Hybrid battery replacment options

I may limp over from Virginia to TX when the time comes

 

I had my battery go out in my 05 Prius and went through what everyone else went through. I googled it and then called the local dealership and after the sticker shock I called the local parts store and was right about to pull the trigger on that when I found a company that will do everything for you. The company I called was a legitimate one and I talked to one of the service guys. He directed me to someone who does it on the side for less. I know what some people might be thinking that was the place I messed up and they would be right.
I screened the guy on the phone and asked him a bunch of questions and especially about his warranty vs the others. He seemed nice on the phone and he did provide me with a warranty ( even if it was a generic sales receipt slip with very basic warranty info hand written in the description or parts area)
This was a huge mistake and horrible experience. below is one of the Better business complaints filed about him. Since he works for one company during the day, buys or at least deals with another company to get refurbished batteries and also runs his side business, it is hard to nail him down exactly and not tie in his associates even though they might be innocent of any of Alex Tishin's wrongdoings.

Summary. Alex Tishin a 1 man operation out of small private garage selling refurbished batteries on the side AKA HybridOnly/HybridPlus supplied me with two Bad prius Hybrid batteries, horrible customer service, and left me without a car for almost a month!. The 1st battery purchased 3/25/2015 failed completely in June. After 2 weeks of daily attempts to get service from him I had to call anybody that knew him and anyone I could find explaining my frustration and desire to get a hold of him and/or escalate my complaint and only then did that get his attention. I do not have a second car and being without one was very disruptive to my work and life. I asked Alex on the phone about what he was going to do about the battery and leaving me stranded. He said tough luck. Not only that but the replacement battery would not come with another warranty! I told him that this was wrong on multiple levels and I would report him. He became combative and said that he has great lawyers and to bring it on. I was finally able to get him to agree to honor what little warranty remained. This involved me driving 3 hours to pick up a questionable battery on 6/25/2016 and I SPECIFICALLY asked him if he was going to give me a good battery replacement or poor one, or pull some type of stunt which he replied he would not give me a bad one or turn me away. That was a lie. I had a feeling that he would try and pull some stunt, luckily I showed up with my wife and a video camera and he changed he tune slightly. He still refused to be on camera but after giving me the run around and making me jump through hoops I was finally able to get another (poor) battery that I had to pay someone else to install after a 3 hour return drive. Horrible experience. I should have bought the battery somewhere else and not went the cheap route. This could have all been avoided with better customer service and product. AVOID ALEX TISHIN at all costs!!

 

Maybe not, but my Toyota replacement HV battery is certainly degraded at about 21 months in. My guess, based on the failure pattern of the original (which failed at 117 months), is that it will last the additional 15 months to get to the 36 that they're warranting for now, but perhaps not much more. But it's close. I'd say it's acting like my original did 12-18 months before the P0A80.

 

How has it degraded?

 

Dimished capacity: spending more time in purple and green states, and battery fan more frequently running audibly, especially after a run from purple to green. Not the instant-empty, instant-full, constant fan of an imminent failure, but, well, degraded. Who knows, maybe it'll go on 7 years like this, but again, my original battery acted like this for about a year and a half, before entering a new regime of instantly filling and emptying and constantly fanning for about 5 days before the code. I'm the original owner, so I'm familiar with how 2 new batteries acted.

 

I think my new battery acts similar to what you're describing, but it's much stronger than any of the older batteries I have.

I think when it cools down after summer, the battery will be back to normal behavior again

 

That is a great deal. Almost makes me wish that I live in TX.

Glenn