Dear Valued Customer,
Lately companies have been sending out knock-off or counterfeit remotes and telling you that they are O.E.M. We were fortunate enough to get our hands on one of these remotes. The following is an in-depth side by side comparison of an Ford O.E.M. Remote (Right Side) and a conterfit remote (Left side) to help educate and protect our customers. The images below are unaltered and unedited. |
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| Front: The first two things that you'll notice right away are the counterfeit remotes have a glossy-like finish and do not have a key ring. If you look a little closer you can see the icons on the buttons are a little different (more on that later) and the case edges, as you can see, have excess plastic from the mold that was not trimmed or finished. |
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| Back: If you're cross-referancing numbers you'll notice that the 4 Button numbers match up. However, if you look at the 3 Button numbers you will see the counterfeit remote has a "1" instead of a "L". Why whould we care what the 3 Button remote numbers are, after all these remote we're comparing are 4 Button remotes, Right? Wrong! These are ways to identify counterfeit remotes. This is how they can produce a look-a-like case while keeping the number they want you to be looking at correct. |
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| Inside: Here's where you can see the BIG difference. The low quality curcuit board and poor point to point soldering are easy to spot. You will also see different components being used in the curcuitry when we flip the board over. |
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| Battery: Again, quality and finishing of the molded case. The first thing that happened when uncasing the counterfeit remote was the generic battery falling on the floor. You can see the gap between the case and bottom of the battery on the left remote. |
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| Button Pad: The 2 things that stand out were color and imprint. The red on the counterfeit remote is more pinkish in color. The blue is also not as vibrant as the O.E.M. remote. The imprinting is fatter, the edges and corners are not as sharp and pronounced as the O.E.M as best seen with the Un-lock icon. There are also some molding inconsistancies, size and shape of the notches and most important thickness of the pad. The counterfeit pad is slightly thinner in areas and is less consistant. |
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| Curcuitry: Here you can see all the key components of what makes the remote work. The quality of components used and construction in the counterfeit remotes are key here. Sloppy point to point soldering, unlabeld electronics and additional button location. We also noticed the counterfeit board is slightly thinner than that of the O.E.M. curcuit board. |
| We hope that our side to side comparison was educational and will help with your future purchases of remotes. |
