I actually had a battery for a drill meltdown on me earlier this year. If I hadn't been home (and it hadn't been on my stone counter when it happened), I probably wouldn't have a home.
Was it a brand name battery, or a discount battery? When you look at the price of the price of replacement Ryobi/Milwaukee/Dewalt etc batteries, and then see third-party knockoffs on Amazon for 1/3 or less of the price, it's tempting to save money.
I really scaled back when I started going back and looking at old purchases, only to find out 8 of my last purchases were all counterfeit stuff. These were not just random electronic resellers. They were Lucky jeans, a Microsoft keyboard, a JBL bluetooth speaker, Under Armour shorts, Adidas work out tshirts and some other stuff. But altogether, I thought I was buying brand name, safe stuff that was priced in the same range as stuff you'd buy retail and I still got burned.
Just made me distrust everything I was seeing on Amazon.
A lot of brand name clothing manufacturers don't sell their products on Amazon anymore. So you can assume anything with a brand name across many clothing types to be counterfeit and not worth buying. It seems like shoes are one of the few (at least in Germany) where you're still getting legit products.
The problem is that Amazon will sell things on your behalf and just puts all identical items in the same bin, since on paper they are fungible.
In reality, scum bags are going out and buying cheap counterfeit junk, sending it to Amazon, which just throws it in the bin with every other item. Then someone buys it and gets a counterfeit one.
The jeans I liked so I went and bought some at an actual Lucky Brand store. Not sure if you've ever felt Lucky Jeans but they're super soft. Mine were not the same denim or cotton they used. Mine felt rough, not as good quality.
Same thing with the keyboard. I ordered one off of the MS site. Got it and started using it for my work keyboard and immediately grabbed the other one I was using for my personal work. Subtle differences, but the one I got on Amazon was not the same. Rubber on the mouse was different the keys felt different, they had a different sound than the real one.
The JBL speaker my son pointed out the inconsistency in the logo letters. Got his real JBL cans and showed me - it was close to the naked eye, but when you saw it against the legit logo it was obvious.
The shorts and work out gear had that Chinese factory smell when it came. If you've ever bought stuff directly from China, you know what I'm talking about. Again, pulled out some of my other stuff I had bought that I knew was real and same thing, logo inconsistencies, poor stitching in areas, different thread than the originals.
Again, I ended up catching all these well after the fact, but the fact remains that stuff I thought I was buying on Amazon, was not. The troubling thing is it happened across products I would never suspect would be counterfeited.
Its all over it, just look. "100% compatible with the originals." if nothing else.
Do you see original logos? Do you see it mentioned over and over how its original or OEM? You shouldn't be looking for reasons why its not a good buy, on such places you should expect it as default and try to give reasons why it actually may be an OK buy.
I simply wouldn't be buying such things from Amazon to start with, since seller can easily put those words there for quick profit, stickers can be fake and that's about the remote analysis that can be done, reviews are often gamed and useless. Its aliexpress/temu equivalent, nothing more.
If you understand that the battery management controller is built into the battery pack and not the tool itself, the temptation to save money is replaced entirely by the fear of burning down a building. Not worth it.
Nah, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Fundamental attribution error and all that. Plus, the 'Boots Theory' is a reality for a lot of people.
Ultimately, society only works on a foundation of trust. We trust that our food is safe, our medicine is effective, and our products won't explode. When folks have that trust broken, I view it as a systemic failure, not a personal one.
I've grown up with power tools and can easily recognize a no-name brand, so maybe my bias is showing. A big clue is that it is found on Amazon only and no other sites with reputable sales of power tools. Another clue is when the descriptions are broken English from a bad translation. There are all sorts of red flags that are obvious when you know to look for them. Even the brand name items are suspect for the simple fact they are listed on Amazon. I trust nothing with comingling inventory and other Amazon shenanigans. I'd trust Harbor Freight before anything purchased from Amazon
This is why I keep lithium batteries in a steel box when they aren't being used. I think you can but purpose built ones, but I use steel ammo boxes from military surplus stores. Its a bit of a pain, and won't stop the toxic clouds of smoke from filling my house, but it could very well prevent my house from being burnt down.
Some day I might make a dedicated battery box corner with a vent to outdoors though because batteries only seem to be getting bigger and more powerful.
~15 years ago I was visiting New Orleans, and I had an old Canon 1D DSLR with me. I was a little nervous about leaving my camera batteries charging in the small b&b where I was staying, fearing I'd unintentionally destroy a historic house.
