fraud? Volta charging cable

[Wiebenor]

@JonoT @CPotter if this is in the wrong forum, please move it where it needs to go...

 

I watched a few recent LTT and subchannel videos, where you guys ran volta charger ads, and so I just bought one, the only problem is, that I have looked online for some information, I forget what exactly I was looking for, and I found an old forum post here on the top of the list, created in 2019, where someone claimed the Volta charger company was a scam and wanted LTT to look into their sponsorship, and to validate any claims made by either them(the poster) or the company volta charger... 

 

Your company's (LTT's) recent ads are what influenced me to check them out, and I honestly can't give my opinion on the product since I literally just bought it the other day, and it's shipping to the US, but after seeing that post, I am now wondering if I made a mistake buying the cable I bought... I wanted to try the cable out, but now, I feel that at the very least, the evidence should be cleared up as to whether they are a good company or not, because the information on that forum post albeit likely heresay, makes me feel, if it turns out to be true, that you guys need to do better due diligence at least, in keeping the brand image untainted, since it's been a long time since you ran any volta charger content, and it's your ads that may send people to their site... I will say though, that the Volta XL cable in question, on the other post, appears to no longer be sold....

 

again, I don't know if you guys have checked them out since that other post from 2019, and to be honest, I don't know how I feel about that company after reading all that stuff the person posted, calling such an expensive cable a clone or rebranded cheap knockoff cable, that may or may not have issues, along with the accusations of not delivering on the promises of charity giving... I don't expect a reply, and I'm not sure if you guys at LTT can make me feel better about my purchase, but if there's something I'm missing here, I'd be happy to know whether any of those purported accusations of the company in question were looked into, and whether you stand behind the product in the ads or not... Sorry if I haven't tagged the right people, I just tagged the same ones the other post had tagged and had gotten a response from... I feel torn right now as I know you guys wouldn't knowingly accept ads that were very shady, yet I don't know what the truth about that company, or the aforementioned post is, which creates doubt in my mind as to the quality of the product, and I hate the feeling of uncertainty as to the quality of the product, or your company's recommendations, as well as the reputation of of choosing your sponsors very carefully...

Edited March 6, 2021 by Wiebenor

[MichaelDR]

I got a Volta Spark cable a few weeks ago, and a few tips.  It won't charge my Quest 2, at all.  It won't charge my Sony XM3 headphones, nor my Nexdock Touch, and it undervolts my Pi 4.  I have no real use for it, and their support has been useless and takes a week between responses.  I can't believe I paid as much as I did for it, and that I trusted LTT for having chosen to advertise for them.

 

Just looking at their IndieGoGo shows countless comments from supporters who claim it doesn't work with their devices.  LTT REALLY needs to test these products!

 

The previous LTT thread on Volta talks about how much of a scam this company is, but seeing as Linus just ran a promo on ShortCircuit today, IDK if he is aware of it.  Is LTT doing okay, financially?  Surely there are OTHER sponsors you could go with, right?

[Wiebenor]

I found out that the cable doesn't support all devices, only those without the PowerDelivery 2.0 mandatory specification, and if your device, such as a pixel 4a doesn't work, it's either because you need the SPARK cable, or are using a 5watt version... Haven't heard of anyone else with a pixel 4a trying the 3watt volta 2.0 cable, so I can't verify whether the problem is actually PowerDelivery 2.0, or the whole google locking out 5watt cables due to shoddy workmanship concerns, with a few brands not necessarily with Volta in particular...

 

Of course, that doesn't mean that I think they're running things correctly, because they claim "1 cable for **ALL** your devices", not "2 cables for all your devices"

Edited March 29, 2021 by Wiebenor

[Cthulhu Calamari]

I just got a reply from Volta's customer support within an hour of requesting a refund for the Volta 2.0 cables I bought after LTT plugged them on a video at the end of February. I'm just awaiting confirmation regarding how they calculate the 30-day money-back period, so I don't get screwed by shipping things to and from Australia.

 

The cables themselves didn't have any trouble charging my wife's Pixel 4, or my Samsung S8+. My beef is that the magnet on the tips isn't strong enough to pull the connector back out when unplugging a device. Their customer care rep said that was intentional, so you leave the magnetic tip in and just stick it to other cables, but since it cost me $56 CAD for 2x 1M cables (after shipping) there's no way I'm replacing every cable we use with these.

 

I tested them with some much cheaper magnetic cables off Amazon, and they weren't compatible, but if someone finds another brand that uses the same connector, then I guess it starts to make more sense... Those cheaper cables do fully unplug when pulled straight out, while still breaking away cleanly when the cable is pulled accidentally or at an angle that could otherwise damage it, so the idea is sound. It's just the execution on these cables that doesn't meet my expectations.

[Wiebenor]

I thought that was a pretty obvious feature myself; I mean, I bought them specifically for the idea of inserting the tip and leaving it plugged in... However, I'm not going to say that some people might not understand that, nor judge anyone that doesn't understand the set it and forget it nature of these cables

[MichaelDR]

They've had my return for over a week now and I still don't have my refund.  Last email I got they said they don't have my order on record...  sus?

