Ask HN: What to do with counterfeit hardware? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What to do with counterfeit hardware?

2 pointsdevereaux4 comments

I ordered brand new Corsair RAM from Amazon itself (not some reseller) and received something that look like the Corsair DDR3L 2133 sticks I ordered before, with the same label, but that shows SPD information identifying them differently. The label says 2133 however.

I fear it is likely to be some kind of counterfeit item - maybe someone is just counterfeiting label and boxes to defraud unsuspecting buyers, who may not have other sticks to compare.

I tried calling amazon, they said to just return it. I asked my call to be escalated, they didn't seem to care much. Returning it for a refund won't help solve the problem: there are counterfeit items that somehow end up on legitimate resellers site.

I would never have caught that if I had not run a memtest and checked the SPD information.

So I ask HN: what should I do? Who cares about counterfeit hardware, except the client? (there is some serious price difference between DDR3L 2133 and 1600)

Corsair might care, and you can of course post a review to at least help warn other users.

detaro is correct.

The manufacturer and the authorized reseller are the only entities with skin in the game. The manufacturer has cause to protect their brand, and the authorized reseller probably prefers to remain authorized.

Because only the manufacturer has the leverage to make authorized resellers pull counterfeit stock, going straight to the manufacturer seems the best solution. Hell, maybe you'll even get a freebie for reporting the problem.

Thanks, I just send an email to warn Corsair.

It's not just about cost, but the time spend. I wasted a few hours until I noticed the issue. And now I am wary of purchasing again from Corsair or Amazon.

And I feel slightly disgusted by all this :-(

I commiserate. Unfortunately, this is a daily struggle for some, particularly in networking.

The world's largest vendor of network appliances, Cisco, has the worst problem with unauthorized equipment I've ever seen. Even the US federal government, probably Cisco's largest customer, is constantly assailed by unathorized gear from authorized resellers. I'm even aware of companies factoring in project lead time for handling licensing problems for this reason.

Still, this is just one example, and I'm certain many manufacturers have this problem, though it surely varies proportional to the price of the good. Regardless, caveat emptor, and know the provenance of what you purchase.

Best of luck.

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