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Shenzhen Basen Review

Acho_303

New Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2020
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220
I ordered 8 Eve cells from Basen and wanted to provide feedback so other members are aware of the events.

First I ordered Eve and was told after shipping they were sending Lishen, they made this election without asking me.

Second, they did refund a small portion for the cells price difference, however sent it as a PayPal order payment that I had to pay 3 or 4 dollars out of the refund to collect. Additionally, I was not able to get the funds without a tracking number and they told me to use theirs so I had to wait almost 2 months to recieve the money minus the fee.

The cells came nicely packaged and the box had no major damage.

Unbocking the cells one of the 8 cells has the same dent other member have reported.

Basen is unwilling to send a replacement.

I will not buy anything from Basen
 
Who is your contact at BASEN?
I got great customer service wih BASEN and able to get the replacement with no issue. The replacement also tested out good.
 
Who is your contact at BASEN?
I got great customer service wih BASEN and able to get the replacement with no issue. The replacement also tested out good.
Sheila, while she is pleasant she is refusing to send a new cell even after acknowledging the images and unbocking video I send detailing the dented cell. I kept letting the deception go, them sending the wrong cells without asking and the refund calamity... but now with the refusal to send a new cell to replace the dented one... I am officially dissatisfied and will not be buying my school bus cells from them, that order of 16 cells will go to another vendor
 
I received 18 Lishen 272 cells from Basen (ordered through Michael on the group buy). Packed very well and no noticeable damage, but one of my cells has a dent on the corner where the wide and short side come together. It isn't huge, but it would definately impact when I compress them together. The OP says something about the dent being in the same spot as another member had, but I couldn't find that thread - do you have a link? I will report back what happens with my cell....
 
I received 18 Lishen 272 cells from Basen (ordered through Michael on the group buy). Packed very well and no noticeable damage, but one of my cells has a dent on the corner where the wide and short side come together. It isn't huge, but it would definately impact when I compress them together. The OP says something about the dent being in the same spot as another member had, but I couldn't find that thread - do you have a link? I will report back what happens with my cell....
See the link on my post #2, mine has the same damage at the corner.
So does Michael offer to give you a replacement?
 
My damage isn't in that same location - I have uploaded picture of my dent. Given that these cells enlarge and contract when charging, I view this dent as a weakness. It is also big enough that I won't be able to compress this cell with another.

I just wrote Michael to let him know. I would ask for replacement if I had ordered directly from company - good news that you had favorable outcome from Basen. I will follow up...

PXL_20210224_204026724.jpgPXL_20210224_204044458.jpg
 
You should be able to get the repalcement easily since the reson for US group buy is for dealing with issue when it happens instead of dealing with the Chinese sellers that may get no where.
 
I hope you are correct! That is why I went with the group buy. All my interactions with Michael have been good and I have been impressed with him whenever issues have come up with other folks. I also think he is way more likely to get positive results with suppliers when there are issues since he orders so much...
 
Hi,
I ordered 17 cells and one came dented IMG_20210126_154314.jpg

IMG_20210126_154442_1.jpgWas a month ago, was pretty hard to make them accept to refund 100$ (cell+shipping for one cell).
Even if we agreed on refund, still got no money after a month. I will not buy again from BASEN. My contact is Sheila.
 
Well, I have an update from Michael B Caro (who does the group buy). Here is his reply:

here is what the supplier said about the dented cell:
"okay, can he test the voltage and Internal resistance? if it is in normal range, then it is not affect the function of the battery. About the dent, we can send him correspondent compensation." From past experience, if the cell tests ok they will probably not offer a whole lot of "correspondent compensation".

Apparently you do not get better treatment from the vendors when you order through the group buy.


Then I asked Michael directly whether he thinks a dent like this is worthy of replacement. Here is the response:

"I would use it myself, but if you do not feel comfortable using, it will send you a replacement and have you send that one to me. I will deal with the supplier and just use it myself."

This kind of response is what I have seen from Michael B Caro in the past and why I went with the group buy. Glad I did.


One thing for sure - I WOULD NEVER ORDER ANYTHING FROM SHENZEN BASEN. - sending dented batteries out is apparently SOP...

Am I over-reacting to the dent? I plan to have these batteries in my living space and it just seems like not a good idea to have a battery that I can't compress the cells properly and that has a possible weak point in my living space. I do not want to hurt the group buy and Michael un-necessarily though. Interested in other opinions...
 
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Good thing I'm in this group, I was about to place an order with Besen. I've been communicating with Gloria Luo and this is what she quoted me:
LISHEN 3.2V 202Ah LiFePO4 Cell with stud
Quantity:4PCS
Price:$62/pc
Shipping cost:$135 by Sea&delivery, DDP,door to door service,including customs clearance and tax, 35~40 working days arrive.
The Total:$383

I think the quote is really reasonable but this is my first time dealing with Chinese battery ordering.
 
Am I over-reacting to the dent? I plan to have these batteries in my living space and it just seems like not a good idea to have a battery that I can't compress the cells properly and that has a possible weak point in my living space. I do not want to hurt the group buy and Michael un-necessarily though. Interested in other opinions...
No.

Your health is more important than ANY profit.

A dent is a known progressive failure point.

