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AliExpress: Beware OYE Store!

mrfusi0n

New Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2021
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15
Hey guys!
Just wanted to put a warning out there for OYE Store on AliExpress. I know other people on here have purchased from this store and many of their products might be fine but I wanted to share my experience as a warning to others.

First, I tried ordering from more reputable sellers on AliExpress but, since I live in Hawaii, many of them were not willing to ship items here. Even though Hawaii is much closer to China, packages must first be sent to the mainland US before coming here... but that's another story.

Anyway, I ended up giving OYE Store a try since they were very responsive to my questions and willing to work with me to ship to Hawaii. For that part, I'll give them a little +. They are responsive.

I purchased 16x 200Ah lifepo4 CALB cells to make a 48v battery. The item description stated that the cells were brand new but also listed that the minimum capacity of the cells was 180 to 190 Ah. It did not mention the grade but did state that all cells would be matched and balanced.

The cells arrived in good shape and packaged well. I top balanced them all, connected them in series, and then ran a capacity test using a shunt-based battery monitor. After discharging from 3.65v to 2.5v at about 40A (0.2C), I got only 156Ah! I found the weak cell and retested it using a stand-alone capacity tester running at about 23A. This test confirmed the cell capacity at 156Ah. As for the rest of the battery, a couple other cells were around 3.0v when that one cell hit the 2.5v cutoff voltage so they may not have been far behind. Because the capacity tests take so long and I'm using the battery for an off-grid setup, I have not tested any other cells.

I did try reaching out to OYE Store again to let them know about the problem. They asked me some questions about it and asked for photos of the capacity test. Ultimately, though, they were unwilling to do anything about the problem (not a big surprise to me).

The end result is that I have a 7.5KWh battery when it should have been much closer to 10KWh. I am disappointed but not too surprised. I was expecting some cells to be around the 180Ah mark but didn't expect them to be this low! Of course, even one cell limits the capacity of all the rest.

Buyer beware!
 
Only one way to deal with Chinese crap products and that is credit card charge back.
If more people would hit them where it hurts , they might get the picture and stop screwing us.
Kinda doubt it though. Profit margins are so great that I bet they will not blink.
They learn fast though. Loom at every Ali ad. Key number one is bar codes now.
 
Did you lodge a dispute through Aliexpress? I've had a few small electronic items arrived broken or not working and I've found the dispute process to be excellent.

Also my very first purchase of CALB 100ah cells came from OYE and Aliexpress mid last year, everything was great for me so sorry to hear you've had issues.

I haven't bought from OYE again since though as I find better pricing on Alibaba.
 
No, I did not lodge a dispute. Technically, the cells arrived intact and work, just not at the level advertised. Instead, I think just having my bad experience public is good enough for now. In fact, I think I will invite OYE store to comment, if they would like, on this forum. Perhaps they will see how really poor customer service impacts their bottom line. Or, perhaps they will change their approach, do a 180, and we can recommend their store instead of warning people about it. We will see...
 
So, I pointed OYE store here in case they wanted to comment. Their response was:
Dear friend
I have saw your review.
Our batteries are indeed high quality battery, and we also test the capacity, there is no problem.
Great... :rolleyes: I'm SOOO glad to know you don't think there's a problem with sending me batteries that perform at 75% of their rating.
 
OYE store Lie, Lie, deny and the lie some more. They are truly hardcore denyers.

Rather than going into damage control mode, that most would do to minimise the damage, they believe it's better business to keep lying.

I'm 100% sure that you will find most cells to be in the 160 to 170Ah range, and that if they have QR codes on top that those P-codes show completely different production series.

OYE Store claim only CALB can read the QR-codes. NOT true, any decent quality QR-code reader app can read them, only problem being that only CALB have the reference information to translate that into actual production dates.

My real QR codes started with P641..., P-715..., P721... and not as the paperstickers states P921....

Everybody who has received CALB 200Ah cells from OYE store should share their P-codes both on the paperstickers and on their QR-scanning, so we can get a better idea of what's going on here.

In the past I have also had good experience with AliExpress on problems with products I bought there, but they were all typically below 12 USD purchases, so not an issue.

This was my first major dealing with AliExpress, and they seem much more reluctant to recognise the magnitude of fraud that is going on here.

