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NewEgg Confirms Shipping Fake Core i7s
adeelarshad82 writes "After originally rejecting the story, online retailer NewEgg confirmed that a shipment of Core i7s were indeed fake, and apologized for the affair. NewEgg has also broken off its relationship with IPEX, the supplier of the phony lot. The retailer said that it has already contacted affected customers and would continue to reach out and replace the counterfeit parts. We discussed the fake Core i7s over the weekend."
...smells like a rotten egg to me.
0100010001101001011001 0100100000011010010110 1110001000000110000100 1000000110011001101001 0111001001100101
Want to find even more? Try buying some flash on ebay sometime.
- Yahoo Serious, Young Einstein
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
It was a little up in the air there for awhile!
I sure liked the typos on the box. All that effort to duplicate holograms and what not, and they blow it on spacing and spelling.
Criminals, you gotta love their chutzpah.
When did they reject the story??
They never denied shipping fake units... the only difference between their story then and now is WHY the fake units existed.
Even weirder, investigators who arrived at the IPEX distributer address found no actual office, only a dirty water hotdog cart under a bus stop.
After originally rejecting the story
And there's the problem.
All they needed to do when the story broke was say "We are looking into it".
By rejecting it while it was obviously true, I've lost faith in them.
Newegg were on top of this pretty early.
They never denied there being a problem although they took a day to figure out what was happening.
They have already apologized, announced they are sending out replacements and announced they are getting a new distributor a couple of days ago.
Glad to see NewEgg confirming that the problem exists and that they're fixing it. Now they have to take responsibility for their actions, what will they offer as compensation to those affected? All problems a company encounters are opportunities in customer service.
Yes, I realize you fucked my steak up, but mistakes happen. How are you going to fix it? Replacing the steak, fine, but keep in mind I had to wait for it to be cooked, now I have to wait for it to be cooked again. Free dessert? Sure. In the end, they ended up better off than they started. Because now I know they're willing to make up for their mistakes.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
After following this story early friday from hardocp.com, I still have 1 question. At what point in the process, did the fake processor's enter the supply chain? This, afaik, has still not been answered.
Was it between the Intel fab. plant and the wholesaler? Wholesaler and frontline sales (ie. newegg)? Or, Newegg and customer? There may be more links in the chain, but I'd still like to know where the swap was made. Will we ever know? Newegg dropping IPEX doesn't tell me where the counterfeits entered the supply chain.
I wonder if anyone who got an i7 will try to make a fake fake to get another i7. Some one in Newegg's shipping will have to check the fakes to make sure they are real fakes. My head just exploded.
"He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
Newegg should have known these units were fake, and the fact that end users ended up with "demo" units is inexcusable. I hope newegg burns for this.
Is NewEgg going to apologize for the way their attorney's threatened to sue the journalists reporting this story?
Counterfeit Intel CPU Saga Comes to a Close
At no time did HardOCP speculate as to what company was supplying the counterfeit processors to Newegg. Our source that informed us of the supplier being D&H Distributing came from within Newegg's organization. We belived the information to be accurate and reported it to our readers. Newegg is stating that IPEX shipped it the counterfeit processors. I am not sure as to why we would get conflicting information, and we will further investigate that.
At this time we offer our apologies to D&H Distributing for naming it as the supplying distributor. HardOCP was simply reporting the information that we believed to be accurate. We would NEVER "speculate" on something of this nature, as there is NOTHING for us to gain by misinforming our readers. We will be investigating further as to why we were misinformed on this detail.
They threatened to sue the journalists reporting the story.
It looks like Newegg was buying i7's through a grey market channel and got burned. It's good that they ditched IPEX, but why were they buying from them in the first place? Who knows what channels their other stuff is coming through, and who has gotten to handle the equipment (with an opportunity to install malicious firmware, for example) before Newegg gets it and sells it. Is there ANY place to buy equipment with assurance of getting it through a 100% manufacturer authorized supply chain?
NewEgg identified IPEX as the distributor of the phony chips. Their website, http://www.ipexinfo.com/ , is now returning empty pages. Google shows a cached page that was available earlier today.
Don't know if it's just overloaded or if they took it down on purpose.
Why can't they buy direct from Intel?
The address is right on top of ASI... what's up with that?
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
You bought at NewEgg for price. You want to continue buying at NewEgg for price. To continue that relationship with customers they're going to replace the bum parts, and they are not going to send you a visit from the magical blowjob pony. The economics of computer retail are nothing at all like restaurants.
Let this be a warning to all you rig builders wearing blindfolds! Hopefully those fakes are casted with a cheap, non-conducting alloy, otherwise break out the popcorn.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
Congrats to NewEgg on getting onto this quickly. I'm in Canada and they haven't had a presence here for that long, but I've been fairly happy with their service, especially compared to some competitors (yes, I'm looking at you, TigerDirect).
