Most 'Genuine' Apple Chargers and Cables Sold on Amazon Are Fake, Apple Says (engadget.com) 192
Apple says it bought Apple chargers and cables labeled as genuine on Amazon.com and found that nearly 90 percent of them to be counterfeit. The revelation comes in a federal lawsuit the company filed against a New Jersey company over what Apple says are fake products that were sold on Amazon. Engadget reports: When Apple got in touch with Amazon about the issue, the website told the former that it got most of its chargers from Mobile Star LLC. The iPhone-maker stressed that since counterfeit cables and chargers don't go through consumer safety testing and could be poorly designed, they're prone to overheating and catching fire. They might even electrocute users. Tim Cook and co. are now asking the court to issue an injunction against the defendant. They also want the court to order the seizure and destruction of all the fake chargers in addition to asking for damage
Same with most electronics (Score:1)
Try to buy a legit Sony Playstation 3 controller from Amazon. Go ahead, I'll wait.
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Re:Same with most electronics (Score:5, Informative)
There's a huge problem on Amazon - most listings for Apple chargers, headphones, etc claim to be genuine and very few of them actually are. Amazon doesn't seem to be doing anything to police it.
There's a wonderful solution though - buy the AmazonBasics version. You get something that you know works and it's a lot cheaper to boot.
(Funny how that all works out...)
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It's Apple's own fault for making their stuff in China. Part of the general industry practice in China is for factories to produce a larger batch than the customer orders and then sell them themselves as the genuine product at a lower price.
That alone wouldn't be a big deal for the end customer because the product is made by the same factory. However, their extra unofficial batch generally doesn't go through any QA or testing. For products that have a large number of DOAs or manufacturing defects that wo
May and might... (Score:2)
Wow... (Score:1)
A story where Apple isn't [necessarily] the bad guy... is definitely news to me.
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I dunno. This story just makes me feel better about not buying Apple products. I can buy any cable I like and not have to worry about this bullshit.
"OMG. You didn't buy a genuine monster cable! Quick, toss it out before it EXPLODES!"
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In the case of cheap chargers, that's a possibility.
http://www.righto.com/2012/10/... [righto.com]
http://www.righto.com/2014/05/... [righto.com]
Cheap chargers (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree, it's a genuine possibility. I've ordered enough things off Amazon to be genuinely concerned about the state of cheap Chinese chargers being sold through there. There's no good reason to allow a vendor to sell a product that is unsafe, uses counterfeit labeling to bypass US electrical safety inspections and regulations, and easily threatens the safety and welfare of consumers. We can hang Samsung out to dry when its batteries catch fire, but we can't do the same to Amazon for selling us this junk?
My own anecdote: Our school district ordered 10 HDMI-to-VGA adapters recently from Amazon. They were Chinese-direct w/ Engrish instructions and the like, but I knew I was going to get that. What I didn't know I was going to get were incredibly, incredibly cheap 5V 1A chargers, only one of which was spot-on 5V, three more were within +/- 5% of 5V, five were about 5.5V (which still worked, but is not as safe and out-of-spec), and one that would start at 5V for about a minute, then float up to about 20V, before floating back down to 5V. Needless to say, the video adapter paired with the one that floated up to 20V had its display glitch out every-so-often, and even after I tried using a good 5V power adapter, the video adapter was permanently glitchy at that point.
About a month prior, I bought some other video adapters that also were powered by 5V 1A power adapters, but the stickers on the power adapters said they were 9V 1A adapters, even though my multimeter said they were running at 5V. (Sticker also said they were UL listed. Probably just as truthful as the 9V spec was.) I didn't trust those adapters worth a dime, but I wanted to see what was inside them. Unlike the wall-warts of yore, most cheap adapters now (including these) can be opened with a single screw. Inside was a little PCB stuck to the inside plastic cavity with simple double-sided tape. Most shocking to me: The PCB boards were hand-soldered, as evidenced by two of them having etches scraped into the board where solder appears to have overflowed onto other joints, plus that some joints were cold, some were gigantic blobs, and it was generally very sloppy solder work. Also concerning: the wires connecting the plug to the PCB were also hand-soldered on both ends, and more-than-half the joints were cold. One of those wires was also rusted out, and broke off the plug as the device was opened. (There was no tugging on the wire; just twisting it snapped the wire off.) Finally, one of the transistors had leads about 1/2" long off the PCB, and the transistor was bent so hard that one of its leads was dangerously close to a capacitor lead, all on the high-voltage side of the PCB.
