@sckimvip89,
Everyone’s given you excellent information here. I’ll just add a few additional things.
1. You are incredibly lucky that you haven’t had an exploding battery and deadly fire. Your house, your life, the lives of your family members - all safe. THUS FAR. You should dispose of this dangerous fake safely and don’t attempt to recharge it.
2. However, if you paid through PayPal, you can still seek a refund. As said, eBay’s MBG is for 30 days from date of delivery, but PayPal offer Buyer Protection for 180 days from transaction date. If you were wise enough to use PayPal, you should open a return/refund request.
Now… the issue is that - even though the battery is clearly fake, the listing did say “unbranded”. If your refund request is based on its being a fake, you might run into an issue because the listing as good as said it wasn’t actually Ryobi. But the images led you to believe it was. Does the actual battery you received look like a Ryobi? Does it have Ryobi stamped/printed on it? If so, bring your battery to a Ryobi centre and ask for a statement on letterhead that it’s a fake. Then you can open a claim on the basis that it’s fake.
The fact that a Ryobi image was used should be enough to show intent to deceive.
Bear in mind that PayPal does not - just as eBay does not - provide a product warranty. That is, they give a guarantee that the item purchased is AT THE TIME OF RECEIPT in good working order, undamaged, as described, etc. Focus on condition of item when you received it.
It would be worth phoning PayPal to point out that as a fake it really should just be destroyed rather than returned (no doubt to a Chinese address). Keep in mind that PayPal do not cover the cost of return postage.
3. If you didn’t pay by PayPal, you may be able to have your bank initiate a chargeback. It depends on your specific card’s T&Cs as to whether you are within the timeframe. Again, you should have the statement on official letterhead.
4. If you’re able to be refunded, please take this to heart: the word “warranty” is just a word, and has as little power as a lark’s burp – unless it is backed up and enforced by consumer law within the jurisdiction to which such law applies. If you buy from a seller in China, they could have LIFETIME WARRANTY ON MY SACRED OATH AND THE LIVES OF MY TEN CHILDREN! emblazoned on their ad or listing… and it would mean zilch, nichts, nada.
5. For that matter, if you buy a grey import (genuine item but made for an overseas market - say, France or the US or UK or Botswana or Taiwan), you almost certainly have no warranty because manufacturers seek compliance and safety approvals for each country under those countries’ applicable laws and standards. You may be able to get those items repaired but at your own cost.
6. For electrical and electronic goods, and most particularly for rechargeable batteries, you should buy from a registered Australian business, authorised by the manufacturer/local distributor to sell the specific item you’re buying… and it should be the recommended battery for the product (Makita for Makita product, Ryobi for Ryobi product, etc). Trying to save dollars in this situation is a false (and potentially deadly) economy.
Let us know how you get on. I sincerely hope for a good outcome – but even if you can’t get a refund, at least you have not had to experience a tragedy.
