*Hot* 7900GS OEM (From Woot)

[imported_OrSin]

Even if woot did buy stolen cards. MSI wenty about the whole thing the wrong way. They never contacted Woot. Woot only found out about it, from internet postings.
Second MSI doesn't even know if they were stole but assumed it was since they are similar to the stolen batch. But since almost all thier OEM looks like that thats a poor reason. Second they called out Woot with no proof at all, when thier was other sites that these cards was found on as well. Lastly even if woot did buy stolen cards they would have not clue. If you ever shop at woot you have to know 80% of thier stuff is OEM pulls or Refubished parts very simliar to Geeks. Woot has offered many OEM pulls of products that have never hit retail, so it would not be a big deal for them to do the same with this card. Remember this card was offered in OEM systems for a long time before NV decided to go retail with it.

 

[kermalou]

anybody got an update?

 

[jsxlynn]

I think favorably of Woot.com, and ill of MSI. I've used MSI products and think highly of them. This was a factor in my purchase.

Consider:

MSI could have (within 2 hours, even from the East) gotten a court order to cease sales on allegation of stolen property alone. Apparently they did not do so. Perhaps they did not know that Woot.com was selling them, but this seems improbable. Woot's too big. I believe that they did not protect their interest by acting quickly and properly. They sound like a whiney kid.

MSI claims the merchandise was stolen in transit. This seems to imply that they were being shipped to a customer, as a manufacturer rarely ships to itself. It is inconceivable that they were not insured. If MSI chose not to insure them that was a choice. If they were insured, MSI Nice MSI, collect the insurance, and "beat the messenger." (As in...don't punish the messenger, though here were were innocent purchasers.) Also does MSI have a broad based insurance...I'll bet so.

Woot implied only a woot.com 90day warranty, they have extended that. Nice touch.

I'll by from Woot.com, but I'm not likely to buy any more MSI products....

It is interesting to note though, that on today's woot sale of projection screens it states "may be pilfered."

I wonder...if person a owns stolen property and sells it to person b...who foots the bill when the cops retreive the stolen merchandise...I'll bet person b.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

I person A has something stolen from them by person B, and person C buys it. The cops will take the item from person C and charge person B. And it it upto person C to get thier money back from person B. (ie: civil trial)

 

[BlockheadBrown]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814139004

So, is NEWEGG guilty too!? Look! Janton even repackaged, branded AND spec'd them! /sarcasm

... Of course they didn't. It's just the 7900 series reference design. However it does show how even a picture can cause confusion. The model in the link is a GT, BTW.

 

[ss284]

Sylvanus, your post says nothing; you should probably actually read through the whole situation before you post again.

Its obvious that MSI makes one version of the 7900GS for large OEM customers, and one for retail. Somehow, woot got ahold of quite a few of these cards before they were even supposed to be released. The cards that woot got ahold of were MSI OEM cards, probably destined for a large oem such as dell. If woot had been selling the standard retail cards, it still would have been suspicious simply because they were selling these cards before the actual release date. The cards obtained by woot were definitely not intended for individual sale.

Just wait until more details come out.

 

[BlockheadBrown]

Originally posted by: ss284
Sylvanus, your post says nothing; you should probably actually read through the whole situation before you post again.

Its obvious that MSI makes one version of the 7900GS for large OEM customers, and one for retail. Somehow, woot got ahold of quite a few of these cards before they were even supposed to be released. The cards that woot got ahold of were MSI OEM cards, probably destined for a large oem such as dell. If woot had been selling the standard retail cards, it still would have been suspicious simply because they were selling these cards before the actual release date. The cards obtained by woot were definitely not intended for individual sale.

Just wait until more details come out.

Look carefully through the thread and you'll see that I'm well aware of what's been written here. I was making an example of how sloppy MSI has handled this. Showing a picture of the card is fine. However without more detailed information (serial number range, exact model number on the board, specs) about the cards in question, it is possible for someone who has a legit MSI OEM or even a retail card from a different manufacturer that uses the NVIDIA reference designed board and fan to confuse their card for a stolen one. This includes (as stated in the thread) cards in some Dell XPS systems. All MSI posted was a picture and "the color of PCB, the design of Fan, the color of DVI adapter". MSI should have gone through the proper authority channels well before going public. Unfortunately when they went public, it was sloppy and in my opinion not reflective of a professional world-wide hardware manufacturer. Not to mention that by going public with it in the manner they did, the investigation itself could be damaged.

Also, you seem to imply that selling OEM cards is illegal. It is not. Several warehouse sellers do this; Newegg, TigerDirect and Outpost to name a few. Selling OEM products before the retail release date may not be smiled upon, but it has happened. OEM products typically have a minimal warranty if any (see 90-day) and typically do not come with the same pack-ins or packaging as a retail package. An OEM product can look different from a retail offering as well.

