'Adata Shipped Black-Friday Shoppers a Slower-Model SSD Than They Ordered' - Tom's

[UsandThem]

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/adata-ships-sx8100-instead-of-sx8200

When the company ran low on inventory of the XPG SX8200 Pro it sent an SX8100 instead.

Adding to the confusion just a little bit: a label on the outside of the shipping box read "ASX8200PNP," while the package inside was correctly marked as the SX8100.

We spoke with Adata Marketing Manager Chris Kuo who admitted that the company hadn't managed its inventory well, resulting in the shortage, and described the controversy as a learning experience that would change how it handles similar issues in the future.

I'm surprised a tech company, especially one like Adata who has been selling SSDs for a while now, thought this was a good idea and green-lit the idea of substituting a slower drive for customers.

 

[mikeymikec]

"a learning experience".... my cynical translation: We'll try harder not to get caught next time!

 

[arandomguy]

My bigger concern when I heard about this news is what it means for the Adata SX8200 and other similar drives. SM 2262/en drives paired with Micron 64L TLC in my opinion were actually not only the best value/performance but arguably the best consumer TLC NVME drives (highest random read performance). So what's the future for similarly configured drives in terms of availability and pricing (and price reductions)?

Or is a positive sign in that Micron is transitioning more to 96L? They only have 1 OEM drive release via Micron using it currently with no other announcements on it.

There was a sale here for the 1TB SX8200(pro? can't remember the exact SKU) for $88 USD on Amazon shortly after prime day but I didn't have access to NVME (or would anytime soon) so passed on it. Was hoping for something similar soon.

 

[VirtualLarry]

"and described the controversy as a learning experience that would change how it handles similar issues in the future. "

Somebody look up the "mail fraud" statutes in the US. I suspect some lawyers will be earning some money soon.

Maybe this sort of thing flies in China, but not here.

No more Adata USB drives for me, I don't condone fraud by corporations. (They used to be my primary supplier for USB flash drives.)

Edit: My unstanding of mail-order laws in the USA is, if a company sells you a product, and they no longer have that product in stock, but they have a substitute product, THEY MUST CONTACT YOU WITHIN A CERTAIN TIME PERIOD, AND GET YOUR *PERMISSION* TO SEND AN (INFERIOR) SUBSTITUTE PRODUCT.

IANAL, but IMHO here, Adata broke the law, or at least, committed a form of mail-order fraud on customers.

Imagine if customers were buying 2020 model-year cars, and the dealer ran out, would they simply deliver some 2019 model-year cars instead to a certain subset of their customers, and hope that they wouldn't notice? This is so clear-cut to me.

Edit: After reading the TomsHardware article, an Adata spokeperson claims that they DID send e-mails, offering a refund, or replacement with an 8200 when stock came in, etc. So if that's true, then they probably are within the law regarding mail-order fraud. Perhaps I spoke too strongly. But the TH article also stated, that some customers claimed not to get the e-mails, and that they were simply shipped an inferior 8100 drive instead of the 8200 they ordered.

 

[LikeLinus]

That's just crazy. I'm glad I've never purchased an Adata drive before. Never will now!

" Perhaps I spoke too strongly."
No, I'd say you spoke correctly. This seems to be an intentional act of fraud. Now they are going back and saying "Oops, our bad we tried to sneak one past you". That doesn't really fly.