I'm all for URC trying to stop their product from being sold through unauthorized channels. I agree that this is overall good for the dealers, good for the industry, and therefore in the end, also good for customers.

The question is, how is URC not able to put a stop to this? There is someone currently selling a pack of 10 MX-780's on eBay. That guy is most likely one of our own -- a dealer who is trying to make a quick buck and neither cares about the brand or the industry. I highly doubt that's some end-user doing it...

And in this day and age, its not like URC is receiving 10 remotes at a time from their factories -- no, they're coming in on huge palettes. Each palette will have a list of the range of serial numbers for the remotes that are on that palette. Tracking those serial numbers via their palettes is Supply Chain 101.

Every company does inventory tracking this way and I'm sure URC has the tools and capability to do the same. When I worked at Intel many years ago, every palette was tracking from origin to destination and every serial number for product was scanned in with just one palette barcode. It is no different at the majority of other companies.

So then, how is it that they can't track down the distributor that sold to the corrupt dealer who is willing to sell online at prices that just aren't sustainable for any business to survive on.

There's a bunch of URC product on eBay, brand new, selling for $150-$200 under MSRP.

So the likely scenarios is that either URC knows which distributor is selling the product to shady dealers, but because that distributor is a vital part of their supply chain all they get is a slap on the wrist (if that), or URC just has no idea how to do proper supply chain control and has no clue which remotes are being sold where.

Meanwhile, the guy is selling 10 MX-780's for $850....awesome.