I've been dealing with this for over 2 months now.  I can't believe LTT would advertise a product who's own IndieGoGo page's comment section is such a mess of complaints that everywhere you look Volta is shouting DON'T COMPLAIN JUST CONTACT OUR CUSTOMER SUPPORT!  THESE CABLES WORK!  I PRMOISE!

Maybe some work, but there's a video on YouTube of a guy who ordered like 5, and 4 were broken, or something like that.

 

Sure, first batch might have some duds... But you expect me to believe "a few duds" was enough for their entire support team to be TOTALLY OVERWHELMED to the point where it takes them UP TO TWO WEEKS to respond to emails?  To be honest, they only responded to me at the 2 week mark because I posted about it on their IndieGoGo page, could've taken longer.

 

Anyway.

I made a video.

[Randy_Baton]

I brought some v1 cables on the back of the original LTT video. The main plus for me was on cable being able to charge different ports.

 

I've spent just under £100 pounds on 6 cables and 6 different tips and changed my whole charging infrastructure over to them. Both my lightning connector tips have broken one just disintegrated in my phone (also happened to micro USB one) and I had to pull it out with tweezers. The other only connects when its in one way and then it looks to be charging but my battery % decreases.

 

I contacted Volta as they sing and dance about their lifetime warranty no fault replacement, only to be told that the lifetime warranty stops as soon as they bring out a new version and stop selling the old version.  So if you have v1 cables and tips you don't have a warranty. Volta 2.0 was on sale less than a year after the Indiegogo campaign ended. I don't know when they stopped selling V1s but I'd presume it was around the same time.

 

They didn't even offer me a discount on upgrading to 2.0 (not that i would of anyway) 

 

 

 

[Wiebenor]

I have the 2.0 and it's nice, but I think I might get the new USB-C charging cable, the "Spark" I think it's called, but to be honest, I think they should include a 2.0 to C adapter with those, if they don't, because the reason I originally chose 2.0 is because my volunteer AV tech position at My church, only has 2.0 ports(easily accessible at least) on the computer I use, and I'm not about to hunt around the computer case just to find whether there's a C port on the rear, because it's placed in a cubby-hole under the soundboard desk, and yeah, I'd have to plug it and forget it, which I will NOT do with such an expensive cable...

[aoym]

Bought a Volta Spark, and the Hub broke off of it in my phone. Got it out no problem but charging is a no-go now. Contacted the company several times and they still ghost me.

 

Really sad to see from someone recommended from LTT. Anyone got a phone number for Volta? 

[Emanuil Georgiev]

After a LTT sponsor spot with a special promo for the new 200W charger (Indiegogo campaign) I bought two (one for me and one for a friend in the UK), and I bought a few cables and tips.

Chargers are yet to come, they send some emails with shipping updates, but they have problems and I don't think it will come any time soon.

 

Cables work fine for me. But I dropped my phone once, and because the tip sticks out, even from my rugged Samsung case, it took the brunt of the impact and got disintegrated (pretty brittle plastic imho). 

The Volta SPARK cable tip came with a defect, the chrome plating was chipped and pealed away in a huge spot. The magnetic "metal" below is not hard at all and you can scrape it with a finger, which produces magnetized powder residue ... nice. I'm writing to their support to ask for a replacement right now.

The design of the normal VOLTA 2.0 cables is not very good. Just from a few weeks of use my phone tip connector got jammed with metal particles which interferes with the proper connection and the cable does not fit all the way in. I'll have to try cleaning it with some sticky jelly/putty or very strong compressed air.

 

Overall I would not recommend this company or any magnetic cables really. You lock yourself to a certain brand and need to keep purchasing their expensive cables and tips.

I think the cables will last for a long time, but the tips - not so much. 

 

 

[RockSolid1106]

1 hour ago, Emanuil Georgiev said:

Chargers are yet to come, they send some emails with shipping updates, but they have problems and I don't think it will come any time soon.

You might have a bit of satisfaction with this reply from LMG Staff. They have paused any sponsorships with Volta, and they say backers should receive their chargers by the end of this month.

 

 

1 hour ago, Emanuil Georgiev said:

Overall I would not recommend this company or any magnetic cables really. You lock yourself to a certain brand and need to keep purchasing their expensive cables and tips.

I think the cables will last for a long time, but the tips - not so much. 

While the defects you've experienced might have been one-off, if they persist and their customer support isn't helping you, you could post in this thread, LMG Staff often help people with problems by contacting the company from their end if they bought something from LMG's sponsor.

 

[pagal_vaigyanik]

On 4/28/2021 at 7:01 AM, MichaelDR said:

They've had my return for over a week now and I still don't have my refund.  Last email I got they said they don't have my order on record...  sus?

