Customer Reviews:
 Poorly packed, not new condition December 29, 2007
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I paid a premium price to get the APC name-brand battery replacement, only to be hugely disappointed by the condition of the item, and questionable packaging.
You can get batteries from many sources that will fit the same APC backup units, and chances are they may work fine. But I didn't want to chance it, so I paid extra to get the APC brand name, with order fulfillment through Amazon. Good plan, I thought, but it did not work out well at all!
It arrived on time. So far, so good. Inside the Amazon shipping box was another shipping box. The inner box had been opened, then partially resealed with some kind of sticker (not packing tape). Inside the inner box was the battery, surrounded by a specially-cut, corrugated-cardboard contraption that, apparently, was intended to hold the battery in place during shipping.
Presumably, that holder worked at some point. But it had failed badly by the time I saw it. When that little box-within-a-box arrived at my door, the battery had obviously been bouncing around, shredding the edges of the cardboard into dust that coated everything. The battery case also seemed rather smeary and scuffed up besides the dust.
It didn't look right. I wondered whether it had been opened and returned by some other person before me, or if it were a refurbished product -- or perhaps it was just a product that had been shipped back and forth too many times, by too many companies.
And regardless of those concerns, it was obvious from the condition of the packaging that the battery most likely took a few good knocks in transit. Hard impacts are enough to shorten the lifespan of most batteries.
This was not the high-quality experience that I had paid for! So I arranged for a return via Amazon's automated process. When the wesbite offered me the preprinted return label, the return shipping was not prepaid; instead I was told that Amazon would refund the shipping later on.
How? I wondered, since I was going to have to pay out of my own pocket, upfront, to ship it back. I contacted the Help system, and a representative arranged to have a credit put on my account to cover the shipping. If you ever go through such a process, here's a tip: you won't see the credit on any of your account screens. But the amount will, in fact, be deducted from your future orders, just as they promised.
Obviously, that's not ideal, because it requires that you buy something else just to get your money back! I did not quibble, since I expected to shop here again. And after all is said and done, I did get a full refund. But it was a pretty unexpected, and unwelcome, shock to pay for a premium product and get such a second-rate experience.
I'm giving three stars as a sort of Medium rating, because Amazon customer service did come through pretty well, after all is said and done. Meanwhile, I hope the company has a talk with the subcontractor doing the fulfillment for these battery products, so other customers don't have to go through all this.
 Satisfied August 23, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was very happy with the product. It arrived in a timely manner and just as advertised. I feel confident to do business with Amazon again.
Powered Up August 17, 2007
I received my replacement APC RBC17 battery within a couple of days of placing the order even though I didn't request any special delivery! The battery came with easy to understand installation instructions and I was powered up within minutes of opening the package. And after checking several places on the cost of this OEM replacement battery, the price was lower than average.
APC RBC17 Replacement Battery January 12, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Item arrived very fast and was packed very well for shipping. Haven't used it yet but it feel good knowing it's a spare and ready for use if necessary. I recommend that idea to others that are thinking of having a spare battery.
Works in Belkin F6C120-UNV December 8, 2005
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
This battery also works in the Belkin Universal UPS 1200 VA Emergency Battery Backup with AVR (F6C120-UNV) (ASIN: B00006BBAX). You need two RBC17s to replace the batteries in one F6C120, so order two of these kits if you want to replace your F6C120's batteries. See the reviews on the F6C120 page for more information.
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