FYI - dealing with lithiumbatteriessa - a BMS that stopped working, and how to fix.

[sunset1]

Just a bit of FYI

Bought a BMS from lithiumbatterySA.co.za where the BMS suddenly stopped working after about a month.

I chatted to the tech department who basically said there is nothing they can do and said it was just from wear and tear. (Ive had it a month). This was pretty amusing as a few days prior the same tech guy said it was probably a loose/bad weld on the board.

I stated that i thought it came with a 1 year warranty but they said there was nothign they can do. Thought this was an interesting warranty

Anyhow It took a bit threating consumer act thing and going online for the tech guy (Ben was his name I think) to wake up. His boss I believed phoned back not in the best tone. He said I can send it and they will asses it. From his tone and the experience thus far I presumes this was a lost cause. 

Got the BMS checked out myself and it turns out the issue was the male molex connector that connects the thin wires to the BMS. The internal metal connectors became loose. Replace this and you are good to go. Dont bother with the lithium guys

 

 

 

 

[Bain Viljoen]

On 2021/07/19 at 9:17 PM, sunset1 said:

Just a bit of FYI

Bought a BMS from lithiumbatterySA.co.za where the BMS suddenly stopped working after about a month.

I chatted to the tech department who basically said there is nothing they can do and said it was just from wear and tear. (Ive had it a month). This was pretty amusing as a few days prior the same tech guy said it was probably a loose/bad weld on the board.

I stated that i thought it came with a 1 year warranty but they said there was nothign they can do. Thought this was an interesting warranty

Anyhow It took a bit threating consumer act thing and going online for the tech guy (Ben was his name I think) to wake up. His boss I believed phoned back not in the best tone. He said I can send it and they will asses it. From his tone and the experience thus far I presumes this was a lost cause. 

Got the BMS checked out myself and it turns out the issue was the male molex connector that connects the thin wires to the BMS. The internal metal connectors became loose. Replace this and you are good to go. Dont bother with the lithium guys

 

 

 

 

Hi Andrew

It is unfortunate that you had such a bad experience with us. 
The standard procedure is to return the BMS, we inspect it and replace if needed.

We test every BMS that goes out and make sure the connector on the PCB is not loose.
From my understanding the connector was loose, how this could have happened, I don't know... 
This is then clearly physical damage.
We did ask you multiple times to send in the BMS but you never did.
It would have most likely ended up in front of me for validation and I would have just soldered the connector back.

Please do in the future handle the products a little more carefully and if there is an issue send it in and we can asses it.
I believe we are reasonable otherwise we would have had allot of customer complaints all over the forums and allot of bad reviews.

Kind regards,
Bain Viljoen

[Gnome]

On 2021/10/20 at 3:21 PM, Bain Viljoen said:

We test every BMS that goes out and make sure the connector on the PCB is not loose.
From my understanding the connector was loose, how this could have happened, I don't know... 
This is then clearly physical damage.
We did ask you multiple times to send in the BMS but you never did.
It would have most likely ended up in front of me for validation and I would have just soldered the connector back.

My honest feedback on how you handled this situation:

Testing a BMS before it leaves is no guarantee it can't stop working.  Also what does "testing" even mean.  Did you load it at 100% for extended periods, did you test over and under voltage cut-offs, did you test short-circuit, etc.  In terms of physical damage, a dry solder joint could break very easily.

We live in the modern world of cheaply produced Chinese products with no quality control, and you are running a business that is trying to find a reason not to honour your commitments.  Your attitude suggests a position of, prove to me that the product is the problem.

All of this speaks to your business ethics.  Take a look at how Amazon.com deals with customers, you could learn a lot about what it takes to build a trusted and loved brand.  Rather than a business that is constantly fighting its customer and sees them as the enemy.

My follow on from that would be, why don't I just buy the BMS from AliExpress or eBay then? (or even better Amazon.com).  There at least I can lodge a complaint with PayPal and get a 3rd party with no skin in the game to arbitrate.  In other words, what value are you adding?