This explains why Amazon can make a profit selling 5V USB adapters for $1.50 each [amazon.com], or 5V power adapters for $2.50 [amazon.com].
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I feel I should point out that the items you've linked to are not being sold by Amazon but by third parties using Amazon's website. The same problems occur anywhere you allow Tom, Dick and Harry to sell things using your website.
Last year I bought some LED Christmas tree lights from E-bay. When they arrived I immediately was concerned about the mains cabling not being of sufficient quality so I cut off the moulded plug to inspect the cable cross section. That confirmed my suspicions - the cables were the ch
Re:Cheap chargers (Score:4, Insightful)
Amazon pimps these devices, taking their cut. They are just as culpable as the original sellers.
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This isn't an issue of DRM. This is an issue of crooks in China making very low-quality fakes that are dangerous to use because they cut corners on safety features.
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I dunno. This story just makes me feel better about not buying Apple products. I can buy any cable I like and not have to worry about this bullshit.
O'rly? [pcworld.com]
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But this did give you an opportunity to be smug, so at least some good came out of it.
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Re:Wow... (Score:5, Insightful)
So, because Apple is involved, it's ok to pass off shoddy untested and unverified products at the same time as ripping off a company's trade dress and defrauding customers.
These aren't just generic USB chargers you plug into the wall - these are made and advertised to look like genuine Apple products, using Apple logos and everything. Except that they aren't.
Good to know that irrationality still wins the day with both Apple's fans, and detractors.
Re:Wow... (Score:4, Interesting)
Except, I got an iPad one, direct from Apple, sealed in the box. Used it for a few years and the (genuine, came in the box from Apple) charger cable had a strain relief failure. Took it to the Apple store to buy a replacement and had the "Genius" on duty harrangue me incessantly about how my cable was a shoddy knockoff and can you see the difference in how the genuine ones are made? Yeah, I see that Apple had really crappy strain relief on their charging cables, whether iPhone, iPad, or MacBookPro mag-lock, they were all crap from 2006 to (at least) 2010. "Genius" can go F himself and his attitude - as can the company that sold a $700 bullet-proof tablet and then proceeded to disable it through OS updates so that within 4 years it was completely worthless, and then they were selling $700 tablets that cracked and broke easier and easier with each passing generation.
Re:Wow... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not FUD. From all accounts, these things fail with alarming regularity. When you have insufficient distance between high-voltage and low-voltage traces, when you get some extra moisture in the air that condenses in the wrong place, it can easily trigger an electrical arc that delivers 110VAC to your 5V line. In addition to roasting any device that's attached to it, such an extreme over-voltage event will give you a nasty shock if you're holding the device at the time even under the best of circumstances, and that is enough voltage to kill you under the worst of circumstances.
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Shhh but there is a scam buried in all fast chargers. The hotter a lithium battery the shorter it's life, the shorter it's charge time, the more often you fast charge it and the faster it fails. So fast chargers are really kill you fixed in place battery and your phone along with it. Due to the nature of the failure, the decrease in performance starts of slow and then increases over time, you can pretty much design failure straight into the system, at the other end that final die off is going to be pretty
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Shhh but there is a scam buried in all fast chargers.
Not at all.
USB officially supplies 2.5 Watt (might be slightly more nowadays). Apple devices with large batteries can use more than 2.5 Watt. Like an iPhone 6+ or 7, or an iPad. With a standard USB charger they take ages to charge. So an Apple charger for an iPad can supply more charge. It will detect an iPad, or an iPhone with high capacity, and will supply the right charge, and anythinge else it will supply 2.5 Watt. I'm quite sure Samsung does the same thing; unfortunately the detection is slightly di
Re:Wow... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why bother? This isn't exactly rocket science, pretty much anyone can design a safe charger, etc. They just cost more to build, and why would you bother when you're fraudulently selling it under false trademark anyway, and could put that extra $0.25/unit into your bank account instead?
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If Apple was truly concerned they would issue a spec for free.
Why bother releasing a spec for what is essentially a glorified rectifier? Fuck sakes, any *competent* EE student can make a clone-off charger from a working genuine one.