Your points though nicely laid out are slightly uninformed and conceptually baseless. I'm not here to get into any personal wars or mud-slinging. MSI should have and easily could have handled this better. That's all. Best wishes.

 

[TekDemon]

Originally posted by: jsxlynn
MSI could have (within 2 hours, even from the East) gotten a court order to cease sales on allegation of stolen property alone. Apparently they did not do so. Perhaps they did not know that Woot.com was selling them, but this seems improbable. Woot's too big. I believe that they did not protect their interest by acting quickly and properly. They sound like a whiney kid.

Are you kidding me? How in the world would MSI know woot was selling it. Woot sells a different item every day, starting at midnight-and this item sold out pretty fast too.

Do you expect MSI to check woot every day to see what the item is? Because by the time google even updated their cache of the page it would probably have been sold out, so even just googling for it would have taken that long.

Stop smoking whatever crack you're smoking where MSI employees check woot every day just on the off chance their stolen goods end up there.

By the time MSI realized woot had sold tons of their cards which had been stolen it would have been many days later, and the cards would have long been sold anyway.

Let's see...according to woot's own chart it started at midnight and ended at 9AM. Which in taiwan would have been like, noon till 9PM. Assuming they don't work until 9PM at MSI, this means MSI had between lunchtime and closing on that day to happen to stumble upon the woot webpage and see that their goods were being sold, call over the USA and have it stopped.

Except, if you called the USA at FRIGGIN' 5AM NOTHING WOULD HAPPEN. Seriously how can you actually believe that MSI could have gotten a court order in the middle of the night to stop woot from selling these cards. I don't know what courthouse you would call to report a website selling stolen video cards of yours at 5AM to stop them within 2 hours, but whatever alternate universe you're in sure as hell isn't the one the rest of us live in.

You sir, are an idiot.

Seriously, ever since this whole stolen story broke, I've seen lots of people bash MSI on forums, from Slickdeals to the woot comments to whatever. Some of them stemmed from the fact that MSI probably could have used a better choice of words in their release, but this has really gotten a little ridiculous when people are now accusing MSI of being "whiney" because they weren't constantly checking the woot website for the woot of the day just so they could call the united states at 5AM to report that woot was selling their stolen goods. Because obviously, if you don't do that you deserve to have your cards jacked. Like...WHAT THE F people.

 

[iseestars]

To repeat what someone else here pointed out:

Originally posted by: Sylvanus

Also, you seem to imply that selling OEM cards is illegal. It is not. Several warehouse sellers do this; Newegg, TigerDirect and Outpost to name a few. Selling OEM products before the retail release date may not be smiled upon, but it has happened. OEM products typically have a minimal warranty if any (see 90-day) and typically do not come with the same pack-ins or packaging as a retail package. An OEM product can look different from a retail offering as well.

They didn't even check the serial numbers/model numbers of the alleged stolen goods. If that's the case, how do we know they didn't buy these from Dell? And how would someone who bought one in their Dell system or other system that uses them know theirs isn't illegal too? They never clarify in their press release if OEM's found in computer systems are illegal too or are legitimate. While this may seem like a silly point, it's a significant one. They handled this EXTREMELY unprofessionally and it might have been good of them to get their facts straight before going public. They weren't even correct on what type of site woot is. They aren't an auction! And don't tell me they can't check batches. If these cards were "stolen" they would know which cards they were, unless they have no accounting or internal documentation, which would be a bit odd. If they don't post the sn range, people have no way of telling if their card is stolen or not. And they've taken woot's name OFF the press release now. Hmm.... sounds like someone's trying to avoid a lawsuit for slander and defamation. Now why would they want to do that? Well... if their initial presumptions and poorly organized response were found to be incorrect and woot was not selling "stolen" cards...

 

[Hmbre97]

Just for reference, the 2 7900 GS cards that shipped in my Dell XPS 700 look EXACTLY like the card that was pictured and sold on Woot.com.

 

[intogamer]

so how is MSI/WOot going to work this out?

 

[Kromis]

Originally posted by: intogamer
so how is MSI/WOot going to work this out?

Lol...

Did you *really* have to bump this?

 

[keeleysam]

Originally posted by: Kromis

Originally posted by: intogamer
so how is MSI/WOot going to work this out?

Lol...

Did you *really* have to bump this?

Yes he did, for his Captain Nef title.

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: intogamer
so how is MSI/WOot going to work this out?

You need to be banned for bumping old threads.

 

[iseestars]

Originally posted by: intogamer
so how is MSI/WOot going to work this out?

WOOT! themselves are providing the warranty on the cards, so I assume either issuing a refund at any point if they are busted or replacing it, if they can.

It came out of the needlework that the alleged stolen cards actually had nothing to do with woot. MSI doesn't support OEM though.

You would know this if you bothered to check the woot! community forum. Any further questions or comments should be posted there, where they belong under the thread for this item.

This anandtech forum is for hot deals, and this has long expired so be polite and stop bumping it.