Don’t buy used Peplink equipment.

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For years I have recommended Peplink to my clients and on the basis of my recommendations many routers and access points have been sold and installed. Today I will stop recommending them…Why? Here’s why!

Once in a while I will purchase used units from eBay for personal use and re-register them in my name…
Today I sent an email with a picture of the serial number and the diagnostic log (which I have done for years) only to find out that they will no longer allow units to be moved to a new InControl account without the previous owner removing them from theirs.

When I asked them if their customers were informed of this change in policy (just in case I missed the email), I was told they were not. If they can change this policy without informing their customers, what other policy’s will they change?

I am now left with an unserviceable $150 router due to the fact the previous owner might be able to access it and make changes to the configuration.

This is why I won’t be recommending Peplink anymore.

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There have been problems for partners who have agreements with their customers.
Customer doesn’t pay a bill as an example, they shouldn’t be able to transfer it until it is paid in full.

With regards to purchasing used equipment , I ask if they will transfer to my name before purchase, and if not I at least understand what I have, a good stand alone router.

You can easily disable any one from having access to the device via incontrol.

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Curious what model did you get and what did you pay for it?

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It was a Balance One Core.

I know I can turn InControl off. But when the router is reset so are all the settings.

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I understand, that it would reset.
If you have to factory reset it ever, just login locally via the LAN and disable incontrol.
Another option would be to resell again on ebay to someone else and get another model. We are a peplink partner if you were looking at a different model, I’d be happy to help.

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On most of my used routers I pay to be able to use InControl2, so disabling that option doesn’t help. I won’t be reselling and passing the buck to another eBayer. I just wont buy any more new or used peplink products from today.

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Have you tried to ask ebay to give you a refund of the device, if the seller refuses to release it from their org?
Or if you put on eBay just state that it can only be used standalone it would still be useful to someone I’m sure.

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I sent the seller an email earlier today and I am waiting for a reply. I don’t know if he was the previous owner or a reseller but he does not take returns.

Peplink should have warned customers that they would no longer accept possession as proof of ownership when updating access for Incontrol2.

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@JLockye, please refer to this FAQ - What to do if a 'Device already belongs to another organization'. We posted it in Jan 2021.

If you subscribe to the topic/category, you should be able to receive the email notification.

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Ohhh. So now you expect customers to subscribe to forums to get updates In changes of policy’s….

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@Jonathan_Pitts huh? you mean partners are fronting the hardware and are owed money for the hardware? why would a partner ship out a device without receiving payment? to me thats an entirely separate issue and not a reason to change the policy.

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I sent the seller an email earlier today and I am waiting for a reply. I don’t know if he was the previous owner or a reseller but he does not take returns

if the seller claimed the device was fully functional then you can demand a refund under eBay’s policies (lack of IC2 access makes it less than fully functional).
if no such claim was made, then caveat emptor.

Cheers,

s

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Because many partners don’t sell Peplink hardware they use Peplink devices to deliver managed services.

So an end user can be in physical possession of a device that they do not own - a device that is being actively managed to protect against misuse, and locked down so that the SIMs can’t get abused or so that web content if filtered.

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Have to say I don’t agree with the way Peplink approached this issue - although I understand why they have done it, and as a former managed Service provider I am very glad they have.

Instead I think that should be an escrow style process where someone claiming a device is now theirs should be able to log a ‘transfer of ownership’ claim with Peplink who then look up the serial on InControl and ask the registered organisation contacts for approval for its release.

If no one responds from the previous organisation after 14 or 28 days then the device gets forcibly released.

I should add that the reason I think the 2nd user market is so important is that often 2nd hand users will have never touched a Peplink device before and it is (or should be) a low risk way to get their hands on something ‘new’ to play with.

Those 2nd hand users often become advocates within their own communities and businesses which generates interest and noise about Peplink and ultimately new device sales as they upgrade to more modern devices after being impressed by the older gear.

