"Counterfeit electrical goods are likely to be poor quality and in the worst cases unsafe," said Gillian Guy, chief executive of the U.K.'s Citizens Advice. "Look out for tell-tale signs of counterfeiting such as mistakes in brand names or logos, and check plugs for safety marks - all genuine electrical items made in the EU should have a CE mark on them."
That's a serious charge, but I have to agree.
Surely there should be a happy medium where everyone can buy a safe, properly insulated chargers without being price-gouged by Apple?
It would be nice if Apple took the lead (ahem) on this and said 'you know what, people dying or losing their homes because a power adapter they bought in good faith is a ridiculous situation, we are going to sell all our power adapters at cost price, because it's just too important, and if you're not dead, you're approximately 99% more likely to buy an Apple product again than if you are dead, so it's a win for us too'.
A 5W USB power Adapter in the UK, from Apple, costs £19. Come on Apple, you can do better than that, I don't believe it costs more than a couple of pounds to make and you're selling it to people who have spent hundreds your products already. Help keep your customers alive!![]()
I'd have no worries using a Belkin USB charger with my iPhone which costs less than the one sold by Apple.
I agree about Apple being more transparent but basic USB chargers are not specific to Apple products so they don't need to be MFi licensed. It's only the products using Apple's proprietary connectors that need to be approved.Seriously though Apple could do its part by making an easy to find list of MFI partners and the product categories they are licensed to make. Consumer awareness, not law enforcement, is the best line of offense here.
Yep
The article does a poor job of distinguishing the 3 categories:
- Apple-made
- Apple certified
- Counterfit
And, of course, category 3 can be masquerading as either category 1 or 2.
It's no wonder people are confused, but the article could be written better. I do understand how someone could read it as "99% of non-Appple-made chargers are bad" even though that's not what it says.
The Aukey product line has some very good stuff. Well designed, well priced.
If you like Aukey have a look to Orico. Also good quality products but one price category lower.
I bought a bunch of Orico USB-C cables in Asia for about $1 a pop. High quality even if they would have charged 10 times as much.
Feel eel sorry for the people who spent all their money on the phone and had almost nothing left to afford a genuine chargerIf you spend $699 on a phone and $5 on the charger, you kinda deserve your house to take fire.
Feel eel sorry for the people who spent all their money on the phone and had almost nothing left to afford a genuine charger
Everything can be counterfeited, but there isn't too much profit to make faking cheap Chinese products.But how do you buy these online and know you aren't get a fake. Their site pushes you to Amazon, so maybe it pushes you to a real product there. But even that says "Fulfilled by Amazon" so I think that means that Amazon will connect you with a seller or product that they have in their warehouse and it might be a counterfeit.
They are starting to crack down, there's a link to a recent article in the first post.Hey Amazon, better yet, stop being lazy/greedy, stop letting third party sellers sell crap on your site, and go back to what it was like in the old days, SOLD and SHIPPED from AMAZON with AUTHENTIC PRODUCTS. Amazon has become an eBay. I'm all for letting third parties sell stuff, but why not make a secondary marketplace for that? The main Amazon.com site should only be stuff THEY sell, so we know we are getting quality products. At lest if they have their own buyers, they presumably will hold manufacturers to much higher standards than what is allowed in the "marketplace" now.
Now, I'm finding myself back to Best Buy and traditional retail outlets to buy my authentic goods.
Some might say that unfortunately your description applies to a few genuine, non-counterfeit goods from certain companies lately too though!
Haha glad it wasn't just me who thought this. The headline is akin to saying "99% of thiefs are criminals."Isn't that the whole point to counterfeit goods?
Didn't Apple do a global exchange programme a while back? You could bring in a counterfeit charger and they would give you a genuine one - one per owned iOS device.That's a serious charge, but I have to agree.
Surely there should be a happy medium where everyone can buy a safe, properly insulated chargers without being price-gouged by Apple?
It would be nice if Apple took the lead (ahem) on this and said 'you know what, people dying or losing their homes because a power adapter they bought in good faith is a ridiculous situation, we are going to sell all our power adapters at cost price, because it's just too important, and if you're not dead, you're approximately 99% more likely to buy an Apple product again than if you are dead, so it's a win for us too'.
A 5W USB power Adapter in the UK, from Apple, costs £19. Come on Apple, you can do better than that, I don't believe it costs more than a couple of pounds to make and you're selling it to people who have spent hundreds your products already. Help keep your customers alive!![]()
This article states that counterfeit Apple chargers are no good. It does not apply to third party chargers.Well this very article refutes what you've just said. You may not have had a problem with the cheap ones, but that doesn't mean they're not dangerous.
There's a 50% chance the real one is indeed, real.The question remaining how do we know if the charger we bought from Amazon saying they are real is real?
Apple is not the only the only company in the world that can make safe chargers.
Yup Click bait. They don't mind if they spread FUDYep
The article does a poor job of distinguishing the 3 categories:
- Apple-made
- Apple certified
- Counterfit
And, of course, category 3 can be masquerading as either category 1 or 2.
It's no wonder people are confused, but the article could be written better. I do understand how someone could read it as "99% of non-Appple-made chargers are bad" even though that's not what it says.