Pioneer Computers Australia - selling ES CPUs!!!!

After 2.5 years of overheating issues with an M570TU, Intel QX9300 ... I finally discovered that the reseller, Pioneer Computers Sydney Australia had used an ES (Not-for-resale Engineering Sample) CPU.

Local authorities are useless and won't help. Apparantly blatant theft in Australia is completely legal.

Hopefully 1 or 2 individuals finding this posting will avoid the pain I've gone through.

I will buy a brand-new laptop now just to wash the feeling of disgust from my hands. I will give the laptop (and the 2 additional ones I bought from ebay) to my friend.

What a waste!

 

did you try telling Intel?

 

That is unacceptable, seeing as they charge ridiculous prices for those machines.

Have you tried contacting the ACCC?

Its good you created this thread. It will rank up highly in google. I suggest creating a thread in Whirlpool too.

 

I thought about contacting Intel but when Pioneer's sales manager suggested I contact Intel I thought to myself "why is he pushing me to tell Intel?" Then I thought, pessimistically, that since Pioneer are probably a HUGE intel reseller, Intel would probably protect them instead of demanding they fix the problem (I kept picturing the owner of Pioneer and the local Intel management playing golf together).

I submitted a written report to NSW Fair Trading asking for a full refund and that Pioneer be punished for fraud/theft ... they responded that they are only a mediation service and that upon contacting Pioneer, Pioneer told them they weren't willing to do a refund at all but that I "should drop the laptop in so they could look at it" (it's already been in for service a couple of times, and anyway, this now isn't a technical problem, it's a FRAUD problem). When I asked the fair trading dude who I was supposed to contact to get actual justice done, for example should I go to the police ... he fumbled around and had no idea who I could contact (except if I paid money for sort of an advanced mediator to hear the case). Great, so now I have to PAY just to get justice. And I wonder how many other people have Pioneer laptops with SAMPLES in them without knowing the truth. Your whirlpool idea is pretty good... I might do that thanks.

 

Yes thats correct, NSW Fair trading and ACCC will mainly act as mediator. They cant actually take action in your behalf as an individual. Most they will do is speak to the seller, try resolve it the matter and make recommendations

You will need to settle it in court (CTTT) to get real action done.

 

Well my next step will be to try their super mediator and see if I can get any movement on this at all. It's amazing that even when a retailer does something so blatantly obviously wrong like this, it still takes an individual person to go through a lot of trouble just to bring them to justice (with the chance that nothing will be resolved in the end). Anyway, appreciate your comments, it's at least nice to have someone to discuss it with.

 

You should actually contact Intel, even though the company seems to be encouraging you to. ES chips are the property of Intel and are not for resale. I'm sure they'd be interested to know a retailer is using ES chips in retail laptops that are not legally theirs to sell.

I work in China and because of the nature of things here Clevo sellers tend to offer you ES, qualification samples, and retail chips for your setup. ES chips are probably 1/3 the price of a retail chip. But we are told that this is what we are getting so it's not really fraudulent. As you can see in my sig I have a QS chip and it works great.

You should definitely take these guys to the cleaners on this and give them lots of bad press as you go along.

 

Thank god I didn't purchase from them and went for Logical Blue One instead...

 

I have no doubt HP and MSI are selling laptops with ES/QS CPUs and GPUs pretty rampantly. I've seen it myself.

 

What's really sad is that no one in authority is willing to help, in spite of all the rubbish about protecting consumers etc.

As another sad but funny addition to my problems, I remember when I took the laptop in for service late last year, their tech said he checked it and didn't find anything wrong. So I pointed out (as I had done when I dropped it off) that it was running really hot most of the time, even when it was idle. To which he replied, incredibly, "Intel state the maximum TDP on those CPUs is 100 degrees celcius". I replied, "so you're saying it's NORMAL for the cpu to run at the MAXIMUM temp most of the time, even when it's idle"? He didn't reply. When I bounced the question/complaint to his manager - no reply. That's the bs I've put up with for 2.5 years from Pioneer Computers.

Bottomline: AVOID PIONEER COMPUTERS SYDNEY AT ALL COSTS!!!

 

Good to know there's someone other than Pioneer in Australia - I'll keep them in mind for future purchases, thanks.

 

LBO's great, and the closest you can get to an international reseller like XoticPC Malibal Myth etc. They shipped chocolate along with my laptop