Bigmouth Strikes Again: Carrie Marshall's blog

One of our routers is missing… well, 7,200 of them

An appeal from D-Link:

London, 12 October 2006 – D-Link, the end-to-end networking solutions provider for consumers and business, urgently appeals to the public for help in a major product theft.

D-Link’s popular wireless starter kit, consisting of a Broadband Router and USB Adapter carries the model number DWL-922. 7200 pieces of this product bundle have been stolen in the UK, and D-Link has evidence that these goods are now being sold in the open market.

D-Link is urging the public to help to find the stolen goods and to contact us if they have come into contact or bought a product belonging to the stolen goods.

How can the products be recognised?
§          The stolen goods are sold under the model number: DWL-922/E and UPC Code: 790069285479 which is indicated on the bar-code together with the individual serial number label of the retail box
§          The products are identified with a serial number. At the end of this press release you will find a link to view all product serial numbers that were part of the theft on D-Link’s website so you can easily check if your product was part of the stolen goods batch
§          The products are sold at a heavily reduced price
§          The products may be offered with a free UK power supply or just with a Euro 2-pin unit

This theft is not only a financial loss to D-Link but more importantly causes confusion in the channel and to the market, which is why the stolen goods have to be located as soon as possible.

We encourage the public not to purchase, sell or re-sell these products.

If you have bought or sold products with serial numbers that match the ones released within this document, please contact D-Link urgently:

Tahira Perveen
Country Sales Manager UK & Ireland
Tel: +44 (0)208 955 9000
E-Mail: tperveen@dlink.co.uk

In the first instance we would ask anyone with information to advise D-Link who, with their insurers, have appointed investigators to assist members of the public in bringing information forward.  Alternatively members of the public can contact Crimestoppers in total confidence on 0800 555 111 quoting Kent Police Reference EZ/8732/06.

TO VIEW THE PRODUCT SERIAL NUMBERS OF STOLEN DWL-922/E, PLEASE VISIT: ftp://ftp.dlink.co.uk/marketing/Serial_Numbers.pdf

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Comments

0 responses to “One of our routers is missing… well, 7,200 of them”

  1. Stephen

    The stupidity of that is just breathtaking. Yes, D-Link, we understand how important it is to you to get your routers back. But why on earth do you think anyone else gives a shit? Why would someone who bought this router contact you? You don’t say what you will do if they do make contact. You talk about theft, making the person nervous about being caught up in criminal proceedings. You don’t mention whether there is any compensation. So John Q Public is sitting at home with his cheap router he bought at a car boot sale. It works fine. Nobody’s hassling him. You now want him to contact you, say yes, I have one of your stolen routers, open himself up to a world of hassle, possibly lose the router without compensation, possibly have to “help the police with their enquiries”… I can see people queueing up in droves.

  2. Gary

    So you’ve bought one of the batch, then? ;-)

  3. Squander Two

    Yeah, I was reading that press release waiting for the phrase “If you have bought one of the routers, we promise not to…” whatever. I was actually rather surprised to reach the end of it without seeing such a thing. Stephen’s right. Are they mad?

    The Crimestoppers bit made more sense, since it is completely confidential, but, since D-Link are offering no such guarantees of their own, they should have stuck it near the top.

    I have a D-Link wireless USB adaptor. Crashy. The back-of-a-lorry price is probably fairer than the RRP, considering the quality.

  4. Gary

    Sorry, chopped a bit off the bottom – it was merged into the “about d-link” blah at the bottom: “D-Link will honour its standard support and service promise for all products.”

  5. Squander Two

    Ah, fair enough. They’re still stupid for not putting that in bold caps at the top, mind.

  6. Stephen

    >So you’ve bought one of the batch, then? ;-)

    I knew you would think that! :-D

    I actually do have a D-Link router, non-wireless though, I made it wireless with an Adaptec access point a few months after I bought it. It hasn’t given any problems, but if I were to buy again I would probably get a 3-Com.

  7. Squander Two

    I have a 3-com. It is pretty good. Not as user-friendly as a BT Voyager, though.

  8. david

    I’ve pretty much stuck with Netgear. Linksys stuff is very good. I had a non-wireless D-link which was very good for the money.

  9. Gary

    Likewise on netgear. Various stuff at home, at the in-laws’… no real problems to date (and that’s after a few years) bar the odd dropped DSL connection. Which I suspect is my ISP rather than my hardware.

  10. david

    I had issues with an early 834G wireless router but the rangemax has been faultless so far.

  11. tm

    yeah I’ve always had netgear stuff and it’s been prety good.

    (well, one adsl modem blew up, but I’m convinced that was a BT problem that whacked the line and belw up the modem)

  12. Squander Two

    Considering how appalling they are at running a service, I was surprised at how good BT’s Voyager range of modem-cum-routers is. The manufacturing arm should break away from the idiot service providers, if they’ve got any sense.

  13. david

    >>…manufacturing arm..

    I’m not convinced that the manufacturers are anything to do with BT. BT’s early Voyager line was rebadged Dynalink, Solwise and a few other makes.