[c-nsp] Article: Beware of counterfeit Cisco gear

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Asbjorn Hojmark - Lists" <lists at hojmark.org>
To: "'Ted Mittelstaedt'" <tedm at toybox.placo.com>; "'Gert Doering'"
<gert at greenie.muc.de>
Cc: <cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net>
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 8:25 AM
Subject: RE: [c-nsp] Article: Beware of counterfeit Cisco gear


> > If Cisco had a giant leasing/credit program going, like the
> > automakers do, then these shops could walk into a Cisco dealer
> > and buy a new router and pay for it over time.  But, they
> > don't.
>
> They don't in the US? The do over here in Europe.
> It's called Cisco Capital.
>

Your right, but the last time we tried quoting one of those the
requirement was to keep SmartNet on the device during the
entire lease period.  It pushed the cost up significantly.  Selling
SmartNet is a very tough deal since customers figure that if
the router is working after 30 days then they can forever after
ignore it.  Also, the margin on SmartNet is horrible, it costs
us more in labor to sell it then we would ever realize in profit.
We mainly push it so as to prevent the customer from screaming at
us 6 months later if in the event the router takes a dump.  But
getting them to renew SmartNet is nearly impossible.

> (But maybe I'm misunderstanding the point).
>
> > And, how Cisco gets stuff for Cisco Refurb is a mystery,
>
> I would think they get it from trade-in. It's not like you
> get a huge deal, but trade in is still used a lot over here.
>

Ah, I had forgotten about that.  Trade-in is just a no-go
here, or at least has been every time we've proposed it.

In all of the trade-in deals that we've ever proposed, the customer
got much more money just selling the used routers on Ebay than
credit for trading them into Cisco.  Also the last time we
tried quoting a trade-in, one of the requirements was to
buy new gear.

That may of course have changed, but Cisco Refurb prices
are not competitive with used gear.  And I don't mean pricing
on fakes, I mean the higher pricing in the used market for
bona-fied used routers that have been decomissioned.

Ted