As many of you know, China is flooding our market with grade B, used, factory reject, and rewrap cells. Unfortunately, even a great company like Headway has to deal with companies that have the same unethical business practices that seems to plague the Chinese marketplace. This epidemic is more complex and much larger than people may think. As a battery recycler that knows the market very well, we are well aware of batteries being offered by competitors that are dishonest and putting us at risk for profit. Batteries that are not genuine and did not pass quality control and UN testing are dangerous and at best will degrade rapidly because they don't contain enough Cobalt and often use low grade and cheap materials. The refining value of genuine lithium batteries from companies like LG, Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, etc is 4 times more than most Chinese batteries. That is evaluating the cells at a strictly material level.
Our company gets in slightly used, genuine Headway batteries every few months and they sell out within a week or two. They are usually a year or two old and still have 95-100% of original capacity. We test every cell and market them accurately. We clearly sell them as used and price them accordingly. As a long time supplier of batteries to the DIY community our customers trust us and have sort of "vetted" us, that is why we have a stable business.
I have been trying for a long time to offer new Headway batteries to our customers here in the United States where they can ship the same day from the US and be competitively priced. After negotiating a 6 figure purchase for an initial supply I discovered some websites selling "new" cells for less than we could get them for in a large bulk purchase. I voiced my concerns.
Headway told us companies are selling Grade B and Used batteries as NEW Headway batteries. I want to be very clear, genuine Headway lifepo4 batteries are, in my opinion, the best lifepo4 batteries on the market. That is why I want them to be the first NEW brand of battery that our company offers to our customers. We supply millions of used, overstock, and fully tested genuine batteries to the DIY and small business community, this would be an awesome product to offer. I discovered multiple websites selling these grade B and used cells as new. If you bought them thinking they were new and they don't perform great or last long like genuine Headway batteries perform, then you would think Headway batteries are junk. That is not fair to Headway. Headway is in a very competitive marketplace that is flooded with companies that have no morals. Furthermore, a company like ours trying to make these awesome batteries available to you at a fair price will be undercut by factory reject and used cells being marketed as new by companies and many others found on Aliexpress, Alibaba, and an Australian company I discovered doing the same dishonest tactics. This was my reply to the emaill.
Honestly, I started this company from a 280 sq ft office that I lived in when I was in heavy debt. We have grown fast, my family has taken pay cuts and put off their career paths to help me grow this business. We reinvest every single dime we ever made back into this company to help it grow and to provide genuine batteries at good prices. My original thought was to forget about the Headway deal since there were so many scumbag companies flooding the market and tarnishing the reputation and value of a quality product. I was content with just selling the used Headway cells when we get them in. After much thought, next time our company takes out a working capital loan, we will be investing into being a supplier of Headway batteries here in the United States so that our customers, which have supported my business and my family for so long, can have an outlet to purchase genuine batteries at a fair price. I am making a point to call out companies by name and educate the community on these scams that find their ways into the DIY and small business communities. There are many batteries that have been marketed by other companies and influencers that I know are fakes. Recyclers located particularly in California that get fake and rejected batteries confiscated by US customs and they knowingly sell the batteries without disclosing and hiding the confiscated products they came from because people will be able to connect the dots. Our company will not sit back quietly while others undercut us by lying to our customer base.
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