Rating: - Product no good, worst customer service, EVER
Well, I bought the PowerPad 160 (not cheap, those things are like $400) last fall. Last month the thing went dead. It would not charge at all. So I called customer service, and was told that they'll give me an exchange after I send in the proof of purchase. By the way, customer service over there = 1 person (Michael). So I did, and nothing happened for days. Called back, apparently whoever received the proof of purchase never informed customer service. Finally, their RMA department (possibly the same person), according to Michael, gave the exchange approval and told me RMA number is on the way. So I wait for another week...nothing. Called back, apparently there's another communication breakdown. No one bothered to call or email the RMA number and instruction. By the way, they don't ever return your calls. So leaving messages is pointless, you'll just have to keep calling. So I got the instruction over the phone, and was told that they will ship out a brand new replacement unit the day after the old unit is received. So I overnighted my old unit. Almost another week went by, nothing came. So I called again for the tracking number. This guy told me: "I got your message and was about to call you. But I can't read the tracking number I wrote down so let me look it up." A few minutes later, he came back and said "I can't find the tracking number, it hasn't been entered into the system" (hmmm....interesting, Michael, I though you just wrote it down and was about to call me)..."however, we did sent out your replacement unit on Thursday and you should receive it today or tomorrow." So I thought I'd finally get the new powerpad. So the next morning, while waiting anxiously for the UPS delivery, I get a call from electrovaya. Someone from electrovaya had just informed me that they received the unit I sent, it is unrepairable and since I've had it for 7 months so it exceeded the 6 month warranty, there's nothing they can do but to safely dispose it. Wait a minute; I said, for the last 3 weeks, I've been told a new unit was on the way! So the woman goes talk to Michael (customer service department). 10 minutes later, I find out that nothing was shipped out, he made up the whole thing about the exchange approval, they make a bad product that breaks as soon as warranty is up, nobody talks to each other, nobody knows what's going on, they need to improve internal communication, and oh yeah, you just wasted a bunch of money. Hey, electrovaya, there's this thing Alexander Gram Bell invented in 1875 called the telephone, use it! So I hope the $400 some dollars was a nice bonus for some proud electrovaya employee and made his kids happy over last Christmas. Or use it to cover overhead used to fire the customer service department. In conclusion, their product is crap, people I've dealt with over there are clueless and dishonest. If you are looking for an external batter, check out Valence at http://www.valence.com, a US company with a cheaper, and mostly likely, better product.
Rating: - unique capability for >12 hrs laptop time
I purchased an Electrofuel (now Electrovaya) pp160A for my compaq laptop two years ago when they first came out (at the time Electrofuel in Canada was just transitioning from a tiny startup company to a manufacturer). It worked as advertised (I think the puffing up comment is nonsense) to provide clean power for extended intervals with 4 hr recharge. This week it has worn out and now I am purchasing a new one despite the high price tag because nothing else compares to this product. Electrovaya says to expect 300-400 recharge cycles before it dies, so 160w unit preferred over 120w unit to give you the longest amount of time before having to replace this pretty expensive battery. It gets 3 stars because 2 years is a bit short for a $400 product (look around on the internet and find cheaper prices...)
Rating: - It is no good.
The Electrovaya PowerPads "Puff Up" and become very ugly and dangerous looking. Here is a quote from the director of sales: "...the battery can over-discharge and the cells can be damaged. In some cases when a stored PowerPad was later charged it puffed. The puffing was actually a good thing in that this is how the battery was designed." Electrovaya has now reduced the length of their warranty to 6 months because they no longer like to support their PowerPads. I have seen this happen to 70% of PowerPads within 1 year of use. I would not recommend this product in any way!
Battery High Cap 160w for Acer Compaq Fujitsu Gateway IBM Reviews
- 
-