Bad experience with Alibaba battery provider -- can this battery be saved?

[snout]

Hello Segway people!

In another thread here (about someone else's experience with a good Chinese aftermarket battery supplier), I mentioned my experiences with a bad supplier, but I think my story needs its own thread (as a warning).

Here's the company: Shenzhen UNC Battery Company

my contact was "Pascal Hu", aka "Jack Hu", or "MouHai Hu"

The story: A couple of years ago, I was looking for replacement Segway batteries, so I checked on Aliexpress, where several companies were advertising their aftermarket batteries. I can't remember what finally led me to choose Shenzhen UNC...I think it's because they claimed they were OEMs for Segway, because they had a 1-year warranty, and also because "Pascal" was very responsive to my emails.

In addition to asserting they were an OEM for Segway, they also promised that they had a new and improved BMS (battery management system) in their batteries, that the BMS worked via Bluetooth to communicate with your phone, and that you could choose from several chemistries, including ternary cells that offered ridiculous range.

I opted for some cells that were supposed to have the standard chemistry with slightly improved range over the originals.

When the batteries arrived, they were obviously screwed shut with caulk around the edges for extra sealing. The batteries were held shut with zip ties while the caulk/glue cured on the trip here. I asked about the bluetooth app -- "oh, it's buggy and doesn't work". Hmm.

I installed my batteries and charged them for 24 hours, then took the Segway for a ride. All seemed fine.
I parked the Segway for ~10 days unplugged, and when I plugged in the Segway 10 days later, I got a red light from one of the battery packs.
I tried to contact Pascal. He did not reply to my emails. Eventually, I wrote the WeChat number on the website as an interested customer, and he got back to me right away.
When I explained the problem, he explained that the type I'd chosen was very finicky and was prone to failure. When I asked him for a replacement, he explained that this model was no longer made (because it was prone to failure) but that he'd give me $525 credit toward some new-and-improved batteries instead. And then he said "they're $1600 a pair, so you get them for $1075", but I checked online and the batteries were selling for around $1200, so he was actually offering me about $ld paste in the conversation here.
Anyway, he'd already taken ~$1000 of my money for a product that he admitted later was "not stable". I was not eager to send him another $1000 hoping to get a battery that would actually work. I ended up buying some nearly-new genuine Segway batteries from eBay instead.

So there's my story. If you go to the website linked above, you'll see that they still offer battery "refills" -- the cells, but I don't see the BMS or the case. They still assert that they use the OEM batteries.

My advice: stay away from Shenzhen UNC battery company!