Ingram sore over Belgian warehouse burglary Ingram Micro has told customers to be on the lookout for laptops stolen in a recent raid on its Belgian warehouse, and pointedly warned them that it plans legal action against those who fail to report offers of hooky kit. In an ALL CAPS email yesterday, the super distributor's legal department said a "large quantity" of HP …
Hi all,
Just a comment hee : yes the tone seems harsh, could maybe be worded slightly different... but is actually referring to the Belgian law...if you buy stolen goods you are liable...even if you don't know that they were stolen.
Meaning if you don't warn Ingram, and you buy one of these boxes you're in big trouble. Warning Ingram would help in case the police wants to prosecute you....
... (yes, i know Belgian law is somtimes strange)
Cheers,
Frank
Because they're threatening potential customers they will get probably about nil response.
If they had offered a reward people may have been actively on the lookout instead.
Get rid of the moron who thought of this approach, because he/she has turned a problem into a PR disaster to boot. And check whereabouts at the time of the theft, just to cover all bases..
its just possible that Ingram perhaps could look on Belguim Ebay first perhaps?
Bad form on the emails though, would of expected a look out email but the kind being sent out is wholely over aggressive and not good in keeping your customers friendly when you run around accussing them all as has been done. Utterly daft way of handling it sadly.
If you knowingly by stolen goods in most countries you're breakin the law, however only an utter incompetent idiot would think the mail sent was a smart move, it's the kind of thing you spam to a company that just took 4 payments out of your account when you only bought the thing once and then insist they're working on it for 3 months. Not paying customers, paying customers you send a note saying "please be aware our warehouse was broken into, please be on the look out for blah, we have attatched all the serial numbers etc of the stolen goods, any information would be appreciated."
As a second point then if you bought some of those knocked off goods, good luck claiming you weren't aware they may be stolen.
This is not made clear from the article. Aren't Ingram a large distributor, therefore their customers would be other computer resellers? I don't think they would email anyone who's ever bought anything from them (I don't even know if they sell directly to end users) - it would have been good if the article gave a few more details on who the recipients of the email were.
That email would have gone down better WITHOUT ALL THE SHOUTING, and err maybe a bit less threatening too, but warning their customers they could be offered stolen goods from other sources does sound appropriate to me. Definite FAIL with the style of the email though.
So if I have this right, in Belgian law the moment I buy something that turns out to be stolen, I am guilty. And Ingram Micro wants me to buy a PC, check the serial number, find out that it is stolen, and promptly tell them so they can have the police come and arrest me.
yyyyyyyyeeeeeeeesssssss, not finding that too attractive as an option, I have to say. Presumably very few people in Belgium report having inadvertently bought something stolen, unless they actually like prison food. Maybe that's why Ingram think they have to shout at them.
Does this jacket look stolen to you???
The HP 6830s comes with Vista (and HP don't provide all the drivers needed to run other OSes). Vista, with the help of an onboard chip, phones home to a company in the US (LoJack) who will use this information to track and locate stolen notebooks.
One would have thought that Ingram would know this and would therefore not need to threaten their law-abiding customers.
We got this email - I imagine it went out to all resellers - and yeah, our reaction is pretty much what you'd expect. What idiot decided on the wording?
It is just so completely unnecessary. I don't know anyone in this business who doesn't hate thieves with a passion - high value/low margin goods like computer equipment HURT when they go missing, and if I got any information that might help Ingram recover their products I'd tell them immediately (even after that email), just for the possible satisfaction of seeing the thieves go down.
But yeah, threats (that's how it reads to me anyway) are just so pointless. I've been rung up by local competitors when they've had kit stolen, and I've always said I'll keep an eye out and meant every word. I'd certainly do the same for an important supplier, especially one like Ingram who are actually normally a pleasure to work with.
So if you don't check the serial numbers then you are blissfully unaware and therefore safe from their threat of prosecution.
To be fair, it sounds like a bit of a kneejerk reaction from an over-stressed warehouse manager who is clearly having a bad day. I'm sure after he calms down and hears from the insurance company he will be back to his usual friendly self.
HELLO
MY NAME IS CHIEF BUGANTO OF THE HITUTU TRIBE IN NIGERIA. I'VE RECENTLY BEEN REQUIRED TO ESCAPE MY COUNTRY UNDER TIGHT CIRCUMSTANCES AND AS A CONSEQUENCE I NEED TO CLEAR MY BEGLIAN RESIDENCE OF SOME LAPTOPS LEFT BY THE PREVIOUS RESIDENT.
UNFORTUNATELY THE PREVIOUS RESIDENT DOESN'T KNOW THE LAPTOPS NEED TO BE MOVED SO I MUST WITH GREATEST EXPEDITEMENT MOVE THEM WITHOUT NOTICE.
I THEREFORE NEED ASSISTANCE TO SELL THESE ITEMS THROUGH SOME ONLINE AUCTION WITH FUNDS TO BE FUTURE SPLIT BETWEEN YOU AND ME.
PLEASE DON'T TELL ANYONE I HAVE BEEN IN CONTACT AS THIS MAY LEAD TO UNWANTED ATTENTION FROM AUTHORITIES THAT NEITHER YOU NOR ME REALLY WANT TO BE IN CONTACT WITH
@ Frank Van riet, that's not strange at all -- receiving stolen goods is illegal in lots of places.
They could have phrased this MUCH nicer though, and not used the all caps. I'm surprised they don't say something like "If you come across any information regarding these machines, please call Ingram Micro Legal Department" -- if someone doesn't receive the machines but hears about them, as it is they are not instructed to do anything -- and given the adversarial tone of the note otherwise, maybe they won't.
... just kind of rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? Belgian warehouse...
"You should come over! I've got a Belgian Warehouse worth of beer in the cooler!"
"She's got a bum the size of a Belgian Warehouse."
"Well slap me with a Belgian Warehouse, I did not know that!"
Words are fun!
> Meaning if you don't warn Ingram, and you buy one of these boxes you're in big trouble.
> Warning Ingram would help in case the police wants to prosecute you....
So, your choice is to NOT tell them and you MAY be prosecuted, or,
you DO tell them and you WILL be prosecuted.
Hmm, which do I choose?
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