I must admit to having a sneaky admiration for them trying it on. But yeah, nope. If the goods are not as described or "not fit for purpose" then they are legally required to provide a full refund including postage and its up to them to arrange collection if they want them back.

I think that's very unlikely to be frank. Samsung would not put out a substandard product bearing genuine markings then simply cover that up with a tacky mis-spelled label with a near identical product number. I think if they were going to do that, they would put on a different heat shrink jacket at the factory with a different product number on it. But honestly I don't think they would risk their business reputation by releasing seconds at all.

I test every battery I buy on my multi-chemistry smart charger. I do a full discharge and then a full charge. If they don't accept the specified mAH then they get returned. I find that genuine Samsung take usually a few tens of mAH over spec. When I buy the product I always put a note to the seller stating that I will be performing this test and will reject any that don't pass. And they still send me the fake ones and end up having to eat the return costs.

@@timlong7289 How you discharge them?

Glad it was helpful!

You probably don't, but if the photo shows those stickers then they are most likely fake. I always make sure to buy from somewhere that I know I can get my money back if they are fake, so eBay or Amazon and pay using PayPal if possible. I also state in the comments box when placing the order, that the order is subject to the batteries accepting the manufacturer's specified charge on my smart charger after one discharge/charge cycle, or they will be rejected and the sale cancelled. However, most people don't have smart chargers so there is probably no way you can even detect a fake.

After discharge you need to charge them again and cross reference the results.

@@clixium Of course. There are several things you need to check. Resistance etc.

I usually run a discharge-charge cycle and measure the amount of full charge it accepts from empty (my charger does this automatically). For genuine batteries, I find that gives a value pretty close to the manufacturer's data sheet. Obviously if it accepts less than the expected full charge, then that's an issue because as you say, there will be some losses so you would expect it to be slightly over what the data sheet says. However, LiPos and LIons don't really get hot when charged correctly so that isn't a significant factor. Therefore as a "smoke test" I find this technique works well enough to detect a fraud. Typically you will find that fakes are significantly under spec, hundreds or thousands of mAh, far more than can be attributed to any energy lost during charging.

@@timlong7289 Well, if your only goal is to spot a fake, you simply need to charge/discharge for 30 minutes or so and see how much the voltage changes. Based on that, you can in 99% cases make an educated guess if it is fake or not.

Interesting. But would not unmeasured heat also escape when testing by discharging? How does one "see how much you can get out of the battery"?

I don't have any expertise with solar battery systems, sorry!

That's why you should always pay with PayPal. Then you have two levels of protection if anything goes wrong. I've always found eBay very helpful. I've only had to open a dispute a handful of times, and I've won every time and always got all my money back.

You're being a bit naive. These were either outright fake or possibly recycled used batteries being sold as new. So they may well have been tested at some point, but these would not have passed testing at the time I bought them as new, since they were accepting a much reduced charge.

That's fairly common practice in some industries (e.g. semiconductors). However, they wouldn't then sell it as the same item - so its not really true to say that is a fake (it is a genuine item but with a different brand or product name). As long as you know what you are buying from the outset, then that is an honest practice and I'm all on board with that. The ones I show in the video are sold as something they are not. That is dishonest and illegal.

I use them for all sorts of things. I think those particular ones are now powering some radio control equipment.

@@timlong7289 here in my country I can't get my hands on any of the high drain cells... and there import is illegal.thats why I got triggered.

Thanks for the tip about the Panasonic batteries, I will try those next time I buy.