Another counterfeit SqD breaker recall...

[mxslick]

Once again, another vendor got a bad batch of QO Series breakers..this recall posted on CPSC on 8/2/10:

LINK

If you purchased any QO's recently from Miami Breaker, you may be affected by this recall.

 

[zog]

Again? This has happened to them before too. There has been a rash of counterfiets of these breakers in the last year, I recently attending some training buy UL, Siemens, and Square D on counterfieting and how to identify them. This is why you need to be careful with your sources, it blows my mind people buy used breakers on Ebay.

 

[Jraef]

There is big money in it because of the volume. I ran into it recently on a project. We were bidding on building some panels with QOU stand-alone breakers in them for protecting just a couple of printed circuit boards. The overall project would have involved 4000-5000 1 pole breakers per year. We lost the job because we used a cost on the QOUs of $4.09 each, and the Asian competitor told my customer they could SELL them wired into the panels for $1.20 each. I cried foul and along with my Sq. D rep showed them all the warnings about counterfeits, made no impact on the outcome. So now there will be some piece of consumer HVAC equipment out there that will have these counterfeit breakers on them and might start fires. Unfortunately I was slightly removed from being able to know who the end OEM was, otherwise I'd blast out the name and inform UL....

 

[mxslick]

Yep, sadly the mighty buck motivates people with little or no regard to personal safety.

Problem is, they don't realize that the cost of a recall or worse, lawsuits if/when those "bargain" breakers cause a fire or kill someone will far exceed the cost of using the right spec'd product in the first place.

 

[weressl]

Once again, another vendor got a bad batch of QO Series breakers..this recall posted on CPSC on 8/2/10:

LINK

If you purchased any QO's recently from Miami Breaker, you may be affected by this recall.

Very strange.

So if a forger(counterfeiter) uses my logo to produce a bogus device, I still should accept liability for those?

Who supposed to protect our market? Isn't that the role of Government and shouldn't they accept the liability for it?

Jes askin'........

 

[dbuckley]

Yeah, when I read the title, I couldn't understand whay SqD would be "recalling" stuff it never made in the first place.

On more careful reading, its a middleman company that has sourced trash and sold it as the real thing.

If I were SqD, I'd be looking at their distribution chain, and maybe yanking a few "Authorized distributor" priviliges...

 

[LarryFine]

If I were SqD, I'd be looking at their distribution chain, and maybe yanking a few "Authorized distributor" priviliges...

Is it possible they're innocent?

 

[hurk27]

At my last company we used to get Fax's all the time from these places in Florida, and Texas, that offered beyond real prices on many items that were just to low to be real, 10 cent receptacles, and $8.00 led/exit combo lights, $5.00 smokes, $4.00 cans with bulbs, GFCI receptacles, all supposedly name brand stuff, had all the big names on the flier, so one time my boss thought he would give it a try sent an order in, well the junk we got, you wouldn't belive it, the receptacles were so flimsy you could bend the ears with your pinky, the cans fell apart, as did the switches, he tried to send it back and they said they didnt want it back, but refunded all but a so called restocking fee and shipping. I think is was Sun Star, there was another started with a P, but they fell off the edge of Earth.

 

[dbuckley]

Is it possible they're innocent?

Indeed.

But someone, somewhere along the supply chain bought gash kit, and SqD ought to go looking for that link in the chain.

 

[mxslick]

Is it possible they're innocent?

Since this is the second time it's happened to them, my vote is no.

<snip>

But someone, somewhere along the supply chain bought gash kit, and SqD ought to go looking for that link in the chain.

Bingo!!

 

[weressl]

Since this is the second time it's happened to them, my vote is no.



Bingo!!

It could be that one of their distributors have broken the Contract with Square D and sourced the breakers from other than Square D directly.
Could happen various ways, but Square D surely has the power to stop it.

If they just pick up and take responsibility for counterfeit items without tracking down the break in the system, it just encourages further shennigans.

Of course we don't know what other actions they have taken, and rightfully so, so that the culprits don't know how to circumvent the new measures. It would have been both good PR to the Customers and a warning shot to the forgers if they would ahve announced publicly that they are taking unspecified steps to persecute the offenders AND to prevent recurrence.

 

[kwired]

Authorized distributors of Square D purchase directly from Square D. The supply company that sold the counterfeit items probably is not an authorized distributor and does not purchase directly from Square D. They may only sell breakers packed in third party packaging and not panelboards. My Square D authorized distributor that I use can get anything Square D makes. They do not sell any competitor panels, controls, etc., but do have replacement breakers for most competitor panels individually packaged with a name like Gamepac, or Connecticut electric on the package. Places like this is where I could see countefeit products sneaking in the packages and the end seller does not even know about it.

 

[zog]

They do not sell any competitor panels, controls, etc., but do have replacement breakers for most competitor panels individually packaged with a name like Gamepac, or Connecticut electric on the package. Places like this is where I could see countefeit products sneaking in the packages and the end seller does not even know about it.

Yeah, Connecticut electric would never get involved with counterfiet Sq-D products.
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml08/08054.html