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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

Budget Gadgets Scammed Me.

Joined
Apr 27, 2010
Messages
51
Points
8
Hey guys I'm super frustrated by my order with Budget Gadgets. About a month ago I purchased a 200mW new style dilda along with some of their rechargeable batteries. After waiting 15 days for it to get here and having some trouble with USPS trying to send it back to the company, it finally arrives. When I get home I charge up the batteries and after their done charging i let them sit for like 30 min because their really hot off the charger and I didn't want to over power anything. When I put the batteries in I turn the laser on and in less than a second there's an loud "POP!" Concerned by this I immediately take out the batteries and smoke pours out of the Housing. The smoke smelled horrible and I know what a overloaded resistor smells like so I figured a resistor blew.

I was pretty disappointed with this so I tried contacting the company through email and I received no reply from then until I had sent about 3 emails about the problem during a period of a week. Their reply was "We are so sorry for the condition you have encountered. According to the email we received, maybe the laser has been burned out by the battery, for the power of the battery will be a little higher than normal when it is just powered. The battery should be used later when it is just powered. If convenient, could you please change another battery and have a try? And any video about the problem will be appreciated, we will send it to the QC Department for rechecking. Thank you very much for your understanding and kindness."

I told them I didn't have the ability to record a video and I couldn't afford to go buy a camera. Their reply to me was "Considering the risk during the international delivery process, it will be better to send us a video about it for the further checking of QC Department, before it was sent back to us. And we will decide the next step after checking the video." I really wanted this fixed and a couple days after their email I borrowed my friends camera and recorded a video of the laser with a new set of CR2 batteries that I bought.

I sent them the recording and I received no reply. So i tried sending it once a day for about 3 more days, but I still have received absolutely no reply from Budget Gadgets about my laser.

I've posted some pictures below of the damage to the laser. If anyone thinks they're all able to fix it that would be great also. Has anyone else had any problems with Budget Gadgets?
 

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  • Laser In Presentation Box.jpg
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  • Laser Parts Layout.jpg
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  • Damaged Battery B (Farthest from Circuit Board).jpg
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  • Front Of Circuit Board.jpg
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  • Back Of Circuit Board.jpg
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  • Diagram Of Front Of Circuit Board (Close Up).jpg
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  • Diagram Of Back Of Circuit Board (Close Up).jpg
    Diagram Of Back Of Circuit Board (Close Up).jpg
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Mik

0
Joined
Apr 9, 2010
Messages
248
Points
0
At least the batteries didn't vent! Your batteries should NEVER be hot coming off of the charger, so chances are, you were overcharing them A LOT. This is dangerous in itself, so consider yourself lucky the batteries didn't vent fire or explode, and you were not injured.
 
Joined
Apr 27, 2010
Messages
51
Points
8
@rangedunits I have asked for an exchange and/or a refund via email but they just don't reply to me at all anymore. Its been very frustrating :banghead:
 
Joined
Apr 27, 2010
Messages
51
Points
8
At least the batteries didn't vent! Your batteries should NEVER be hot coming off of the charger, so chances are, you were overcharing them A LOT. This is dangerous in itself, so consider yourself lucky the batteries didn't vent fire or explode, and you were not injured.
@Mik Yeah thats true, I tried using the batteries before I charged them but they seemed dead. Perhaps this problem is from the charger itself because I bought the charger along with my laser from budget gadgets.
 

Mik

0
Joined
Apr 9, 2010
Messages
248
Points
0
Most of the little rechargeable CR2's that I've seen, say that they are 3.0 or 3.6v. I don't know what chemistry they really are, because China does not tell us - but we should observe that a charger made for ICR/IMR cells should not be used with them unless you can lower the voltage on the charger. ICR/IMR chargers should run at 4.2v max, which would seemingly be too much for the rated voltage on these CR2s. I am guessing that the 3.0v ones are LiFe, which would also validate why we don't hear about them blowing up all the time due to accidental overcharging, or overdischaring one of the cells in series while the other is still strong.

I have a few of these here myself, but I haven't charged them yet. I was planning on charging them as if they were LiFe and see how it goes. Potentially dangerous things like this need to have a little better damn documentation from China. :/
 
Joined
Feb 21, 2008
Messages
1,056
Points
0
How did you pay? Was it Paypal? Can you still dispute the transaction, or is it too late? You may well be getting a runaround from them designed to make you give up on getting a refund or replacement. At worst, you have a host, and will need to buy an LPC-815 diode and a rkcstr driver in order to make the laser work again. If they will not help you, you will have to do a DIY laser in this host. It should come out quite nicely. By the way, was there any chance that the batteries got inserted backwards? Some drivers blow when this happens. Yours looks like it dead-shorted, maybe a solder bridge from the factory. Hard to know.
 
Joined
Apr 27, 2010
Messages
51
Points
8
How did you pay? Was it Paypal? Can you still dispute the transaction, or is it too late? You may well be getting a runaround from them designed to make you give up on getting a refund or replacement. At worst, you have a host, and will need to buy an LPC-815 diode and a rkcstr driver in order to make the laser work again. If they will not help you, you will have to do a DIY laser in this host. It should come out quite nicely. By the way, was there any chance that the batteries got inserted backwards? Some drivers blow when this happens. Yours looks like it dead-shorted, maybe a solder bridge from the factory. Hard to know.
@billg519 I did pay through Paypal although I don't have a Paypal account. I do have a receipt of the transaction and I don't know if it's to late to dispute the charge, i will try though. There is also no chance that I put the batteries in wrong because I inserted them based on the instructions at bugdetgadgets(dot)com. Your idea of a solder bridge is also something I'm going to take a further look at but we'll see if i can see anything. :thanks:
 
Joined
Sep 20, 2008
Messages
17,622
Points
113
If it has been less that 45 days since the PayPal payment was sent...
You can open a Dispute Claim to try to get your money back by receiving
a defective item...

