The series of events are as follows:

1. I purchased a Toshiba replacement laptop battery from www.goodbattery.co.uk for £45 plus £6 P&P. I used Paypal to complete the transaction on my credit card.
2. The battery was dispatched (from China!) but I did not use it until Christmas, as it was a gift for someone else.
3. On Christmas Day the battery was found to be faulty, failing to take a charge and not recognised by the laptop. I contacted the company via email who told me to return the item to their warehouse in China (!) for testing.
4. I did this in line with their returns policy, costing me £6.50
5. They confirmed receipt of battery and agreed that it was faulty. I requested a full refund of the purchase price.
6. They sent a partial refund of £43 to my Paypal account, instead of my credit card, so I incurred £1.88 Paypal fees!
7. I requested the final £2 payment from them but they are now insisting that the £2 was not returned as this is their restocking charge. This is in complete contravention of their returns policy for defective products.


I cannot raise a dispute with Paypal as they only allow disputes to be raised within 45 daysof purchase.
Repeated emails to the Goodbattery company give the same response that this charge is their policy. I have tried to contact them directly, which was when I discovered that the company are not quite who they say they are.

Further research on my part has revealed the company to be operating from bogus UK addresses. I have discovered that:

* The company address on their website is non-existent. It is given as:


Deliton battery INC.
Unit 12,
96 Leicester Road,
East Finchley,
London N2 9EA

which is not recognised by Royal Mail as a valid address and confirmed using Google Streetview. I have also found the websites
www.mylaptopbattery.co.uk
www.batteriesshop.co.uk
www.superbattery.co.uk
www.dailybattery.co.uk
www.batterystores.co.uk/

all operate from this address, so I can only assume they are the same people.

* The company phone number (+44 20 8816 8080) is unusable as the automated message “The number you have dialled has not been recognised…” came through.


* The address used to register the www.goodbattery.co.uk website also appears to be false, again not recognised by Royal Mail.


deliton technology co.ltd
99 Leicester Square
London
WC2H 7LA
United Kingdom

Neither Goodbattery nor Deliton are recognised names in the Companies House database.

So, I'm down £12.50 for P&P, £2 illegal charge, and £1.88 Paypal fees and no battery to show for my efforts. They insist (via email) on a daily basis that it's their policy to charge a fee, and that they are unable to update their website to reflect this (strange, no?!)

So, if looking for a laptop battery, beware of all of these companies.