Is this hardware for real? Prove it!

It appears to me that we (in

It appears to me that we (in a part of the USG) were the recipients of some IT supplies that may be counterfit. They had the appropriate brand name on them, but the device they went in could not use them properly. I'm not close enough to the situation to know what is happening, but it seems to me that selling counterfit goods to a government agency would merit a crackdown stronger than selling counterfit goods in a back alley in NYC.

However, it is (also) possible that we got some quality rejects that were intended for a landfill, or some goods that should have been quality checked and weren't. - Which is probably why it's taking so long to come up with an answer.

Having been on the other side...

I was the guy charged with making my federal office efficient and technically sound and I found the planning process to be over regulated and the regulation governing my purchases being designed up in the stratosphere, where the managers had no conception of what the basic R&D office needed. Once, we put in a purchase order for several computers with large hard drives and high-quality screens, and we received each computer piecemeal, that is, one part at a time (motherboard, then covering, followed by hard drive, and finally the screen) because the supply guys (the ones who made the purchases) found it cheaper that way.

So probably the assessment that the process is really screwed up is not so off the mark. What to do about it, however, is a lot more complicated than one might imagine. Our Federal Government is a rather large bureaucracy, where sometimes the left hand doesn't even know what's best for the right hand, much less know what it's doing.

Hopeless Cause

Worked as an employee for the government at the state level for seven years until a layoff last quarter.

Our computer equipment came from a well known vendor. We could not believe the price paid (very high) and the total inconsistant hardware delivery.
Where did they find those 40 GB hard drives in 2008?

We would all be better served if State and Federal lever IT jobs related to hardware, desktop, servers and networks were all completely abolished.

It is just so messed up!
We would be better served if qualified people (and this would need to be consultants) were hired to put out a specification and put a Quality Assurance Acceptance Test in place to receive the product.

It is not the company's fault, they are just in business to deliver to an organization that has no standards on what it is willing to receive.

Interesting Post

Interesting post...it begs the question: what happens to companies that sell fake merchandise?

Admittedly everyone gets taken sometimes, but you should be responsible for what you sell, right? Where I come from, if you sell something you have to stand behind it.