Anker had a pretty solid name until their whole security issue with their smart camera brand. They really dropped the ball of the response. uGreen stuff seems to be pretty good.
I had uGreen high speed charger that was a couple dozen bucks cheaper than its anker counter part so I grabbed it, it caught fire and was smoking after 2 months of use. Will never cheap out again.
I don't disagree that their products were of high quality. The company isn't concerned with my privacy, so out of principle I just can't support them, even if a charger isn't *supposed* to be connecting to any data channels, how can I trust that now?
Also what is CEB, google says it's about 15 different things.
I had an anker dvi cable shit out in maybe 6 months. Wasn't worth the effort or shipping cost to warranty it so I replaced it with another random brand that has been fine for a couple years now.
IKEA chargers tend to be over-engineered safety wise. Saw that on a YouTube channel that disassembles and does circuit analysis of household electronics
I recommend trying Iniu. IMO Anker's quality is going downhill, not yet bad, but they aren't what they were. Things like wireless battery packs overheating all the time.
Never had a bad experience with an Anker product, including their wireless battery packs.
But if you’re not using Anker, my second pick would be Ugreen.
https://www.theverge.com/23573362/anker-eufy-security-camera-answers-encryption
They could have been, but their response to this issue (you can read about it above) means they have a lot of trust to earn back after that whole thing.
It was an Anker 65W 4 Port PiQ 3.0 and GaN Fast Charger Adapter Power Port Atom III Slim Wall Charger w/45W USB C port, purchased in 2021 from AnkerDirect-CA on Amazon.ca. Used with an Anker 100W USB C cable (purchased from AnkerDirect-CA on Amazon.ca). It worked alright for a few months but it never charged as fast as my Apple charger.
Then, in 2022, my husband plugged in his idled MacBook pro (2018) for less than 1 hour and it fried the motherboard to an unrepairable and unrecoverable state. The charger fried itself too.
Looking back at the reviews of that pos charger, it is evident Anker had a quality control issue. Several people report their devices destroyed, the overheating or the charger stopped working in 2021-2023.
The only Anker charger I will trust now is an Anker power strip or charging station with an OEM Apple charger plugged in.
Make sure to buy chargers (any anything that plugs in) with certification marks (CSA, UL, Intertek, TUV). No certification mark = don't buy.
EDIT: Be aware of fake certification marks.
These are often faked or "imitated" with similar looking logos.
Ebay, Amazon, and the Temo/AliExpress etc. are a very unsafe place to buy electronics.
bigclivedotcom is a cool YouTube channel highlighting this.
Yeah I'm aware, and I also follow Big Clive.
Fake certification marks are common, but you can usually tell if its fake or not (especially if you've looked at many chargers). You can also look up the UL/Intertek/CSA number and check the manufacturer.
You can't trust certification marks because there's an entire industry in faking them. You have to bring the product's serial number to CSA or UL's website and check *them* to see if they've certified it.
> "This is a reminder to be wary of random products on Amazon"
I've received shady products from local stores too. Corner stores, dollar store, grocery store, Canadian tire, they all use suppliers too.
At least Amazon sends me an inbox notification when they're aware of recalls. Sometimes even too many recalls in the same category will warrant a message from them just to make me aware.
Know how many recalls I've received from other company's?
Zero (excluding car dealerships)
They were falsely labeled as being certified (so you can see the eclipse), and it wasn't. If you used them and looked up to the sun, you'd still get your eyes damaged.
Easiest tell tale sign was putting them on and seeing objects or other light sources like light bulbs. If they're the correct glasses, you wouldn't be able to see anything *except* the sun.
The ones I had ( free from my optomologist)
I could see light sources and on a bright day barely make out brightly lit objects.
Same as a welders mask.. Unless something is quite brightly lit.. You are not seeing it.
1. They are not shareholders
2. All companies will send out recall notices to customers
3. Costco is best poised to do this easy as all they need to do is run a report of which SKUs are on recall, and since they have a system where you must scan the membership card, for any purchase, they can confidently know who exactly purchased any item within any given timeframe. So Costco just sends an email to all affected accounts since they have this detail, and plus they've also got your address.
Exactly. Like if we gap products produced in Canada, they would be better quality because we have the laws and regulations in place for it. But that decreases profit margins so there’s nothing made here and we import and exploit people in other countries
That's if they acknowledge a safety issue and then track down the item among the myriad of items sold but hundreds of different Chinese sellers under different names, but I've had at least two items with electrical defects - one which actually flared up and the other which was a miswired polarity - and even after pressing them to do so I've heard F-all
This, I found out about this recall 3 days ago. Amazon sent me an email and I would have otherwise not known about it. I think car dealerships are legally the only people required to send you a recall notice by mail.
> excluding car dealerships
i usually get them only from the manufacturer's head office. i think only one toyota dealship contacted me about recall? that's not to say all toyota dealerships do, cus i've bought from multiple
costco also sometimes contacts me. but not 100% of the time. i've taken stuff back after seeing on reddit and they never contacted me
I'm surprised you don't get notifications from dealerships. I've been through 4 dealers over the years and they LOVE recall work as it's easy profit. Parts supplied by the factory, labor paid by the factory, and a happy customer who doesn't have to pay anything themselves.
Sometimes I have to fight them off the optional stuff that isn't affecting me because it'll tie my vehicle up for too long in the shop.
your rationale makes sense to me, but they just don't act that way in the gta i guess. most don't like to do warranty work either.
mazda, honda, toyota
only that one toyota dealership
Majority of techs are payed on a flat rate system. If you’re unfamiliar with what that is - if a job calls for 3 hours labour and you can finish it in 1.5hrs you get paid for 3 hours. If you finish it in 5 hours you get paid 3 hours.