That and the fact we all have a role to play in sending less stuff to landfill…

What if there was a $25 fee per claim to put off misuse of the claims process?

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@MartinLangmaid
I have mixed feeling about the whole thing.
As a service provider you are correct sometimes devices are included as part of our service offering and not owned, so obviously we wouldn’t want some one to easily claim ownership of it.

As an end user without knowledge of the process, I can see being very frustrated.

I really like the idea of a escrow, if someone has possession of a device, they should show start a ticket with proof of possession, silver tag, diag log.
Then peplink could start a dialog with the partner of record and if no response within 14 days they release the device from incontrol2.
If the partner of record/owner has any reason the device should not be released then peplink can ask the end user to work out the details with the person they got the device from.

Another good reason to have this policy , what if someone were to break into our business and steal our inventory or break into our customers location and take their routers?

There are plenty of good uses for second hand devices , they could have come off of a lease from a project, or a business decided to upgrade to the latest model.
I think that finding a solution to this is really needed.

I think charging a fee for the process would complicate things between the charging then refund if entitled etc.

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Hello @JLockye,
We are with @Jonathan_Pitts & @MartinLangmaid on this, along with the team at Peplink.

Active Peplink Partners often carry a substantial stock value and have significant amounts of equipment out there getting managed; our company is an MSP. Occasionally, equipment out there on lease goes missing (fails to get returned, lease stops getting paid, gets taken). We are grateful that Peplink makes it challenging to resell the equipment; it is an excellent theft deterrent.

Mobotix, another brand we work with within the security industry, does a very similar thing with their device; you can not fully factory reset the device without knowing the admin password. Mobotix notes on their support website:
“Note 2._ A hardware reset will NOT reset the user and password to factory defaults._”

To completely reset the device, if you don’t know the admin password, the unit must get returned to the factory in Germany, where they do something like replacing NVRAM & then recoding. Mobotix charges a substantial upfront fee to reset the device; it is then only shipped back to the registered user, not the sender. This level of security and protection of the devices is one of the reasons Mobotix is used worldwide by many governments, law enforcement organisations, & significant businesses as the value in the unit if stolen gets removed.

Our company always adds every device serial number in a particular private group within InControl2 to secure & lock the device so it can not be taken from the warehouse and used without proper tracking. We move the units over to the customer’s InControl2 organisation as part of the shipping process. If it is a rental system, they will rarely have administrative rights to the platform or device. We have been doing that since InControl2 went live, and it has been very successful.

Peplink, along with all Peplink partners globally, needs to continually take a proactive stand against the black market and not so honest operators out there.

The Current policy is a necessity; the idea of a fee to arbitrate a change of ownership with a response required within 28 Days is a good idea, $150USD or 15% of the MSRP replacement cost (whichever is the higher) per device as a minimum is reasonable.

You may not be aware that Peplink partners are NOT allowed to sell on any auction sites, so the seller will not be an approved Peplink supplier.

We encourage everyone to treat all items on public auction sites as potentially stolen. Auction sites put the responsibility on the buyer to do the checks, not the seller to prove otherwise.

If you have already contacted the seller without them releasing the device from InControl2, then a suitable course of action is to report the seller to eBay and ask eBay for your money refunded; share this thread with eBay when you lodge your eBay dispute. Remember to demonstrate to eBay that you have asked the seller to delete the device from their InControl2 organisation and that the seller has not cooperated with the request within a reasonable time frame (say 14 days).

Peplink’s choice in how notices get shared out (as mentioned by @TK_Liew) to the community and partners of changes aligns with the method used by the company for the past few years. Peplink makes most of its company announcements and messages to the community and partners via this forum platform. To receive an email, you subscribe to that section of the forum, which is a much better approach than running many email lists.

We have many customers who have brought second-hand Peplink devices that we help look after, though we are very strict on that device getting checked & managed, and we charge a fee for the service to do that due to the time invested in servicing that requirement.

Happy to Help,
Marcus :slight_smile:

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