Valor… Nope Not for Me

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One of Singapore’s most well-known computer accessories and electronics retail store is Challenger. I vaguely remember how small they once was – visiting their small shop in the mid 1980s’ then Funan Center I vaguely recall – compared to the giant they are today here. Their stores are now likely more ubiquitous in malls than Popular book store is, and some malls even feature more than one outlet in the building. And their main megastore now occupies the entire top floor of Funan DigitaLife Mall. Or at least until the end of this month, before it closes to be redeveloped as “Experiential Creative Hub” – whatever that is.

And truth to tell – I like Challenger. Ling will always look on in amusement whenever my eyes linger at what’s in a Challenger store whenever we walk past one, and Hannah sometimes likes to accompany me to look at gadgets too. There are demo stations for notebooks and all manner of peripherals. And for a long period of time,  I bought most of my portable hard drives from Challenger, before Amazon’s direct to Singapore shipping packages made buying hard drives from Challenger (and to a lesser degree Sim Lim Square) less attractive. Still, they remain a great place to browse for many other smaller less expensive items like keyboards/mice, networking equipment, printer accessories and the like.

A couple of years ago they started carrying their house brand range of items, named Valore, and also another interestingly-named ValueClub. Not sure what the difference is. But both ranges of goods aren’t high-priced items (at the moment) like laptops, smartwatches, networking equipment and the like – but the huge spread of fairly low cost items, including all manner of phone accessories, data cables, Powerbanks, home computer accessories like speakers and I/O peripherals etc. The store is pretty aggressive too in promoting their house brand, including providing discount coupons for store customer members like myself.

The problem though is just this: their range of housebrand products are being panned by some online, like one will see from this thread on Hardwarezone, and the occasional blogger here and here. And you also have that incident not too long ago when some of their Powerbanks had to be recalled.

Not to be deterred and also more likely though that I’m always all-in when it comes to supporting local companies, I’ve given Challenger’s Valore/ValueClub products a try myself. And out of three, it’s been damn-it-the-thing-broke, damn-thing-doesn’t-even-work, and a bleh. The experimental buys were:

LED Wooden Clock. Worked for one month, stopped working thereafter. We did not drop it.
And their 8-pin/lightning data and charging cable - except that I hooked it up to my iPad Air 2 which was at 82% battery life for charging, it was still at 82% one hour later.
Their 8-pin/lightning data and charging cable – except that when I hooked it up to my iPad Air 2 which was at 82% battery life for charging, it was still at 82% one hour later.
And finally, their Gem Power Bank; came as a freebie. Too small a powerbank to be of any use to me, and the light emitting function was too complex to operate. But it did seem to work.

Admittedly, their devices aren’t that bad looking. I really liked the wooden clock and the black version we got was a very neat and matching decor item also to my master bedroom frame – and the little cable’s woven exterior isn’t just tough but also with intricate patterns. Maybe it was just my luck to have bought two items that both turned out to be duds. And to be fair, the two items weren’t too expensive, so it wasn’t too costly an experiment.

But with this kind of track record, I don’t think we’re gonna be buying a fourth item. I think we’ll rather just stay with the other manufacturer products from their store next time!