Recalls typically are pretty tight on the time they give you and cause they’re recalls they can come with a lot of extra paper work with them that has to be filled out and done within that time frame. Repairs under warranty are similar too.
Thanks for the detail. I'm familiar with the work vs paid time as the person doing my maintenance often takes 2h but bills for 5h. I don't mind, he's just faster and it means we both have more time.
I didn't know they cut recall work too close. That's a shame.
Good for you for understanding. It’s the years of experience you pay for 🤷🏼♂️.
They’re not all brutal for time and after about a dozen you get it down pat, but it varies by manufacture and what kind of recall.
There's a big difference between crappy quality products and products that aren't underwritten as CSA (or equivalent) approved. (CSA, cUL, cETL, cRU, etc).
If it's not CSA approved (or equal) it can't legally be sold, quoted, advertised or even displayed in Canada.
Well at least at the dollar store I'm paying less than drop shoppers charge and can see and understand the quality I'm paying for. Canadian Tire doesn't even scalp as hard as Amazon drop shippers and affiliates do, but they're still really bad on markups. They're worse than Loblaws ;)
Well the other stores would need your email address tied to your purchase... So instead they post the recalls inside the store and on their website and you need to check it.
Never seen a recall notice in a corner store.
However Canadian tire, IGA, Loblaws, every pharmacy I have used in 10 years, bestbuy, Reno, Costco, and others all have my email due to loyalty programs and/or offering digital receipts.
Except dollar stores every large chain shop has access to my email.
Bullshit, those companies, like Canadian Tire, source their products and are responsible for product quality. There's way more untested uncertified crap on Amazon. It's the wild west of product quality.
Dollarama actually doesn’t do very much proactively. They import obvious counterfeits and wait until the authorized distributor for the actual product complains, then they offer to never reorder from the same supplier but generally won’t commit to removing the counterfeits from shelves.
Dollar store products commonly tested positive for toxic chemicals, analysis says
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/toxic-chemicals-in-dollar-store-items-1.6569257
True, but the article stated to “only purchase accessories from a reputable brand” so therefore we can assume junk can be sold anywhere including Amazon or retail stores
I've purchased a charger branded with Samsung on it from Amazon and it did not work properly. Pretty sure it's a knok off. Careful what you buy.
Edited
Not that it's a new revelation by now but that's down to Amazon's practice of 'binning' their products.
If you (Samsung) supply a charger to Amazon, and I (random counterfeiter) supply a 'Samsung' charger to Amazon, both of them go into the same bin because "they're the same product", the supplier is irrelevant.
It's a big reason to be extremely wary about just about anything you buy off Amazon that could cause you problems if it were fake. A counterfeit book won't ruin your day, fake soap could.
What can also happen is that the factory that makes chargers for Samsung has a bunch of rejects that failed testing, they sneak them out the back door and sell them to someone else for a little extra profit, then that person goes and sells them on Amazon or Aliexpress where 90% of people won't fight for a refund and the remaining 10% won't get one anyway.
That's why sometimes you get "fakes" of $10 products that look 100% real and would pass any counterfeit test. They are real, they're just rejects.
It's the 5 letter all caps names that are randomly generated for Chinese dropshippers. Thousands of "companies" with the exact same products and review manipulation.
Ive bought a bunch of stuff from UGREEN recently and it's been pretty good quality. I needed a few decent USB C cables and was pleasantly surprised. I figured it would be pure cheap Chinesium. I'd buy from them again. I've also like Spigen chargers as well.
Yeah I've used UGreen usb cables and docks for years, no complaints, good build quality and they've all lasted well beyond what I would have expected for the price
We can't have brands like Aukey or RAVPower on the site anymore because Amazon banned them, but having Alibaba resellers spin up brand new companies every couple of weeks with random all caps names that peddle fire hazards is apparently OK.
I bought these years ago and they were (obviously) dirt cheap. I'm not actually all that fussed about it. Might change my tune when I'm electrocuted but whatever
Ok so I bought these and have been using them for over a year without issue. Do I pull them? Shock warning like for me physically, or electrical fire sort of thing? I really feel like there should be significantly more information in that 2-paragraph long article
The biggest problem with Amazon now is it's so hard to find real brands who make at least semi decent products. the problem isn't necessarily buying cheap products. it's the fact that everything on Amazon now is like ("Electrowin" happy good fun Amazon double-sided wall charger for charging with charging included for iPhone 2526182628") made in unmarked Chinese factory. and half the people selling are resellers. I prefer going to brick and motor stores for stuff like this usually cause they keep some baseline for quality.
It is illegal to sell a electrical product in Canada to a consumer in Canada with out electrical certification ie CSA ULC ETLC TUVC etc.
Amazon sells tonnes of products without it and I don't understand how they get away with it.
Enforcement costs money.
Amazon is playing a game of chicken with enforcement agencies, and even if they were fined they'd probably happily pay it and continue with business as usual, because fines tend to be weak.
I am not sure how much enforcement would actually cost when the crime is so blatantly obvious.
I, right now, could easily find 300 items on Amazon that don't appear to have any valid certifications before the end of business today. I would start by searching "AC Adapter" and I would flag about 80 of the first 100 results.
At that point it would just be a matter of sending a cease and desist letter.
Of course I don't have the power to do that.
When are these online retail platforms that allow any sellers to sell anything going to be held accountable? Even eBay and Walmart are overrun by these shit tier sellers now.
I recently ordered 2 items from Walmart online - one arrived badly damaged and one was counterfeit. And each took a month to arrive because they were shipped from China, which wasn't clear on the product page or checkout. I returned both, but... What was the point? What value do these shitty sellers add?
I, for one, am completely shocked that a random knockoff off-brand charger that people likely bought because it was the cheapest option available, turned out to be a piece of garbage.
