I never thought they weren't compatible. Plug the charger into the port, stuff the USB cable into it, plug the other end of the USB into your [Universal]device.... and presto it should work.

Anyways, that's what I believed.

But I went to a local electronics store and bought a 5V 2.1A charger with USB socket. Good quality too.
I bartered with the man, picked it up for $10.

Seemed to charge the NOTE about x3 quicker. Now it doesn't work, not sure what happened.

The LED light on the charger still operates. The phone recognizes an input... but no current crosses over.
Was it too much?
Or did my tampering with the firmware?

I thought it could've been the cable so I bought a low-resistance, gold-plated 2m USB-USBmicro cable. Great stuff, affordable long-term investment.
Anyways, it still doesn't work.

So either:
-the charger is fcked.
-The phone's USB is fcked (it acts funny with both car chargers).
-needs new firmware.

Currently relying on an old charger which is 0.7A.
PS I noticed the official SGS4 charger is 2.0A.... good charger?

edit: sorry if this sounds sarcastic.