New NP-E3 canon won't hold the charge

I just bought a new NP-E3 battery (canon) and I had a problem pretty much immediately: first I ran a refresh and it was ready after few minutes.. strange

since the charger was blinking telling that the battery was charged I put it in the camera just to see it going down after 2 hours.

Refreshed again and re-charged (this time it took the usual time to do so) and the battery last less than 3 hours (again)

The battery was brand new (I'll return it tomorrow) but my question is: are those batteries going down when they stay in the store for more than a year? Because that's what I believe it happened (unless they gave me an used battery.. )

This is becoming a problem because I don't want to deal with the third party batteries but now looks like even the original canons may be not that good ... what are we gonna do? old 1series shooters?

Don't know about the NP-E3 charger, but on the charger for my 30D battery, blinking means it is still charging. The light stays on steady when fully charged.

LOL yeah I know, it goes the other way around with the NC-E2 charger . Don't ask why!!! I have no idea why it does that .. LOL

I have no problems at all with my Canon batteries...I got a couple of aftermarket ones that don't work for squat. The recommended procedure for new batteries is to cycle them 3 times before using them...That is the method I have always used...and get great life from the Canons...

Dan,
the first refresh (yellow light) last maybe 10 minutes.... then it charged very fast.
what u think that was? maybe used? But the battery do look brand new...

the second refresh took all night.

do the Ni-MH become bad when they stay in the store for a long time? 1 or 2 years? Can be the problem?

I had one of the brand x batteries do that...but that was actually after I had used it a few times...it is entirely possible you got a dud battery...if it is an easy return...I think I would just swap it out and see what happens. All the batteries I bought from B&H had recent date codes on them when they arrived...I suppose one that sat for a real long time could go bad.

got another one, date code OV1108 and it's charging. The previous one was a 2006. They all need to be refreshed and charged 3 or 4 times before use. And that includes the third party ones. But the previous one was unable to hold the charge after 3 cycles. Both the one that I returned and the new one are made in China in a Canon package.

thanks for your help!