The problem arises when you get cheap fly-by-night little Chinese "shops" that pop up on Alibaba selling untested and shoddily-produced (and barely 'designed') crap for like $1/lb. Sure, occasionally someone shuts one down, but three more will await you the next morning. Buy a big box of the ones that look passably genuine, sell them on Ama
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There is a specification. There are minimum requirements for separation between low-voltage and high-voltage sections that are part of various electrical codes and safety standards. These knock-offs don't meet those safety standards. They should not even be legal to import into the United States, much less sell.
The fact that Apple's designs greatly exceed the standards to the point of being exceptionally paranoid is nice and all, but not stric
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So, because Apple is involved, it's ok to pass off shoddy untested and unverified products at the same time as ripping off a company's trade dress and defrauding customers.
These aren't just generic USB chargers you plug into the wall - these are made and advertised to look like genuine Apple products, using Apple logos and everything. Except that they aren't.
Good to know that irrationality still wins the day with both Apple's fans, and detractors.
Speaking of irrational, which ignorant consumer thinks they're actually buying a "genuine" Apple cable from the most infamous fixed-price electronics vendor on the planet, at a fraction of what they charge everywhere else?
Give me a break. Yes, you have a point regarding counterfeiting, but when something is way too good to be true, it probably is.
It just makes me all that more certain that Apple is price gouging on all their products.
There is NOTHING in those cables that should make them cost 26 bucks.
Re: Wow... (Score:2)
Is there any proof the counterfeits are prone to catching fire or anything like that? They didn't go through consumer testing, but that doesn't by itself mean it's unsafe. Granted I wouldn't trust it with a ten foot fireproof pole and they should be taken off the market.
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Some do, some don't. The ones that do usually don't have adequate insulation somewhere in it, or was never burned-in/tested.
It's not proof that all counterfeits will catch fire, but the odds go way up under such conditions.
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Is there any proof the counterfeits are prone to catching fire or anything like that? They didn't go through consumer testing, but that doesn't by itself mean it's unsafe. Granted I wouldn't trust it with a ten foot fireproof pole and they should be taken off the market.
Well, from Apple's point of view, they quite rightfully don't want anyone to sell products calling themselves "genuine Apple" products when they are not.
If it's a fake, the manufacturer has already demonstrated that they are quite willing to break the law by violating Apple's trademarks and misleading their customers. I think this is different from fake Gucci handbags where the customer _knows_ they are buying a fake, and they just want something with Gucci printed on it - I don't want a charger that has
Re:Wow... (Score:4, Interesting)
I dunno. This story just makes me feel better about not buying Apple products. I can buy any cable I like and not have to worry about this bullshit.
"OMG. You didn't buy a genuine monster cable! Quick, toss it out before it EXPLODES!"
Which bullshit? The bulishit of shoddy cables destroying your laptop? [theverge.com]
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The 2006 generation of MacBookPros shipped with self-destructing batteries - Apple managed to recall them with less loss of face than Samsung is going through now, by far.
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This is damaging to Apple's reputation, when Chinese manufacturers intentionally deceive customers that they're buying an Apple-made product,
and the Chinese product turns out to be of extremely low quality and missing vital features and design characteristics of the Apple charger.
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Apple is doing absolutely nothing to prevent you from buying any charger that you would like. Buy a Belkin, buy a whatever. As long as it puts out actual 5VDC and enough amps to activate the charging circuit, you'll be perfectly fine.
But if you buy some cheap piece of shit that spikes voltage and blows out your phone, Apple is going to say that you used a cheap piece of shit that voids your warranty, just like any other device manufacturer would, regardless of if it's a phone or not.
Oh, but it's Apple, so clearly they are monopolistic shitheads all of a sudden, even if this has been the case for literally decades of portable electronics.
Worse - they are being advertised as "genuine" Apple chargers
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The requirements are well documented by third-party teardown, and dozens of companies make chargers that include the necessary pull-up resistors. So as the GP said, Apple is doing nothing to prevent third-party chargers, and apart from the existence of the cable authentication, is doing nothing to prevent third-party cables, either.