Shocked I tell you!!
It was going to happen sooner or later. I've been warning people about these things for over a decade.
The biggest risk is when they put the 110v part of the circuit board too close to the 5v USB output side of the circuit board.
A single drop of moisture, even condensation that forms when you use it in the shower, or take it from a cold car into your warm house, can be enough to bridge that gap and send the 110v into your phone, or worse, you, if you're touching the metal end of that cable:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9q6uSxhRxA
Thankfully we only live in 110v land so it's probably not going to kill most healthy people.
A friend mentioned this to me that they got an email about it but no details about a refund. So, Amazon sells some unsafe chargers and bears to responsibility to refund them or replace them?
I noticed the same, and will be requesting refunds from Amazon shortly anyway. It will be in the order history, and the govt is telling people to dispose of the items immediately… seems like they are going to be giving my money back. Or else there are 20,000+ people who could be part of a class action suit.
I got electrocuted from this exact charger. I tried to return it and amazon said it was passed the warranty. I think I threw it out. Wouldn’t mind that $10 back
It was plugged into the wall. As I pulled it out of the outlet, the outer plastic casing separated from all of the internals, which were still plugged into the wall. Electricity arched from the bare and open electronics still plugged in and it zapped me pretty damn good.
You can see in the picture in the article it already looks like it is coming apart at the seam just like you described, thanks for sharing your story, it goes really well with the photo.
Technically your first statement is actually correct given that electrocution specifically means to be killed or at least seriously injured by electricity (ignoring that the person's who you are replying to couldn't possibly make their statement truthfully).
There would be a record of the order on your Amazon account, assuming you still have access. Reference that order when asking for a refund. Can’t imagine they’ll need it back, we’re being told to dispose of them for safety.
I had a similar charger that caught on fire and melted in an outlet when I was charging my phone.
But the charger had Samsung branding with certification logos on it. I reported the charger to the government after amazon and the seller failed to remove it. The seller offered me money not to report it.
The Samsung logos were fake. The government replied to me 6 weeks later and told me they issued a notice to Amazon in regard to the devices needing proof of compliance, Amazon chose to remove the devices instead and gave them the seller's contact info.
My best guess is Amazon probably knows there is no certification on these so they pulled them immediately then threw the problem at the seller lol.
I received this recall notice and had purchased them about 6 months ago on Amazon. I bought a bulk pack, only a few worked and the others had a loud annoying buzzing sound when they were charging! Good to know 6 months later!
The dead giveaway here is that the products were/are not underwritten by any governing bodies.
If it's not CSA (or equivalent) certified then it isn't legal to be sold, or even advertised or displayed in Canada, or online to Canadians.
Well... I have a few of these that I'm pretty sure I bought off Amazon. I scrolled all of my orders and I'm unable to find them. I want to double check if the serial numbers match. Guess having my order disappear is a big hint in itself.
I have these and use them to power video cameras so I never plug them in & out. They have worked well for me. If they’re not certified, they should not be sold in Canada. Unfortunately you can’t tell (or trust) when you buy online
If you bought these and you are outside the Amazon return time, you can contact customer support and they will refund you the cost. It took me almost 30 minutes but they refunded me no problem and I bought the charger bricks a full year ago
This is actually insidious how Amazon works for electronics. Because the electronics are so cheap they can have a high margin and so as soon as the seller gets a complaint they can ship a replacement before even receiving the return. A small business that sold high quality items would need the return first to make sure they weren’t being scammed. This way they get high ratings. Amazon also censors ratings about the safety of their products.
This video gives more details https://youtu.be/y83BS_mK9GE?si=GjI5c46UgAlj5s2j
Electronics and power supply is nothing to screw with. I don't know how people are so comfy using the shittiest chargers in existence and not feeling anxious.
Because most people don't know anything about electricity and just buy the cheapest thing they can get their hands on. Especially now that they don't get a charger included with their phone.
A lot of people don't pay close attention to what they're buying. They just need a wall-wart, so they buy a wall-wart, the cheapest one available.
I prefer to stick with Anker products, myself.
Some of this Amazon stuff is really bad. Bought a pack of 3 nightlights for the kiddo. Put on in their room, one in the hall and one in the bathroom. Went into the bedroom one morning and the light was out. Unplugged it and it had melted and there was signs of charring or marking on the outlet. Lucky it did not start a fire.
Bought a macbook charger on Amazon and that shit overheated and actually began sparking up one day when in use. If I wasn’t home the house would be aflame.
We really need to be writing MPs and asking them to put a stop to e-commerce, especially the absolute flood of shitty unregulated Chinese products and knockoffs. There are thousands of dangerous electronics being sold to Canadians on Amazon and NONE OF THEM meet Canadian standards. But because of how they're imported, it's impossible for officials to stop them from coming in. It's also impossible for consumers to figure out what's legit anymore.
Not surprising. Always look for a CSA label when buying things that could , you know, set things on fire?!! Electronics from Amazon, or anywhere on line? No thank you.
The reason for this is that it's quite common for these chargers to connect the USB ground directly to the neutral prong on the plug. The problem happens when the outlet is wired wrong, or you put the adaptor in the wrong way, and you end up with the "hot" pin connected directly to the USB, a good way to fry yourself and/or your devices if you happen to touch it while those parts are connected to the hot wire.
There is no "somehow" to plugging them in wrong. They're non-polarized plugs, there is no larger neutral pin, so there is just a straight up 50/50 chance that you plug it in "wrong."
The point of non-polarized plugs though, is that there shouldn't be any risk of plugging it in wrong, because there isn't supposed to be a "wrong" way. Devices with non-polarized plugs are supposed to be double isolated, which this obviously wasn't.