This action will keep them at the top of my A-list. Even if they aren't always the cheapest, customer service has value too!
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?s=d01ac05d09e4f3d3bfb4364cdbc5d2af&p=1035432866&postcount=927
From [H] Forums:
I just want to clear up something Paul keeps bringing up in this thread: Ipex is a division of ASI. Ipex isn't ASI.
Full disclosure: I worked for ASI for some time back in the 90's (God, I feel old).
ASI is a legit Intel distributor (one of only a small handful) and is one of Newegg's biggest sources for Intel CPU's. Ipex, on the other hand, is the division that deals in gray market CPU's, RAM, etc.
That's because they let *gasp* even MERE MORTALS post reviews!!! I mean, Joe Sixpack and Mary Mundane can purchase goods and post reviews at Newegg!!
It would be different if only we Tech Gods and Wizards could post reviews, I tell you!
Like is said:
'A picture is worth a thousand words.'
Forget the comments, just look at the videos on YouTube...crotch bats, toolbox surfing in a suburban neighborhood, etc.
The same type of people that are making the comments are also posting videos, shopping online, and yes, even voting.
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1573900&cid=31384826
A shipment meant to deceive.
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
Or maybe some guy at newegg had a chip on his shoulder and D&H rubbed him the wrong way so he 'leaked' that they did it.
My experience is that Newegg takes little or no responsibility for the quality of what they sell. They sell everything, and stop selling something only if there are a lot of returns.
Also, my experience has been that Newegg plays games with shipping prices. It has often happened that the same item has had two different shipping prices. One shipping price will include a huge amount of profit for Newegg. The last time this happened, it was cheaper to make two orders of an item than to make one order for two.
That's a good question, and it worries me also. Certainly Newegg sometimes orders directly from Intel, I suppose.
This is a guess about what happened: A salesman from a distributor said they were giving a very good price because they were overstocked. The Newegg buyer bought from that distributor because the price was lower than the price from Intel.
Certainly it would be good to have a promise from each supplier that they bought directly from the manufacturer.
http://www.crn.com/hardware/223300173;jsessionid=B1V040G2ULN1LQE1GHPSKH4ATMY32JVN
"Ipex has been supplying computer components to the technology industry for over 10 years with the goal of providing quality products and services to our customers. Recently we were referenced in connection with some counterfeit Intel Core i7 920 Microprocessors sold within the US market. While we purchased these products in good faith from a supplier we are very disappointed to learn of the questionable status of these products and are taking appropriate action to resolve the issue for any impacted Ipex client as well as are fully cooperating with Intel's investigation in to determining the original source."
Yeah it did - it didn't have hard proof. At best it had hearsay.
A source whom he will not name, no doubt. How convenient. I have no reason to believe this source is real - I don't know why Kyle thinks it is.
No - he believed the information to be plausible based on the idea that D&H were known suppliers of Newegg. His 'source' could have named -any- of them, and he would have taken that as 'accurate'.
Note the subtle "they say this, we say that" stance there...
Probably because one 'source' is supposedly somebody 'within Newegg's organization', and the other -IS- the official Newegg response. Unless he's alleging further supposed coverup efforts, I'd put my money on Newegg's official statement - which is subject to major legal ramifications if -they- are wrong.
Quite unlike Kyle, who...
( by the way - what's with the identity crisis? Is he representing himself (I) or HardOCP (we)? )
From a questionable source - if there was even a source.
Too late - he already did.
Sure there is - being (one of) the first with the news. Getting linked to by a hundreds of bloggers and others news sites as a result (instead of a competing website who might manage to get the news out 30 minutes earlier if he'd spent that time following up leads). Which, in turn, means potential ad clicks, new steady readership, etc.
HardOCP has lots to gain from posting any story - even if it's a blatant lie. Heck, some sites thrive on posting stories about alien abductions and "Bigfoot impregnated me" stories.
Please, by all means. he should make some heads roll in his investigation's conclusions. With any luck, it's his own if D&H pushes through instead of accepting the absolutely laughable 'apology' post and shrugging it off.
No it isn't. It hasn't been ever since a published article can be edited, or rectified in a new post just hours later, and news sites have hidden behind that as an excuse for poor publishing standards to begin with. That has been the case at least since the GeForce 3 Tech article snafu; the apology for which was also rather weak and ended with an off-color joke.
The goal has been drawing in readership (and thus ad impressions, clicks, etc. - or even just a boosting of his ego) - if pushing an article through early, or ill-researched, then so be it.
( This is not unique to HardOCP )
Grow up and own up, Kyle.
Counterfeits would come from units that tested bad made by Intel that were supposed to be thrown away, but were instead marked and sold by a counterfeiter.