The problem is that there seems to be a strong correlation between willingness to pretend that your products are genuine Apple products and willingness to cut corners in the de
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Maybe you missed where I said, "apart from the existence of the cable authentication". Yes, they still require those ICs. What I meant was that AFAIK, Apple isn't going after companies that make fake Lightning cables with their own homebrew fake authentication chips unless they advertise them as being genuine Apple cables. Similarly, they're not going after third-party companies that wire up resistors to the two data lines to enable fast charging, so long as they aren't advertising them as being Apple c
I'm glad somebody is on the case (Score:5, Informative)
It would be nice to be able to buy real reputable chargers and batteries for laptops/phones on Amazon but, as Apple is now proving, thats essentially impossible. Its a better bet to go with something amazon basics branded than the actual OEM equipment, because at least Amazon will stand behind their own branded stuff. I bought a "Real, made by lenovo" charger laptop off Amazon for my T450s and it didn't have a serial number on it and it had odd markings that the real one didn't have. Counterfeit, for sure - theres no reason Lenovo would sell you a charger without a distinct serial number on it.
Doesn't Amazon have any power to stop sellers from selling counterfeit equipment? They don't have to vet the quality of every product they sell, but selling a new OEM product should require additional vetting. I don't care if they don't test a product thats clearly not OEM, then at least its a buyer beware scenario.
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It would be nice to be able to buy real reputable chargers and batteries for laptops/phones on Amazon but, as Apple is now proving, thats essentially impossible.
Buy from Other World Computing for Apple products. They also provide great warranty service for their own OWC products.
http://www.macsales.com/ [macsales.com]
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last time i needed a lightning cable i just went to best buy and bought their house brand cable for like $15. a lot better than original apple cable too.
Re:I'm glad somebody is on the case (Score:5, Interesting)
More specifically, why would Amazon buy 'genuine Apple cables' from anyone other than Apple? It's one thing if they were buying & selling obvious clones, like the cords colored blue or green or pink or grey or black (so that people who want to buy that for $5/pop can do it), but if they were also stocking the genuine whites, why would they entertain the latter from anyone other than Apple?
... because people are cheap (Score:2)
... and more often than not want to have their cake and eat it too.
the singular reason that cheap chinese counterfeit products are flooding the US today.
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Because Amazon makes money every time something is sold, regardless of whether it's a knockoff or not.
People go to Amazon because they want cheap and fast. If Amazon sell a knockoff and pretend they didn't know it was a knockoff, they will. (And let's be honest - Amazon is ultimately the seller from the customer's perspective, even when the order isn't "fulfilled by Amazon". Amazon is the one who takes your money.)
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Amazon lets third party sellers use their platform. The fakes are usually stocked and sold by these, and not Amazon themselves. And they don't make it especially obvious that you're not actually buying from Amazon either. I wish to hell they'd either knock off the crap, or at lease give me the option to see only items sold by Amazon themselves. You can separate out most of the shysters by filtering only for items available with Amazon Prime. But some of the crooks still get through. You can see these
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I've not had problems. I'm not going to freak out over a clone product. That would be silly since I am a PC user.
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Re:I'm glad somebody is on the case (Score:5, Insightful)
You should. Apple chargers are incredibly over-engineered to protect against many problems. If you want to trust your expensive iphone & ipad to cheap chargers, you feel free. I won't and I buy extras to use for other devices as well. Here's a teardown & explanation. http://www.righto.com/2012/05/apple-iphone-charger-teardown-quality.html
Re:I'm glad somebody is on the case (Score:5, Interesting)
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" Apple chargers are incredibly over-engineered to protect against many problems."
Except for people running them off square-wave inverters, and then your touchscreen goes to utter shit because of the real Apple charger (as in the one that came with my fiance's 4S) passing along some seriously wonky power and signal. Give it a shot, hook up to an O-scope and watch for yourself. You might even be able to hear a slightly audible buzzing from the iDevice itself.
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I've not had problems. I'm not going to freak out over a clone product. That would be silly since I am a PC user.
A genuine Apple iPhone charger will charge a Samsung phone just fine (if you take the cable that Samsung gave you). A fake "genuine" Apple iPhone charger can easily destroy your Samsung phone or set your home on fire if you try to charge a Samsung phone with it.
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Re: I'm glad somebody is on the case (Score:3)
I bought a Mac power supply from Amazon. Not Apple branded. Not advertised as Apple. Looks and works the same as the original. Half the price.
I'm happy.
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Yeah... because, as we all know, buying a genuine big name brand makes things completely safe... it would be impossible for anything Apple ever creates to catch fire or be unsafe in any way...
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Yeah... because, as we all know, buying a genuine big name brand makes things completely safe...
