When I got my flash unit (to use on bugs with my super lens) I bought 4 NIMH batteries and a charger on Ebay for $8.50  ... but when I put the 2nd pair of batteries in the flash, they lasted for only 6-8 shots.  Then I learned that cheapie chargers don't work all that well and that I should get a good one (with separate circuits for the batteries, so each one gets maximum charge).  Fortunately, Amazon had a LaCrosse charger, supposed to be very good, on sale.  This charger told me that one of my cheapie batteries was a complete dud.  And after a couple of weeks of emails, I found out how to use the charger, at least basically (the writers of the manual are in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, but I thought from their English that they were in France).  So my old cheap batteries (three) get charged right, and the new batteries for the flash (four AAA) get charged and work really well, and I never bothered with the AAs till my toothbrush needed new batteries.  Then I found out, from the new charger, that one of the AA batteries that came with it is a complete dud, too.  No answer about this from the charger people.  So I emailed Amazon and said yes, the 30-day limit has passed, but how was I to know that the batteries I don't use a lot wouldn't all be okay, and yes, the time limit has passed, so do you have any LaCrosse AA NiMH batteries and could I buy one?

Today I got an email from Amazon that said that "the rest of my order" had been shipped.  Huh?  The second email from Amazon told me that they had made a really special exception in my case and I could return the item (please note that these emails did not identify the 'item') with the attached RMA shipping label.  At first I thought that I could use the shipping label to return the one bad AA battery, but then I looked at the 2nd email very carefully and it said "Lacrosse model 90... (1)"; I think my charger is model 9009, but they left off the last two numbers so .........

Do they want me to send back the perfectly fine charger because one of the eight batteries that came with it is no good?  

I  gave up on battery chargers

Once again, I have given up on NIMH batteries. When charged they work fine, BUT leave a fully charged set in your camera bag as back set and they self discharge on me and need recharging before I can use them. What good ar they as 'backup' batteries if they die before you need them? I did manage to return
many of this type battery in AA, C, & D size for a refund one time. Since then I (hoping for the new technology) ordered a few to use with my flash. They worked fine after I charged them, but once again died in my camera bag waiting for me to use them. Oh well, back to alkalines for the flash (they last a long time in my Canon 430EX II flash anyway). Then Canon speed lite doesn't eat batteries like my Sunpak does.

Whenever possible I buy LI-ION batteries. They stay charged in my bag and always seem to be ready for use. I have even reverted back to some NI-CAD batteries. Even with the 'memory' problems in the NI-CADs, they work better than the NIMH's for me.

You need to get yourself an English>Wisconsin/Wisconsin>English dictionary to learn to speak thier language.

LOL

Pete won't speak to me on the cell phone because he can't speak Southern.

I can't seem to congegate ya'll...

I am cursed by a recycling ethic that tells me I can't use alkaline batteries as a rule (the NiMH charged in this new charger work as well--recycle as quickly--as alkaline.  I do have a set of alkaline in reserve for emergencies, though).

How different is Wisconsin-ese from how people speak in northern Illinois?  (I went to grad school in Champaign-Urbana and was properly exposed to various dialects thereabouts.)

People in the South with their UMbrellas and INsurance talk kinda quaintly.

Some think of us as being back woodsy.

But, according to what I learned when I was in Champaign-Urbana (Univ of Illinois), the Southern-American shift of the intonation in words like UMbrella and INsurance is linguistically progressive, more in keeping with how English evolved in the British Isles than the almost 18th-century (kinda backward) version of British English that is spoken by most Americans today.

That is so true. When I hear people speak from a bit further north of me I hear this type of english. It is more true as to the english spoken when the colonies first settled. One of my favorite pieces of  speech is "belongs to be" as in does that flower belongs to be there or "I calls myself". What are you doing? I calls myself cleaning this porch. Now I only hear several dialects of Spanish, Hindu, Chinese,Korean,Japanese,Ukranian, oh just name it.