Non-Lenovo part warning: ebay seller ny-compu-tek

[Edward Mendelson]

This auction from a seller named ny-compu-tek:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300606121284

offers and photographs an IBM FRU, but the product they actually sell is a third-party fake. I ended up paying for the return of the fake part.

EDIT: A later poster points out that the auction *does* say "Generic. Unbranded". I should have seen that, and could have saved myself a lot of trouble. Apologies for wasting bandwidth on this non-issue.

[emeraldgirl08]

Did the fake part work? Not sure if I've seen genuine Lenovo ultrabay caddies around lately

I am not affiliated with the seller in anyway but if you look at the middle section of the listing it states "Compatible with..." If you see that word + a low-price... generally you are looking at a knock-off. I would make sure the word "genuine" appears in the listing title and also ask the seller via ebay messaging if the item is indeed a genuine part. Asking via ebay messaging is documentation that ebay can look at it if you have to file a complaint.

As far as the part number the seller may have put the part number there for reference? FWIW I might have one or two of those caddies and they work(ed) fine for the ThinkPads I used them with. For ~8 USD??? Really not a bad tradeoff i.e., name brand for low-cost compatibility. I imagine the genuine part costs a whole lot more than that? Of course YMMV.

[Edward Mendelson]

It's good to know that the fake didn't do any harm when you tried it. I didn't try the fake part myself; I returned it. I know that fake parts can be trouble - just order a "compatible" battery - and I didn't want to risk errors. And, yes, you can certainly buy the real Lenovo part, either directly from Lenovo or from this eBay auction (which is where I eventually bought the real Lenovo part):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/400698196055

The phrase "compatible with" in the description of the fake says it's compatible with various ThinkPad models - that's the same language that IBM uses. It doesn't say it's "compatible with the Lenovo/IBM part itself," which (I agree) would be a warning.

The auction title begins "NEW Lenovo 43N3412" - which I think normally means a new Lenovo part with the part number 43N3412. It doesn't say "NEW third-party part compatible with Lenovo 3N3412."

Also notice that the photo shows the Lenovo part with a faintly visible FRU. Maybe the fake is good enough; maybe it isn't. I didn't want to buy a fake - I wanted to buy the part shown in the photo. The seller shows a photograph of a genuine part and lists the genuine part number - which VERY strongly suggests that it's the part in the photo and the title of the auction.

False advertising is false advertising. And a lot of people on this forum have had the experience of being burned by fakes advertised as real.

[emeraldgirl08]

I ask a lot of questions and if the seller cannot give me a sufficient answer I either take a chance or look elsewhere. The tip-off is the price. If that seems too good to be true then it most likely is.

[rkawakami]

Sorry, but my take on the first referenced auction is that it is clearly a knock-off and not a factory / OEM / original Lenovo adapter. In the description it states "Generic, Unbranded". None of the photos show a Lenovo logo. Nowhere in the description are the words "factory", "OEM" or "genuine".

Note: I've dealt with this seller many times before. I even have three of these adapters in the mail for me. I'm not expecting genuine Lenovo adapters. If they work for backing up/cloning my T410 and X200 drives, then I'll be happy.

[Cigarguy]

I've ordered a lot of Ultrabay adapters from ny-compu-tek and been happy with each and everyone. No where in the picture of the Ultrabay itself does it have the word "IBM", "Thinkpad" and/or "Lenovo" written on it like all my genuine Ultrabay adapters. Given the price and description I assumed it's not the genuine deal and I was correct.

There's a world of difference between a 3rd party battery vs most any other part. A 3rd party Ultrabay adapter, wifi card, red trackpoint button, etc will not catch fire, explode or cause anything catastrophic. However, it may not work or work to the same quality as the genuine deal. Again, as for myself I've always been very happy with Ultrabay from this vendor. But I did not assume nor expect it to be genuine.

[dr_st]

I agree with the others here... Absolutely nothing wrong with the first item or the seller that I can see. Nowhere did the seller claim it was a genuine Lenovo part (in fact, it states quite the opposite, in plain sight), and the photo is not of a genuine Lenovo part.

Almost all sellers post FRU, whether for genuine parts or "fake"/compatible ones, and it's good they do - because often that's how people search - by FRU.

I think you just had unreasonable expectations and so you were disappointed. That was clearly too good a price for a genuine part - your other auction shows that without doubt.

Now, if you actually contacted the seller and asked "Is it a genuine part?" and they said "yes", you'd have a clear case of misrepresentation here.

[Edward Mendelson]

Well, I agree that the price should have been a tip-off, but the photo does show an FRU. You have to look closely, but it's there:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ghz0ktwka31l93b/FRU.png

And when someone illustrates an FRU, I guess it seems reasonable to expect an FRU.

