im no expert but I can say.
I have turnigy nanotech packs 2yrs old.
and they still work great
and I didn't take very good care of them.
sometimes a week at full charge or weeks at less then storage.
just saying that's my experiance

Probably goes to show that there's no consistency in the product. Some fail quickly and some last and perform well!! Luck of the draw I guess.

i take everything i read about brand quality on lipos with a grain of salt. the problem is there is too many variables. one guy has great luck with a certain brand, but you never find out he is running a 6000mah 50c/100c pack in a 2wd brushed slash. meanwhile another guy hates the same brand because he had 2 packs puff on the first charge, however you dont hear that he is running 4200mah 20c packs in series in a savage flux with big joe tires and tall gearing.

I had the "failed order" also.... I filed a claim with paypal to get money back after I got know where with HK.

Same here! They loss me as a customer for good!

they are dirt cheap but they also have the worst customer service ever.
Kind of take your own risk for what you pay kind of thing.
Personally I only buy stuff from them if it's really worth the risk. (i.e. if they are significantly cheaper, or it's so cheap I don't care it's s**t or not).

When s**t happen. You need to keep contacting them in multiple ways, keep calm and don't focus on it.
1. the online live contact stuff is awful, it reply you maybe 10 sentence in maybe 3 hours, and most of them are completely useless. maybe put your laptop there and do something else, plan to have a multiple hour "conversation", read and reply once a while you take a break from doing other stuff. If you are pissed, they will block your account's access to this service. (tried another account, service functional, back to main account, service ends as soon as I enters).
2. the email contact is a bit more useful, it will take days to get any reply though, but you may at least get treated like a human, and maybe some useful information.

Oh, and when you get "Refund", don't expect it to be very fair either. expect a little loss from your end.
i.e. I got a battery with polarity reversed. Contacted them, they told me to mail it back and they will send me a new one as soon as they get it, and they will cover the fee shipping back.
After I sent it back, it went quite, contacted them again, they say their engineer will need to examine the battery and it will take a week (new).
Then a week later, nothing happened, contacted them again, they say they will refund me instead.
Still nothing happened, and that battery got sold out. contacted them again, took about a week to reply, saying they will refund soon.
Many days later, some store credit appeared in the site, and it's just the price of the battery itself. Cost of shipping it back, cost of shipping to buy another one, etc is never covered.
All these, because their battery had reversed polarity.

You tell me how. They're strapped in very well and I only handle them by the pack not the wires. Except to plug in and unplug from the charger and car.
And it's only 2 this has happened to. A turnigy and a gens ace. Every plain turnigy I've bought has self destructed. The 2 nanotech I have are slightly puffed but I caused that by forgetting them in my starter box for about 2 months charged to about 4.09 per cell. But they still balance and work just fine. These are soft packs.
My third battery you might be thinking of was an Smc that one cell went dead.
Bad luck or just junk? I think it's a case of cheap Chinese junk.

I'm not giving a half truth. This is my experiences. Lipos are fragile. They demand high maintenance and special care.

And you don't comprehend what I was saying at all. We'll just leave it at that.

I'll give a thumbs-up to Hobbyking. Sorry you had a bad experience but it is not the norm. I have 21 orders in my history and one of them was failed. It did take about 3 days to speak with someone and the refund took about 3 weeks, but if I want great customer service I will over pay for the same batteries with the same quality control and a fancy label. If I need something quick I will check with my local hobby shop or Amain.

As for Turnigy batteries they are OK. Some of my first lipos were standard Turnigy 20C packs and I would rate them just below average. More recently I have some Nan0-Tech packs and would rate them well above average. As you can see, with 21 orders we are not talking about a small sample size. I usually order a few samples and if we like it I order several more for the club. We have yet to see any more inconsistencies than when we have ordered from Tower or Amain. I don't doubt the stories like this one because I have seen people get ripped off or buy junk from just about every company. I just have to post my successes when I see people jumping on the "get what you pay for" bandwagon. If you need a warranty and someone to hold your hand when you don't know how to plug in your lipo you had better get your moneys worth.

Sorry for the rant, just buy what makes you feel good!