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amdx[_3_]

On 3/3/2016 2:00 PM, wrote:
I recently sent two Festool NiCd battery packs to Primecell for rebuilding. The charge was $33 each plus $10 for return shipping. UPS charged me $14 to ship the batteries. When I received the rebuilds, one charged and worked fine. The other would not charge, and the LED on the charger indicated a bad battery. I contacted Primecell via email and they refunded the $33 cost of the batteries for the one pack, but not the shipping. I wrote again, asking about getting the problem fixed, and received this surprisingly unfriendly reply:
"There is clearly a problem here that relates to the interface between the charger and the battery. This is not what you paid for - and not what we offered service for. and was unknown to both of us. At present you have a new set of cells at no cost to you. you now need to have your other problem - charger to battery interface - determined and serviced. At present it has cost you nothing. We don't offer more service at no cost and don't pay for return shipping - so I guess if it arrived here as a new order, including the charger and return shipping cost we would look at it. Cost would be less if sent along with another order as well - but as it stands - we can't service it without it being here - so we have taken our loss and have no desire to accept more loss.
We don't know what the cost of repairs will be without seeing both the battery and charger in question. we fix - you pay or if you don't pay - we don't fix."

Well, it was clearly NOT "a problem here that relates to the interface between the charger and the battery," because one of the two packs worked fine. I gave up on Primecell and sent the faulty pack and the charger, along with some other batteries to be rebuilt, to MTO Battery and received this wonderful reply:
"We just received your batteries. We opened the Festool battery and found that there was a connection that was never welded when it was previously rebuilt (photo attached). We will weld it together at no charge for you as a customer service."
So Primcell essentially refused to consider the possibility (now a fact) that they had not done the rebuild properly, was downright snotty in their communications, did not refund the shipping on the one pack, and wanted me to pay additional shipping and fees for repairing their error.
And by the way, Primecell would not rebuild with NiMH batteries, but MTO did.
Please tell me why anyone would choose Primecell over MTO.

Several years ago I had MTO rebuild a couple of Dewalt batteries,
They sent back batteries that were not my original cases. I don't
consider that a problem, but, one of the cases was just a tiny bit
shorter and didn't make a proper connection to my chargers.
MTO sent me another Battery at no charge.
The bent over backwards to make it right.
I second your idea that they are customer oriented.

That said, I have and would still just buy new batteries even though
they are not as good and don't last as long. By the time you paying
shipping and the cost of a rebuild, it's almost the cost of two off
brand batteries from Amazon.
Mikek