Have a controller from 2007, still holds a charge for what seems like forever... and even after it starts blinking it seems to last hours. Seems you are aware you got a dud. Hope you are able to have the problem resolved. Sorry to hear your call to customer support went that way. I've never had an experience like that, always very nice and helpful. Sounds like you got someone who was having a bad day lol 

Sorry for your problen.  What I would normally do is have two controlers.  One is always charging while I use the other one.  Then I would swap them back and forth to keep playing.  Give it a shot provided your controllers are not duds.

Thanks for all the replies guys.

I've had the console swapped out no problem by the store that sold it to me.

New console controller seems to work just fine.

Might well buy a second controller tho as people have suggested.

Over 5 days with the new controller and still showing a full charge. So all happy now.

Yeah the controllers do last ages, though if you leave them unatended for ages, they can lose their charge which is quite annoying, as I have 7 controllers and only one usb cable with me...

Seven? You must love your custom designs.

Mine hold their charge for really long! Anything below 15 hours is wrong I think.

I run Folding@Home on it at night and charge controllers while doing that. I need to because I have 1 cable, but 2 Dualshock 3's, 2 Move controllers, and 1 Nav controller.

You guys are funny. A mini USB cable is cheap! Even I have one per controller!

Slim PS3 with only 2 USB ports. One is taken by PX21's, the other by my PS Eye. lol. Which reminds me, the next PS3 hardware revision needs a rear USB port for PS Move.

I charge mine with my laptop while I use my PS3 controllers for PC games. Motioninjoy FTW!

I'm with this random guy who I don't know, power save feature and you're fine or at the least charge your controller when you're not playing.