Theo Panda / 09 June 2025 / Categories: Product and Brands, Non Branded Product, Branded Products

Apple USB iPhone cables It doesn’t matter if you spend or not

I am sick of buying USB cables that don’t work after a week. I am sick of my friends and my mother especially nagging me to charge my phone. And I am sick of buying cables, some cheap granted but I’ve even invested in a couple from the Apple Store at £20 each and it doesn’t make any difference. After a few weeks use they always bloody stop connecting.

I bought two recently the brand was FIFO Original that said lifetime warranty, guaranteed for 20 years in my local convenience store, I paid about £10 each and hopeful as I was by the “lifetime warranty” on the packaging, it didn’t mean anything, absolute bolony, within a few weeks, a couple of months tops the cables weren’t connecting in my car or to a power point charger I keep charged for school.

It’s the most frustrating thing, it’s like being a smoker addicted to needing a new cable every few weeks.

The joke for me, the name USB lightening cable where the only speed like lightening is how quickly these things bust.

What is the policy on the £19 1m usb lightening cable from Apple? How long is it supposed to last and what happens if you try and return as faulty after only a few months use.

I haven’t tried returning, I’ve just bought cheaper instead however these have been no better.

If anyone has any suggestions how they have navigated the perpetual cycle of ineffective USB iPhone lightening cables or if anyone has found a brand making something that actually works for longer than a few weeks/months please please pop a comment.

I honestly think these tech manufacturers churning these thing out in China know we just have to keep buying so there’s no real incentive to make something that will last.

I’d be prepared to pay more than £19 Apple if you told us we’d get to use a working cable for at least 24 months. Would that be unrealistic, too much to ask. Why do we have to put up with USB cables that are just quite frankly rubbish.

When I think about how many discarded USB lightening cables there are I bet end to end they’d circumnavigate the planet and probably more than once.

On the Apple website no mention about how long we can expect the cable to last or what to do if it stops connecting in a matter of months.

I’ve done a bit of research online and the suggested route is a Native Union Belt Cable Duo USB-C to Lightning and USB-C Cable at about £45. This requires a different charging plug socket at an additional £10-£15 apparently the charge time is faster and the cables don’t bust immediately. If I swap over to this different connector, not sure what the solution is in the car, all the USB connectors that attach to the lighter socket become obsolete.

Long and short of it. Charging cables, just another thing we expect to buy and expect to break. Complete madness if you ask me. Gotta go I need to charge my ……….