Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I use batteries for a number of different purposes in my home, I suspect like most people. I had formerly understood it made sense to store batteries in the fridge, as they would last longer, but it got to a point that they were really in the way in the fridge, and I read an article that made clear the benefit to battery life tied to refrigeration is pretty minimal in most circumstances, so I decided it was time to get a storage case. It would allow me to store a large number of batteries without taking up the amount of space taken up in the fridge. I picked this particular storage box because it looked good in the picture, it came with a battery tester, which I thought would be handy, it was not expensive, and it got good reviews. Unfortunately, at times I forget how often it seems likely that reviews are skewed by the seller of the device in one manner or another. This device turned out to be a sorry disappointment. First, it is hard to tell from pictures of this size and resolution just what something looks like or will be like. That's why it's nice to be able to trust the reviews!!!! This turned out to be a fairly flimsy fabric case (like a case-shaped bag with a zipper and handle) with little durable form, that housed a large sponge that sort of fit in it (the case has rounded sides and corners and the sponge is rectangular in every dimension) and was punched full of holes the size of common battery types. In fact, of all things, the holes had been punched, but they left it up to the buyer to push all the punch-outs through to make room for the batteries. The biggest issue in this regard, though, is that the product didn't quite cut it, in terms of the sponge not truly filling the fabric case, so it did not offer security in terms of everything fitting nicely together, at all. In fact, there was a punch out the size and shape of the battery tester left in the box, but unlike the rest of the punch-outs, this one was not the full thickness of the sponge, and the thickness of it suggested that maybe it was supposed to go in the battery tester cut-out in order to pad the battery tester and keep it from sinking too deep into the case. The only problem with that, though, was the case and sponge were floppy enough that this piece didn't stay in place and just slid around under the main sponge in the case. I may be mistaken as to the reason for leaving that piece in the box, but it certainly was not just an ordinary punch-out like the remainder for the batteries, as again, it was less than half the thickness of the main sponge, which suggests it was cut thin for some reason. Another issue is tied to the size and resolution of the ad images: it sure appeared to be loaded with batteries, and it was, but there was an imbalance in the number of holes left for various sizes. I've returned it (for another reason), and I don't recall the exact numbers, but there were spaces for maybe 6 or 8 D batteries at the big end, and they dropped off to probably 30 for AAA batteries. I have to guess that was a convenient way to punch holes in the sponge, but it's not a convenient way to store batteries, when devices that use D batteries, for instance, often take 4 batteries or more, while a device that takes AAA batteries often takes only 2. What I really wanted was a bigger case that was more durable and fixed in shape and that would hold more batteries of the larger sizes, as well as the smaller. The following commentary may suggest more national bias than I mean to imply. I suspect this is some poor soul trying to get a business to thrive on Amazon and making a fair shot at it. However, I was offended, even by the well-intended act, of including an explanatory card that began with the address, "MY DEAR!". To me, that misuse of English norms in presenting a product to English speakers is offensive. From there, it went on to, "THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORTING. And we hope that your shopping experience will also feel happy." There is more that is problematic on the card, and I will not go into all of it, but it was just more to take negatively in light of the quality of the product. I probably would have just laughed it off if ordering this product had not proved otherwise to be such an offensive waste of time. I've left the biggest issue for last. For my money, I got that laughable card, a fabric case that did not well support what it was meant to hold, a sponge punched out for a poorly balanced number of different battery types (with the punch-outs left in place--quite a nuisance to push through into the rubbish), and finally, the promise of a battery tester! Well, the battery tester looked like a piece of garbage to begin with, so I was not too surprised with what I found out. I got all the batteries out of my fridge and a couple of nearly full boxes of Amazon batteries, AA and AAA, that I had bought separately but both recently, so they were practically brand new, and every single battery I had in the house tested as dead on this battery tester. I got my multi-meter out today, and as luck would have it, every single battery but one had more than the reported voltage remaining (and some of the batteries are several years old). That was all except for one AA battery that read at 1.2 volts rather than the 1.5 volts expected of a new battery.