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IBM Sues Company Selling Fake, Flammable Batteries
Bergkamp10 writes "A Computerworld article is reporting that IBM is suing Shentech for selling laptop batteries that catch on fire and sport allegedly fake IBM logos. IBM apparently followed up on a claim by a customer that an 'IBM' laptop battery bought at Shentech caught on fire and damaged his laptop. The customer reported the problem to Lenovo (who license Big Blue's trademark) who subsequently ordered 12 batteries from Shentech and found them all to be fakes. IBM is asking for US$1 million in damages for each dodgy battery sold."
They're in the US - it should be possible to track their warehouses and resources via shipping records. Let loose the Nazgul!
Given that the coffee lawsuit was totally justified (McD's had been cited by inspectors many times) for setting their coffee machines too hot--- by law, there's a max temp. 3rd degree burns should not occur without 30 seconds of exposure to the liquid; they had theirs set so that 3rd degree burns would occur in 3 seconds. So- despite your reference to a supposed "frivolous lawsuit", your post is actually more accurate than you believed--- both would be suits brought for good cause.
I ordered two Apple Powerbook AC adapters from them, which they were selling about $30 less than Apple list, a year or so ago; both died within a week. Shentech exchanged them - they refused to refund at first, depite my concerns that they had a bad lot - and the replacements died also. I asked for a refund this time, being pretty confident that any replacements they sent would be from the same production run, but they refused until I threatened to dispute the credit card charge with my bank. In retrospect I'm 99.9% confident that they were bogus, and this story seems to confirm my suspicions.
The punchline? I ordered the adapters from a different company and had the same problem. Getting a refund was easier this time, and I gave up and went to the Apple store. So much for trying to save a buck.
Mod parent up, he's correct, and therefore not trolling (similar to the fact you can't be libelous if you speak in fact), in that the McDonald's coffee case is often incorrectly dragged out as an example of the need for tort reform:
http://lawandhelp.com/q298-2.htm
http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm
Indeed. I bought something from Shentech about 5-6 years ago, and incurred a world of hurt. I bought a mouse--an Dell-branded Logitech USB mouse for about 6 bucks (great mouse, still going strong). Then over a year letter I discovered that someone had opened a commercial UPS account in my name and used it to ship wholesale quantities of goods from China to Shentech's address in Queens. I found this out when I received the bill. UPS was good about it and the bill went away...for a few months. Then another similar bill arrived at my new address (I'd moved from NYC to California). Again UPS's fraud squad dealt with it. I guess it was pretty obvious that someone who doesn't have a business wouldn't be shipping several thousand pounds of equipment across the Pacific. But they did something nasty with my contact info, and I've watched my credit reports carefully ever since.
So yeah, Shentech is evil.
.sig withheld by request