CATL 271Ah cell issues.

Look people. I provided hundreds of cells for a LOT of guys over the past year.
One case of containers overboard, one vendor that said cells were in stock that were not (and are still not), and then this new supplier that failed to package the cells as they should be packaged.
Ordering from China, shit is going to happen. I have always and will always do my best to make sure that in the end things are taken care of.
I have had some personal crap that gave me zero time to respond to any emails of any kind (not just to do with cells or batteries).
I am now back trying to sort ALL of this out and intend for it all to be made right somehow.
The CATL 271 supplier has said they will make it right and the fact that they were a tiny bit proactive and asked for some shipments to be returned to them before they were even delivered would indicate that they will (although I am not positive yet just what they are going to be willing to do).

I suspect that 740GLE just might have a vested interest involved in what he is posting in here and would appreciate it if he would just shut the F up until this is resolved. He is doing no one any good at all and if he is just trying to steer sales away from me, he should STFU and let everyone decide for themselves if this is taken care of appropriately when all is said and done.

I have put up with a lot of bullshit from some posters over the past year and never said much of anything about it....but at this point enough is enough. If you are not directly involved, just butt out and let the adults handle this.

Sorry, but I have had enough of some people sticking their noses in where they do not really belong.

740GLE piss off dude. Unless you have, or plan to, buy through me just get lost and let those that are actually involved handle this.​

AER said:

Michael messaged me and says my shipment said sender had it returned, but somehow seems only 1/2 the order was returned? He says he going to talk to the supplier and get this fixed

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The supplier has requested that many of the orders they shipped for me be returned to them.....I take that as a good sign that they will in fact take care of this.
I have dealt with a LOT of suppliers now and this is the first that anything quite like his has happened with and certainly the only one where damaged cells were the rule instead of the exception. I think most everyone knew that I was dealing with a new supplier on these.

It is unfortunate that my personal crap that resulted in me more or less going dark for a period of time coincided with this debacle. But, it is what it is and all I can do is my best to get everyone made whole again moving forward.

I should have put in my other post that I am not at all upset with anyone actually involved being frustrated, and perhaps even a bit angry. It is outsiders that have NOTHING to do with any of this putting in their unwanted 2 cents that torqued me off. I think all of you that have dealt with me know that I have thick skin and put up with a lot without taking exception. But, enough is enough.

The UPS truck is enroute to my house with 6 of 8 boxes of my batteries. Should I reject them if they look poorly packaged. What happens then?

Kevox said:

The UPS truck is enroute to my house with 6 of 8 boxes of my batteries. Should I reject them if they look poorly packaged. What happens then?

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send me your tracking number and let me see if the supplier asked for your shipment to be recalled or not.
If your cells were shipped from this supplier and there is any damage at all it should not matter if you refuse delivery or not. But if the boxes are trashed I would probably refuse delivery.

Kevox said:

The UPS truck is enroute to my house with 6 of 8 boxes of my batteries. Should I reject them if they look poorly packaged. What happens then?

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I looked up your tracking number and there is no request for them to be returned to the sender.
I have not had time to check to be sure which supplier your order was placed with.................I placed orders for CATL cells from 2 different suppliers.
So if the boxes look to be in decent shape yours may have been shipped by the dependable supplier and not the one with the packing problems.
If the boxes look good, you might be able to get the driver to sit tight for two minutes while you open one or two of them and see how the cells look instead of refusing to accept without checking them.

Thanks for the update Michael, yes I am frustrated, do I think you are at fault for the damage, NO!! I like most (if I can speak for others) just got worried and frustrated with the silence. I have received two different orders from you, one in perfect condition and the other, well you know... I will continue to wait and hope for the supplier or shipper to do what's right.

Dan

I think we should hang Michael by his toes and beat him with a wet noodle. Soaked in electrolytes. ??
Welcome back Mike.

Now gents , let the man work .

Hoping for the best but expecting the worst, I hid in the shadows of my driveway to waylay the UPS driver on a nice cool day at Furnace Creek (107 degrees). 6 of 8 boxes arrived today with a couple of them torn with visible batteries inside. The end result was 7 or 8 cells with minor dings plus scratched plastic covers. 1 battery has a larger dent that deformed the top a little and I would consider unusable for my purpose. I think 23 out of 24 will be usable if less than ideal. The minimal packaging was the same as previously reported so I just got lucky on the handling. Some arrived upside down. There is some bloating, on average 3/16" and ranging from 1/8" to 1/4". There is no marking on the cells and the qr code is scratched off. I received a ziploc bag with 21 busbars but no nuts. I hope the rest of the busbars and nuts arrive with the next shipment.
There was no paperwork to indicate the capacity testing and cell matching that was part of the deal. It may be in the remaining 2 boxes. I should have 5 cells in each of the last 2 boxes but their weight is reported the same as all the rest so we shall see what arrives. Average cell voltage was 3.267 with a variance of 54 millivolts from low to high.

