"Commander Kinsey" wrote in message
newsp.0brtvbxjwdg98l@glass...
On Sun, 24 Nov 2019 17:55:37 -0000, NY wrote:

"Commander Kinsey" wrote in message
newsp.0brsg6pcwdg98l@glass...
I once bought an adapter to convert two molex power plugs to a 6 pin
graphics card power plug. When it arrived, it was wired up incorrectly.
Both the 5V and 12V lines from the molex (PSU end) were connected
together
to feed the graphics card end's 12V pins. When I sent the seller a
message about it, informing them it would have shorted the 5V and 12V
lines, I was told "if it's a good power supply it can handle it". I
told
Ebay they were selling a product which could damage people's expensive
equipment or possibly cause a fire. Ebay returned my money, I kept the
adapter, rewired it properly, and it worked fine.

We needed some light bulb adaptors so bulbs with a SES (small Edison
screw)
could be used in LBC and SBC (large/small bayonet connector) socket.

We bought some and everyone one of them tripped the circuit breaker in
the
consumer unit as soon as a bulb was screwed in. On closer examination, I
saw
that the metal contact that touched the tip of the screw fitting was
mounted
too high so as the bulb was screwed in, the contact distorted so part of
it
touched the screw of the bulb as well as the tip - instant short circuit.

Ouch. I imagine if you hadn't screwed it in as tightly, or some of them
weren't quite as badly made as yours, you could have caused an arc which
could overheat and melt the fitting.

I don't like things that could catch fire when I'm not around, burning
down my house, but I never bother objecting to other things like electric
shocks. For example I have a 15W "corn on the cob" style LED bulb still
in use that I bought a few years ago on Ebay. The LEDs are bare - you can
touch them (and their live ends). They're in series - fed from a 150V DC
rather simply made capacitive dropper. If you touch the right bits of it,
you get that across your fingers - i.e. the mains, a capacitor, a
resistor, then you. Not sure how much current would flow, but it was
enough to make me jump, enough that if I was on a ladder I would have
jumped off it. I guess 15W at 150V would be about 100mA (which the health
and softy folk claim is lethal - yeah maybe if you're 90 years old with a
dicky ticker).

I sent very clear feedback to Amazon that this product was dangerous and
not
fit for purpose. I never heard anything back, but I saw that the item was
no
longer for sale after that.

So Amazon didn't even bother refunding you? Ebay are a lot better, you
get your money back the instant they believe something isn't what it's
advertised as.

Plenty have got a full refund from Amazon but its not clear how often
that happens with third party sellers on amazon as opposed to stuff
that amazon themselves are selling. That's the big difference with
ebay, ebay doesn't actually sell stuff itself.