Signalex Android phone charger stand from Poundland.

[Capitol]

I bought one of these yesterday. Small problem, the plug which is polarised is reversed where it connects to the phone, so the phone is backwards! I took it back today and found that they had two versions of phone charger stand and both were wrong. Following a conversation with the shelf stacker, I pointed out that I had two Android phones, one only a few months old, and neither fitted. He retired with the defective stand to talk to his manager, who tried his Samsung in it and it didn't fit either! Anyway, I looked at the alternative wrong stand and reckoned that I could get the assembly apart with a bit of luck and then reverse the phone connecting micro usb plug. I was lucky, it was reversible and no one had glued the two halves of the case together. The friction fit was OK . It's quite a nice stand, so I might buy a couple more. Looks like Poundland are going to have to send back around 100K phone stands, at the suppliers cost, if the rest of the shops have the same problem! Ouch! Look out for them in local markets soon, as the shipping/repair costs don't warrant a factory return.

[tabbypurr]

At least this time it's not an electrical safety issue.

NT

[Capitol]

The one I modded was in a square cardboard pack, not the blister pack.

[T i m]

I picked up a USB uUSB charger cable the other day where the plastic outer shell on the uUSB connector was like yours, just held on with a friction fit (and reversible). The only merit in this case was you could make it so the 'USB' symbol was on the top if using it on the same phone all the time (or all phones that happened to have the socket that way up, without the std trial-and-error or looking first I mean). ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[Brian Gaff]

Ah the old left hand right hand issue again. I always worry about some people guiding me as a blind person as half of the people say left when they mean right if they happen to be facing the other way. I am glad such people are not flying drones thats all. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Depends if it came with a wall wart. hopefully not. I've had some pretty dire designs of these in the past. USB chargers that are held together with two screws like we used to see in cassettes and then when you pull them out of the socket they let go and allow the fingers to touch the live pins inside. also no sign of fuses or overheat cut outs, just a tiny transformer and a couple of chips and if it all goes short, black smoke and a nasty pong occur. I'd not want to use such things on expensive devices to charge them up. Brian

[T i m]

I'm often amazed how many people (adults specifically) don't know their left from right, or don't know it instinctively, so I'm not surprised you say they don't know how to direct you correctly.

If we had just met and you were asking for assistance towards say a letterbox I'd say 'to your right'. If we were together longer I would drop the 'your' as it would be assumed (it was 'you' I would be assisting, not anyone else). 'To the right' ...

Similar with people having issues 'undoing' something like a tap or nut and bolt, like it's something that changes all the time? ;-)

I'm not sure I'm fully comfortable with all the dimensions of a drone yet (compared with a fixed wing plane even) but with an RC electric car I have been known to win a race driving it all backwards. ;-)

In fact, I can't remember a time or instance when I've steered an RC car the wrong direction because it was coming towards me (but I guess I must have done right at the beginning).

Cheers, T i m

[tim...]

Businesses do not have the right to return goods at the suppliers cost. It will depend on the contract, and as some pound shop stock is bankrupt stock there may not even be a business to return them to.

tim

[Capitol]

They do when they are as big as Poundland and the branded product is manufactured to the wrong specification! The supplier is also frequently liable for Poundlands distribution costs. I've been in this situation in the real world. I once had to organise unboxing 100K TV sets and replace a defective component in a TV manufacturers warehouse. It was a very expensive experience. The high value defective components were scrap. Volume manufacturing is a low margin business(unless you are Apple), In one case I recall, on a Video recorder, where the line ran at 100K a week, the net profit was 1% per item.

[mark.bluemel]

My wife spends much of her working life in operating theatres.

If she's directing me, I frequently have to ask for clarification - "Do you mean your right or the patient's right?".

[tabbypurr]

I wonder how much Poundland stuff is bought from auction.

NT

[Capitol]

Almost none.

[tabbypurr]

If that's the case their QC is crap.

NT

[The Natural Philosopher]

What QC?

[Capitol]

The customer.

[tim...]

According to the program on the TV, the MO of Poundland (other pound shops available) is to negotiate down on the price.

I would be very surprised if that wasn't at the expense of nicey-nicey terms and conditions

there's Poundland branded stock?

do you know that?

working for Poundland, or someone else?

which is all irrelevant if its for a different store with a different MO

tim