Glad to hear you got one receptive response. Physical integrity of the cell is of utmost importance for safety and ability to deliver utility.

Mitigating it by proper packing is very basic operational logic. I do not mean to say it’s easy, but maybe sometimes the margins are as thin as the packing foam if you know what I mean.

I’ve seen some of the threads of people buying from basen, claiming they ordered an extra cell on top of a normal build (eg 16+1) and one being dented. You can almost hear the cackling from across the sea when the pattern of intentionally sneaking duds in appears. From the reports recently, I’ve moved basen to my list of “hold” sellers.
 
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A dent is a known progressive failure point.
What makes a dent a progressive failure point? I'm not saying it isn't, but I'm curious what problems it causes and whether it applies to all dents.

The dent shown above on the corner seems like it would prevent the cell from sitting clean with another cell. The other one looks deep/extreme enough that it's a structural weak spot and could have damaged the guts.

But what about a small dings that others have shown? Would they cause performance/safety issues? If so, why?

I recently received 16 lishen cells from Basen from the group buy and was lucky to have no damage. If I had received either of the cells shown immediately above, I would have pushed for replacement. I was impressed with how Basen packaged the cells in foam for shipping, but not impressed when I see that they are shipping dented cells.

Even a small ding is frustrating when we are buying "new" cells. It's a crappy business process to ship these dented cells and make people deal with it. They probably expect most people will just let it go or accept a partial refund, but it makes for a bad customer experience. If they just sold them as "scratch and dent" at a reduced price, some people would buy dented cells at the right price.
 
A dent is a departure from the original structural support system. This indicates failure. Force distribution will deviate from design, representing a weakness or failure of tolerance. IF the dent is near a part of the cell that breathes expands contracts during charge cycles THEN a severe issue could clearly arise.

Anyone who has ever cut a solid wire by bending it back and forth until fatigue snap will know what I’m talking about.

A dent in the skin sometimes is called a bruise.

In fruits this is the same

Glad your cells had no damage ?
 
I was about to order 64, 300ah cells from Basen for my critical loads system because I have seen lots of good reviews on them from all over the world. All these things I'm hearing are making me reconsider using this supplier. Anyone have a suggestion for a supplier that ships actual "new" product or will stand behind it? I know there's a lot of problems with supplies and customer service from China, I've bought a lot of stuff there and have not had any really bad experiences, although I do have a couple of companies I won't buy from again, but I do have a panel supplier I will only buy from. We are a bit closer to them here in PH so the shipping is usually a bit less. That's about it. the dog
 
luyuan and dongguan lightning are the two i’m considering personally at this time and have been for a while. i have not ordered with either before. the 272/280/300/310Ah form factor makes things seem super easy, but the terminal connection stuff has kept me away for now. hope this helps.
 
I would advise against further ordering from Shenzen Basen; they sell old damaged goods and are petty-minded when complaining.

 
luyuan and dongguan lightning are the two i’m considering personally at this time and have been for a while. i have not ordered with either before. the 272/280/300/310Ah form factor makes things seem super easy, but the terminal connection stuff has kept me away for now. hope this helps.
Hi, I have been looking at those as well, before reading these posts I had mostly made up my mind on Basen, but the thing with the dents and other things, well that's real scary considering the loads I'll be putting on the system and that I'm away for months at a time and can't risk issues when I'm not there to fix it. The "professionals" here seem to know little or nothing about solar.
 
Anyone have a suggestion for a supplier that ships actual "new" product or will stand behind i
From what I've seen on this forum, even the "good" suppliers have bad moments. None of these suppliers are selling new Grade A cells. These are grey market "reject" cells of varying quality and the pricing reflects that. They advertise them as "new, grade A" rather than describing what they really are. That's just the way it seems to work. I assume all the suppliers end up with some good cells and some bad cells and they are going to ship them all to customers and deal with with the issues. Partial refund seems to be their preferred resolution. Anyone thinking they are getting top quality 280Ah cells for under $100 each is delusional.

If you want real grade A new cells, just call the battery company and get a quote. If they won't sell in the quantities you are looking for, they will probably point you to a legit distributer. This is how to get new grade A cells and the pricing will reflect it.

I ended up going with the group buy on this forum for 16 272Ah lishens because I figured Michael was buying a lot of volume and the suppliers might be less likely to ship bad cells on those orders (and Michael could deal with the supplier if there were issues). It turned out positively for me. Basen was the supplier on my order and the cells met my expectations (not perfect, but great for the price). You might check out the group buy thread (in the for sale section) and ping Michael if you are interested.
 
Hi, I have been looking at those as well, before reading these posts I had mostly made up my mind on Basen, but the thing with the dents and other things, well that's real scary considering the loads I'll be putting on the system and that I'm away for months at a time and can't risk issues when I'm not there to fix it. The "professionals" here seem to know little or nothing about solar.
Slightly digressing, but I wanted to use lishen/eve 270/280 cells but due to the terminal connection topic I ended up using 100Ah frey/fortune cells because of the amazing terminal studs making connection a complete no brainer for me. Anyways yeah. Hope you can get some good cells.

Michael seems like a stand up guy and various community members have indicated positive outcome and resolution. Of course important to be mindful of lead time and that shipping on boat takes long time. If I build with 270/280 cells in future I will also consider him.
 
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