They have even requested that I make video of each battery test, as if they don't know what they are talking about.

I can only test each cell at 16 to 20 Amp constant current drain untill cut-off voltage is reached, so an average of 160 Ah/cell = 16 cells X 160Ah / 20Amps = 128 hours of video !?! Where on earth should I be able to record/upload that ???

My findings are: low capacity, bad cell Ballance, P-code descrepances, 1 cell swollen and terminals deffinately not looking bright and shiny new anymore. The evidence of real fraud is evident and indisputable, but still OYE just keep hanging on the same lies over and over and over again.

I even proposed to have cells tested at the Danish Technological Institute pending OYE pay for this, if cells don't perform as specified, this however was just ignored....But of course, they don't want the truth out there with an accredited test.

But I won't give up, and I won't send cells back either to prevent them to just sell them again to a poor sole only having a voltmeter and believing that just because they were packed nicely and measure 3.3V with a standard multimeter, then everything is "Honky-Tonky".

I think however OYE send out real new cells to some customers to get some good reviews, and to further help in miscrediting us who get used stuff instead, or one of their underpaid workers make a little extra on the side swapping out new cells with used ones just before packing, but the also able to relabel them ?!? You never know .

Best Regards
 
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So, I pointed OYE store here in case they wanted to comment. Their response was:

Great... :rolleyes: I'm SOOO glad to know you don't think there's a problem with sending me batteries that perform at 75% of their rating.
Hi', how are things going with your dispute with the OYE store (or as I call them "consistent hardcore deniers and liers") They don't offer any 100% Cashback as they advertise it is a misprint, it should have said 100% Backlash towards any claims. What are your QR codes and paperstickes say? You know that they are VERY readable indeed contrary to the rediculess claims of seller !

See my video on Youtube: "LiFePo4 200Ah fraudulent offerings"

WatchOut
 
I have no intentions of sending them back
1. Because the seller could just resell to the next victim, perhaps with less ability to test and protest.
2. Because it would be terribly expensive exceeding even the purchase price.

watchOut
 
Hi', how are things going with your dispute with the OYE store (or as I call them "consistent hardcore deniers and liers") They don't offer any 100% Cashback as they advertise it is a misprint, it should have said 100% Backlash towards any claims. What are your QR codes and paperstickes say? You know that they are VERY readable indeed contrary to the rediculess claims of seller !

See my video on Youtube: "LiFePo4 200Ah fraudulent offerings"

WatchOut
I was unable to open an official dispute through AliExpress because that option is only available for 15 days after delivery. In my case, it took me longer than that to get the cells top balanced, connected in series, and tested as a whole, and then testing the lowest cell. By the time I knew something was wrong, the window of time for an official dispute was past. I am not even allowed to leave a review on AliExpress!
Oh well, getting this topic public on this forum should at least be helpful to people doing their research as well as hopefully impact the sales of OYE store.
 
That was very unfortunate.

You should however have capacity tested the cells immediately individually, charging them one by one to 3.65V and then discharge them individually also, and then as soon as you had test results from the first few cells opened a dispute, while you continued the testing of more and more cells uploading the additional evidence as that became available.

I hope other will understand this and benefit from this advice also.

Anyway the video I uploaded on YouTube please have a look at it, possibly liking it and spread the word for other to see too.

Best regards
Watch Out.
 
That was very unfortunate.

You should however have capacity tested the cells immediately individually, charging them one by one to 3.65V and then discharge them individually also, and then as soon as you had test results from the first few cells opened a dispute, while you continued the testing of more and more cells uploading the additional evidence as that became available.

I hope other will understand this and benefit from this advice also.

Anyway the video I uploaded on YouTube please have a look at it, possibly liking it and spread the word for other to see too.

Best regards
Watch Out.
Individually testing each cell sounds like a good idea but in practice is VERY hard to do. Well, maybe not hard but very time consuming as each cell might take a full day to test. Also, I had some difficulties specific to my situation.