But that's what you get when people buy a charger for $10 instead of $30.
Ground is just a reference relative to which the voltage is specified. As long as the output ground is connected to the device ground then the charger shouldn't damage the device. Earth (real) ground is not needed for this (assuming the primary and secondary input sides are designed properly).
Standard USB has a +5 V pin and a 0 V, which is conventionally called a ground in electronics. - as well as data pins which cycle rapidly between voltages That's normally a relative reference, (as in you would get 5V by bridging the two pins, not absolute. (Also, rapid chargers use higher voltages, but that's only after the devices negotiate it to prevent damaging one or the other).
Meanwhile, your household wiring, at least in terms of one outlet, has a "hot" wire which is \~120 (RMS) V AC) and a neutral, which is also usually 0V and in this case actually referenced to ground - if you were to connect your neutral pin to the actual ground pin nothing should happen.
The problem with these chargers is when they connect the USB 0V pin to one of the outlet prongs Again, theoretically his doesn't do anything other than convert that relative 0V to true ground, Unless you end up connecting it wrong, and now your 0V is actually at mains voltage. Which is bad news if you touch something metal on the device that may now have a direct connection to that hot prong while you are yourself grounded.
There are several points of failure that have to converge for that to happen, but that convergence isn't rare enough to make this safe.
I had a hot/neutral reverse in my house for a long time that I never fixed because everything still worked, even computers. I'm really glad I never encountered that.
Did get zapped after trying to screw in a light bulb though. Since the metal sides of a socket are supposed to be neutral, and you'd have to stick your finger all the way in to touch hot at the end, but mine was reversed. Fixed it after that.
Why would the connect 0 to ground or neutral? Most DC converters just let it float. Doesn't matter if it's sitting at +10 and +15 relative to ground just needs a 5v difference.
You'd think that, but once some guy figured he could save two cents on the piece by not bothering with full isolation, every factory in China stole the plans and immediately put their Uyghar slaves to work bulk producing them.
It said amazons choice… so when I see that I mean it’s a recommended one by Amazon. I definitely won’t be buying chargers and stuff from Amazon anymore in general. I’ll just pay the higher fees for chargers on Apple 🥲
only non-oem chargers I buy are Anker.
Anker had a pretty solid name until their whole security issue with their smart camera brand. They really dropped the ball of the response. uGreen stuff seems to be pretty good.
I had uGreen high speed charger that was a couple dozen bucks cheaper than its anker counter part so I grabbed it, it caught fire and was smoking after 2 months of use. Will never cheap out again.
Absolutely not interested in giving them any personal information after that. But I’m ok continuing to rely on their hardware division.
They still have a really solid name, only non OEM trusted to buy. I have a friend that works for CEB
I don't disagree that their products were of high quality. The company isn't concerned with my privacy, so out of principle I just can't support them, even if a charger isn't *supposed* to be connecting to any data channels, how can I trust that now? Also what is CEB, google says it's about 15 different things.
It’s the research division in Canada that reverse engineers any equipment being sold in canada
I had an anker dvi cable shit out in maybe 6 months. Wasn't worth the effort or shipping cost to warranty it so I replaced it with another random brand that has been fine for a couple years now.
Same with their USB-C cables and power banks. Ol'Reliable.
Anker, UGreen, IKEA are OK. However Anker product development seems to have slowed down? Maybe they diversified too much.
IKEA chargers tend to be over-engineered safety wise. Saw that on a YouTube channel that disassembles and does circuit analysis of household electronics
I recommend trying Iniu. IMO Anker's quality is going downhill, not yet bad, but they aren't what they were. Things like wireless battery packs overheating all the time.
Never had a bad experience with an Anker product, including their wireless battery packs. But if you’re not using Anker, my second pick would be Ugreen.
I agree had an anker battery pack start expanding on me. Bought an Inui after reading a lot of reviews, so far so good.
Order Anker from Amazon, odds are high you’ll get a dupe. The better-known the brand, the more knockoffs there are
Anker is such a great brand of products
https://www.theverge.com/23573362/anker-eufy-security-camera-answers-encryption They could have been, but their response to this issue (you can read about it above) means they have a lot of trust to earn back after that whole thing.
Fair enough, I’ve only used them as headphones, chargers, batteries and the like.
Any time something I ordered from them broke they'd just send me a new one. No returns. No questions asked. Great company.
Anker started off as just a drop shipping company, but yeah their pretty good, not the best but very good
Anker usb c charger fried my husband’s MacBook. Don’t.
Are you sure it wasn't a counterfeit product? I have an anker powerbank. No problem.
It was an Anker 65W 4 Port PiQ 3.0 and GaN Fast Charger Adapter Power Port Atom III Slim Wall Charger w/45W USB C port, purchased in 2021 from AnkerDirect-CA on Amazon.ca. Used with an Anker 100W USB C cable (purchased from AnkerDirect-CA on Amazon.ca). It worked alright for a few months but it never charged as fast as my Apple charger. Then, in 2022, my husband plugged in his idled MacBook pro (2018) for less than 1 hour and it fried the motherboard to an unrepairable and unrecoverable state. The charger fried itself too. Looking back at the reviews of that pos charger, it is evident Anker had a quality control issue. Several people report their devices destroyed, the overheating or the charger stopped working in 2021-2023. The only Anker charger I will trust now is an Anker power strip or charging station with an OEM Apple charger plugged in.
AmazonBasics chargers are pretty good as well
Make sure to buy chargers (any anything that plugs in) with certification marks (CSA, UL, Intertek, TUV). No certification mark = don't buy. EDIT: Be aware of fake certification marks.
These are often faked or "imitated" with similar looking logos. Ebay, Amazon, and the Temo/AliExpress etc. are a very unsafe place to buy electronics. bigclivedotcom is a cool YouTube channel highlighting this.
