Pardon me for the off topic post, I hope someone here can help me out.

My T61 has a 9 cell battery, 2 yrs old.  One day it's good for 3+ hrs, the next day it is dead, as in won't charge and is good for 0 minutes.

It's a lithium ion and after doing some research I find that this type of battery should not be allowed to run down.  This weekend I ran it to about 5% on the meter and then shut down.  I didn't charge it because it doesn't take that long to charge and I didn't want to leave it charging all night.  This was probably a fatal mistake.  When I plugged it in I got a rapid flashing battery light.

By booting into XP I find that it is detected as a dead battery.  I also discovered that there is a power option app that allows the user to perform maintenance tasks on the battery to help it maintain a longer life.  Oh well, I guess I have to pay now for not using Windows!

I find that shop.lenovo has a 9 day lead time on replacements @ $179!!  A bit rich in my opinion.

Does anyone have any suggestions for an alternative to Lenovo?  There is a lot of alternatives on the web but I have heard of bad deals on batteries and some of the prices are so low as to be suspicious.  Some sites offer Lenovo batteries but don't specifically say they are new (or used).  Perhaps someone knows of a trusted vendor?