UNI-T UT231, fake?

[AmmoJammo]

I ordered this meter from an "Australian" seller:

"The item is located in Sydney, Australia and we ship to you only 4-5 days"

3 days after ordering, I get confirmation it was posted... 3 weeks later it arrives, from Western Australia, via some woman who got it from China... came with the original shipping information sending it to her.

Off to a good start there...

So, Opened up the box, and fitted the batteries it was supplied with...



Golden Power, Golden Power, Golden Power... Mustang... oh...



Flipped it over, had a closer look at the front, and realised....



Ah, I see....
Not impressed!

[BravoV]

Ture down .... err  tear down ?   

[pickle9000]

That's nuts, please at least counterfeit a better brand than that. What's the world coming to?

[AmmoJammo]

Doesn't look fake to me inside.... spelling? engrish! (or Chinglish)







These wires are just soldered in parallel with the tracks on the board... perhaps they realised the tracks were too thin?


Entire instruction manual is in Chinese, is this normal?

[Wytnucls]

Yes, probably Chinese model. It may have been tampered with, or possibly is very old stock. It's not normal to have bodge wires and caps on the PCB like this one has. I would try to have it exchanged or returned.
Just checked the catalogue, true RMS was misspelled on the meter pictures too. Usually happens on early units.

[Lightages]

I would email Uni-T and ask. Also did it come in a nice black plastic carry case?

[AmmoJammo]

Yes, came with a carry case and stuff...

[Lurch]

Factory reject case, night time unofficial run?

[AmmoJammo]

I assume the 2006 on the back is the build year

[gilbjd]

I assume the 2006 on the back is the build year

Some of the chips appear to have date codes supporting a 2006 build too.

[AmmoJammo]

It gets more confusing.

There's a label behind my address label, which seems to show it being sent from "Australian Mail Services" via eParcel, Australia Post, from a business address in Botany, NSW (with a web address listed as www.cneglobal.net), to "Laura" in Kingsley, WA...

But, then, in the parcel itself, there's an invoice addressed to Laura (in WA) from a business (I assume overseas, but none of it makes sense) listing it as being sent by "SXY Worldwide Express Service"

Unless its some kind of drop shipping...

Makes very little sense to send the item to the other side of the country, just to claim the item was Australian stock, when clearly it never was.... all it does it delay the parcel by another week!

[retiredcaps]

I ordered this meter from an "Australian" seller:

If you got this on ebay, any chance the seller was "emilyandlily"?

[AmmoJammo]

I get the impression they're trying to make it look like it came from NSW, and possibly sent it to the wrong address...

http://www.sdvaustralia.com/ (based on the return address)

Is the business in NSW that "Laura" got a parcel from.

Oh, yes, that web address doesn't work!

Its a freight forwarding company, and the return address for them even appears to be wrong... (listed their neighbours "house" number)

[amyk]

The ATT7022 is a 3-phase chip used in power meters, so it's reasonably certain at least the "TURE RMS" part is not fake.

(That chip has been around since at least '04, so it is possible OP got an old unit from before they corrected the spelling.)

[Lurch]

It gets more confusing.

There's a label behind my address label, which seems to show it being sent from "Australian Mail Services" via eParcel, Australia Post, from a business address in Botany, NSW (with a web address listed as www.cneglobal.net), to "Laura" in Kingsley, WA...

But, then, in the parcel itself, there's an invoice addressed to Laura (in WA) from a business (I assume overseas, but none of it makes sense) listing it as being sent by "SXY Worldwide Express Service"

Unless its some kind of drop shipping...

Makes very little sense to send the item to the other side of the country, just to claim the item was Australian stock, when clearly it never was.... all it does it delay the parcel by another week!

Quite a common freight forwarding "scam". If the listing looks like it is a random Chinese listing but the item location is local then you can pretty much guarantee that all the stock is in China and they just add your order to that Months container full of cheap wares. There's more than likely several sellers using the same service. They're not all that bothered about estimated shipping tims and bad feedback as they have 20 accounts and sell thousands of items every Month.

In fact, that's pretty much ebay in a nutshell these days.

[AmmoJammo]

It came from here:

http://www.rigoloscilloscope.com.au/

After ordering, I realised they have 4 or 5 pages in different names, claiming stock in different countries...

[AmmoJammo]

He's just emailed me a tracking number (as it hadn't arrived when I first asked)

Tracking number is for Auspost, between WA, and me, here in Adelaide.

So yes, I ordered the item, it was then shipped from China to New South Wales, then to Western Australia, then back to me, in South Australia 

I've emailed him and asked why...

[Lurch]

It came from here:

http://www.rigoloscilloscope.com.au/

After ordering, I realised they have 4 or 5 pages in different names, claiming stock in different countries...

Funnily enough I happened across the UK version of that when looking for Uni-T meters. First thing I thought was "random Chinese counterfeit website" and closed the tab.

[AmmoJammo]

I emailed the "seller" on the 6/1/2014:

I think you need to do some explaining.
 
It appears this was shipped from China, to a parcel forwarding agent in New South Wales, who then sent it to Laura in Western Australia, who then resent it to me...
 
Please explain?

And, 5 business days later, no reply... who would have thought!

[Wytnucls]

In the future, buy from Franki in Hong Kong to ensure receiving the genuine article. If he can't supply what you're looking for, try WECL, also based in Hong Kong. They are a bit more expensive, but it is a professional outfit, with the best brick and mortar electronic shop in that part of the world.

http://stores.ebay.com/99centhobbies

http://www.weclonline.com/eng/index.asp?

[Stonent]

I love it when you click "view larger image" and it just opens a bigger window with the same image.

[Wytnucls]

The picture is magnified, but granted, more detail would be welcome.