Misleading and inaccurate Amazon products

Christmas shopping on Amazon is hard enough without having to trawl through fake reviews, sponsored listings and… misleading and inaccurate descriptions.

Take this USB cable, for example.

I was after the best possible USB-A to USB-B one I could get. I thought I had stumbled across it, as my eyes were drawn to ‘USB 3.2 Gen 2’, which offers speeds of up to 10 Gbps.

The problem is, I was doing my best to ignore the instances of USB 3.1 and USB 3.0 that were higher up on the same page.

My scepticism did grow, though, as the vast majority of other cables involving a B connector were rated no greater than 3.0, which allows for speeds of up to 5 Gbps.

I ended up sending a message to the seller to clarify this. I was told this one is indeed a 3.0, which I later discovered is the highest B connectors go up to in the official specification.

You can make the excuse that USB standards are painfully confusing — and that’s true.

You’ve got USB 3.0, USB 3.1 Gen 1, USB 3.1 Gen 2, USB 3.2 Gen 1, USB 3.2 Gen 2, and USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 to get your head around.

USB 3.0 is the same as USB 3.1 Gen 1 and USB 3.2 Gen 1. And USB 3.1 Gen 2 and USB 3.2 Gen 2 are also identical.

Confused yet?

The claim that this cable supports USB 3.2 Gen 2 is factually untrue, as is the promise of speeds up to 10 Gbps.

This is by no means a one-off, though. There are countless products on Amazon that clearly break the rules. You only have to look at the one-star reviews to see that.

I’ve bought items that I later found did not match the specified details or comply with UK safety laws. I was also once offered something for free if I changed my one-star review to a five-star. I agreed to do it to get the freebie — then I changed it back. 😁

But yeah, Amazon is great and terrible at the same time — that’s enshittification for you.