Although this isn’t the first time a lithium-ion (Li-Ion) battery exploded, it does appear to be the first time the seller and distributor are less than responsive regarding the incident.
According to The Atlantic, Nicholas Jones ordered a replacement Li-Ion battery for his laptop from Amazon. Shortly after installing it, there was a loud bang, and the battery exploded. The laptop burst into flames and caught his couch on fire. Jones also suffered burns as a result.
In an attempt to figure out what happened, he went back to the product listing and found other customers had shared a similar experience. He reported Amazon refused to put him in contact with the seller, and never assumed responsibility for the incident. Jones stated,
“They [Amazon] weren’t even like, ‘We’ll get to the bottom of it. It was, ‘We’ll put you on hold for 45 minutes until you get annoyed and hang up.’ I was a little naive. I thought, This billion-dollar entity—they’ll at least cover my losses. What did I really expect? It is a big company, and they treated me like a big company.”
Other Li-Ion Issues
As mentioned earlier, this isn’t the first time customers have reported issues with Li-Ion batteries. Over the course of the last five years, major electronics companies have recalled Li-Ion batteries due to explosion hazards, including HP, Samsung, Sony, Lenovo, and Toshiba.
PC Pitstop, makers of PC Matic, conducted a test regarding the safety hazards associated with Li-Ion batteries. The initial test took place in 2006, with a follow-up test occurring in 2013, with the hopes of different results. Unfortunately, the results were the same. The recorded test can be seen below:
