hi all, and a happy start to your new-year! Unfortunetly I have a deep concern, and troubling issue I want to address. To either put it to rest, or put some cells to the test! Over the holidays I purchased a couple 5s 4600mah Xtreme TP packs from a rather large online RC store (and at this time am not going to disclose the name until my "fears" are proven one way or another) .
_Here is my issue- I THINK I MAY HAVE 2 BUNK T.P. LI-PO'S!!!! And I will be sending them to the factory to find out officially. BUT, I would like to ask the rest of you in the RC community if anyone has run into something like this before, and if so... what were the tell tail signs?
I would like some responses before I explain my reasons for this post (why I think they are not "real" thunder power packs). So... PLEASE!!!! Anyone who has had a doubt, or "hunch" that they may have bought or seen what you thought was not a genuine thunder power pack, SPEAK NOW!!! or keep letting us pay premium $, for cells that are nothing but a "big" name.

how can u tell?

If I were Charlie Wang, I'd be worried too

Counterfeit products do exist.
Another problem is the Grey Market. Grey market products are made by the true manufacturer but are often lesser quality than items specially made to conform to standards of more demanding countries. Some Grey market things are sent to low or zero tax countries where a seller buys them at a huge discount and sells them as example in the USA at a higher profit margin. The problem is they are marked with model number suffixes or serial numbers. Returns and warranty on Grey Market stuff is usually rejected.
Example, unsuspecting buyer sees $200 off on a $1200 camera and buys it. It don't work. Sends it to warranty repair center, it is rejected, and buyer must deal with the seller.
I got skewered on a 430L 3500 and BL-35G that was Grey market. Align rejected warranty repair, the esc lasted 2 hours and the motor not much longer. I repaired the motor and after some courteous negotiating with Align's repair center, they offered to replace it for $25. So, I ended up paying ~ $75 for a BL-35G.
It's rough out there, many intelligent idiots choose to copy someone else's product when all along they had the ability to design their own.

CH

I buy unsashamed cheap chinese cells. At half the price of 'branded' Mostly they are very very good indeed.

I never know from one month to the next what 'brand' will be on them.

From what very few comparisons I have done the market 'brand leaders' are nothing special, they use the same cells you can get at far less cost, with other badges on. Usually things like 'Happy RC" or 'Smiling Suzies HOT RC pax' or something weird.

If they hold up at 10C and don't get hot, I fly em. I am not into shaving the last gram of weight or squeezing the last watt out of anything. I'd rather have a 2s 2000 pack for $40 that will do 20A, than a 1500 pack at $80, that will just about do 25A for 4 minutes a flight, and is toast in 20 flights.

k, from what I understand, there are only 4 manufactures of li-po's in the world. the best "formulation" and quality "assured" cells go to the highest bidders. If you have been in rc for any length of time you know the names. and fyi, the big 4(li-po)batt. companies, are also buying their cells, not making them!
_so, I feel like a dog chasing its tail in circles...
I like to fly large electrics, where do I buy the f#!^%?g li-po's!

oh, yeah, thunder power... told me to send them a digital "pic",
and brushed it off as I would do if someone was telling me something I already knew