Last week Apple announced a recall on “certain” two-pin charger adapters sold over the past ten years or so. Those bearing a serial number are suspect and I lost no time going through my drawers for suspect connectors.
This is what I found: A veritable trove of dodgy hardware that I will have to take to my nearest Apple store for replacement. I was shocked by the quantity and, if I am any example, Apple is in for a busy time. I fully expect the more popular connectors, in my case European twin-prong units, to be in short supply.
Just how did I accumulate such a collection? Over the years I’ve bought at least two of Apple’s international connector kits, mainly to get my hands on Australian flat-pin, angled plugs and the thicker-than-euro twins used in many other parts of the world.
Since I seem to use and lose mainly European connectors, I’ve compensated by occasionally buying iPhone, iPad or MacBook chargers in European apple stores. I use a lot of the compact plug that come with European purchases. I travel with four or five connector—to power computer, tablet and phone and other accessories; I use these Apple connectors for camera chargers instead of the supplied cables. Then there are the spares and the ones I’ve lost or misplaced. I am fully confident that a deeper trawl of shelves, boxes and drawers would produce even more of them.
In short, I can’t get enough of these useful little plugs. But will Apple be ready? Will I be suspected of wholesalerism? I will report on the reaction.
On the recall page that you highlight Mike, it seems to suggest that your plug must relate to an Apple device for which you have serial number… rather than a bag of random plugs.
"Exchange Process
Please choose one of the following options below. We will need to verify your Mac, iPad, iPhone or iPod serial number as part of the exchange process so please find your serial number in advance."
Whilst I reckon that Apple Chinese stuff looks nicer and generally has less problems than most of the competing Chinese dross that usually runs Windows. This is no Leica, this is nowhere near the quality of the sort of stuff that I used to use when I worked in the industry… IBM was a good company, that really did make good products, and the world is a lot poorer for that company’s decision to convert from manufacturing product to merely being a service provider.
If Trump manages to wrest control from the corporate political classes in the USA, and if he comes good on his promise to tax the cr*p out of Chinese importers, we might begin to see the return of some decent products from American companies again.
Too late for us, we smashed our manufacturing into the dust back in the 1970’s and all we are good for is flogging each other American burgers.
Stephen
You are right in your interpretation of the Apple recall instructions. I assume that the request for a computer number is purely to make sure the claimants are Apple customers. Since the adapters come from a variety of sources (second and third chargers, adapter kits, older computers) I don’t see how they can expect a computer to link to every adapter.
Under consumer law I am sure the company will have to replace all faulty units. All mine meet the serial number requirement and I will be expecting replacements!