Posted: 23rd Dec, 2008 By: MarkJ
DrayTek, which makes popular networking equipment such as broadband and wireless router modems, has issued a warning to anybody who may have purchased DrayTek products from
DSLWarehouse (UK) between approx April and August this year.
DrayTek states that such products were not done to European (EU) specification, have no EU support and no warranty or software/firmware licence. DrayTek alleges that DSLWarehouse were fully aware of all this, yet chose to sell them anyway:
Unofficial Statement from DrayTek: These products were apparently intended for a specific project elsewhere and sold to a customer who was to be responsible for all of those items; they therefore were not paid for as European retail stock.
If you have purchased an item from DSLWarehouse, check with them the status. If you were led to believe it was European (or UK) product, with warranty, you have been misled and are entitled to a refund. If they refuse, try trading standards or your credit card company.
DSLWarehouse are not an innocent victim of this problem; they were fully aware of the source of the products and restrictions on their sale. DrayTek are separately pursuing the other company responsible, and apologise for any inconvenience caused.
DSL Warehouse also supplied these units to 'battech' so if you purchased from them, you may also be affected. If you still have your original box, the silver label on the side won't say "Europe" or "UK" on it.
ISPreview has attempted to contact DSLWarehouse for comment, though their website has been and continues to be unavailable. It's also important to point out that DSLwarehouse.co.uk is NOT related to companies of the same name operating in Australia or the USA.
Other common suppliers of DrayTek product (such as DSLsource, broadbandbuyer, dabs, transparent, datacommsdirect etc.) are not affected and are believed to have only sold legitimate European stock.