Review Sponsor: Volta Charger

[xObby]

Hello everyone,

 

The issue I need to bring to attention is the company Volta Chargers, sponsored multiple times in the past on Linus Tech Tip's videos. They are a company that make magnetic usb cables with tips. While they do sell these cables, provide warranty, and did deliver the product, the issue is BEYOND that. (https://voltacharger.com/)

 

1. Volta Charger has a history of fraud and is still a fraud today. 

 

Here is a link to their previous fraud.

https://www.reddit.com/r/kickstarter/comments/5sycwv/another_fraudulent_kickstarter_for_74200000_a/

 

 

With the current products that Volta sell, they are exact products as the "chinese knockoff" that can be found on Amazon or Ebay. They advertise features such as quick draw, Huawei's super charger, One plus dash charging, and up to 87w PD on these cables, but in fact, they do not have any documentations or tests to proof this. The facebook group (Volta Insiders) https://www.facebook.com/groups/1466689113359889/, has TONS of users complaining how a USB C port on their macbook or other device broke and the cable doesn't charge. Obviously with a non usb c certified cable, damages can occurred, and to re mediate the damages, Volta suggests users to use the original charging adapter instead.... This doesn't solve the issue

 

Example: Volta 2.0: https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Ant-i-Product-Compatible-Micro-USB/dp/B07GWLF4GR

Example: Volta XL: https://www.amazon.com/KRIPT-Magnetic-Charging-Portable-Nintendo/dp/B07F1JJ88B

 

Sadly, you might have to join the group to see the comments, but it's almost a complain every other post. There are a lot of defects, and their current explanation of the defect and solution is this: attached

 

2. Fraud and workers conditions

 

I was made aware of all this information from an employee from Volta and provided this. All of this information can be deemed non credible, but it will still be here for you to fact check (with proof at the bottom).

 

- Despite Volta stating that parts of your purchase goes directly to charity, there has only been 1 or 2 videos, MAX, of where the CEO done anything to help. The only video that surfaced was Volta donating food to Nigeria. Besides that, this whole idea is just out in the wild and never mentioned again. While this looks good for a company, they are actually not doing anything at all. This information was passed along from my source and confirms that the whole idea was just a scheme. 

 

- Volta workers are set to be signed in a pretty strict contract and there's nothing we can do. But the pay is beyond living.  Workers receive around "N250,000" per month, which is around $700 USD. Besides that, working conditions are not that great where my specific source was harassed and force to quit. 

 

While there isn't much proof of this, but just a word of mouth, this is the only proof I can present that my source is actually a worker from Volta Chargers. There is a lot of limitations since a contract was signed and everything occurred outside of the US.

 

 

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Solution:

 

We, the customer of Volta, basically don't have much saying and our post can be deleted in the Volta Insiders at anytime. Besides, the CEO (real name isn't even the one listed) make a statement like the one above about changing the design. How is that even possible if all designs aren't even yours to begin with. Besides that, the whole operation of their workers are all based in Nigeria, which we have no control over and can't really do anything. Thus, the only thing we have is our VOICE AND SOCIAL MEDIA!

 

I would request Linus' team to request schematics, do a tear down of the cables, or even test them yourselves and see the results. Compare these cables with the knockoff presented and make a whole video about this.

 

Besides that, add pressure to request evidence, statistic of the donation to charity from each order. 

 

If possible, take it to the next level and ask about their workers, what benefits they have, pay, and get a response.

 

If they can't prove any of this, it's safe to terminate the sponsorship. They placed LTT's logo front page of their website as a selling point, but I don't think this scam is a good idea promote. 

 

 

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I am sorry if this is terribly written, comment and let me know and I will clarify it. 

 

 

 

[Raudi_]

Tag LTT staff so that they can look into it is all I can suggest at this point.

[xObby]

6 minutes ago, KingCry said:

Tag LTT staff so that they can look into it is all I can suggest at this point.

I'm kinda new to the forums, how do I tag a staff? If you don't mind, can you tag them for me? 

[Raudi_]

@colonel_mortis should be able to get this to the right person to look into it.

[Airdragonz]

I personally got these cables for Dash charging support, which no other magnetic cable on Amazon supported it as of a few months ago. 0 bad experiences with them thus far whatsoever, but maybe I'm just lucky.  I would still be curious to see a teardown, especially of the magnetic tip, to see how much more durable these cables are when compared to a Chinese knock-off.

[xObby]

Just now, Airdragonz said:

I personally got these cables for Dash charging support, which no other magnetic cable on Amazon supported it as of a few months ago. 0 bad experiences with them thus far whatsoever, but maybe I'm just lucky.  I would still be curious to see a teardown, especially of the magnetic tip, to see how much more durable these cables are when compared to a Chinese knock-off.

 From my source, they are identical products, just with their logo slapped on it.

 

From my own personal observations, I own the volta XL and bought one of these knockoffs on Amazon and they look 100% exactly the same. Tips work with each other, and the cables are made out of the same materials. Unsure of the insides tho. 

 

Despite Dash support working, many of these cheaper electronics do work, but we don't know what's behind them exactly and what might happen. I was in the market for USB C to Surface Connector and got one myself. Then the cable stopped working and a browse on reddit, people started to fry their ports due to a non existing chip to connect the charger to the computer. 

 

 

[colonel_mortis]

@CPotter @JonoT would be the people to notify about this I believe.

[Bouzoo]

8 minutes ago, colonel_mortis said:

@CPotter @JonoT would be the people to notify about this I believe.

Found myself not knowing who to tag for specific situations, how about posting all relevant LMG members tags somewhere on the forum? Like Linus, Luke (or h/e is for FP around here), Colton, Nick, Jono and Lloyd who seem to be the main people for specific things/departments? 

I suppose forum is not the main platform for many of these situations, but seems people are using it for awareness if nothing else. 

Or maybe they are not posted to prevent spam, per se? 

[JonoT]

Hey Guys, thanks for bringing this to my attention! 

[xObby]

1 hour ago, JonoT said:

Hey Guys, thanks for bringing this to my attention! 

Let me know if more information is needed. I'm ready to jump in and help