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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."
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.
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.
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"
I've bought a lot of stuff from Newegg and they've been really good. They often get good marks for their RMA policy and returns on DOA equipment. Looks like to me they took the right steps here including stopping the relationship with the supplier who gave them the phony i7s and working to replace the ones that went out. There's nothing here that would prevent me from shopping with them again.
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.
Welcome to the entitlement mindset.
Newegg is doing their share by rush shipping replacements. This whole affair isn't their fault and they got on top of the situation quickly enough, what more do you expect?
...And what do you do to prevent this? Go through every single Core i7 to find the fake ones? Quite honestly, when you get told that you are buying a Core i7, the box looks genuine (unless you are reading everything) it looks like the correct weight, etc. In short, there isn't much Newegg could have done short of opening up every box.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
They acknowledged that they had shipped non functional units on Friday:
http://twitter.com/Newegg/status/10050889498
They probably would have done better to say less, but they never denied the issue entirely.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
According to that article Newegg did not threaten to sue, Newegg's supplier did.
Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
Not Newegg. That was D&H Distributing, the company that was originally (falsely) accused.
The CONTRACTUAL entitlement mindset is a VERY good thing. Commerce depends on it.
Parent is naive. Corporations will try ANY legal argument to get money from consumers and the government. The idea that a citizen should foreswear such BS entitlement arguments while they are exploited by corporations that freely make (and benefit from) them is ridiculous and absurd.
That wasn't NewEgg, one of their suppliers (not the culprit) threatened to sue.
The scenarios you describe are nice.. But it's kind of like tipping.. It's an accepted practice, but not required. There are oh so many people who abuse the niceties of customer service, at restaurants in particular.. Many people call customer service lines in ballistic mode, because they have come to expect something free offered.. These situations should be a pleasant surprise that something extra was done to make someone happy, not am expectation.. Someone "working the system" really isn't going to appreciate it anyway.
waiting for ad.doubleclick.net
Read the article you linked. It's the distributor D&H that these sites accused without evidence and as such it was the D&H lawyers that sent the cease and desist. As it turns out it was a completely different distributor (IPEX).
"A company called D&H Distributing doesn’t consider it legitimate for the free press took umbrage to this. In fact, the legal beagles over at D&H Distributing got so worked up over the horrifying gall and chutzpah of Icrontic and HardOCP for daring to ask a question that the company slapped both publications with a “cease and desist” order.
Sent by the lawyers representing D&H, Creim Macias Koenig & Frey, it reads in part..."
Your link says that D&H, not Newegg threatened legal action.
Considering that D&H did not sell the fakes to Newegg, well, they are justifiably upset that people are wrongfully blaming them.
IANAL, so I don't know if they have an actionable complaint, but your link doesn't show a Newegg legal threat, and, again, D&H is understandably pissed off that they were blamed when they had nothing to do with it.
If IPEX was tossed out, I'm guessing it was someone at IPEX who was swapping processors out for dummies (for sale elsewhere, I assume) and then sending the fakes to Newegg.
No, actually, one of NewEgg's distros threatened to sue the bloggers. And justifiably, since the accusation as made was mistaken.
Oh, in related news, NewEgg threatened to sue YOU for falsely accusing them of suing journalists.
Ok, no, not really.
But it's pretty obvious a LOT of people need to be more careful tossing around accusations.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
Welcome to the entitlement mindset.
And rightfully so.
Is there ANY place to buy equipment with assurance of getting it through a 100% manufacturer authorized supply chain?
If there's humans making less money for their work than they think they should, then there will be no place with 100% authorized (secure) supply chain.
Did you even read that article you linked to? It says that the legal threats came from a company called D&H Distributing that the sites claim sold the counterfeit equipment to Newegg:
In fact, the legal beagles over at D&H Distributing got so worked up over the horrifying gall and chutzpah of Icrontic and HardOCP for daring to ask a question that the company slapped both publications with a “cease and desist” order.