Kevox said:

Hoping for the best but expecting the worst, I hid in the shadows of my driveway to waylay the UPS driver on a nice cool day at Furnace Creek (107 degrees). 6 of 8 boxes arrived today with a couple of them torn with visible batteries inside. The end result was 7 or 8 cells with minor dings plus scratched plastic covers. 1 battery has a larger dent that deformed the top a little and I would consider unusable for my purpose. I think 23 out of 24 will be usable if less than ideal. The minimal packaging was the same as previously reported so I just got lucky on the handling. Some arrived upside down. There is some bloating, on average 3/16" and ranging from 1/8" to 1/4". There is no marking on the cells and the qr code is scratched off. I received a ziploc bag with 21 busbars but no nuts. I hope the rest of the busbars and nuts arrive with the next shipment.
There was no paperwork to indicate the capacity testing and cell matching that was part of the deal. It may be in the remaining 2 boxes. I should have 5 cells in each of the last 2 boxes but their weight is reported the same as all the rest so we shall see what arrives. Average cell voltage was 3.267 with a variance of 54 millivolts from low to high.

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Did you get a chance to check the cells at all before accepting delivery?

Michael B Caro said:

Did you get a chance to check the cells at all before accepting delivery?

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I looked at some of them.

Ok. I hope the other boxes are at least as good if not better than the ones you have received.
If the rest of the hardware and things are not in the other boxes I will make sure you get what you need, as well as work on getting replacements for any that are not usable and maybe some kind of partial refund for damaged cells that are usable.
I will do my best

My only vested interest is in my own learning experience with direct shipments from China from reputable “vendors” to save a few bucks, I hope others eyes have been opened to how big a headache it can be.

Btw you said you were going to mention the vendor a week or so ago.

740GLE Go somewhere else and let the people involved in this mess deal with the problems. Your input is not constructive.

740GLE said:

My only vested interest is in my own learning experience with direct shipments from China from reputable “vendors” to save a few bucks, I hope others eyes have been opened to how big a headache it can be.

Btw you said you were going to mention the vendor a week or so ago.

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I said I would mention the vendor if they do not make this right.
There are indications that they will. If they do not, I will broadcast their name far and wide. But, I will not until I see how it all turns out....or if it turns out well but only because I have to address the issue with trade assurance, I will still broadcast their name.

If you know how things can go wrong even when placing orders with "reputable vendors", you should not be so quick to try to give me shit.
I have placed orders with many vendors and all but this one have performed pretty well or made right what they messed up. A couple did not make things quite right, so I did the right thing myself and then dropped them as vendors. With the number of cells involved in this debacle, making it right all on my own would be devastating, and so I can not promise that at this point in time. But, there ARE signs they will make it right.

Your knowledge of my and the things I have done for people in here is limited and so maybe you should just take a step back and watch instead of voicing an uninformed opinion.

So I finally got the bms wired up to my shore power supply and the LFP charger that can do 50A charging.

right now I have it on half power 120v 25A and I’m getting stats out of the Daly bms.


No faults seen yet. We’ll see how they balance. I have a 5A balance board coming soon but right now I’m relying on the bms to balance.

overall, I’m real happy right now even though the studs are 6mm and it lacked bus bars.

blackhandle said:

So I finally got the bms wired up to my shore power supply and the LFP charger that can do 50A charging.

right now I have it on half power 120v 25A and I’m getting stats out of the Daly bms.

View attachment 62857
No faults seen yet. We’ll see how they balance. I have a 5A balance board coming soon but right now I’m relying on the bms to balance.

overall, I’m real happy right now even though the studs are 6mm and it lacked bus bars.

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You're gonna be there a long while waiting for a Daly BMS to balance that pack lol

Lt.Dan said:

You're gonna be there a long while waiting for a Daly BMS to balance that pack lol

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Lol yeah I’m not expecting the Daly to balance it fast but Amazon screwed me and didn’t get the balance board here. F’n assholes.

paid for overnight shipping of the balance boards... got 4 day…

740GLE said:

My only vested interest is in my own learning experience with direct shipments from China from reputable “vendors” to save a few bucks, I hope others eyes have been opened to how big a headache it can be.

Btw you said you were going to mention the vendor a week or so ago.

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Read here. It's unfair of you to make false claims and you need to stop. Michael is a stand up guy....I feel really bad for him having to deal with this crap. It's not his fault.

Someone else, whom I will not name, also made the same accusation and I corrected him as well and stated I would be very careful naming the supplier at this point because they might be watching this thread. If the supplier is named and black listed prematurely the supplier might decide to screw everyone. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out and it's a fact other vendors watch the threads.

Hi All

I've also received my "GRADE A" 302 CATL cells here in Aussie land today. My boxes faired much better than some of the examples here. However, the condition of the cells are poor in comparison to the expectation, QRs scratched off etc.

I received the ally "bus bars" but no nuts.

I am currently capacity testing a cell but suspect it will be underwhelming given these cells appear well used with evidence of tape on them, dents etc.

I have taken video/photos of each box being opened include one leaky cell.

Regarding Michael, I think we also need to allow time for him to respond to the situation. There have been snippets of info but would hope he 'makes things right' for all of us.

@Michael B Caro

Glad to see you're trying to make an attempt to keep us informed, Michael. I think that's all we ever wanted.

You've mentioned a CATL272 Supplier, but what about the 310 and 302 supplier?

The supplier is pulling back shipments of orders not delivered, have you have you discussed a remedy for those cells that already delivered? Have you been issued a refund for the cells that the supplier recalled? If not, why and when do you expect it?

What are your thoughts on the gentleman that received a package with shorted studs? Do you think these were shipped this way? The same goes for scratched QR codes, wrong sized studs, and possibly missing bus bars. These issues were not all caused by bad packaging.

I know I speak for a lot of people when I say this, but I hope to see more of you around here again.

Best Regards,