How to avoid fake car battery in uae?

[Gaurav]

In my Pajero last year I got the battery changed from one of the trusted shop in Satwa and to my surprise battery has died last night. It must be just over a month after the one year warranty over. Usually, this behavior happens in the cheapest car battery like Solite and AC Delco and to avoid this annual headache I opted for Yuasa - Made in Japan and paid 350+ instead of 200-250 dhs.

Just a few days back I have been to Abu Dhabi to put some kms on this new engine, so battery must be fully charged. Then I used the car for office for a day and the next day when I picked up the car, the battery died completely that I'm unable to jump start with Range Rover and Trailblazer. I even left Trailblazer jump start for 45 mins thinking it will boost the battery but nothing happened.

Took the picture last night to find a replacement and while searching just now to find this battery dimensions, I got surprised that none of the Yuasa batteries looks like this one at all. I searched for almost all the regions and they have different branding, color scheme but never made such a bland printed battery. Then I spotted the term "Reference only" means (and I assume) that this must be fake Yuasa battery that did the offset single color printing and used all specs of Yuasa and its logo and wrote "Reference only" in a very clever spot. Yuasa does use white color printing but that has MF written on a huge font and not minuscule like this one and also they write the battery number like YT-12B-S and along with the website address. None of the Yuasa batteries images I have seen in google carrying this "Reference only" term. And even the recycle icon should not have a lead symbol (Pb) underneath it. Yes, it does sound like spot the difference contest...!

I am sure majority of the buyers when distress with a died battery will not give time to check these brand colors, logo, graphics, website address, battery number etc. and will definitely never understand what does "Reference only" means (its fake).

So next time you buy any car battery in UAE, just google search same brand, type, and spec to see if the exact identical image appears or not.

[stig]

If you have the bill, it should have a warranty card with a matching serial no. 
I'm sure you can take it to the consumer forum and the shop selling the spurious battery would be fined heavily. Atleast 20,000 aed, from my knowledge.

[Gaurav]

Yes indeed, that's what I am still trying to search the bill and warranty card but I had a recent engine change on this car, so all stuff is packed and in a great mess in various places.

[desertdude]

Thats a new one! Looks like a chinese job since all their English print work are like this. Seems like they just took a google image and printed that. Since English is so poor no one realized that reference only shouldn't be included.

This point will make sense to anyone who has ever come across those pirated 10dhs  4 movies per disc DVDs and tired to read the back cover only to realise its just a lot of words in English put together which make no sense at all. The pirates are just happy there is a lot of English back there and in China pretty much most of the population can't read English anyway so it doesnt matte to them anyways.

[Gaurav]

Thanks, Stig for your suggestion, but unfortunately I can't find the bill, but will still give it a go as that shop owner knows me for over 10 years. lololol.

Desertdude, this English issue what you think is one way to look at it, but I feel it is there to protect them for a legal battle from Yuasa, by saying all these specs are for reference only similar to Yuasa battery.

[stig]

Any updates on this, Gaurav?

[Gaurav]

I got the bill and it was 1 year and 3 months old purchased. On further diagnose mechanic found and change the starter motor and car started fine. So actually it was a starter issue than the battery so until battery dies I can't blame the battery tbh, but battery branding and labelling looks quiet shady and different than other Yuasa battery on all over the internet.

[hAwX]

only changed the AC delco battery once in the qashqai.. All other times, got lucky as it dies within the warranty period.. 2nd last time it died 3 days before the warranty ends! therefore I love AC Delco x)