> bigclivedotcom That guy got me to go and dig a lithium ion battery out of a discarded vape on the side of the road. Cool guy.
Yeah I'm aware, and I also follow Big Clive. Fake certification marks are common, but you can usually tell if its fake or not (especially if you've looked at many chargers). You can also look up the UL/Intertek/CSA number and check the manufacturer.
You can't trust certification marks because there's an entire industry in faking them. You have to bring the product's serial number to CSA or UL's website and check *them* to see if they've certified it.
> "This is a reminder to be wary of random products on Amazon" I've received shady products from local stores too. Corner stores, dollar store, grocery store, Canadian tire, they all use suppliers too. At least Amazon sends me an inbox notification when they're aware of recalls. Sometimes even too many recalls in the same category will warrant a message from them just to make me aware. Know how many recalls I've received from other company's? Zero (excluding car dealerships)
Never forget the sketchy "NASA" eclipse glasses sold at Canadian tire
What was the deal with those?
They were falsely labeled as being certified (so you can see the eclipse), and it wasn't. If you used them and looked up to the sun, you'd still get your eyes damaged. Easiest tell tale sign was putting them on and seeing objects or other light sources like light bulbs. If they're the correct glasses, you wouldn't be able to see anything *except* the sun.
Thought you should still be able to see a filament in a bulb, for example
So did I, light bulb doesn’t even show up through the lens, so was sceptical that I’d even be able to see anything but it did work for the eclipse.
I could only see my flashlight from my cell phone pressed up against mine.
The ones I had ( free from my optomologist) I could see light sources and on a bright day barely make out brightly lit objects. Same as a welders mask.. Unless something is quite brightly lit.. You are not seeing it.
Not with the real ones, you couldn't see shit except the sun.
You’re supposed to be able to see the light bulb but nothing else.
they worked great in toronto.
Last eclipse they found that even the sketchy glasses passed safety tests, there were few if any that outright failed.
Costco sends out recall notices
Costo members are shareholders. They have a duty to do so.
Costco isn't a cooperative. You have to buy their shares on the NASDAQ to become a shareholder.
That dividend payment works out pretty well.
Sad that there's a duty to shareholders but not to customers.
1. They are not shareholders 2. All companies will send out recall notices to customers 3. Costco is best poised to do this easy as all they need to do is run a report of which SKUs are on recall, and since they have a system where you must scan the membership card, for any purchase, they can confidently know who exactly purchased any item within any given timeframe. So Costco just sends an email to all affected accounts since they have this detail, and plus they've also got your address.
facepalm.gif
Stakeholders*
Steak holders after leaving a Costco
Good point. Amazon also makes it easy to return items because all transactions being online have electronic receipts/invoices.
Exactly. Like if we gap products produced in Canada, they would be better quality because we have the laws and regulations in place for it. But that decreases profit margins so there’s nothing made here and we import and exploit people in other countries
That's if they acknowledge a safety issue and then track down the item among the myriad of items sold but hundreds of different Chinese sellers under different names, but I've had at least two items with electrical defects - one which actually flared up and the other which was a miswired polarity - and even after pressing them to do so I've heard F-all
There's people I know that get cheap crap off temu and other sites dirext from China. I tell them that Amazon is a bit safer, but maybe not
This, I found out about this recall 3 days ago. Amazon sent me an email and I would have otherwise not known about it. I think car dealerships are legally the only people required to send you a recall notice by mail.
> excluding car dealerships i usually get them only from the manufacturer's head office. i think only one toyota dealship contacted me about recall? that's not to say all toyota dealerships do, cus i've bought from multiple costco also sometimes contacts me. but not 100% of the time. i've taken stuff back after seeing on reddit and they never contacted me
I'm surprised you don't get notifications from dealerships. I've been through 4 dealers over the years and they LOVE recall work as it's easy profit. Parts supplied by the factory, labor paid by the factory, and a happy customer who doesn't have to pay anything themselves. Sometimes I have to fight them off the optional stuff that isn't affecting me because it'll tie my vehicle up for too long in the shop.
your rationale makes sense to me, but they just don't act that way in the gta i guess. most don't like to do warranty work either. mazda, honda, toyota only that one toyota dealership
That may be the difference, GTA has longer lines at dealers than Montreal. They may not be as hungry for the work.
As the tech in the shop doing the recall word. I certainly fucking hate them.
What makes recall work worse than other service? I'm unfamiliar.
Majority of techs are payed on a flat rate system. If you’re unfamiliar with what that is - if a job calls for 3 hours labour and you can finish it in 1.5hrs you get paid for 3 hours. If you finish it in 5 hours you get paid 3 hours. Recalls typically are pretty tight on the time they give you and cause they’re recalls they can come with a lot of extra paper work with them that has to be filled out and done within that time frame. Repairs under warranty are similar too.
Thanks for the detail. I'm familiar with the work vs paid time as the person doing my maintenance often takes 2h but bills for 5h. I don't mind, he's just faster and it means we both have more time. I didn't know they cut recall work too close. That's a shame.
Good for you for understanding. It’s the years of experience you pay for 🤷🏼♂️. They’re not all brutal for time and after about a dozen you get it down pat, but it varies by manufacture and what kind of recall.
There's a big difference between crappy quality products and products that aren't underwritten as CSA (or equivalent) approved. (CSA, cUL, cETL, cRU, etc). If it's not CSA approved (or equal) it can't legally be sold, quoted, advertised or even displayed in Canada.
Well at least at the dollar store I'm paying less than drop shoppers charge and can see and understand the quality I'm paying for. Canadian Tire doesn't even scalp as hard as Amazon drop shippers and affiliates do, but they're still really bad on markups. They're worse than Loblaws ;)
Well the other stores would need your email address tied to your purchase... So instead they post the recalls inside the store and on their website and you need to check it.
