(no subject)

[theducks]

Mm this thread I came across on the Apple Discussion Boards is a bit special - http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4624822

Basically, someone in China bought a MacBook in Hong Kong, moves to Shanghai, and trys to get service in Shanghai. Except there's no serial number stickers on the MacBook, nor a software serial number. Getting rid of a software serial number on a Mac is /hard/. I'm thinking there's a good chance this MacBook was diverted from the factory at Asustek/Quanta, prior to the serialization process. If a small number of these were sold to the local market in HK, there's less of a chance Apple would notice it.

She indicates the system came in a box, but even that's not going to be impossible to get. I wonder how far up the rabbit hole that would produce such an anonymous system goes? My response was: "You're in a Catch-22 situation - There may be a sticker on the logic board showing the serial number, but without the serial number, they won't do any service, including opening it, and if you open it, they may claim the warranty is void, so there was no need to find out the serial number in the first place."

It's apparently not unheard of for Chinese manufacturers to make grey-runs of products, without telling the company that ordered x number of widgets. Cisco has a big problem, for example, with GBICs and SFPs.. they will order 10000, and the company makes 12000, and doesn't put the Cisco logo on 2000 of them, and sells those 2000 through dodgy networking vendors[*] like my good friend Hamid[**].

* - Not actually all that much of a good friend
** - Actually his real name

Comments

[luyer.livejournal.com]

Most Cisco SFPs and GBICs are a rebadge of another companies' product (not a Chinese company, either) which can be bought from the original manufacturer in batches of 100+ for well under AU$100 each, if you know who that is. There are only a couple of major optical manufacturers in the world. However if they were manufacturing them with the Cisco ID PROM and selling them other than via Cisco channel, that would be a different issue (some combinations of Cisco device and software will refuse to operate with a GBIC which reports a non-Cisco ID, but those are rare, as major customer pressure Cisco to open this up on more popular platforms).

The most significant recent grey-run which I've heard rumours of on Cisco products related to something much more expensive - 6500 components (DFCs, line cards, etc).

[erikarn.livejournal.com]

I hear rumours that switches check the PROM serial numbers are all unique in a given device and Cisco switches have been known to throw errors when non-unique ID's surface.

That said, ISTR seeing plenty of knock-off PA/NM/xWIC modules surfacing through the ebay and such; there's a real push now for vendors to buy from "reputable" sales channels. That said, how many small companies would bother checking that their integrators "Cisco certified! honest!" stamp was truely what they claimed.

(That, and I think the PA-FE-FX in my lab 7204 is grey.. damn you ebay.)

[erikarn.livejournal.com]

I've had nothing but absolutely pleasant dealings with Hamid. That said, I have a couple contacts in Cisco Engineering that run serial numbers from time to time (and for that I must remember to fire off a bottle of something nice to him soon) and all the switches, GBICs, SFPs and router cards I've bought off ebay for my personal abuse have checked out. Except the PA-FE-FX, which we couldn't identify the serial number of..

[erikarn.livejournal.com]

.. ebay and Hamid. Hamid's stuff has always checked out. The PA-FE-FX was from Ebay, and that hasn't checked out. :)

[luyer.livejournal.com]

I have had a situation where a DFC purchased from a reputable network equipment broker turned out to be a 3B even though it was marked as a 3BXL, and the broker had run the serial number and it came back as a 3BXL. However the broker resolved the situation. It appeared likely to the broker that the DFC was from a grey-run (via a third party he previously trusted as a new box pull source). This was the only DFC I'd purchased through a broker, and didn't exactly encourage me to purchase any further 6500 components through a broker.

[luyer.livejournal.com]

... new box pull being a fun game where (reportedly quite large) companies overspec systems to enhance the discount they get from Cisco on the items, then pull out some of the expensive extra components they've put in them, such as DFCs or additional line cards, and pump them straight into the broker market.

Useful contribution

[greteldragon.livejournal.com]

There's a dude in the world named Hamid. This is awesome.