[geeks] Burned by bad batteries

[hike]

Even Duracells will leak if left for long periods of time in devices.  I
have experienced this with the regular style (tube shaped) for Duracell,
Everyready, RayVac batteries.  I never leave batteries in devices that I
canbt check periodically.


On Thu, Mar 6, 2014 at 3:18 AM, <microcode at zoho.com> wrote:

> We talked about counterfit batteries recently. During one of my
> unsuccessful
> attempts to find real Duracells here (although my wife finally found some
> at
> a great price in shop near her office) I was told several times that "GP is
> the best" by people working in shops that didn't have what I asked for. It
> is customary here for the guy working in a store to swear with all his
> might
> that whatever you want is not available at all- never heard of it, not
> brought into the country, illegal to import, junk anyway, blah blah blah.
> Then they will try to sell you junk that is worse than you can possibly
> imagine while showering praise on it and swearing it is the best you can
> get. Basically, being honest and telling the truth does not show up on
> their
> radar.
>
> This was getting old, so in the next place when I asked for Duracells and
> got the answer that "GP is the best" I was heading for the door. The
> impatient, irritated SOB called after me and said "I don't understand why
> you play 20 questions and then don't buy anything!" as if I'm obligated to
> buy dangerous, defective junk from people with attitude problems. Have a
> nice day, bastard!
>
> I know from the rest of the crap they put out under that name that GP is
> not
> only not the best, but is right up there vying for the very worst. I was
> unfortunate enough to have been burned by some of their other junk in the
> past. Some years ago I bought 2 expensive floor fans that died after 3
> months of usage. I went back to the store that sold them and the GP rep
> took
> the fans and promised to swap them out for replacements. I kept hearing the
> fans were on the way over to my house but he never replaced the fans. In a
> weak moment my wife bought a multipack of GP AAAs to use in some digital
> clocks. I thought I was careful to not put them in anything important, but
> I
> remembered wrong.
>
> I left two GP AAAs in an old mint-condition Palm Pilot and today it was
> proven that it was a bad idea. One of them leaked all over the battery
> compartment and out the battery door. I was able to clean up the visible
> mess altough I didn't open the unit itself. I washed off the battery door
> in soapy water. I cleaned up the battery compartment with what passes for a
> q-tip over here and then swabbed the compartment out with a chemical that
> has proven ok to use for cleaning up used electronic gear housings.
>
> There is some damage to the plastic on the case and the door but at least
> it
> shouldn't get worse now. I'm disappointed because the old Palm was pristine
> before this. I'm sure some of you can relate.
>
> I don't anticipate that people elsewhere except perhaps in China would ever
> be afflicted by this brand but since it is now being sold on eBay I thought
> it would be nice to let you know what I found out, so you don't try to save
> money the hard way!
>
> --
> I was a programmer in the 1970s and I still am.
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