Advice needed- where do i stand? , 52v battery problem.

[FIFO71]

Post removed.

 

[Deleted member 33385]

Hi all, I just thought I'd ask you knowledgeable guys on here for your advice in case this temporary fix doesn't last.
Heres the story so far:
I purchased a 52v 1500-2000w conversion kit ( as seen on YouTube, build an ebike in an hour) last May/ June during lockdown and converted my hardtsil mountain bike.
It was my first attempt but to be fair it went welland I took my time double checking everything as I went along.
Before I knew it the bike was ready to ride and 1st impressions were excellent but within a week or 2 I started to notice that when I switched the on/ off switch on the battery on then pressed the power switch on the handlebars on the lid screen lit up then went off again,turning the battery switch on and off a few times seemed to remedy this issue so I lived with it and enjoyed the bike when I got time to ride it.
Fast forward 6 months ( only done 246 miles in about 10 rides in that time) and it is taking about 10 to 15 on and offs now to get the screen to stay on then when I went out on it the bike lost power on me and the screen went blank again- no power.
I messaged the vendor and explained the scenario I was encountering and he rang me straight back ( to his credit) and told me it was a faulty on/off switch on the battery and that his contact in China had told him that one of their guys produced a batch of batteries with poor soldering causing the terminals in the switch to tarnish affecting them.
Just my luck I was one of those customers who received one of them, he's advised me to open the case and use electrical contact spray on the switch( he had spoken to the well known YouTuber who told him he had to do this to his and it sorted it out.
I did ask him to ok the fact I would be voiding my warranty by opening the case but he was fine with this so today I've done what he said and to his credit it has worked, the screen fires up every time now and stays on , my issue is this....is this a temporary fix and will I have to keep doing this regularly or should the vendor replace the battery for me?
I've got about 5 months of the warranty left and I don't want to be stuck with a faulty battery after that.
What if I ever want to sell the kit on in the future? Not possible with a dodgy battery really is it.
Where do you all think I stand and what are my options?
Sorry its turned into an essay and thanks in advance for any help.

I think the seller has snookered you, because now that you've opened the battery, technically it's invalidated the warranty. He really should have replaced it, but it's a Chinese seller (?) with possible caches of products or servicing points, likely in Europe somewhere. After 14 days by card payment, sellers are pretty safe, and if you paid by Paypal the limit is 180 days to try to open a case with a view to getting a refund of some sort. I think you're stuck with it, now that you have 5 months left on the warranty, which the seller may opt to honour the remainder of, if you're not too expensive in your demands. Of course, I could be completely mistaken with all of the above.

 

[FIFO71]

Thanks .

 

[Nealh]

If capable source and replace the switch your self, ask the vendor to supply said switch.
Sending batteries via courier is tricky, they have to be boxed and labelled correctly. Get it wrong and battery won't see light of day again, that's if you can find someone as a private customer to take it.

 

[Deleted member 33385]

a few other people who did this have said their batteries aren't any better once they got them back.

They probably just held onto them for awhile, played healing new age music at the batteries and posted the them back - because it's much cheaper to do that, than replace with a new battery pack.

If capable source and replace the switch your self, ask the vendor to supply said switch.

There's not a lot of legal leverage you can bring to bear on a non-UK based business. Pressing the seller for a replacement and receiving "No", as an answer risks things going sideways and (depending on how it goes) possibly burning your bridges after which you might not get much friendly support for the remaining 5 months of the "Waranty". If you repaired it, you can resell later, therefore Nealh's suggestion is your best option. If you can't replace the switch yourself, find some repair shop that can. If the seller can't send you a switch - you should be able to source a replacement, if you find out exactly what you should be looking for. If you upload very detailed photos, the electronic boffins on this site might tell you exactly what you need to replace it with.

 

[vfr400]

They probably just held onto them for awhile, played healing new age music at the batteries and posted the them back - because it's much cheaper to do that, than replace with a new battery pack.




There's not a lot of legal leverage you can bring to bear on a non-UK based business. Pressing the seller for a replacement and receiving "No", as an answer risks things going sideways and (depending on how it goes) possibly burning your bridges after which you might not get much friendly support for the remaining 5 months of the "Waranty". If you repaired it, you can resell later, therefore Nealh's suggestion is your best option. If you can't replace the switch yourself, find some repair shop that can. If the seller can't send you a switch - you should be able to source a replacement, if you find out exactly what you should be looking for. If you upload very detailed photos, the electronic boffins on this site might tell you exactly what you need to replace it with.

The seller wouldn't have a switch to send because, even if the seller assembled the battery, the switch is part of the case, which they'd buy in. Most sellers are resellers, so they don't do anything other than basic admin.

 

[Deleted member 33385]

The seller wouldn't have a switch to send because, even if the seller assembled the battery, the switch is part of the case, which they'd buy in. Most sellers are resellers, so they don't do anything other than basic admin.

My experience with the more skilled ones, has been that they cultivate a personal connection, then use it to influence customers into pursuing actions which will ultimately cost them less money or make them more, which seems to have happened to this poor chap, who has removed his OP.

 

[vfr400]

My experience with the more skilled ones, has been that they cultivate a personal connection, then use it to influence customers into pursuing actions which will ultimately cost them less money or make them more, which seems to have happened to this poor chap, who has removed his OP.

Interesting. Can you tell us who the more skilled ones are?

 

[Deleted member 33385]

Interesting. Can you tell us who the more skilled ones are?