Sent by the lawyers representing D&H, Creim Macias Koenig & Frey, it reads in part:
“It has recently been brought to our attention that you are responsible for publishing on the internet, and specifically on your websites, untrue statements respecting allegedly counterfeit Intel Core i7 processors which you allege were sold to Newegg by D&H.
“This letter places you on notice that these statements are false. You have no basis for publishing these false and malicious statements about D & H. These false allegations are defamatory and disparaging to D&H”s business and business relations and have caused grave and irreparable damage to our client.”
Emphasis mine.
That article also mentions that Newegg had already started issuing replacements and they were just trying to figure out where those chips came from:
Tech community site, Icrontic, picked up the HardOCP story and noted that Newegg had shipped replacements for the fake CPUs quickly to affected customers and that both the e-tailer and Intel were in the process of investigating where the chips came from.
Emphasis mine.
Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
http://web.archive.org/web/20071020045918/http://www.ipexinfo.com/
Oct 20, 2007 wayback cache
Maybe as compensation they can send a T-shirt that says "NewEgg sent me a counterfeit Intel processor and all I got was this stupid T-shirt".
I get why Intel doesn't want to *retail* them, but what's the point of a wholesaler when you have a retail distributor as huge as Newegg?
And the same is true of other products sold via other retailers.
It almost seems like "we/they" put up with a needless set of middlemen who only mark stuff up.
They are RUSH shipping the customers replacements. That is good enough to be fair. Lets put you in the same situation. You bump into me you say I am sorry. Well you wrinkled my shirt. So you should pay for my dry cleaning.
You cut me off in traffic and cost me five minutes because I hit a red light. I want cash.
Yes it is nice if they bend over backwards. In this case if you paid for rush shipping I could see them refunding it. In the end if you think they didn't do enough then don't buy from them. But this give me this or that is just a case of mistaken entitlement.
It is nice when they do it but it is not a requirement.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Also opening every box would break the seals. Technically the item is now longer considered "new" under applicable laws.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
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.
They vetted the supplier.
It turns out they did a bad job of it.
It's their responsibility because the items were sold on their site.
Now, making good on their fuckup isn't the entitlement mindset, it's excellent, self-serving business sense. Allow me to explain, it's really quite simple:
You can buy a customer for life far cheaper than you can think by simply owning up to the problem, fixing it, then going beyond that.
It could be as cheap, and as easy as free overnight/cross shipping of the replacements. You absolutely lose money on the spot. But you're very likely to see the customer again. It's simply thinking long term.
That kind of service will get noticed and will bring people back next time because they know that even if shit goes wrong, they'll be well taken care of.
It's the same reasoning why most of my video cards are eVGA. Their customer service to my friends has been so stellar I know I'll be taken care of if their shit breaks. Yes, I wrote that correctly, I've never even had to deal with their customer service, yet they're my first choice for video cards. All because of stellar service they gave two of my friends. For a paltry $300 or so they bought three repeat customers. It's just another form of investment, and I'm living proof that it works. Hell, I just gave them great PR, and I hate PR.
Question everything
Ah gee. Here's the appropriate response to the fp: http://instantrimshot.com/
cat
You'd seriously lose faith in a company that blows everyone else away in customer service because of this one thing? Are you serious? So it doesn't matter that they exchanged the fakes and bent over backwards to fix the problem?
Grow the hell up and come back to reality. This entitled generation crap is beyond annoying, expecting everyone and everything to be absolutely perfect and cater to your every need and the second they don't then BAM they're horrible and evil.
They probably do, but I imagine everyone is still on allocation with the i7, so newegg is forced to go to the open market to meet the demand.
cat
Seems like they're justified. HardOCP's blunder probably just cost them millions - but there's no way to measure it exactly.
The media seems to wield its power haphazardly at times.
At least with sites like TheInquirer, the damage is small if the article is wrong. They have a reputation, after all.
