Swytch Air Kit - beware the loss of your charging dongle!

[mnemonix]

If you lose this £5 , 6" length of wire with a propietary plug on one end but definitely no electronics or anything fancy in it, Swytch support will tell you to spend £329 on a complete upgrade kit just to get a replacement dongle.

Without it you cannot charge the battery so the kit effectively becomes useless (solutions involving bare wires and crocodile clips excepted). Further replies to support result in what I assume is a computer generated response with the same paragraphs of 'support' shuffled around a bit and a cheery "hope this helps" added to the end.

How many stupid decisions can a company make? A proprietary connector to charge a battery? The decision not to stock replacements of an obviously lose-able propietary item in their accessory shop? A policy of refusing to personally engage with customers clearly upset at effectively being charged £329 for a £5 part? I hear their CEO is up for some kind of management award. I can't think why.

Oh... and can anyone here help or offer some advice as to how to fix this? Best I can think of would be a 3D printed replacement plug, but that is (currently) out of my zone of experience.

 

[sjpt]

I hear their CEO is up for some kind of management award. I can't think why.

Putting marketing (at which Swytch are excellent) above customer support, to maximize profit.

 

[thelarkbox]

Sugru is a mouldable rubber fix it product you could perhaps use to form replacement custom plugs on suitable gauge wires for a diy solution??

 

[Cisco-man]

If you lose this £5 , 6" length of wire with a propietary plug on one end but definitely no electronics or anything fancy in it, Swytch support will tell you to spend £329 on a complete upgrade kit just to get a replacement dongle.

Without it you cannot charge the battery so the kit effectively becomes useless (solutions involving bare wires and crocodile clips excepted). Further replies to support result in what I assume is a computer generated response with the same paragraphs of 'support' shuffled around a bit and a cheery "hope this helps" added to the end.

How many stupid decisions can a company make? A proprietary connector to charge a battery? The decision not to stock replacements of an obviously lose-able propietary item in their accessory shop? A policy of refusing to personally engage with customers clearly upset at effectively being charged £329 for a £5 part? I hear their CEO is up for some kind of management award. I can't think why.

Oh... and can anyone here help or offer some advice as to how to fix this? Best I can think of would be a 3D printed replacement plug, but that is (currently) out of my zone of experience.

Are you talking about the “OD” yellow two-pin charging plug (a photo would help)?

 

[Cisco-man]

From one of my old posts: -

The charge connections - which are the centre two (O and D) on the yellow plug - are EC2 connectors, but with the O and D positions reversed. You can make up a charger adapter by cutting the EC2 in half and hot gluing it together in the Swytch orientation.

 

[matthewslack]

Highly frustrating, but on the bright side, you only need to find a solution once, and then they never get you that way again.

And your wire is not lost, there are teams of undercover operatives going around stealing them (allegedly).

 

[saneagle]

Are you talking about the “OD” yellow two-pin charging plug (a photo would help)?

It's a custop connector, like an XT60 but with the D-shape reversed on one side. It might be possible to cut an XT60 down the middle, reverse the one side and glue it back together.

 

[AndyBike]

Know anyone with a 3D printer ? Maybe the plug moulding could be copied and you fit pins and wiring yourself

Are you on twitter or facebook ?. Might find some bad advertising might help them see the light of day. I'd also go to google etc reviews and let people know exactly the problems they could be facing if they buy from swytch.

 

[mnemonix]

A quick update.

Yes the plug is custom - literally no one else uses it.

However following an excoriating review on Trust Pilot, Swytch got back to me and are sending a new power supply by return so the bad publicity clearly concerned them.

A warning for any business thinking of using AI to provide customer support, particularly if you don't tell the customer they are not actually interacting with a real person by email. I took their inappropriate response as Swytch's final word on the subject and was rightly enraged by it!

 

[mnemonix]

From one of my old posts: -

The charge connections - which are the centre two (O and D) on the yellow plug - are EC2 connectors, but with the O and D positions reversed. You can make up a charger adapter by cutting the EC2 in half and hot gluing it together in the Swytch orientation.

Thanks for this ingenious solution too.