip painting Li-Ion on a battery they are trying to sell?
This is not a lithium battery. The manufacture website says so. You're selling a knockoff.
And I didn't get free shipping, that's figured out in your overhead, you're not doing me any favors here.
Refund me 100 percent!"
I apologize to all of the users of this forum for boring you with the details of our back-and-forth emails, but I feel the necessity to defend our reputation, and since Mr. S decided to bring the emails into the thread, I thought I should give everyone the full picture. We absolutely stand behind every product that we sell, and we do our best to go the extra mile to assure our customers' full satisfaction, but we also cannot sell a product, allow it to be used, and then accept it back as a return after the fact and expect to stay in business very long. Restocking fees are a necessary part of doing business, and in almost all cases we try to work with our customers to avoid them if a product has not been removed from its packaging. This issue becomes even more critical with electronics, and you will see many vendors who will not accept returns on electronics at all.
We feel that we have tried our best to accommodate Mr. S, and we have clearly addressed the restocking fee in our Return Policy and displayed it prominently on our site. Mr. S stated that he thinks we are going over returned products with a "fine toothed comb" in order to "stick it to him", and he is partially right that we do have to carefully inspect any returned product to assure that it has not been used, but this is not so that we can "stick it to the customer". It is because we do not sell used products to our customers, and we have to take the time to make sure items that are going back on the shelf are not used. This inspection process takes time away from our employees that can be better spent helping our customers and shipping their orders. As stated previously, we usually suspend the restocking fee for customers who return products that are obviously unused and unopened, but this gentleman became confrontational and abusive in his emails to us, and we became suspicious that the battery had been used.
Thanks to the moderators of this forum for allowing us the opportunity to present our side of this issue. This is an excellent resource for CPAP users, and we appreciate it as well.