For me, I got this battery put together fully off-grid. That means I was top balancing them using a generator which was also powering our RV. Our electricity was far too inconsistent to run capacity tests so it was sort of a chicken/egg problem. I had to first get the battery top balanced and assembled in order to have electricity that was consistent enough to run capacity tests. For me, running a capacity test means removing one cell from my pack, bypassing the BMS and reconfiguring the inverters to keep the system running with only 15 cells, and finally connecting up the disconnected cell for the capacity test. And, of course, when I'm done with the test, I have to reverse all of these steps and re-match the cell to the rest of the pack. Kind of a hassle to say the least :LOL:

Anyway, although this is beside the point of this thread, the battery pack has been working for me - just at 7.5kWh instead of the rated 10kWh. Now that I have a stable electrical system, I may play around with a second battery pack to either go along with this one or replace it.
 
Sorry to hear of your experience with OYE. I also got 16 200ah CALB that were supposed to be "100% brand new". I am not experienced with LiFePo4 batteries but mine do appear very mismatched and the terminal copper is not at all shiny. I unfortunately didn't even open the box let alone test for over a month after receiving (as I was moving house). Tomorrow I was scan the QR codes
 
If the papersticker on all of them claim that they are P921 you can be pretty sure they are falsely re-labelled, which of course seller will deny. They will also deny that you can read the QR-code on top. It's part of a standard script they follow.

Be sure to start a dispute about the product quality before it is too late, and also present a review where you suspect the cells are fraudulently re-labelled older cells.

If you don't have any capacity test gear, try and find someone who has and can help you with the testing. No matter what, seller will claim it isn't professional, but then you can propose to have them tested with a certified technological institute, which seller pays for if they don't meet guaranteed minimum performance, and you will pay for if they do. Seller will ignore such proposal, but still claim your testing is wrong.
 
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Have you found the other thread here regarding fraudulent CALB LiFePo4 cells ?

There is a lot of additional information there, which can possibly help you get at least some compensation.

I have proven that the QR-codes should and will match on genuinely labelled cells, but seller will deny this and unfortunately AliExpress "expert-dispute team" are not bright enough (or willing) to understand it.

Watch Out
 
Yes, I saw the other thread.

I haven't checked the QR codes yet but all my serials are P921...

I need to rig up a capacity test. My gut feel based on my normal electricity usage is there is at least one cell that is only 170ah (one battery in the pack driving ME3000SP triggered low voltage cutoff in the BMS)

Assuming they are mismatched 150-175ah say (which is still enough for me and wouldn't be a financial disaster) would it be better to bottom balance instead of top?

Edit: I am kicking myself over this. It's even clear in the reviews, and as I think you commented "different" customers have the same photos for the reviews LOL. Yes, they are the same people as PWOD. Too late for me to do anything now on disputes with Aliexpress.
 
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Well being labelled as Production series P921.... on all paper stickers you can be certain they are re-labelled very used cells.

Probably the QR codes will say more like P6nn... to P7nn, you can also look for scuff marks on the bottom of each cell.

Never bottom discharge LiFePo4, you will kill them. Except for testing purposes you should never use them beyond 3,5V top down to 2.7v bottom, there are almost no capacity to gain beyond these levels, but significantly more wear on the cells.

You need to test them individually though and that has to be from 3.65 down to 2.5 (even though you only get 1.5 to 3Ah more below 2.7V

To read QR codes just download a good QR-code reader app, that can also scan a photo.
 

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By the way, then they will most likely also be labelled as being from 190827 (YYMMDD) right after the model number on the other label. Will be interesting to also have the serial numbers behind.

Both OYE and PWOD Official Store and definately several others are either getting their cells from the same supplier and using exactly the same marketing material and same rhetorics and scripts in disputes.

Watch Out
 
By the way, then they will most likely also be labelled as being from 190827 (YYMMDD) right after the model number on the other label. Will be interesting to also have the serial numbers behind.

Both OYE and PWOD Official Store and definately several others are either getting their cells from the same supplier and using exactly the same marketing material and same rhetorics and scripts in disputes.
They even accidentally wrote PWOD in one of their OYE feedback replies :)

Yes, I will check the dates at lunch time.
 
I couldn't resist a quick check already. Yes 190827. I checked 3 QR codes- yes P721s. So I for sure I have relabelled cells.
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well thank god my supplier did not put false stickers on mine... he just told me yeah they are not grade A live with it. least I knew that going in.
 
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