I understand about the Asia thing. Many of them are just distributors of low cost and low quality stuff. Paul at EM3 is different; he has a great reputation, and I have never heard anything bad about him. I'm planning on getting my next battery from him. He is more of a custom E-bike specialist rather than just a wholesaler, and he has very good customer service. Shipping often takes a week, unless of course something is out of stock or needs to be built, which adds to the lead time.

Buying local (or at least the same country) is always good. Got some good contacts in the US for the MAC?