Intel is extremely careful about security, so I imagine there is little chance of that happening.
http://ipex-infotech-inc.tradenote.net/
Bogus
I guess differently. My guess is that Intel allows orders of a minimum of 1,000 processors, and Newegg would sell that many of each kind in less than a week. That's only 52,000 of each kind of processor each year. I'm guessing that Newegg certainly sells that many, almost certainly more.
Notice from the reviews how many people who have had this ASUS VH242H monitor more than a month have had severe problems.
> "We acknowledge that they are real will replace them, but we are still
> investigating"
Should read "We acknowledge that they are not real and will replace them, but we are still investigating"
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
ASUS has been reluctant to honor the warranty, they say.
You are speaking of reimports. They're just one aspect of the grey market.
There are other grey market goods. For example, Intel might give out a sample of an i920 to a distributor or retailer for free as a gift. They say not to resell it, but you know, maybe they just do anyway. This becomes a grey market good too.
Basically, any a good is resold against some agreement (borders as you say, NFR in my case) it becomes a grey market good. As you mention, it's typically still a perfectly good item, it's not counterfeit or anything.
I don't really agree on your definition of black market. Black market goods are typically anything that is illegal to sell, they can still be legit goods, just you're not supposed to be able to buy/sell them. If I buy illegally imported liquor that the government didn't get their taxes on, it's black market liquor, even though it's still legit. It also can be a legit good that was stolen and resold. And it's still a legit good, but you might not get a warranty (you might not on grey market goods either!). These two examples are the most typical things people think of when you hear black market.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
"There's nothing here that would prevent me from shopping with them again."
Pricewatch.com - newegg advertises there and is beaten regularly by better and faster companies, usually by an easy 20%.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
... selling chips cheaper outside of the USA than inside. That's why there are so many shady distribution channels overseas, to bring the cheap market chips into the USA (where Intel is otherwise boosting the pricing to cover their loses of extreme discounts in other countries). If Intel sold chips directly to retailers like NewEgg at the same price as they sell them everywhere else, with no further volume discounts above the volumes NewEgg and the like buy them in, then there would be no need for NewEgg to buy those chips from questionable distribution channels.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Interesting. Funny though that I used to do all of my shopping through Pricewatch ages ago and got tired of having to order each separate part from a different company to get the lower price which was almost always compensated by outrageous shipping prices.
There's something to be said about paying a bit more (usually trivially more) for good customer service. Price is not the end all/be all for me as a consumer. You should notice that not once I mentioned price as a reason to shop from Newegg. As a company, they have my trust and that's difficult to do with people just slashing prices. And as another poster mentioned, if I order a part in stock, it is usually out the door that day. Also, I don't have to keep little pieces of paper everywhere from separate retailers to find out exactly what part I ordered as Newegg keeps a record of my purchases with my account that's easily accessible.
If price is your only yardstick for measuring, then you would be right. Fortunately for me, I educated myself on their other offerings and chose a company that delivers more than simple price breaks.
This isn't a first for Newegg. They were shipping counterfeit Intel PRO 1000 GT NIC's a few years back.
Another reason for me be glad I ordered a Quad Core Phenom II 965 instead of an Intel chip from them just a few weeks ago!
No. Gray market does not mean counterfeit. It is just as legal as "normal" channels, although manufacturers don't like it.
No. In your example, the manufacturer sold product to Indian distributors with the understanding that the product would be sold in India. In real life this sort of limitation would be codified using a legally binding contract. So, in your example, if these products ended up being sold in the US, it would not have been legal.
...has egg on their face? Seriously, I really like NewEgg. Doesn't seem to be their fault.
"I'm not a quack, I'm a mad scientist! There's a difference." - Dr. Cockroach
Because newegg was so quick to dismiss the issue with the purchaser of the fake proc, and was so quick to not take responsibility for the situation (at first and for much too long), I am not happy with newegg. It's like they're only just now admitting guilt because their on the PR hotseat and otherwise would have just turned their back on the customer and pretend it never happened. This is a very poor business practice and because of their treatment of this situation and of the poor guy who went through the situation with them, I'm sanctioning newegg for all purchases, personal and business related, for two years. They need to realize that the way they treat their customers does have repercussions. The company I work for, for which I'm the primary person in charge of all IT purchases, will no longer do any more business with newegg for two years (and we did a lot of business with them) because of their quick judgment of the customers who tried to tell newegg that this was a real situation and for which newegg at first basically told them that they are lying. Customers must be given the benefit of the doubt, at least at first, and shipped a another copy of the product in question (either cross ship or return ship after receit of the bad/counterfeit product.
http://consumerist.com/2009/04/216489-paving-stone-in-a-macbook-pro-box-looks-nice-but-wont-run-photoshop.html
Well, not always.