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
Welcome to the corporate entitlement culture. Firms are entitled to do as they please, and are only required to apologize if caught red handed with no other way out. If the common excuses, like someone else messed up, or the customer misunderstood does not work, then they are required only to do the minimum to correct the problem, thereby providing no incentive to make sure the same problem does not happen again. After all, only the peasants got hurt.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
When Paypal works for everyone else who uses Newegg, but not you...the problem is probably not with Newegg.
Don't take life so seriously. No one makes it out alive.
Except that NewEgg didn't send any cease and desists. They were sent by the distributor who shipped the units.
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."
Correct. The problem, as usual, is with PayPal.
Actually the cease and desists were sent by a different distributer who was incorrectly named as the culprit and was justifiably upset. The cease and desist letters by D&H were appropriate, and their claims that they were being falsely accused were accurate.
I think Kyle at HardOCP was honestly misinformed, but he didn't exactly handle if well. He accused Newegg of being dishonest and trying to cover things up. He appologizes to D&H but defends himself by saying "We would NEVER "speculate" on something of this nature, as there is NOTHING for us to gain by misinforming our readers." However, he never gave Newegg the same benefit of the doubt he claims he deserves. He adamantly accused Newegg of a cover-up when they originally relayed IPEX's story about demo processors. Newegg had no more to gain by lying than HardOCP did.
Kyle has been around a long time and should know better. He owes Newegg one hell of a public appology, and hopefully after a little more thought he will man up and make that appology.
Random anecdotal example: A friend of mine bought a PAX 08-branded Razer Deathadder gaming mouse at (surprise) PAX 08. Turns out these mice had a defect: the scroll wheel doesn't glow! Mind you, I didn't even know it was supposed to (maybe my friend did, not sure) but in any case, Razer immediately apologized for the "defective" batch of mice (that were produced one time, in limited quantity, specifically for one event) and shipped everybody a replacement without the cosmetic defect. Two high-quality, fully functional mice, for the price of one, on a special one-off production run no less.
Why yes, I do recommend buying gaming peripherals from them. Who would have guessed?
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
Distributors, wholesalers or middle men if you prefer provide both inventory and financing for retailers, even large ones. The goal in a business like Newegg is to receive funds from customers before you have to pay your suppliers. In other words you don't want your capital tied up in inventory if you can help it. Of course not having inventory can mean lost sales so there is a balancing act required.
Its all about terms and conditions.
just use your cc. you can get a prepaid cc for like $5-10 if security is that much of a worry. They charge you like $1 a transaction or so and $3 to add cash. Not a terrible deal for a completely anonymous credit card......
I mean seriously. You are far more likely to be fucked over by paypal than you are to have your credit card # used for something illegal when you buy from newegg. Unless you totally don't trust SSL or anything.....don't they have a phone number too?
zosxavius photography
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.
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.
Believe me, Newegg has plenty of inventory. Most of the stuff I order from them ships from their NJ warehouse and arrives at my employer's loading dock in upstate NY before the email with the tracking number hits my mailbox. The UPS truck usually arrives around 10 AM Eastern, and the email seems to be batched at 8 AM Pacific. This is with the standard 3-day shipping.
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
Discover has an interesting feature with their credit cards. I can call them and tell them I am making an online purchase. They will give me a credit card number that is good for 1 use. I can even set the max price for that 1 use. The number is obviously tied to my card, but after I use it the number is worthless and nobody can use it ever again. This is also free, and I have no annual fee on my card. Its kind of nifty
Doctors do Massage in Longview WA now, who knew?
"You have to realize that these chips are made in china, malaysia and taiwan."
Not one single of my processor packages has any of those countries you mention - All of them say Singapore or Israel.
COUNTERFEITS might be made in Malaysia, Taiwan, and China. Intel's fab plants are NOT located in those countries. They are located in places like Ireland, and the United States.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.