Nope, but it'll make it a hell of a lot easier to get the warranty honored when you can show them the fried genuine part.
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Or, you know, vet the vendors your are buying from before doing that patented "one click to buy and ship."
Amazon (as the name implies) has a wide variety of vendors - if you're getting Disney DVDs for $4 a piece from Hong Kong Joe, it doesn't take too much insight to predict that they're going to be rips. Might take a little more sophistication for cable selection, and in the Apple space, there may just not be good 3rd party cables out there.
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amazon does not care; each thing that gets sold, they collect a fee.
just like ebay. there is no caring there.
I do like amazon, but I'm aware that they are a whore.
when a company like amazon allows sellers to sell 'wireless anti-static wrist straps' - and after being informed (by me and many others who know this area) that this is IMPOSSIBLE and a hoax-item, they still allow sellers from china to sell this bullshit.
there is a good amazon and a bad amazon and they are both under the amazon.com site. it real
Probably headphones too (Score:2)
I recently bought a couple of "genuine Apple" headphones from Woot (owned by Amazon) thinking that with all the fakes around I should get them from someone legit. The first pair failed within a couple of weeks. I'm going to guess they were not, in fact, genuine. It does make it a pain when it seems that the apple store is about the only place you can be sure you're not getting a knockoff. I'm happy to buy knockoffs for certain things, but I like to know what I'm getting.
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I recently bought a couple of "genuine Apple" headphones
You should know they are fake if they have the standard 3.5mm plug on them.
Re:Probably headphones too (Score:5, Funny)
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These were headphones ("earpods"), not lightning cables. The originals which came with the phone lasted quite a long time, and the kids like the way they fit, so I wanted to get the real deal.
US gov.. please help us abuse our customers (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe if Apple didn't sell their cables for such obscene prices, there would be less market demand for Chinese knockoffs. If I can buy 10 cables on eBay at $0.50 each, I don't care if 5 go out in less than a month. Also, I've NEVER seen or heard first hand if one of the knock offs catching fire.
Re:US gov.. please help us abuse our customers (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:US gov.. please help us abuse our customers (Score:5, Informative)
Maybe if Apple didn't sell their cables for such obscene prices, there would be less market demand for Chinese knockoffs. If I can buy 10 cables on eBay at $0.50 each, I don't care if 5 go out in less than a month. Also, I've NEVER seen or heard first hand if one of the knock offs catching fire.
That is the one thing Apple does very poorly. It's 35 dollars for a lightning cable from the Apple store, and they last at most 6-9 months. Then the ends near the connectors start to fray until wires are exposed. Shortly thereafter, they no longer charge your phone. There are 6 people in my family, 3 have iPhones, 3 have Android. I have never once had to replace a microUSB cable, but I have gone through at least 10 lightning cables in the last 5 years. 5 of them came with the device (either iphone or ipod), 5 others were purchased from the Apple Store. All eventually failed. It's the one thing from Apple which drives me crazy.
Re:US gov.. please help us abuse our customers (Score:4, Insightful)
I recently had 2 iPads repaired and returned to my sister abroad. One of them has the old 32 pin connector. At her place, they have plenty of micro-USB cables, both good and bad, but just about 1 or 2 32-pin cables. So I bought a micro-USB to 32 pin connector and sent it w/ the box of other things.
The last few times I've gotten lightning connector cables, I've done one thing - just not bothered unwrapping them. It comes in a circular bundle, and I connect it to the other end in that way. I also have a couple of knock off lightning connectors that I use to charge the iPhone and iPad, and I also have the 2 lightning connectors that came w/ the iPhone and iPad that I only use to connect to the laptop when I need to move files around
I did in the past have the experience you describe - the wires fraying near the ends, and getting exposed, and so I started the practice of not unwrapping the newer ones. But going forward, once my Apple connectors die, I plan to use micro-USB connectors in conjunction w/ the USB to lightning adaptors that I mentioned. That way, I can use some top quality micro-USB cables that I have in conjunction w/ the iPad
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Maybe if Apple didn't sell their cables for such obscene prices, there would be less market demand for Chinese knockoffs.
First, there were people who didn't have any intention to buy Chinese knockoffs. They went to Amazon, and looked at what was on offer, and decided to buy _genuine Apple_ products.