Jerry
 

wlaser

0
Joined
Apr 8, 2010
Messages
13
Points
0
Log into your paypal quickly, Dispute or claim.
Paypal will definitely on your way to take care of this. Because we are in the U.S, our paypal accout have premier paypal buyer protection over the non-us Seller.
 
Joined
May 4, 2009
Messages
5,443
Points
113
If they sold you the battries and the charger for this laser then they don't have a leg to stand on, quick file that claim with PP.
 
Joined
Nov 21, 2009
Messages
318
Points
28
Hey guys I'm super frustrated by my order with Budget Gadgets. About a month ago I purchased a 200mW new style dilda along with some of their rechargeable batteries. After waiting 15 days for it to get here and having some trouble with USPS trying to send it back to the company, it finally arrives. When I get home I charge up the batteries and after their done charging i let them sit for like 30 min because their really hot off the charger and I didn't want to over power anything. When I put the batteries in I turn the laser on and in less than a second there's an loud "POP!" Concerned by this I immediately take out the batteries and smoke pours out of the Housing. The smoke smelled horrible and I know what a overloaded resistor smells like so I figured a resistor blew.

I was pretty disappointed with this so I tried contacting the company through email and I received no reply from then until I had sent about 3 emails about the problem during a period of a week. Their reply was "We are so sorry for the condition you have encountered. According to the email we received, maybe the laser has been burned out by the battery, for the power of the battery will be a little higher than normal when it is just powered. The battery should be used later when it is just powered. If convenient, could you please change another battery and have a try? And any video about the problem will be appreciated, we will send it to the QC Department for rechecking. Thank you very much for your understanding and kindness."

I told them I didn't have the ability to record a video and I couldn't afford to go buy a camera. Their reply to me was "Considering the risk during the international delivery process, it will be better to send us a video about it for the further checking of QC Department, before it was sent back to us. And we will decide the next step after checking the video." I really wanted this fixed and a couple days after their email I borrowed my friends camera and recorded a video of the laser with a new set of CR2 batteries that I bought.

I sent them the recording and I received no reply. So i tried sending it once a day for about 3 more days, but I still have received absolutely no reply from Budget Gadgets about my laser.

I've posted some pictures below of the damage to the laser. If anyone thinks they're all able to fix it that would be great also. Has anyone else had any problems with Budget Gadgets?

I think the photos prove beyond all doubt the module failed...catastrophically.They owe you a new laser.I wonder if the LD was a dead short, because it looks like a lot of current flowed on that pcb!
Good luck and keep us posted.A video would add nothing to the pictures you took.

I hope it works out for you!
 
Joined
Apr 27, 2010
Messages
51
Points
8
Hey guys, thanks for all the help and suggestions. I'm filing a claim with my bank and PP but we'll see what happens. ;) I've been fighting with budget gadgets for a while now so its nice to see some kind of positive turn around with some help from you guys on the forum. Thank you everyone for the replies, I'll keep you all posted on what happens. :thanks:
 

HIMNL9

0
Joined
May 26, 2009
Messages
5,318
Points
0
Hi, i'm sorry to have to say this, but there's the possibility that you placed the batteries reversed, and burned the module yourself ?

See what i mean: from your pics, is evident that the module blowed up near the contact spring, probably shooting a flash in the battery direction ..... and, always from your pics, there's evidence that the battery pic that you posted, have blows marks on the positive side (and no blow signs on the negative side, at least for that what is visible in the pic), where all the known green modules have the spring that must be powered from the negative side of the battery, with the positive on the cap side ..... also, from the same pic, you can see a semicircular mark on the positive contact, like the one that can be left from the spring border, that in the module pic is displaced from the center, and, probably, was making contact only with part of the border .....

I mean ..... that from the pic that you've posted, the battery shows the blow marks on the positive side, like if the positive was in contact with the spring, near the zone with the blowed components of the driver, as if it was placed in the host reversed .....

If so, there's no way that they accept your refund request ..... no sellers can accept to refund a laser, if they can have the proof that is the user that blowed it .....



EDIT: i'm speaking about the green module just cause the first pic shows a laser with a label indicating a green beam (can't clearly read the wavelenght, but the draw is the one of a green beam) ..... ut i can be wrong, the showed model looks as a "new style dilda" ..... if so, then my idea can be wrong, and i apologize for that.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Nov 8, 2006
Messages
656
Points
0
Hi Conner,
I think you're in luck if you didn't have or sign up for a paypal account.
That means you are protected by the credit card company you used to buy the item. You did use a credit card, correct?
If so you can contest the charges through your credit card account.
In fact, since you didn't have a paypal account, i don't even think you can make a paypal claim.
It's better to just contact your credit card company.
PayPal is not what it use to be, they have changed their user agreement so that you are not really protected at all. If you pay for an item with paypal, the most they will guarantee is that you get a package in mail, If it's the wrong item, that's not covered. If it dies as soon as you turn it on, then as far as paypal goes, the transaction was completed and thats that.
If don't have a paypal account and just used a credit card, your bank will protect you and reverse the charges if the seller doesn't make it right.
Just call the number on the back of the credit card and tell them you want to dispute the charges and they will send you the paperwork. Keep all emails you sent to the company and you will then put them into the dispute form the credit card company sends you.
 




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