Do NOT Buy Generic USB 3.0 Cables from eBay / Amazon

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud
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1808×2419 1.56 MB

I had thought I had tested this USB 3.0 cable throughly when I received it from eBay last year but apparently not, as today I just found out that my USB 3.0 to gigabit ethernet on my MacBook 12" got only a measly 40MB/s read speed from my Clouds; without the cable, I got my 88MB/s reads. No idea how this cable got through my QA eBay acceptance test. I bought it just to allow my USB 3.0 ethernet adapter to sit a little further away from my notebook.

This isn’t the first time I found flawed USB 3.0 stuff on eBay/amazon as I think all of the USB 3.0 stuff are flawed. The USB 3.0 Hub I bought, the ports are painted blue but run at USB 2.0 speeds. This particular cable probably ran above the USB 2.0 speeds on a simple My Passport test thereby did not flag my senses that something was amiss.

Today I had to test my whole network to check that I am getting my gigabit speeds throughout and I was surprised that my MacBook 12" took such a long time to copy a movie. Signed on to my old Mac Mini and copied the same file to find, to my relief, that it was back to its old self of 10 seconds to read a 889MB file. Turned on my Gaming PC to find that it too was reading, according to its stats, at 120MB/s.

Only the Macbook was reading at a measly 40MB/s. After changing the ethernet cable, turning off Wifi and finally removing the USB 3.0 cable did I find the culprit.

Just thought I post up to warn those that do buy from eBay or amazon. I have also bought 50 feet cat 5e cables from eBay that are not cat 5e cables. Best to buy it from BestBuy where you can test and refund if they don’t carry your data at gigabit speeds; this is the same with the USB3.0 hubs and cables.

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This is not always the case. I have bought cables from both, including Newegg, too. If they work, great, if not just return them. In my opinion, buying from BestBuy assures nothing except much higher prices.

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You get what you pay for usually and I have a box full of painted blue theoretical USB 3.0, theoretical gigabit ethernet cables and plugs, right angle adapters that I was trying to fit my cloud closer to the back of the shelf to make the cloud more like a book and they all do not work.

Yes of course if you catch the fakes when they arrive and you do have to test them otherwise a few months passes like this USB 3.0 cable that I thought was working perfectly as a USB 3.0 but to find that it actually was not, I cannot return it. Also on eBay they are afraid of you voting negative on them so at least you can demand a refund without returning the article.

However if you simply want a refund because you don’t like it? then you have to pay for return shipping which usually costs as much as the cable itself. You have to at least prove that the cable is not as advertised before you usually get your money back.

Of all the USB 3.0 and cat 5e ethernet cables that I bought from eBay, all of them were not real and I have a box full of them; this isn’t a luck of the draw thing but basically the china knockoffs that is trying to sell to the uninformed. They actually do paint a USB 2.0 hub to resemble a USB 3.0 hub and sell it to you hoping that you won’t notice the difference.

I’m not talking about NewEgg or the many REAL popular US online stores, I’m talking about the ebay china stores that sells knockoffs and they are infiltrating amazon now with knockoffs. So be careful.

I have never had to return anything to Amazon, but I would imagine that you, the buyer, would have to pay for the return shipping.

I rather pay a higher price for something that works than a lower price for cables that don’t. Not everything in BestBuy is overpriced. You just got to keep an eye on the sales. like I did manage to buy a 50 foot cat 5e Ethernet cable from BestBuy for only $15. The 8TB clouds were on sale for $380 which translate to $292.64 US.

The only reason I state BestBuy is that is the only store in Canada that I can buy online and return it to a store front without having to pay for shipping. I cannot do that with eBay, Amazon or NewEgg.

Doesn’t matter if you don’t heed my words and even if you find my words incorrect, it is your business to buy where you want and at the price you want; just giving you my experiences.

Sad that I didn’t catch this fake cable when it arrive to get back my $10, at least that is what I think that I paid for it.