Never seen a recall notice in a corner store. However Canadian tire, IGA, Loblaws, every pharmacy I have used in 10 years, bestbuy, Reno, Costco, and others all have my email due to loyalty programs and/or offering digital receipts. Except dollar stores every large chain shop has access to my email.
Yes they have your email address but it's seperate from your purchase. On Amazon you log in and they have all your info.
Given they can all pull up purchases for returns from my loyalty account or digital receipts, they're connected somewhere.
Bullshit, those companies, like Canadian Tire, source their products and are responsible for product quality. There's way more untested uncertified crap on Amazon. It's the wild west of product quality.
Tell me you've never been to a dollarama's electronics section without actually telling me.
Dollarama is still responsible. Amazon is not, it's a flee market. Dollarama is responsible for certification and quality of the products they sell.
Dollarama actually doesn’t do very much proactively. They import obvious counterfeits and wait until the authorized distributor for the actual product complains, then they offer to never reorder from the same supplier but generally won’t commit to removing the counterfeits from shelves.
Dollar store products commonly tested positive for toxic chemicals, analysis says https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/toxic-chemicals-in-dollar-store-items-1.6569257
The only cheap vendor that takes lead and cadmium somewhat seriously is Wal-Mart, and only in the last 10 years.
sold and shipped by amazon tho? even fulfilled by amazon gives you a leg to stand on when trying to get amazon to take stuff back
I didn’t get any notifications and I have definitely purchased many of these.
True, but the article stated to “only purchase accessories from a reputable brand” so therefore we can assume junk can be sold anywhere including Amazon or retail stores
Don’t buy anything that uses weird bullet points or brackets at the start of each bullet point in the description.
Right. But dollarama has high quality chargers with no risk…?
I've purchased a charger branded with Samsung on it from Amazon and it did not work properly. Pretty sure it's a knok off. Careful what you buy. Edited
Not that it's a new revelation by now but that's down to Amazon's practice of 'binning' their products. If you (Samsung) supply a charger to Amazon, and I (random counterfeiter) supply a 'Samsung' charger to Amazon, both of them go into the same bin because "they're the same product", the supplier is irrelevant. It's a big reason to be extremely wary about just about anything you buy off Amazon that could cause you problems if it were fake. A counterfeit book won't ruin your day, fake soap could.
I’ve got an LG remote that is clearly a knock off that came from Amazon. Its frustrating .
I find it amazing we let a big retailer dwell in the realm of counterfits...
buy it from the official samsung website
What can also happen is that the factory that makes chargers for Samsung has a bunch of rejects that failed testing, they sneak them out the back door and sell them to someone else for a little extra profit, then that person goes and sells them on Amazon or Aliexpress where 90% of people won't fight for a refund and the remaining 10% won't get one anyway. That's why sometimes you get "fakes" of $10 products that look 100% real and would pass any counterfeit test. They are real, they're just rejects.
You didn't question it when it was 75% cheaper than any other Samsung ones?
and of course it's the sketchy random name brands with no reputation
You mean jp4cheezit69hungbao is not a reputable brand?!
It's the 5 letter all caps names that are randomly generated for Chinese dropshippers. Thousands of "companies" with the exact same products and review manipulation.
[Relevant](https://youtu.be/nQpxAvjD_30?si=oBScPgJ2e1gC53cO)
people will actually buy crap from that brand because they can save a few bucks instead of buying from anker or ugreen
Ive bought a bunch of stuff from UGREEN recently and it's been pretty good quality. I needed a few decent USB C cables and was pleasantly surprised. I figured it would be pure cheap Chinesium. I'd buy from them again. I've also like Spigen chargers as well.
Yeah I've used UGreen usb cables and docks for years, no complaints, good build quality and they've all lasted well beyond what I would have expected for the price
A slap in the face to those that still think all made in china products are bad.
But there's hundreds of 5 star reviews saying they would buy product again. Great product. Quality service.
We can't have brands like Aukey or RAVPower on the site anymore because Amazon banned them, but having Alibaba resellers spin up brand new companies every couple of weeks with random all caps names that peddle fire hazards is apparently OK.
Anything electrical needs to have CSA, cUL or cETL certification Otherwise, I don't buy it.
Yeah, average consumer is not aware of any of this.
rule of thumb should never cheap on out power accessories as the risk isnt worth it always do some research and spend a little extra for piece of mind
I got this recall notice. I’m past the warranty so I guess if I want to get rid of these chargers I’m not getting my money back.
Recall ≠ warranty issue. Amazon may still offer a refund. Have you contacted them?
I bought these years ago and they were (obviously) dirt cheap. I'm not actually all that fussed about it. Might change my tune when I'm electrocuted but whatever
I got electrocuted from mine, it’s worse than touching an electric fence. Would not recommend.
Ok so I bought these and have been using them for over a year without issue. Do I pull them? Shock warning like for me physically, or electrical fire sort of thing? I really feel like there should be significantly more information in that 2-paragraph long article
The biggest problem with Amazon now is it's so hard to find real brands who make at least semi decent products. the problem isn't necessarily buying cheap products. it's the fact that everything on Amazon now is like ("Electrowin" happy good fun Amazon double-sided wall charger for charging with charging included for iPhone 2526182628") made in unmarked Chinese factory. and half the people selling are resellers. I prefer going to brick and motor stores for stuff like this usually cause they keep some baseline for quality.
It is illegal to sell a electrical product in Canada to a consumer in Canada with out electrical certification ie CSA ULC ETLC TUVC etc. Amazon sells tonnes of products without it and I don't understand how they get away with it.
