We've never been so spinsulted in our life
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Intel confirms fake Core i7s on sale
CHIPMAKER Intel has confirmed that counterfeits of its Core i7 processors were sold through the North American online retail outlet Newegg.
We contacted Intel in the UK to find out how long it had known about the dodgy goods and whether the UK market was in danger of receiving the fake chips but Intel would only divulge name, rank and number on the issue, reponding, "Intel has been made aware of the potential for counterfeit i7-920 packages in the marketplace and is working to how many and/or where they are being sold. The examples we have seen are not Intel products but are counterfeits. Buyers should contact their place of purchase for a replacement and/or should contact their local law enforcement agency if the place of purchase refuses to help."
The hooky Intel goods were first reported by Hard OCP on Friday. One of its forum members posted images of the supposedly new Intel Core i7-920 chip that had been delivered to him after he purchased it through Newegg.
The attention to detail was fairly impressive, if one didn't notice that the "processor" was just an aluminium blank. Another forum member at Overclockers reported the same problem, posting his images of "factory sealed" printed on the box itself underneath a fake factory sealed sticker. Ingenious. But the house of cards crumbled immediately as both forum members reported spelling mistakes on the packaging and blank instruction manuals.
Newegg released an arguably dissembling press statement, suggesting that the problem stemmed from a shipping error, which read, "Newegg is aware of a shipping error that occurred with certain recent orders of the Intel Core i7-920 CPU. After investigating the issue internally it appears one of our long term partners mistakenly shipped a small number of demo boxes instead of functional units."
While Newegg has since said it has exchanged all the fake processors that were shipped with genuine Intel inside parts, its distributor has sicced its lawyers on the Hard OCP journalists.
HardOCP reported that, "300 counterfeit processors were purchased by Newegg from D&H Distributing and ... the fakes were delivered last week in a shipment totalling 2000 pieces."
A law firm representing D&H Distributing reportedly sent a cease and desist letter to HardOCP for allegedly posting "false" and "defamatory" statements.
Unbelievable. µ
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Excellent ! Please continue to not buy online, and leave all the super deals for the rest of us. You obviously don't know what you are missing in terms of saved time and money, by shopping for hardware in brick and mortar stores. If you want to pay for the sales floozie at your local store to look pretty and know nothing, good for you. Us online shoppers are not lazy but savvy ! Remember its work smart, not hard ! Apparently you don't have a job, as you have the time to drive from store to store wasting time and gas. I doubt you are going to pick up a chick at Best Buy or similar store, so give it up !
Not surprised at all. NewEggs internal controls are lax at best. They repackage returned merchandise and sell it as new without testing it. This has happened on several occassions to me, and there are enough posts on boards out there detailing other peoples' similiar experiences to fill a book.
I ordered a new EVGA graphics card from them, and when I received it, it had blue ball point pen markings UNDERNEATH the shrink wrap. I called EVGA, who told me the card had already been registered. I thought EVGA would have been interested in this situation, but their only advice to me was send it back to NewEgg. (Haven't purchased EVGA products since, was this colusion between NewEgg and EVGA to reduce buybacks??)
Companies ship dodgy product everyday of the week, they know what they sell is highly technical and if they can get something over on someone that doesn't know what they're doing, all the better for their bottom line and bonus checks.
No, I'm not surprised in the least.
Heh, heh: hoist with your petard. -- No, check *your* comprehension as you clearly dig in to support Newegg, of whom I'm carefully neutral at worst, BUT am puzzled by the "demo" story, which according to the first link came from Newegg.
Your second mistaken leap is that I don't say Newegg sent the C&D letter.
Anyway, it's beginning to look like there'll be enough faulty damage control that this will turn into a first class flap.
Newegg does not claim that these are demo boxes!
Newegg only quote the initial response from their supplier, which (if any) is to blame on the subject.
Here is video of one of the fake chips
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDU7Xoju4LM
Don't believe Newegg's *lies* that they were accidentally shipped "demo units". Those are not demo units; those are actual counterfeits. Intel would not make the mistake of releasing "demo units" that have spelling errors on the packages, nor would they ever bother to put a chunk of aluminum inside the box.
What this incident speaks more loudly of is Neweggs dealings with sleazy distributors, which I am not surprised of since they have, in the past, engaged in misdeeds such as reselling recalled power supplies, faulty harddrives, passing off open boxed units as new (personally experienced that), and other things.
Newegg needs to stop soiling its reputation with these kinds of idiotic moves. With far more well-established online shops such as Amazon.com now selling computer parts at good prices, the last thing Newegg needs is the reputation of selling dodgy parts. I know that I now visit Amazon first before Newegg, especially since Amazon's shipping is often better priced, and they have a FAR better, automated returns policy.
Newegg Price per proc = $288.99
X 300 = $86,697 Bonus for somebody
Who the H$*^ needs 300 Demos???
Wouldn't you get Demos directly from Intel???
Maybee NOW you will
...yeah...but does it overclock?
Ir appears that newegg is taking a beating that it doesnt deserve.
newegg's official statement can be read here:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2361104,00.asp
"Newegg is currently conducting a thorough investigation surrounding recent shipments of questionable Intel Core i7-920 CPUs purchased from Newegg.com," a spokesman said in a statement.