Second, you are saying yourself that you have the choice between expensive, quality products and cheap, rubbish products. If you are Ok with cheap, rubbish products that is fine with me. (Just don't buy cheap, rubbish chargers because they can kill you. And don't buy cheap, rubbish USB-C cables, because they can kill your laptop
Terrible Power Cables (Score:3, Insightful)
"You aren't supposed to move the chords."
"Don't wrap them up like the pictures or when they new"
"You must be transporting it improperly."
Why is it that every other computer company can make a chord that doesn't fray and come apart after a year? Why have they made a product that can't be used as it is designed. Honestly somebody should ask them at a conference why they are incapable of designing power cable that works for the life of their product.
Re:Terrible Power Cables (Score:5, Interesting)
I find the worst point with all of them is near the end of the cable where it hits the connector.
If I think a given cable will get used regularly, I now just grab a pack of Sugru and add my own strain relief at that point. I find it helps a lot, but on one cable (and I forget which of the 28934774 cables I own it was...) it just moved the fray point from where it would naturally occur near the connector to the point where the Sugru tapered off.
I think the only other thing a person could do is both add their own silicone strain relief and maybe dunk the cable a few times in dip-it vinyl coating to armor the cable further.
It would be nice if someone would figure out that high-quality cables were desirable and make USB versions of welding cable with thick, high-flex EPDM jackets. I could definitely use a couple of Ethernet cables like this.
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I go through enough of it that I've only had one little packet expire. I usually buy a 5 pack through Amazon and keep the unused stuff in the fridge, which is supposed to extend the life further.
I've thought of vacuum sealing it as well, but since I use enough to not have it expire on me I haven't gone that far, plus its sealed well in Mylar and I expect that exposure to air only accelerates curing and that it would self-cure even in a vacuum.
Another option is silicone tape, but the stretching needed to ap
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What are you doing that destroys cables so quickly? I've still got 34-pin iPod firewire cables that are in great shape. The only reason I'm not using them still is because they killed 12V firewire charging with the iPhone, and then killed the 34-pin iPod connector with Lightning.
I've got tons of cables laying around that have been here for years and work fine. I think I've only seen two cables for Apple products "come apart" - one is a Lightning cable that is *not* Apple's manufacture (I think Monoprice)
Adaptor solution (Score:2, Insightful)
Can't we have a micro-USB to lightning connector adaptor, so that anybody w/ a common microUSB cable can just plug it into that, and the combination can be used to charge iPhones, iPads and the like? Apple can make that as well, just like they made the microUSB to 32-pin adaptor
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They do [apple.com], which were a result of Europe's power adapter laws if I recall correctly. Besides that, reputable companies like Belkin offer similar [belkin.com] solutions.
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Can't we have a micro-USB to lightning connector adaptor, so that anybody w/ a common microUSB cable can just plug it into that, and the combination can be used to charge iPhones, iPads and the like? Apple can make that as well, just like they made the microUSB to 32-pin adaptor
Yes.... yes, we can... In fact, I only buy micro USB cables at the moment because most of USB devices that I have that require charging are Micro USB. For the rest, I just buy the Micro USB adapters for Lightning, Mini USB, etc. At least until USB-C starts taking over my gadgets.
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What's special about apple's cables? (Score:2)
Are they angry because after forcing manufacturers to pay for the right to produce cables?
Are other business producing said cables for less because they are not paying apple for the privilege?
Are we really sad for poor apple that it cannot 100% monetize this as well?
Fuck apple. Fuck them in their overpriced iThing.
Ummm. They don't catch on fire? (Score:2)
> The iPhone-maker stressed that since counterfeit cables and chargers don't go through consumer safety testing and could be poorly designed, they're prone to overheating and catching fire.
Seriously, dude, it was in the fucking summary. I guess you were blinded by hate.
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"could be" -all of them? -all manufacturers or are they just amplifying focus on the occasions that were so while not talking about just how many work without incident...
I guess you were blinded by love.
If Apple didn't charge $75 for $5 worth of parts (Score:1)
then there would not be problems like this.
And as for Samsung . . . (Score:5, Insightful)
A German computer magazine called C't was checking on Amazon products a year or two ago, I'm pretty sure it was Samsung batteries they were testing. They bought a selection of batteries from a selection of third-party sellers and were expecting some of them to be fakes. What they were not expecting was that every single battery was a fake, it was just that some of the fakes were better (in terms of product quality) than others.
They reported this to Amazon.