Usually the ones who have had some training in Neurolinguistic Programming:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming

...which is sold as "Personal Development", but it's all manipulation, just like every other set of sales tools. I was sent on a NLP course many years ago, all paid for by my employers - £2000 for 5 days on how to manipulate people and the first stage is "Rapport" - in this chap's case, the seller got rapport, then influenced him into opening his battery and invalidating his warranty, which means that the seller is no longer is obligated to replace the battery. Taking the battery to be "inspected", after which others (so the OP said) there is no change, is a matter of palming the customer off with something which looks to be something of value, when it plainly isn't, which nontheless makes him less likely (or slower) to insist on a new battery later. It all buys the seller time: 5 months to go, during which time the seller is never going to replace his battery anyway, because he's not a UK business and can't be compelled to. I knew full well before I bought my Chinese battery from my Chinese seller that I shouldn't gamble anything I can't afford to lose.

 

[vfr400]

Usually the ones who have had some training in Neurolinguistic Programming:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming

...which is sold as "Personal Development", but it's all manipulation, just like every other set of sales tools. I was sent on a NLP course many years ago, all paid for by my employers - £2000 for 5 days on how to manipulate people and the first stage is "Rapport" - in this chap's case, the seller got rapport, then influenced him into opening his battery and invalidating his warranty, which means that the seller is no longer is obligated to replace the battery. Taking the battery to be "inspected", after which others (so the OP said) there is no change, is a matter of palming the customer off with something which looks to be something of value, when it plainly isn't, which nontheless makes him less likely (or slower) to insist on a new battery later. It all buys the seller time: 5 months to go, during which time the seller is never going to replace his battery anyway, because he's not a UK business and can't be compelled to. I knew full well before I bought my Chinese battery from my Chinese seller that I shouldn't gamble anything I can't afford to lose.

Great stuff, but what's the connection to OP trying to get a battery switch? I thought you were going to tell us about battery suppliers that go above and beyond because of their super-skills.

 

[Deleted member 33385]

Great stuff, but what's the connection to OP trying to get a battery switch? I thought you were going to tell us about battery suppliers that go above and beyond because of their super-skills.

I was answering your question.

 

[Deleted member 33385]

I thought you were going to tell us about battery suppliers that go above and beyond because of their super-skills.

I can't really comment on answers you might have been expecting.

 

[Deleted member 33385]

Interesting. Can you tell us who the more skilled ones are?

"Skill" in this case, is the skill in manipulating people and wriggling out of replacing faulty sold gear. Ask a clearer question?

 

[Deleted member 33385]

I respect your immense knowledge vfw400, but it's best to avoid being cantankerous when one gets older. Batteries are your area of expertise - outrage at sales tactics is mine. I hate salespeople.

 

[vfr400]

Sorry, I didn't read your post #7 properly. I read it in the context of you quoting me saying that he wouldn't be able to get a switch because of the way they operate. My statement is completely irrelevent to what you said, so you shouldn't have included it.

 

[Deleted member 33385]

Sorry, I didn't read your post #7 properly. I read it in the context of you quoting me saying that he wouldn't be able to get a switch because of the way they operate. My statement is completely irrelevent to what you said, so you shouldn't have included it.

If you originally had asked me who the skilled support people of battery sellers were, who go above and beyond to supply great kit and service, my answer would have been "Suck it and see", because after reading through these boards and the internet in general - it seems to be pot luck! Even a great supplier can be nixed in his/her efforts by a good battery which arrives damaged in transit, because it wasn't soldered/constructed well, or what have you.

Finding a compatible case - like my question the other week (can't find that thread) - is likely this chap's best course of action, because the seller has made his money and is loathe to lose any.

The switch on my battery by the way looks like all of the other on/off dashboard switches which sell on ebay for £1.

 

[Deleted member 33385]

Sorry, I didn't read your post #7 properly. I read it in the context of you quoting me saying that he wouldn't be able to get a switch because of the way they operate. My statement is completely irrelevent to what you said, so you shouldn't have included it.

Yes, I did wonder what on earth you were asking about.

 

[Deleted member 33385]

"Does vfr400 want to know about the manipulative skills of star salespeople?", I asked myself.

 

[Deleted member 33385]

I'm starting to wonder if some of these questions posted by "new members" are created by this website's operators to generate content for the search engines - which is a good SEO strategy, or part of one.

Anyway, here's a photo of my switch and if the OP has a case like mine (if he's a real person with a genuine problem. If he's fled, we'll never know), it may be likely inexpensive and fast to replace with a hot air gun, a new £1 cheap switch from ebay (which is what this looks like) and a bit of soldering:

 

[FIFO71]

Hi,
Thanks for the replies and I assure you I'm a real person with a real problem.
I deleted my original post and comments as I got hit with a bit of paranoia.
The company I ordered my kit through are based in the UK and as I said in the comments I deleted have been very helpful so far.
My paranoia was that he may be a member of this site and may take this as a personal attack on him despite him trying to help me through various messages and phone calls.
I'm nieve enough to hope that by giving me permission to open the battery he will still honour the warranty ( I have this in a text message in writing).
I've tried what he said to do and the initial tests look promising, how long the spray keeps this working I don't know, is this something I will need to keep doing regularly to ensure the contacts on the on/off switch keep working?
He has offered to reimburse me the postage costs to send him the battery through UPS so I may take him up on this if the switch starts to become faulty again in the near future.
What do you guys think i should do going forward?
I have no idea how to fit new switches so that isn't an option for me.
Thanks