Duralite Batteries (Buyers Beware)
Ijust want to show what kind of batteries and service you get from Duralite for approx. $1500.00 these days. Below are a few pictures of what they call the 123 batteries and as you can see they don't look to hot. These batteries have never even been in the air, as a matter of factthey have never charged.
Agood friend and life long modelersaw an ad one dayfor these super batteries and decided to order 4 sets for his quad hacker set up. He already had the Thunder Power Batteries Iarranged for himbut wanted a second set. At the time that he ordered them hetold Duralite exactleywhat they were to be usedin and they assured him these would be much better and lighter then what he had. Now you need to know my friend is retired andhe and his wife are millionaires many timesover.
When the batteries arrived he unboxedatwo setsand layedthem on his work bench. A few minutes later he started to hear something that sounded like muffled popcorn popping and could not figure out where it was coming from. He eventually followed the sound back to the batteries and when he picked one uphe could not believe his eyes. They would pop and then blow a hole in the heat shrink. He called Duralite and was basically told he didn't know what he was doing and that was it.
So at that moment he put all four sets in a fire box and decided to just wait until I came back from Iraq to look them over. I must admit when I saw the holes and heard the story Icould hardley believe it. Anyway Idecided Iwas going to call Duralite and see what they had to say. Iknew pictures would needed to help show what we were talking about so Iunwrapped the other two batteries and set all four in a row on the bench. Not 2 minutes had gone by andall of the sudden Istarted hearing that muffled popping sound. Sure enough the new sets were doing exactley the same thing. It is really kinda scary because you hear the pop and a second or two later a hole appears . Not wanting to take any chances Ihave since moved this duralite stuff to a safe location.
Now since Iwas in the business Iknow how important it is when as a manufacturer your given a second chance in order to make things right. Ireally thought since Iam not just some guy off the street, that Jack at duralite would at least be willing to replace the batteries, but a refund would have been ideal. Icalled Duralite and when Igot through to Jack Price himself we had what Ithought was a productive conversation. Of course he started off with the standard stuff but then when he realized that it wasn't going to work he changed his tune and said we would work it out. Since Icould not ship the batteries Isent him the same pics posted below. He was supposed to call once they arrived and we could go from there. Well no call came,just a one sentence email that read. "Those Batteries were purchased a year ago and we are not prepared to offer any type of compesation."
Now myfriend told me it was closer to six months buteither wayit shouldn't matter. He is a very simple guywhen it comes to his hobby and that is if it works he will never change andif you screw him you justlost his business.That is great, but for most of us $1500.00 is ahuge portion of our modeling allowance and to just have itremoved and nothing to show for it is a terrible thing.
Anyhow Ihope that this gets out to as many people as possible because manufactureslike this one prey on the guy who trusts them in the beginning and then gets ripped off.To add insult to injury then they are told it was there fault in the first place.
Thanks for listening
Chip Hyde