Nothing changed - the same vendors were selling the same products weeks later.
Re:And as for Samsung . . . (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:And as for Samsung . . . (Score:5, Insightful)
It's even worse than that. Once a product is listed other vendors can come in and sell it, and by default Amazon shows the cheapest one. So a good quality fake gets lots of positive reviews, and then another vendor selling cheap crap comes in and starts selling poor quality ones for a penny less (so they become the default).
Licensed third party (Score:5, Informative)
Fake chargers aren't the issue (Score:2)
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Damn. I guess I got lucky when I've been charging an iPhone every single night for the last 4 years without using an Apple cable, OR the little thing that plugs into the wall, since according to you they keep me from doing that.
No wait, you're just full of shit.
Amazon is Hurting Itself Too. (Score:2)
It seems like a lot of these knock-offs are directly cutting into the sale of Amazon's Basics brand as well. I've bought several of their cables and adapters over the years and had very good experiences with them. They aren't the cheapest cables, but frequently they are the cheapest cables that seem trustworthy.
If I want cheap knock-offs, I'll go to eBay. I expect a little more from Amazon.
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eBay just as bad (Score:2)
I purchased a genuine 12w apple charger from an Australian eBay seller. It failed within a week. I pulled it apart and it was clearly a Chinese knockoff. The creepage between primary and secondary was almost non existent. I told the seller and they were 'shocked'. I pulled apart the replacement they sent, and it too was a knockoff, albeit with better creepage. I told the supplier they needed to take down their Ad as they had sold over 300 of these things. Well after many back and forth emails, they start ge
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Actually, eBay reversed a clothing sale that my wife made of a legitimate product (bought at a yard sale at a very rich person's house, so almost certainly real and she checked 17 ways online to confirm.
It didn't matter, eBay told the buyer to destroy it (she didn't because we found her "destruction" photo on Google reverse image search), refunded the buyer the money and gave my wife a strike about selling counterfeit products.
'Genuine' is how luxury brands protect themselves (Score:2)
I have very little insight into the world of fashion, but I do know that since there are no laws against creating the exact same dress, shirt, purse, or whatever, luxury brands tend to plaster their name or logo all over their products. You can't copy the name because that's trademarked.
As a result, you have folks seeing the popularity of an item making knockoffs. These vary in quality, of course, but in some cases, they're made from the exact same materials, in the exact same plant that the originals are
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Knockoff items are poorly made, badly insulated, and are a fire hazard. They often don't meet spec, so they don't perform as well.
If you want to make a knockoff item, Apple can't stop you, but they DO want to stop people from thinking they're buying Apple cables, which ARE tested and manufactured to a higher standard. Apple is presumably willing to stand behind their products and take the flak if they're bad (I had a laptop charger replaced under a recall), but they can't be expected to stand behind the pro
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Having worked with a chinese company that did this sort of thing before, the 'easiest' way to do it is just use the same assembly line, machinery, and workers to roll off a duplicate version with the exact same materials from the exact same material providers.
That's not always the way, but it is the easiest.
Monoprice (Score:3)
Anytime you buy a cable somewhere besides monoprice, you are probably messing up.
Seizure??? (Score:2)
"They also want the court to order the seizure and destruction" - shock therapy has never been more fitting, eh?
What are they gonna do, fit such cables in someone's brain and turn the power on?
Very rarely do I buy Apple from Amazon (Score:2)
But when I have.. which is maybe 2 or 3 times, it was the 12w iPad charger. I made double sure I selected the "sold by and ships from Amazon" option, no matter how hard it was buried.
The rest of the times I've needed anything Apple related i got it at Worst Buy.
Why do people not make sure that the seller is Amazon and not some shady 3rd party? Yes yes yes, I @#!$% know Amazon many times sets the default to "some random chinese faker".. but really? People don't check it? I do. Every single time. For ev
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I made double sure I selected the "sold by and ships from Amazon" option, no matter how hard it was buried.
Bah.. n'ermind, this also affects "sold by and ships from amazon."
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Amazon, eBay, alibaba, hobby king. Same shit, buyer beware. Amazon is pretty good about refunds, but you won't get your time back.
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The dehydrated water looks pretty real to me https://www.amazon.com/Future-... [amazon.com]
but i've heard it's not as good as real dehydrated water http://www.edietshop.com/dehyd... [edietshop.com]
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