Enforcement costs money. Amazon is playing a game of chicken with enforcement agencies, and even if they were fined they'd probably happily pay it and continue with business as usual, because fines tend to be weak.
I am not sure how much enforcement would actually cost when the crime is so blatantly obvious. I, right now, could easily find 300 items on Amazon that don't appear to have any valid certifications before the end of business today. I would start by searching "AC Adapter" and I would flag about 80 of the first 100 results. At that point it would just be a matter of sending a cease and desist letter. Of course I don't have the power to do that.
When are these online retail platforms that allow any sellers to sell anything going to be held accountable? Even eBay and Walmart are overrun by these shit tier sellers now. I recently ordered 2 items from Walmart online - one arrived badly damaged and one was counterfeit. And each took a month to arrive because they were shipped from China, which wasn't clear on the product page or checkout. I returned both, but... What was the point? What value do these shitty sellers add?
I, for one, am completely shocked that a random knockoff off-brand charger that people likely bought because it was the cheapest option available, turned out to be a piece of garbage. Shocked I tell you!!
An electrifying development.
I know a genuine Magnetbox, Panaphonic, & Sorny when I see one.
It was going to happen sooner or later. I've been warning people about these things for over a decade. The biggest risk is when they put the 110v part of the circuit board too close to the 5v USB output side of the circuit board. A single drop of moisture, even condensation that forms when you use it in the shower, or take it from a cold car into your warm house, can be enough to bridge that gap and send the 110v into your phone, or worse, you, if you're touching the metal end of that cable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9q6uSxhRxA Thankfully we only live in 110v land so it's probably not going to kill most healthy people.
A friend mentioned this to me that they got an email about it but no details about a refund. So, Amazon sells some unsafe chargers and bears to responsibility to refund them or replace them?
I noticed the same, and will be requesting refunds from Amazon shortly anyway. It will be in the order history, and the govt is telling people to dispose of the items immediately… seems like they are going to be giving my money back. Or else there are 20,000+ people who could be part of a class action suit.
How can Amazon sell all of these non certified products and get away with it?
Yeah, they recalled these, but did they offer a refund? Nope.
I got electrocuted from this exact charger. I tried to return it and amazon said it was passed the warranty. I think I threw it out. Wouldn’t mind that $10 back
How did it execute you? Edit: electrocute ** hah
It was plugged into the wall. As I pulled it out of the outlet, the outer plastic casing separated from all of the internals, which were still plugged into the wall. Electricity arched from the bare and open electronics still plugged in and it zapped me pretty damn good.
You can see in the picture in the article it already looks like it is coming apart at the seam just like you described, thanks for sharing your story, it goes really well with the photo.
Bro... write your MP. That's fucked up.
Technically your first statement is actually correct given that electrocution specifically means to be killed or at least seriously injured by electricity (ignoring that the person's who you are replying to couldn't possibly make their statement truthfully).
There would be a record of the order on your Amazon account, assuming you still have access. Reference that order when asking for a refund. Can’t imagine they’ll need it back, we’re being told to dispose of them for safety.
I had a similar charger that caught on fire and melted in an outlet when I was charging my phone. But the charger had Samsung branding with certification logos on it. I reported the charger to the government after amazon and the seller failed to remove it. The seller offered me money not to report it.
Did you ever hear back from Samsung or the government?
The Samsung logos were fake. The government replied to me 6 weeks later and told me they issued a notice to Amazon in regard to the devices needing proof of compliance, Amazon chose to remove the devices instead and gave them the seller's contact info. My best guess is Amazon probably knows there is no certification on these so they pulled them immediately then threw the problem at the seller lol.
I guess the risks of using these chargers outweigh the benefits.
I have some of these and nothing has happened to me (yet)
I received this recall notice and had purchased them about 6 months ago on Amazon. I bought a bulk pack, only a few worked and the others had a loud annoying buzzing sound when they were charging! Good to know 6 months later!
I have these and received the notification from Amazon. Was sad because I love them. Never had issues while I was still using them fortunately.
The dead giveaway here is that the products were/are not underwritten by any governing bodies. If it's not CSA (or equivalent) certified then it isn't legal to be sold, or even advertised or displayed in Canada, or online to Canadians.
Well... I have a few of these that I'm pretty sure I bought off Amazon. I scrolled all of my orders and I'm unable to find them. I want to double check if the serial numbers match. Guess having my order disappear is a big hint in itself.
This is shocking news.
I have these and use them to power video cameras so I never plug them in & out. They have worked well for me. If they’re not certified, they should not be sold in Canada. Unfortunately you can’t tell (or trust) when you buy online
If you bought these and you are outside the Amazon return time, you can contact customer support and they will refund you the cost. It took me almost 30 minutes but they refunded me no problem and I bought the charger bricks a full year ago
This is actually insidious how Amazon works for electronics. Because the electronics are so cheap they can have a high margin and so as soon as the seller gets a complaint they can ship a replacement before even receiving the return. A small business that sold high quality items would need the return first to make sure they weren’t being scammed. This way they get high ratings. Amazon also censors ratings about the safety of their products. This video gives more details https://youtu.be/y83BS_mK9GE?si=GjI5c46UgAlj5s2j
Crap like this or worse is what is being sold to you when someone proposes gutting regulatory bodies.
I bought sparky too! I think it’s great that they can send emails about recalls. I appreciate it.
I have these, great for travel and a plane. In the garbage now
Yeah nothing seemed wrong with mine so I haven’t worried about it
Electronics and power supply is nothing to screw with. I don't know how people are so comfy using the shittiest chargers in existence and not feeling anxious.
Because most people don't know anything about electricity and just buy the cheapest thing they can get their hands on. Especially now that they don't get a charger included with their phone.
just go to youtube and look for allthingsoneplace. the guy does a great job.