"Initial information we received from our supplier, IPEX, stated that they had mistakenly shipped us 'demo units,' the spokesman added. "We have since come to discover the CPUs were counterfeit and are terminating our relationship with this supplier. Contrary to any speculation, D&H Distributing is not the vendor that supplied us with the Intel Core i7-920 CPUs in question."
Intel confirmed again that they had seen the fake Core i7s. "Intel is getting samples to inspect and until then we can say that everything in the package appears fake," a spokesman said in an email late on Monday. "Some of the photos of the processor look like it is a casting and not even a real processor of any kind. Newegg has moved quickly to replace the suspect units."
"Newegg's top priority is to proactively reach out to all customers who may have been affected to ensure their absolute satisfaction," NewEgg said. "We have already sent out a number of replacement units and are doing everything in our power to resolve the matter promptly and with the least amount of inconvenience to our customers.
"We have always taken pride in providing an exceptional experience for each customer, and we apologize for any inconvenience to our valued customers," NewEgg added. "We take matters like this extremely seriously, and are working in close cooperation with Intel and the appropriate law enforcement authorities to thoroughly investigate this incident."
I'll also add that if D&H Distributing let this slip through I would check thier entire linup of chips they have been supplying NewEgg for being remarked chips.
NewEgg has been great but whomever started working there and making changes about 2 years ago has been slowly destroying what made them great.
This recent annoucement of them being Demo chips and sticking to that just embarresses NewEgg even more and shows they have gone from a company that does the right thing to a company that just cares about the bottom dollar. Its more embarrasing they havent upgraded all these people to an even better CPU for their trouble but instead lamely offered them the same chip in return? This is close to the worst cover up I have seen.
People need to be fired at NewEgg even though D&H Distributing provided the fakes for handling this so poorly and making a mockery of NewEgg.
If I were Intel I would drop D&H Distributing from selling thier chips. Especially after threatening review sites on reporting this.
I knew this type of thing would happen sooner or later someday!
This is the reason I don't shop online for my tech stuff. I'd rather pay $10-$20 more to my local shop & get peace of mind.
I can test the product if it doesn't work I can go to the shop & exchange it the very next day. Instead of sending it back to the online retailer via courrier & other crap.
Besides you get to interact with people as well when you go out shopping...heyy..who knows who you come across for all I know you might even get laid if your lucky :P
It's not that I don't shop online but it's always the last resort if stuff isn't available locally.
People are just getting lazy IMO & want to do everything sitting. Don't tell me you don't have the time to go out shopping for tech stuff...this way you don't have time to take a dump or a showe either. Please!
@bigger_luddite
Do us all a favor and take a reading comprehension course, then try reading the story again. When you're done, look at your comment and see that it wasn't newegg who sent the C&D letters, it was in fact their distributor D&H...
Should've bought AMD!
I thought it was possible to produce a pirated Intel cheap, but no.
These blank processors are probably going to be worth a TON to collectors someday.
Hell, I want one right now.
So what did D&H Distributing do,
purchase these counterfeit cpus from some guy in the back alley selling them out of his car trunk?
Maybe they are scared of getting in trouble and fear losing their account with Intel.
Sounds really fishy.
But their *handling* of this begins to look suspicious: their "demo" box story has been denied by Intel.
I'll guess that a buyer or exec at Newegg didn't want, er, egg on their face for having been taken in -- by fair fakes that no one would have cause to suspect -- tried to dodge responsibility and CREATED an even bigger mess.
And since those two web sites are reporting facts that Newegg has admitted to, trying to squelch it with a C&D was just plain stupid.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1500534&page=2
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6422425
Sad but soooo funny at the same time.
I have dealt with NewEgg for 10+ years and have never had a problem of this sort. I figure the distribution company either got a too good to be true deal on the processors and sold them to egg at reg prices or the distributor got ripped the same way by someone pretending to be an Intel partner... find the responsible party then write your article, before you put well established, honest company names in the headlines. Rawk on EGG.
Those bastards do this ridiculous mix-up and then threatens journalists that expose them. This C&D letters are meant to scare people but can't fool anyone, as there are FACTS supporting them. So they toss their sh*t at it hoping it sticks.
Rather than comical C&D letters, if I were among the folks who received the phony processors, I'd start talking about indenization for damages and lost profits.
Probably at plant that made final processor, some ad sales demos' where made, 300 is lots, so must of been entire order &then workee', friend of STeWie & Ultee', muturing 64bit Snipe, grabbed Demos & stuck them into good processor shipemnt.
Doubt if Distributor hav advertising enough to need 300 switch there/
Shows what people whom make monies for companyget for sample request, box is real. yet NO ONE, Writer, SalesPerson Nor BUYER Gets FREE Working Sample. EVER.
I agree, this web layout sucks. At least the adds are more prevalent......sic
This new layout is horrible. I wish they would switch back to the original one!
I know more about PR than supposed professionals.
The RIGHT response was "WE'RE APPALLED! Please accept our apology and take your choice of any $50 or less item." -- At the VERY least apologize to anyone who'll listen; turn it to advantage.
INSTEAD, we reasonably wonder: "What have they got to hide?"