Furthermore, a smaller brand is likely long gone by the time such trouble turns up, so the recall never happens and you're on your own, my friend.

Also, you will not hear about it in the news.

The sad part is how most people will accept catastrophic device failure as a fact of life of their social standing, and feel like they have no recourse in being sold a dangerous product.

In most cases they may have no recourse.

A bunch of these made-for-Amazon brands are just a middleman in China selling white label products from an unspecified manufacturer. Oberdorf v. Amazon means that Amazon can be sued in Pennsylvania, but does not establish liability for other jurisdictions.

The third-party seller is almost certainly liable, but they're a shell company in a country that is difficult for the legal systems of western countries to access. The manufacturer might have some liability, but it's difficult to establish exactly who that is, and they might reasonably claim that they're not selling a finished consumer product, so their only liability is to their customer the middleman.

I think making Amazon liable probably is the best solution, but the courts haven't done it for most of the USA, and I doubt congress will.

Though that starts to sound like an Onion headline: "'There's no way I can possibly avoid this,' says patron of the only store where this happens."

And even if you do, you might have trouble recognising the brand you hear about in the news. The cheap brand names seem to be mostly arbitrary strings of uppercase characters.

You've been hearing glowing reviews from everyone else for 13 years and rather than the obvious explanation that you got a rare dud, you assume everyone's gaslit themselves into liking their products despite them failing at a high rate?

A huge fraction, perhaps even the majority, of the "discussing consumer products" part of the internet is just people who overpaid for NiceStuff(TM) trying to gaslight everyone else into thinking it was a great value for money so that they can feel justified in their purchase.

So he's kind of on to something. But yeah, probably just got a rare dud.

It makes sense, first impressions are important and your first experience with Anker wasn't a good one. I wouldn't be jumping to buy more of their products either.

On the other hand, I've only had good experiences so I tend to reach for Anker when I need a USB adapter, cable, or power bank. They're established enough that I know I have support if needed, and (IMO) their stuff is decent quality.

Any brand for any type of product has the occasional DOA; it's very hard to completely prevent. The question is: 1) does it occur very frequently, and 2) do they rectify the situation ASAP (that is what warranty is for)?

I've bought cables from them that dont work with their own chargers. Bought multiple of each so was not a one-off. Their 100W cables fail when used with chargers that can do 100W.

Most trusted brand I've found for cables, phone sized and laptop sized battery packs, etc.

I pay probably 30% more over the cheapie and know I'm actually getting what it says in the label, and that they are a long-lived reputable company that generally stands by their stuff.

It's one of the few things I buy off Amazon that I actually trust.

So what? You could get a DOA product from Apple, Xiaomi or Cisco. Send it back, get a new one. I got a DOA PlayStation 4 and an expensive LG monitor.