I just finished a saber with new batteries & had the same kind of issues, I have a local battery store that carries them & after a quick test they confirmed one cell to be bad, & promptly replaced it for me. After testing the saber , I have now gotten 2 hours out if it with out needing a charge..Yay!
& yes Ultra takes great care of their customers!
This seems to be a common issue as I'm also having problems with my new saber that I just recieved. One (or both) of my batteries seems to not be charging, or holding a charge. After "charging" them in my charger I install them an my saber will only stay on for about 5 seconds before turning itself off.
see thread:
http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=5240.0Is it possible US has a bad batch of batteries?