Lightning connector problem

Question

I picked up my iPhone 5 yesterday and after getting it home and starting the long task of tranfering my thousands of songs onto the device, I noticed that there seems to a problem witht the Lightning connector. Most times when inserting the connector into the phone, there is no connection ie. no pluged in tone and unable to sync. I have found that by placing a slight downward pressure to the plug I can get it to start syncing, then after releasing the pressure it disconnects itself. I repeat, that this happens most, but not all of the time. Is anyone else noticing this or maybe I just need to try a new cable (which are not available in the HK apple store)
Cheers
Rhys

Answer 1

I have gone through about 3 lightning connector cables over the last year.  They initially work, but later they go bad. 
They start having the same symptoms described above where the cable will sometimes charge if you reverse it or press down on the cable.  Over time, they just stop working.  When connected via USB to my computer, I started getting an error message indicating that the device was not working properly and the computer stopped recognizing the device as an iPhone.
Replacing the cable fixed the problem, but I'm wondering if there is a way to get the non-functional cables to work again or maintain them so they last longer.
One thing I noticed is that over time the center gold connection wire turns black in color, as if it was burnt as the phone was charging.  I tried using an eraser to get the black stuff off to no avail.  I will try a Q-tip with alcohol next.  Wish there was a documented quick fix or maintenance plan for keeping the cables functional.