There are very smart people here, so I'd love to get your input on something. I know next to nothing about battery technology, so I'm a bit at a loss in this situation. First, the background:

For the last four years of my father's life he had no balance whatsoever, and had difficulty walking in general. It turns out that if you can stand but have no balance, a Segway is perfect for you, as it pretty much balances for you! So he bought one and for the next two-three years he would take it with him on business trips. He also liked it because when he was in a wheelchair he felt like he had people looking down on him, and he preferred to have people looking up to him on his scooter

Towards the end, he couldn't even go downstairs, let alone ride his Segway, and when he passed away in May of '08, clearly nobody was in a Segway-riding mood, and it sat in the garage until November, when it was put on a moving truck. Then it sat in another garage until the summer.

Walking by it one day, I decided to try taking it for a little spin. Damn, low battery. I plug it in to charge and decide to try again the next time I'm at my mother's place.

I come back and it still has zero charge. Long story a little less long, I'm now being told by Segway reps that the batteries are dead. I'm told that the winter in the garage without being plugged in was what did it. I'm also being told that because they were going on three years, they were probably at half capacity, so I'd have to replace them soon anyway.

The real kicker? The Segway takes two batteries. They each cost $900.

So not only was the Segway $3500 to begin with (we got a discount, I think), they expect that every four years or so, you need to spend another $1800 to keep it going? I started to become much less of a supporter of Segway.

I guess I have two questions: first, why did this happen? Why are these Li-On batteries so much easier to kill than others? Or would my electric razor do the same thing if I left it in a cold garage unplugged for the winter? Would my mother's Prius do the same?

And secondly, do you suspect I have any way to recover this thing? My father had also purchased NiMH batteries for taking the Segway on planes without being hassled, but I'm told those are likely even more useless than the other batteries.

Thoughts?