Comment by Syzygies
4 hours ago
"Other than returning the four parts for a refund (which we did) and documenting this behavior here, our only other recourse was to guarantee that these four specific parts were never sold as new again:"
Alas, one can completely remove Sharpie writing from metal with 99% isopropyl alcohol. Did they make a better choice? This looks like Sharpie writing to me.
You can also remove sharpie writing using sharpies and a wet wipe - write over and wipe while its still wet. The dry pigment will dissolve in the solvent in the fresh ink.
My favourite trick is to write over Sharpie with a dry erase marker and erase it all.
https://www.amazon.com/Janlaugh-Resistant-Laboratory-Permane...
Alcohol/solvent resistant markers.
One spray of brake cleaner and it's gone. Cheaper to use a carbide scribe or simply get a shard of glass or ceramic and physically scribe into the drive. Now they're permanently used drives, no debate is possible.
But are they genuine and unused? !
They can do it but they likely won't bother at scale.
That’s your takeaway?
Yep. They should've engraved it.