EDIT: Wait, you're right - it does say "Generic, Unbranded". I should have seen that, but didn't. I focused on the photo, which does have the FRU.

[rkawakami]

I'm pretty sure that a genuine adapter would have a fairly large Lenovo logo near the front right edge. I'll grant you that the photos show two different adapters; one has a black/white HDD sticker (where the Lenovo logo would be) and the other doesn't have anything there. When I was looking for this adapter, I believe I found three styles that looked very similar, all from this same seller. The only differences were in the area of the sticker/logo.

BTW, I bought two of these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/111189897179

[RealBlackStuff]

He also operates under several other, similar names, but they are all based in the same spot: Flushing, NY.
I have been dealing with these eBayers for many years.
Never had any problems with anything bought from them, other than that their "or Best Offer" is a bit of a joke.
You're lucky if you get more than 2-3% discount.
Their items are only minimally more expensive than from China/Hong Kong, but their stuff always arrives within 2-3 days!

[Edward Mendelson]

I'm pretty sure that a genuine adapter would have a fairly large Lenovo logo near the front right edge. I'll grant you that the photos show two different adapters; one has a black/white HDD sticker (where the Lenovo logo would be) and the other doesn't have anything there. When I was looking for this adapter, I believe I found three styles that looked very similar, all from this same seller. The only differences were in the area of the sticker/logo.

Lenovo's very own photo of the product shows exactly the same label and layout as the product in the auction photo:

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail. ... MIGR-73170

I looked at the Lenovo photo and the photo on the auction, and came to the (I think) reasonable assumption that the auction was offering the same item that was in the Lenovo photo. So I'm still at least half-convinced that the auction is misleading.

BTW, the item in the auction in rakwakami's post is clearly labeled as "for Lenovo" not "New Lenovo" etc., and the photo is clearly of a generic model. I'm only complaining about the auction with the photo of the IBM/Lenovo part.

[rkawakami]

Ah, that's strange... I thought I saw a factory adapter a couple of years ago and it had a Lenovo logo. Previously, IBM had put their logo in the same location on each version of the Ultrabay HD adapters. Well, then I can see where you might have been misled into thinking that you were getting the same thing as a factory unit, however the seller's description and other photos on the auction page definitely indicate a knockoff.

The main thing I look at first on any of the Ultrabay adapters is the "floor" of the unit. My understanding is that the factory versions all have a metal bottom (tray). While some knockoffs do follow this design, most of them use plastic to save money. In some cases, there's even a hole in the bottom.

edit: Hang on... the Lenovo site for the ThinkPad Serial ATA Hard Drive Bay Adapter III shows a PATA connector!

[Edward Mendelson]

edit: Hang on... the Lenovo site for the ThinkPad Serial ATA Hard Drive Bay Adapter III shows a PATA connector!

Argh! You're absolutely right! So much for believing what you see on Lenovo's site....

[rkawakami]

Well soon after I discovered that the Lenovo Support page had the wrong picture for the adapter, I contacted Support and reported the issue to them. Since it was on a Saturday (7/26) I figured it would take a few days for them to get around to it. Within an hour or so I received an automated email saying they got my message. Early this morning (7/30) I got another email saying the case was closed. If you now view the page (http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail. ... MIGR-73170), all they did was remove the photo . As of today, Google still has the cached page with the wrong photo but after some time it too will go away.

[Edward Mendelson]

For what it's worth, here's a picture of the actual Lenovo part from a sealed box:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/271144/satabay.png

It's obviously much better-made than the generic knockoff, though of course I can't be certain that it works any better in the real world.

[Cigarguy]

It's obviously much better-made than the generic knockoff, though of course I can't be certain that it works any better in the real world.

I have 2 genuine IBM branded T60/T61 Ultrabay adapters that worked worse than the knock-off I got from ny-compu-tek even though the fit and finish is better wtih the real deal. I think this had something to do with the PATA to SATA conversion.

[dr_st]

I have such a knockoff adapter for T6x. It works fine, but some hard drives are difficult to fit, as if they are not 100% aligned correctly. The latch also seems to bulge and bend a bit when the drive is installed, creating a feeling that it will not last very long (may be just a feeling though). I don't know how it compares to the genuine adapters, since I never owned one...

[Temetka]

I've had knockoffs in my T4x and T6x machines from that ebayer. Never had a problem with them. It's pretty hard to build a fake adapter like that and NOT have it work correctly. Hell I could probably fold some sheet metal and order the adapter from digikey.