WHAT YOU MUST NEVER BUY ONLINE
FAKE TECH & DODGY RIP-OFFS you could mistake for genuine
Cheap unbranded laptop and phone batteries
When the lithium ion (‘Li-ion’) battery in your laptop, smartphone or tablet finally gives up the ghost, you can save a lot of money by buying an unbranded (‘aftermarket’) replacement. For example, Lenovo charges £200 for its Thinkpad battery 41++ ( www.snipca.com/28593), while we found aftermarket equivalents for just £13.59 on ebay.
However, that massive saving is a false economy. Li-ion batteries are complex devices that pack chemicals and voltage into a small space – much like bombs. Branded ones are expensive because they include safeguards like overcharging protection. Cheap versions can be very dangerous. Samsung’s exploding Galaxy Note 4 batteries were refurbished counterfeits ( www.snipca.com/28612). Dodgy Li-ion batteries have exploded in hoverboards ( www.snipca.com/28608) and – with shocking results – e-cigarettes ( www.snipca.com/28609).
The smart way to save money on Li-ion batteries is to extend their lifespan. Keep your device cool (this laptop fan is just £11.99 on Amazon www.snipca. com/28709), and don’t keep it on full charge all the time.
Fake Apple chargers
Chargers, too, are surprisingly complex devices. Electrician Ken Shirriff takes them apart for his blog ( www.righto.com), and reports “surprising” differences between official and generic ipad chargers. “The Apple charger is expensive, but is a high quality product… the cheap counterfeit chargers (are) low quality and dangerous” ( www.snipca.com/28617, see image left).
Look for verified Apple-compatible products made by reputable companies like Belkin and Logitech. Check for Apple’s ‘Made for Apple’ (MFI) logo, which certifies they’re genuine ( www.snipca.com/28616, pictured below).
Expensive AV cables
Have you got £1,789 to burn? Then buy this HDMI cable from Amazon: www. snipca.com/28647. You’ll be pleased to know delivery is free.
It’s an extreme example, but Amazon has dozens of HDMI cables at prices well over £500, and they’re all worth a tenth of that. Audio-video (AV) cables have no moving parts or processing tasks, so manufacturers don’t need to invest money to make them safe and powerful. They comprise a few lengths of wire connected to metal pins, designed to conduct electricity. And that’s it. Any differences in quality are down to the devices the cables are connecting.
Cheap storage CDS & DVDS
Poorly made optical storage discs - CDS and DVDS to you and me - that are a decade or more old will be starting to suffer ‘disc rot’, a process of degradation that eventually destroys data stored on them. Hospitals and libraries are now being urged to back up everything from discs, or risk losing it forever.
Discs are far more complex than AV cables. They comprise layers of reflective metal coatings, plastic and chemicals. Recordable discs also include dyes that make them even more susceptible to rot. Manufacturers with a reputation to protect use ‘Accelerated Life Testing’ to test durability, and some even include gold layers to increase lifespan. ‘Pile ‘em high sell ‘em cheap’ manufacturers don’t bother.
Buy from specialists such as Maxell,
TDK and Verbatim. Amazon currently has a 100-pack of Verbatim 4.7GB DVD-R silver discs for £21.13 (RRP £32.50): www. snipca.com/28636.
Second-hand hard drives
Never, ever buy a used hard drive (HDD). Bafflingly, people pay nearly-new prices for them. We recently saw a 4TB Western Digital drive sold for £85 on ebay – just over £20 less than it costs new on Amazon ( www.snipca.com/28639). That’s far too small a saving to justify buying a delicate device whose previous owner may have bumped it, dropped it, or abused it with dodgy software and files. Hard drives can even be damaged by high-pitched noises.
With manufacturers switching their efforts to SSDS (solid-state drives), Western Digital included, HDDS are now cheaper than ever - so there’s no reason to risk buying second hand.
‘Seller refurbished’ PCS
Refurbished PCS can be great buys, but only if they’re genuine. Certified manufacturers’ refurbs are tested rigorously, contain official components, and have a clean-installed operating system (OS). Items listed on ebay as ‘Seller refurbished’ won’t have all these things, and may even be scams.
The surest way to get a certified refurb is to buy direct from the maker, such as Dell ( www.dellrefurbished.co.uk, see screenshot above). HP’S Renew scheme certifies resellers such as Systemactive ( https://systemactive.co. uk), and Lenovo sells ‘certified refurbished’ products on Amazon ( www. snipca.com/28631). Also try Amazon Renewed ( www.snipca.com/ 28642) and Apple’s Certified Refurbished site ( www.snipca.com/28643).
Ageing phones and tablets
Second-hand smartphones are increasingly popular, but we advise steering clear of very old models. The display and buttons deteriorate with use, its battery might be swollen, and it may soon stop receiving updates. A 16GB ipad 2 costs just £50, but the model was discontinued in 2014. The new IOS 12 won’t support it, and nor will many apps. The same goes for the iphone 5s.
Unofficial product keys
You can buy a Windows 10 Home product key for £4.49 on ebay ( www.snipca. com/28646, see screenshot above right), much cheaper than £120 from Microsoft ( www.snipca.com/28645). Sounds tempting, doesn’t it? We suggest you avoid the temptation. If the cheap key works at all, it could be blacklisted by Microsoft in the future, which will stop it working. The problem is, you just don’t know. When we tried buying a Windows 7 Home Premium product key from ebay, we were instructed to download the Windows 7 ISO file from the seller’s Dropbox account. Downloading Windows ISO files from anyone other than Microsoft is a huge security risk.
Apple’s rip-off accessories
Let’s leave aside truly daft items such as the £149 ipad case, because it’s arguably a “luxury”. We’re more shocked by Apple’s £29 Lightning-to-usb cable ( www.snipca. com/28622), when an Apple Mfi-certified Amazon Basics equivalent costs £9 ( www.snipca. com/28623). Nine pounds is still a lot for a USB cable (Android microusb equivalents cost around a fiver), but that’s because Apple drives up prices by using its own special ports. There are rumours Apple will switch to microusb, but it remains devoted to its protectionist ports - because they’re lucrative.