Saturday, March 6th 2010
Newegg.com Botchup Sends Several Core i7 'Demo Boxes' to Customers
Newegg.com, one of America's leading online retailers of computer hardware and related sales, on its official Twitter page admitted to a botchup with one of its long-term partners that resulted in several customers who ordered Intel Core i7 processors receiving what it calls "Demo Boxes". These boxes probably are used to demonstrate what the boxes look like or weigh, or probably it's a case of "adulteration", forgery, and counterfeiting. Each of these so-called demo boxes contain a completely non-functional dummy of the processor, heatsink fan, and the instruction leaflet. When opened, the three don't really look like mockups, but when packed into the box, can easily pass off as the product.
Newegg swung into action after several customers got back to it reporting "fake Core i7 920" chips. Many of them were taken aback when their $290 investment yielded a big chunk of plastic, and a slab of metal on which is strapped on the processor's IHS. The chunk of plastic is molded roughly to the shape of an HSF, and a sticker of the HSF's top was pasted, so it could be visible from the little window on the box that lets you see the HSF. Newegg said that it has acknowledged that a number of "demo boxes" were shipped, and that its staff is working directly with each of the affected customers to resolve the issue at the earliest. It kind of begs the question: where did so many so-called demo boxes come from, and why are there so many of them?
Statement from Newegg:
Newegg swung into action after several customers got back to it reporting "fake Core i7 920" chips. Many of them were taken aback when their $290 investment yielded a big chunk of plastic, and a slab of metal on which is strapped on the processor's IHS. The chunk of plastic is molded roughly to the shape of an HSF, and a sticker of the HSF's top was pasted, so it could be visible from the little window on the box that lets you see the HSF. Newegg said that it has acknowledged that a number of "demo boxes" were shipped, and that its staff is working directly with each of the affected customers to resolve the issue at the earliest. It kind of begs the question: where did so many so-called demo boxes come from, and why are there so many of them?
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. Our customer service team has already begun proactively reaching out to the affected customers. In line with our commitment to ensure total customer satisfaction we are doing everything in our power to resolve the issue as soon as possible and with the least amount of inconvenience to our customers.Image courtesy: Overclockers.com community members dreadrok, nix. Video by YouTube member publicstunt
75 Comments on Newegg.com Botchup Sends Several Core i7 'Demo Boxes' to Customers
*Edit* According to hardwarecanucks even the box it comes in is fake
That is a piece of cheese, from my country, and Intel attached to it four legs for obvious reasons: the cheese has the CPU inside, and it can walk around the house and compute jobs, like flushing the WC or annoying your girlfriend with some questionable smell.
There is indeed a problem, Intel forgot to print the manual, and it contained instructions on how to melt the cheese if you decided the CPU would better suit your computer.
This is all part of the Intel campaign "Cheese is your friend; Say cheese!", which will be disclosed after the NDA is lifted.
the threads on this showed very clearly the boxes have incredibly poor english - these are not intel demo boxes, but clear fakes designed to rip someone off.
Sochet? batch numbers for demo boxes?
I wont even go into how many typos this has
isn't that the stuff women wear as eye makeup :laugh:
Your comment brought up a memory of buying a discount CD drive at Frys once!!!
Insert tha cayday drave! hahahahhahahha i noticed like everything was spelled wrong when i got home.
There's apparently 300 counterfeit units (not just demo boxes) as well (which are the ones in the pictures and the YouTube video).
You mean, like this?
this is 100% fake.... look how the cpus pcb is not even straight, it has curves! :D
EDIT: the english part looks like its a 1:1 translation of the german text:twitch:
www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/manufacturing/manufacturing_qa.htm
i bet, this hasnt to do with anything "official"
(the info on the intel side is from pre 2006, if i read correctly... just wanted to tell you that ;) )
Ah, there are Intel Jobs in Germany: "Intel Germany includes design and development centers, sales and marketing support, and HR."