Non-UL cable outed

Some of you may remember my detailing of the concerns of the CCCA, a group decrying the quality of cable coming out of the Far East (mostly). Well, now they've scored a victory.

Last week, UL put out a notice that Vertical Cable's Cat-5 cable does not meet UL standards and should not be sold as such:

“This cable does not comply with the standard for safety for the United States and Canada, and is not authorized to bear the UL Mark or reference UL.”

But then you look at the pictures and its hard to find a UL mark (I think there's a UL reference on the cable itself if you look closely on the printing, but I don't see anything on the label or box). What is there is an ETL mark. Is this a subtle dig at ETL for not verifying correctly?

Regardless, the cable is apparently available at these locations, and should be avoided:

• Cables.com

• Datacomm Cables Inc.

155 Marcus Blvd, Hauppauge, NY 11788

• Jack2Rack.com

• CableLot.com

Here's Vertical Cable's web site. They look reputable enough, saying they do $30m in annual sales, and they display logos for BICSI, RoHS, ETL and UL. I'm going to give them a call and see what's what. Maybe someone is counterfeiting their brand?

UPDATE on Aug. 3:

I spoke today with James Piguet, director of marketing, at Vertical Cable, and he had this to say when I asked him if UL had notified them of the problem and what they were doing to address it:

James: We've been notified, and we're working with the manufacturer to figure out if there is a problem. And as soon as we do that, we will devise an appropriate solution.

Me: So you just import it and white label it?

James: Yes.

Me: Where is it made and who makes it?

James: I can't expand on where it's manufactured. The statement I said before is all that we can discuss at this time.