When Tim and I bought our flashes we also had to buy batteries. The cheapest way to deal with something that uses lot’s of battery power is rechargeable batteries. So we got 24 of them from an Ebay Store. We got them a few days later, great. But they wont hold their charge. We are forever having to swap them out having only got 10 or 20 flashes out of them.

So I’d like to lead you through the email process for this situation.

First I sent:

Hi

I’m sorry to let you know that I’m writing to complain. I hope we can settle this out without trouble.

I bought these batteries and they arrived the other day. We have two new charger’s, but the batteries are not holding their charge.
I’ve compared them to a 6 year old set of energizer’s and they don’t even compete. For the job that I want them to perform the energizer’s last for up to three hours and your batteries last for less than 10 minutes.
They are both being charged in the same charger.

I don’t know if you have a tip for me to try or if this is just a faulty batch, but I am extremely unhappy with this purchase and so far, would not recommend anyone buy this product.

Please let me know what you would like to do in this situation. I would prefer not to leave negative feedback, but I see it that I have not got my money’s worth if I can’t use these batteries for what they are intended for. I can’t be running back to my charger every ten minutes when my job depends on it.

That last bit, about it being a job…is a bit of a white lie. But they don’t need to know that. They only need to know that their batteries are not good enough for what I need.
They replied…very promptly.

We learn that the item doesn’t satisfied you from your last message.We apologize for any inconvenience .but please don’t worry.We will resolve the problem for you.Would you like us to replace for you or refund
Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

So I replied…

Thank you for your quick response. My main concern is that we have 24 of your batteries and not one of them is charging. So my concern is that if we replace them any replacement will be the same. I think I would prefer my money back, but how does that work? I have never come across a situation like this before.

Thanks again.

They replied (this will take a bit…)

yes,if so , we would like to refund you if you like , ok ?
regards
Me….

Thank you, that would be very nice of you and I really appreciate it. What is the procedure???

Them…

if you like we would love to resend asap , there s no need to return the fault items back that cost more and take a long time to arrive here , but your positive feedback is the huge support to us
regards

Me…

No thank you. I really need these batteries and would prefer not to wait for you to resend. I will be able to buy new more reliable batteries locally. You have been really helpful, and despite these batteries not working I would like to leave you positive feed back for the service you are kindly offering. Thank you.

Then, much much later…from me.

I am a little confused and wondering what is going on now???

And the replied…like they had no idea we had indeed come to an agreement.

Feel sorry to hear that.We have indeed sent the item on time,maybe it was lost during the post .If you like,we can resend you
Hope you can kindly leave positive feedback for us.Thanks for your kind .
If you have further question,please let us know.

Hmmmmm….

Perhaps you need a kindly reminder that we already have your crappy batteries and they’re sitting here useless as they wont hold their charge and we can’t use them. I’ve discussed this with you more than a week ago and I thought we’d both agreed that you would refund our money, which is why I am confused. You have not done that. I told you that after a refund I would be happy to leave you positive feedback, since until now you have been really helpful regardless of quality of your product. But without a refund I will no doubt need to leave you negative feedback.

Please advise. Will you be giving us our money back?

Then…they replied!!!!

no need to return it back that cost you more and take long time , if you agree to leave us a positive feedback we would like to refund you asap ok ?
regards

Great, we’re getting somewhere…I think…

Yes, thank you. We would be more than happy to leave positive feed back for you and will do so when we get our refund. Will you be paying back in to paypal???

Thank you!

So now we’re getting somewhere…or are we???

ok , many ths for ur understanding , we are arranging to resend the replacement asap and advise you when we ship it out to you , hope the package arrives there shortly , any trouble pls contact us without any delay . Have a nice day

So I’ve left this…it will be interesting, since most of my messages seemed straight forward just like this one, to get a reply.

I’m sorry. I think you are misunderstanding. We want our money back. Please.

As I said, still very happy to leave positive feed back. When we get our MONEY back. Not more batteries.

Please let me know when you have deposited our money back in to our pay pal account.

Thank you.

Update: We received another set of batteries….and we got our money back! Finally, after three weeks…it’s over with!