Flirted with death: ebay chargers

**Engineer_Berry** · 10-20-2009, 06:44 AM

So last week I found chargers for the Storm on ebay for dirt cheap. So I ordered 2 wall chargers and a car charger, it all came to under 10 dollars with shipping! Awesome deal right!

Last night I plugged the storm into the ebay charger overnight, woke up this morning to find it is completely dead. So I charged it back up with my manufacturer charger, only to find that the touchscreen no longer worked properly. So needless to say I was devastated and completely furious with myself for being duped by a 2 dollar charger which had now likely costed me much more than that.

But hey! Rebooted it a couple times, and an hour later now it seems to be working perfectly again. Needless to say I am relieved, and all three fleabay chargers are in the trash. I realize you have probably heard this countless times before, but anyone who's thinking about buying a cheap charger off ebay.....DON'T DO IT. I'm still hopeful that no permanent damage was done.

**gregski** · 10-20-2009, 06:56 AM

I always buy OEM chargers....especially on FleaBay.

**StrwBerryBlond** · 10-20-2009, 06:58 AM

I've found chargers and batterys on amazon for a great deal and not had any problems. Just look at all the other buyer feedback (for the same item) before you purchase.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

**gmkahuna** · 10-20-2009, 07:30 AM

Glad to hear this actually came out to the good for you Eng.

Everybody - Always buy OEM. You can still get them off e-bay or Amazon but make dang sure it's OEM. Non-oem may not match the phones needs as far as charging rates, etc and that could possibly have an effect on your phone. Why risk a several hundred dollar phone with a "cheap" charger?

Eng - I'm not singling you out here bro, just making a blanket statement that hopefully others will pay attention to what you said and what I said for what it's worth.

**Radius** · 10-20-2009, 10:04 AM

A random charger is dangerous unless you do a quick check. Did you ever think to ask the voltage and current output of the charger? Without knowing that, how are you able to determine if it is meant to charge a BB or not?

**Belhade** · 10-20-2009, 10:45 AM

Having read this, I don't think I'm going to risk my BB on the cheap Dynex car charger I got for my Moto phone...

**dmnall** · 10-20-2009, 12:16 PM

When I bought my car charger for my curve 8300 2 years ago, I bought an oem for $ 7 shipped on fleabay... I only recommend OEM because I have had too many cheap and expensive aftermarket ones die on me.. The best part is it works perfectly with my bold!

Cheers,
Charlie

**fabuloso** · 10-20-2009, 12:20 PM

Amazon is better. My Bold Chargers and docs all came from Amazon, and I have spend only $30 worth of chargers with how they cost between $15-$30 for one charger. CB Store is highway robbery on Bold Docs, its insane!

**scalfi** · 10-20-2009, 12:54 PM

Google mini to micro converter... I bought 10 of them. I use all of my old BB chargers/USB cables with them. No problems at all and cheaper than buying new crap.

**TheSultan** · 10-20-2009, 12:58 PM

I did the ebay thing for my Curve and Storm, they were PERFECT and dirty cheap. Now, with the Tour, I went through 7 chargers (only two were actually mine, 2 orders of 3 chargers) and all of them were garbage until I finally bought a Verizon brand one (the 7th). I guess I learned my lesson!

**Engineer_Berry** · 10-20-2009, 06:30 PM

To Radius:

How does one do a quick check of something that is being shipped to them? Also, I take it that you are grilling me about electrical specs since I have engineer in my name...

Something that you might, or might not know, is that charging connections are standard. For instance, if a cell phone has a micro-usb port, it requires a published, standardized input/output voltage/wattage. This is different than the input/output voltage/wattage of a mini-usb port.

If a company advertises a micro-usb wall charger, it should conform to such standards. Of course, if it was manufactured in a different country, they could probably care less.

**Pancubano** · 10-20-2009, 07:22 PM

I use a htc herald charger and a cingular general motorola car charger for my curve 8320 and haven't had any problems and its been a year now. Granted, they're oem chargers but for diff. applications.

Most of the time, if you had a problem with a charger its probably because of the regulator

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

**Pancubano** · 10-20-2009, 07:28 PM

I use a htc herald charger and a cingular general motorola car charger for my curve 8320 and haven't had any problems and its been a year now. Granted, they're oem chargers but for diff. applications.

Most of the time, if you had a problem with a charger its probably because of the regulator

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

**bskesq** · 10-27-2009, 09:50 PM

Originally Posted by Scalfi

Google mini to micro converter... I bought 10 of them. I use all of my old BB chargers/USB cables with them. No problems at all and cheaper than buying new crap.

i bought adapters too but they only work for charging, not for data transfer!!!! ANyone else have this problem????