I've been dealing with this for over 2 months now.  I can't believe LTT would advertise a product who's own IndieGoGo page's comment section is such a mess of complaints that everywhere you look Volta is shouting DON'T COMPLAIN JUST CONTACT OUR CUSTOMER SUPPORT!  THESE CABLES WORK!  I PRMOISE!

Maybe some work, but there's a video on YouTube of a guy who ordered like 5, and 4 were broken, or something like that.

 

Sure, first batch might have some duds... But you expect me to believe "a few duds" was enough for their entire support team to be TOTALLY OVERWHELMED to the point where it takes them UP TO TWO WEEKS to respond to emails?  To be honest, they only responded to me at the 2 week mark because I posted about it on their IndieGoGo page, could've taken longer.

 

Anyway.

I made a video.

Hello Michael,

 

I was looking into the Volta cables because I was thinking of buying them. Saw your posts and saw that you made a video about this, but its now private. Would you be willing to un-private the video so I can see it?

 

Thanks

[iowyn]

I've orderd a fair chunk from Volta. Within the first day of use, 2 tips stopped working and the ucb c to volta connector broke.

I've only now reached out to them.

Curious to see how their service goes.

It doesn't instill much hope thoguh with a 1/12 rate of failure for their product line from my orders alone.

[Emanuil Georgiev]

On 4/27/2022 at 5:50 PM, RockSolid1106 said:

You might have a bit of satisfaction with this reply from LMG Staff. They have paused any sponsorships with Volta, and they say backers should receive their chargers by the end of this month.

 

 

While the defects you've experienced might have been one-off, if they persist and their customer support isn't helping you, you could post in this thread, LMG Staff often help people with problems by contacting the company from their end if they bought something from LMG's sponsor.

 

Update: Volta came back to me. They agreed to send me a new tip.
In my mail to them I suggested that they can ship the replacement tip with a new order I was planning to make (at this point I'm all-in with their cables ... )
They replied with an Invoice that included the Free replacement tip and the items that I wanted to order (kind of). One item was not the one I wanted (wrong length I think). I wanted to change the item and even include another one, but they said that it's not possible as the order was already Shipped ... before I paid it ... so wierd 
And on top of everything they shipped MORE items than included in the invoice. We will see what happens when the shipment arrives at our customs  
They said that I should pay the original invoice, regardless what is stated in the package, so I did. 

TLDR: I will get a free replacement tip - no issues.
They are not ill intentioned, but the world shipping mess is wreaking havoc in their organization and it's pretty chaotic.

Update on 200W charger - I received a tracking number for one of my "LTT Special" contributions. Still waiting for the other one (but that one is ordered to the UK, as it's for a friend)

[Emanuil Georgiev]

On 5/18/2022 at 12:34 PM, iowyn said:

I've orderd a fair chunk from Volta. Within the first day of use, 2 tips stopped working and the ucb c to volta connector broke.

I've only now reached out to them.

Curious to see how their service goes.

It doesn't instill much hope thoguh with a 1/12 rate of failure for their product line from my orders alone.

On my Right angle cable - the inner part of the cable tip (not connector) just slides out and stops working. Try pressing it in. I'll have to apply some glue to my cable to stop popping out. 

 

Also check if some metal shavings or other debris got lodged inside the connector tip, as that will prevent the cable to go in fully, and it will not charge. (my experience). Unfortunately they are very hard to clean. I need to get some compressed air. 

[Clinton Smith]

I purchased a chunk of cables from Volta. The shipment (supposedly from Australia) took over 4 weeks (with priority shipping selected and paid for).

No updates, no email so I contacted them and got hold of the CEO via LinkedIn. 

 

Shipment finally arrived but with UK chargers (I am in Australia).

 

I have emailed their customer service team 3 times since and no response. (Notably, I am still getting their advertising via email).

Perhaps a call to consumer affairs (Office of FairTrading Australia) will be my next step.

 

For a product with such potential, it's not worth the frustration.

 

[ZapWeasel]

On 4/27/2022 at 8:50 AM, RockSolid1106 said:

While the defects you've experienced might have been one-off, if they persist and their customer support isn't helping you, you could post in this thread, LMG Staff often help people with problems by contacting the company from their end if they bought something from LMG's sponsor.

Hoping that helps me.

 

Ordered cables and tips, and now their website has a big banner stating free fast worldwide shipping, but when you go to pay, well there is no free shipping. So I paid for the 1-2 day option. About a week goes by, nothing. So I contact their support, they take a day but respond they haven't packed it yet... then later they pack it and send it. They didn't chose the 1-2 day option, but the DHL website said they chose the 6-9 day one but Volta Support in their email said dhl was suffering from "delays". I don't think we need to go over the ethics saying dhl is suffering from delays so that they don't have to honor their 1-2 day shipping and them choosing the slower shipping option instead.

 

Also reading other threads about reliability, who knows, whenever they actually arrive, if they will be decent or not. Also yes, heard about these cables from LTT.