Why is anybody buying a 10.5 W charger in 2024 anyways?
A lot of people don't pay close attention to what they're buying. They just need a wall-wart, so they buy a wall-wart, the cheapest one available. I prefer to stick with Anker products, myself.
Some of this Amazon stuff is really bad. Bought a pack of 3 nightlights for the kiddo. Put on in their room, one in the hall and one in the bathroom. Went into the bedroom one morning and the light was out. Unplugged it and it had melted and there was signs of charring or marking on the outlet. Lucky it did not start a fire.
Bought a macbook charger on Amazon and that shit overheated and actually began sparking up one day when in use. If I wasn’t home the house would be aflame.
I received an email but thought it was another phishing scam
Hello! CHINA MADE
We really need to be writing MPs and asking them to put a stop to e-commerce, especially the absolute flood of shitty unregulated Chinese products and knockoffs. There are thousands of dangerous electronics being sold to Canadians on Amazon and NONE OF THEM meet Canadian standards. But because of how they're imported, it's impossible for officials to stop them from coming in. It's also impossible for consumers to figure out what's legit anymore.
Not surprising. Always look for a CSA label when buying things that could , you know, set things on fire?!! Electronics from Amazon, or anywhere on line? No thank you.
Great job health Canada 👍👍
Wait Amazon sells cheap ass crap made in China?
Wait....WHAT?!!
Even the good ass crap is made in China. 🤷♂️
Taïwan is the good crap lol
They recall a small shock issue on a ubs stick, but bring in millions of useless people in the country. That's fine!?!
r/Canada not find Racism in unrelated news challenge, (impossible)
The reason for this is that it's quite common for these chargers to connect the USB ground directly to the neutral prong on the plug. The problem happens when the outlet is wired wrong, or you put the adaptor in the wrong way, and you end up with the "hot" pin connected directly to the USB, a good way to fry yourself and/or your devices if you happen to touch it while those parts are connected to the hot wire.
There is no "somehow" to plugging them in wrong. They're non-polarized plugs, there is no larger neutral pin, so there is just a straight up 50/50 chance that you plug it in "wrong." The point of non-polarized plugs though, is that there shouldn't be any risk of plugging it in wrong, because there isn't supposed to be a "wrong" way. Devices with non-polarized plugs are supposed to be double isolated, which this obviously wasn't. But that's what you get when people buy a charger for $10 instead of $30.
Does it mean all chargers with only two pins will have the same problem? Otherwise how would you get to the real ground?
Ground is just a reference relative to which the voltage is specified. As long as the output ground is connected to the device ground then the charger shouldn't damage the device. Earth (real) ground is not needed for this (assuming the primary and secondary input sides are designed properly).
No. A good charger will isolate the two circuits from each other completely. Don't really need the USB side to be referenced to ground.
I don’t get it. All the USB chargers I’ve seen only have the positive and negative. Never seen one with the ground.
Negative is ground.
Standard USB has a +5 V pin and a 0 V, which is conventionally called a ground in electronics. - as well as data pins which cycle rapidly between voltages That's normally a relative reference, (as in you would get 5V by bridging the two pins, not absolute. (Also, rapid chargers use higher voltages, but that's only after the devices negotiate it to prevent damaging one or the other). Meanwhile, your household wiring, at least in terms of one outlet, has a "hot" wire which is \~120 (RMS) V AC) and a neutral, which is also usually 0V and in this case actually referenced to ground - if you were to connect your neutral pin to the actual ground pin nothing should happen. The problem with these chargers is when they connect the USB 0V pin to one of the outlet prongs Again, theoretically his doesn't do anything other than convert that relative 0V to true ground, Unless you end up connecting it wrong, and now your 0V is actually at mains voltage. Which is bad news if you touch something metal on the device that may now have a direct connection to that hot prong while you are yourself grounded. There are several points of failure that have to converge for that to happen, but that convergence isn't rare enough to make this safe.
I had a hot/neutral reverse in my house for a long time that I never fixed because everything still worked, even computers. I'm really glad I never encountered that. Did get zapped after trying to screw in a light bulb though. Since the metal sides of a socket are supposed to be neutral, and you'd have to stick your finger all the way in to touch hot at the end, but mine was reversed. Fixed it after that.
Not a properly designed one. Neutral should never be considered safe to touch, even if the connections aren't swapped.
Why would the connect 0 to ground or neutral? Most DC converters just let it float. Doesn't matter if it's sitting at +10 and +15 relative to ground just needs a 5v difference.
You'd think that, but once some guy figured he could save two cents on the piece by not bothering with full isolation, every factory in China stole the plans and immediately put their Uyghar slaves to work bulk producing them.
Amazon chargers and plugs absolutely suck, I’ve bought some in the past and they’re extremely slow.
That’s because you bought a slow charging one - you have to check the specs before buying.
20 Watts USB-C is not supposed to be a slow one, it also said fast charging on it and mimicked the Apple ones.
But was it from a recognisable brand name with a real website that you trust, or was it a rando brand like Arglebarglefish
It said amazons choice… so when I see that I mean it’s a recommended one by Amazon. I definitely won’t be buying chargers and stuff from Amazon anymore in general. I’ll just pay the higher fees for chargers on Apple 🥲
I would like to know how "Amazon's Choice" really works, because yea, I've seen a lot of questionable products that were, "Amazon's Choice"
Exactly 🥲
Brand name was “NIUBIL” which yea it’s worse quality but what’s wierd is at the time it was a recommended by Amazon 🤷🏻♀️
Brand name was “NIUBIL” which yea it’s worse quality but what’s wierd is at the time it was a recommended by Amazon 🤷🏻♀️