MaximumPC 2002 09

Battery Not

Refilled—or Returned

It finally happened to me.

I needed a new battery for my

son’s Sager laptop, so I decid-

ed to try BatteryRefill.com.

You ship them your old bat-

tery; they “refill it” and send

it back to you. My credit card

was charged in early October

and, per the company’s

instructions, I sent the old

battery to them three days

later. The company emailed a

receipt for the battery a week

after that.

Since then, I’ve had only

one contact with the com-

pany (despite my repeated

attempts), and the person I

spoke with over the phone

said the battery would be sent

within five to seven business

days. You can guess what hap-

pened: nothing.

I know, I should have

known better. I just checked

the BBB and saw that

BatteryRefill.com has an F

rating. I should have checked

this first. Can you help me

get both my money and bat-

tery back?

—Doug Novin

Unfortunately, Doug, like you,

the Dog was unable to reach any

humans at BatteryRefill.com.

You’re right though, BatteryRefill.

com gets a big, fat F from the

Better Business Bureau, with 82

complaints racked up in the last

36 months. The BBB indicates

that the Ontario, CA, company

operates under the name eBat-

tery and lists Kay Choi as the pri-

mary contact. Unfortunately, the

Dog was unable to reach a repre-

sentative by following those

leads. A single online search,

however, revealed numerous

posts warning about the compa-

ny’s poor service. As far as the

Dog can tell, the company has

had a hit-or-miss record with

customers over the years. At

Resellerratings.com, some cus-

tomers reported being pretty

tickled to get refilled batteries

very cheap while others had

hair-pulling experiences similar

to yours.

Obviously, what you

should do is immediately call

your credit card company and

dispute the charges. As for the

battery, you probably won’t

get it back, but at least it was

dead, so it has fairly low value.

The lesson for all of us is to do

a little research before making

a purchase.

OS out of Service

After more than 10 years of

building PCs as a hobby, I did

not know that an OEM copy

of Windows dies when the

computer it was installed

on is dismantled. A friend of

mine had his 3-year-old Dell

damaged beyond repair. As

a Maximum PC reader, I told

him to build a new machine

and recycle the parts from

the old PC. The hard drive,

DVD drive, and graphics card

made the jump, but when

I called to reactivate the

Windows XP license, I was

told I could not use it since it

was a preinstalled copy and

the license dies when the

computer it was on dies.

Is that correct? I always

believed that when I pur-

chased a computer with an

OEM version of Windows, I

also purchased a full license

for the OS—not just a “tem-

porary” one.

What happens if I

buy a computer and then

install Linux right away:

Would I be able to legally

use the Windows license

that came with the com-

puter on another machine?

Apparently not. So why am

I allowed to buy an OEM

version of the OS purchased

with a computer compo-

nent, such as memory or a

hard drive? The same situ-

ation doesn’t seem to apply

in the latter case, unless

Microsoft is able to verify

that I’m still using my OEM

OS with the component

it was purchased with.

Something doesn’t seem

right to me. Please shine

some light on this issue.

—Michele Persiani

You bring up a good point,

Michele. Microsoft allows stores

to sell copies of OEM OSes with

single part purchases, such as

a hard drive, mouse, or even a

Y-splitter cable, so what hap-

pens to the OS when you swap

out that part? Here’s the skinny:

Regardless of whether you buy

Our consumer advocate investigates...

 BatteryRefill.com out of Refills?



BatteryRefill.com out of Refills?



BatteryRefill.com out of Refills?

OS Licensing

BatteryRefill.com out of Refills?

OS Licensing

BatteryRefill.com out of Refills?

Recall Roundup

WATCHDOG^

MAXIMUM PC TAKES A BITE OUT OF BAD GEAR

20 |MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC| FEB 09 | http://www.maximumpc.com

IF THE HARD DRIVE TAKES A

DUMP, IF THE VIDEOCARD OR

NIC DIES, NO PROBLEM, YOU

HAVE THE OS REACTIVATED.

EMAIL THE WATCHDOG If you feel you’ve gotten a raw deal and need assistance

setting a vendor straight, email the Dog at [email protected]. Please

include a detailed explanation of your problem as well as any correspondence you

have sent concerning the issue.

BatteryRefi ll.com has a bad reputation with numerous consumer sites.