Apple: Almost 90% of Apple Chargers and Cables Sold on Amazon [as official] Are Fake

[DiaSin]

 

 

Warning.. Source is Ad-Heavy. 

Source: http://www.eteknix.com/apple-almost-90-apple-chargers-cables-sold-amazon-fake/

 

So.. it looks like almost 90% of the chargers for apple devices that are sold by Amazon as official Apple accessories are counterfeit. Apple has been doing a study, buying hundreds of chargers, and 90% have turned out to be fake. As someone who works a retail tech bench.. I have seen quite a few people with phones, tablets, laptops etc, that have suffered electrical damage from using cheap chargers. The fact that we are seeing ones like this sold as official, directly by amazon, is frightening. Most of the ones sold directly by Amazon were sold to them by a single supplier, but there are still the ones vetted by Amazon from third party sellers, from hundreds of sources, which are mostly fake. 

 

Edit: I did amend the title to make it more obvious from that this this is about the ones sold as official, and not all the random chargers from random brands that are usually obvious fakes. 
 

Quote

 

“Apple recently purchased a number of Apple power adapters and charging and syncing cables (collectively “power products”) that were directly sold by Amazon.com – not a third party seller – and determined that they were counterfeit. Amazon.com informed Apple that Mobile Star was its source for the majority of these counterfeit Apple products […]”

 

 

Quote

“Over the last nine months, Apple, as part of its ongoing brand protection efforts, has purchased well over 100 iPhone devices, Apple power products, and Lightning cables sold as genuine by sellers on Amazon.com and delivered through Amazon’s “Fulfillment by Amazon” program. Apple’s internal examination and testing for these products revealed almost 90% of these products are counterfeit.”

[SansVarnic]

That's funny...

[Belgarathian]

Doesn't surprise me... At all. 

[Underi]

Thanks for the warning... Turning my adblock off made my ghostery almost blow up.

[Guest]

I mean, why would Apple provide Amazon.com (A Competitor) with its products.

[meenmeen1103]

19 minutes ago, DiaSin said:

As someone who works a retail tech bench.. I have seen quite a few people with phones, tablets, laptops etc, that have suffered electrical damage from using cheap chargers

Genuinely curious, are those damages caused by the voltage regulators in the chargers providing over the voltage output spec? I personally haven't seen a failure like that but I guess it's a possibility, a scary one at that. I haven't bought a cheapo generic charger, but I've some friends and family that have, and the chargers usually just fail by not being able to provide enough current and end up burning themselves up without damaging the device itself.

[DiaSin]

1 minute ago, meenmeen1103 said:

Genuinely curious, are those damages caused by the voltage regulators in the chargers providing over the voltage output spec? I personally haven't seen a failure like that but I guess it's a possibility, a scary one at that. I haven't bought a cheapo generic charger, but I've some friends and family that have, and the chargers usually just fail by not being able to provide enough current and end up burning themselves up without damaging the device itself.

It seems to vary. Sometimes its a laptop thats totally dead, and they were using a chinese charger that weighs so little if I opened it up it would probably have 1/3rd the circuitry it should, sometimes its a tablet or phone that took some kind of minor surge and certain things dont work the way they should. Where I work we dont do any major hardware repairs, but we do enough basic troubleshooting usually before sending them to local shops to be able to figure out whats probably wrong so they can give decent explanations to the techs who will actually work on their stuff in the end. 

[Dietrichw]

And this is why I only buy name brand for certain things. Got a few Belkin cables in store on clearance and still use the ones that come in the box with products. Just can't trust online retailers.

[JettaGetUpandGo]

I expected this from any third party seller, but not Amazon directly.  Regardless, if I needed a charger for my MacBook I'd pay the premium and buy it directly from Apple.  So many counterfeits are sold as genuine these days it's ridiculous (this applies to anything, from Apple chargers to Yeti coolers).  The $30 savings isn't worth the risk of the charger catching fire or malfunctioning and destroying an $1800 laptop.

 

It seems Apple should have realized Amazon is selling Apple branded products but Apple isn't supplying those products to Amazon.

[Deletist_Jerk]

Rode has been warning people not to buy from Amazon too, so it's not that surprising. 

 

Type C is under the same scrutiny too...

 

Amazon needs to get a control of third party too. They're way too many counterfeit products on their site. 

[JettaGetUpandGo]

21 minutes ago, Deletist_Jerk said:

Amazon needs to get a control of third party. They're way too many counterfeit products on their site. 

The article posted isn't about items purchased form third party sellers or third party fulfilled by Amazon (although that does need control).  It's about items sold and shipped by Amazon.

[QueenDemetria]

For a while now I've noticed the quality of Amazon(as a retailer) deteriorate. My theory is that Amazon is growing too big for what they can handle and they are neglecting some of their services to experiment with others.

[jaggysnake57]

1 hour ago, MagnesiumPC said:

I mean, why would Apple provide Amazon.com (A Competitor) with its products.

how is amazon a competitor? amazon are a retailer more than anything and apple are a manufacturer more than anything so........eh?

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, jaggysnake57 said:

how is amazon a competitor? amazon are a retailer more than anything and apple are a manufacturer more than anything so........eh?

List of Products that Amazon Makes that are similar to Apple Products:

 

Headphone

FireTV (Apple TV)

Fire Tablet (iPad)

Alexa (Siri)

Amazon Prime Music (iTunes, Apple Music)

Commodity Items (Mice, Keyboards)

Web Storage.

[jaggysnake57]

11 minutes ago, MagnesiumPC said:

List of Products that Amazon Makes that are similar to Apple Products:

 

Headphone

FireTV (Apple TV)

Fire Tablet (iPad)

Alexa (Siri)

Amazon Prime Music (iTunes, Apple Music)

Commodity Items (Mice, Keyboards)

Web Storage.

so 7 products = competitor hahahahaha no

[Guest]

1 minute ago, jaggysnake57 said:

so 7 products = competitor hahahahaha no

Seven on apples biggest money makers.

Amazon competes mainly with Apple in the media field, like Music, Video, and Literature.

[That Norwegian Guy]

1 hour ago, Deletist_Jerk said:

Rode has been warning people not to buy from Amazon too

Røde? The microphone company?

Or someone else

[jaggysnake57]

31 minutes ago, MagnesiumPC said:

Seven on apples biggest money makers.

Amazon competes mainly with Apple in the media field, like Music, Video, and Literature.

apples biggest sellers are phones tablets and macs....amazon is a retailer first......there not competiters. even if they were WTF has that got to do with amazon selling knock off apple chargers?

[michaelocarroll007]

7 hours ago, DiaSin said:

It seems to vary. Sometimes its a laptop thats totally dead, and they were using a chinese charger that weighs so little if I opened it up it would probably have 1/3rd the circuitry it should, sometimes its a tablet or phone that took some kind of minor surge and certain things dont work the way they should. Where I work we dont do any major hardware repairs, but we do enough basic troubleshooting usually before sending them to local shops to be able to figure out whats probably wrong so they can give decent explanations to the techs who will actually work on their stuff in the end. 

 Theres Videos of the USB Stick that kills Products  with charging up and sending current it doesnt seem to affect phones very much i can see that laptop situation expecially many pairing wrong cords and such on top of how crappy thoses knock offs are.  Phone wise typically they send low current and suck at charging never heard of them breaking a phone 

[michaelocarroll007]

5 hours ago, jaggysnake57 said:

apples biggest sellers are phones tablets and macs....amazon is a retailer first......there not competiters. even if they were WTF has that got to do with amazon selling knock off apple chargers?

hes hinting that either Apple wont sell them correct charger parts Which doesnt really have much leg to stand on  since most are from a 3rd party i didnt see any info on the amazon basics cables 

or that there doing it on purpose for a worse experience for apple users?  maybe theyll buy a kindle 

 

For Reference though to back up there is some stuff that amazon has done with competing products 

You cant buy a Chromecast/Apple TV because its a direct competitor to  the Fire Versions and amazon refuses to sell it 

 There excuses in the past were it doesnt support there streaming well 

 

[AresKrieger]

The simple solution is stop charging so much for your god damn cables and people will buy the first party ones, also even if they are "fake" I'd bet quite a few work just fine.

[Senzelian]

5 hours ago, jaggysnake57 said:

apples biggest sellers are phones tablets and macs....amazon is a retailer first......there not competiters. even if they were WTF has that got to do with amazon selling knock off apple chargers?

Of course they are competitors.

They compete in and around a single market. Doesn't matter how large the market is and how large the profit is.

 

 

[VerticalDiscussions]

Amazon retailers are such a pain in the arse! The ones that matter like Anker or RAVPower just tell me "Sorry :), we wont ship there because international laws are dumb as f". I only buy ships from and sold from Amazon.com, and even so, very little items come to where i live -.-! These online retail markets tough, grrr . They either steal your money or wont give you a chance to spend it. Eitherways, i think online selling needs to evolve a lot in terms of coverage...

[michaelocarroll007]

2 minutes ago, AresKrieger said:

The simple solution is stop charging so much for your god damn cables and people will buy the first party ones, also even if they are "fake" I'd bet quite a few work just fine.

 Apples are very crappy in terms of Quality also they break and fray so easily for the price my $2.00 monoprice usb cables are similar  and the 4 dollar ones blow it out of water in quaility compared to the $20 apple charges 

[Bensemus]

1 hour ago, AresKrieger said:

The simple solution is stop charging so much for your god damn cables and people will buy the first party ones, also even if they are "fake" I'd bet quite a few work just fine.

People are buying what they think are first party chargers and cables and getting counterfeits. They aren't buying third party chargers and cables in this instance so price isn't a factor.