Because they couldn’t. He bought the bag before they automatically tracked all purchasers with a unique ID on the bags they sell. The CEO of PD actively called the tip line.

  • Elvith Ma'for@feddit.org
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    11 days ago

    I don’t think that ‘tracing’ here means something like ‘there’s a GPS tracker in every backpack’.

    You could see this type of backpack in a CCTV shot. Later the police recovered a backpack - that they thought was the one on CCTV - and now need to find the owner. If it was registered at the company by the owner, they may have been able to say “oh yes, that serial number is registered to a customer. Here’s their name and address they told us when registering at $date”. If the customer never registered their bag, the only piece of information they could give out would (maybe) be something like “This bag was sent to an Amazon warehouse at $date, ask them if they know who bought these bags around $date”

    • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
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      11 days ago

      Ah yes, product registration. Good to know me absentmindedly not registering is fighting against police tracking and CEO business strategy.

    • fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.comOP
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      11 days ago

      Except the “by the owner.” The problem here is they are auto-registered at time of purchase.

      • Elvith Ma'for@feddit.org
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        11 days ago

        I don’t know this specific brand but because of this quote in the article I assumed it’d not be automatically registered:

        “If you do choose to register a Peak Design product, and it is lost or stolen, you can reach out to our customer service team and have your registration erased, so the bag is not traceable back to you.”

        Why do they say “if you do choose to register” if you don’t have a choice?

        • fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.comOP
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          10 days ago

          Not all products have the “smart serial number” would be my guess. The v1 packs certainly didn’t.

        • wicked_observer@lemm.ee
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          10 days ago

          Because you don’t have to register it. Plenty of retail stores sell it and you can pay cash.

          Many products say “register your product for your warranty”

          Just to get your data. It’s not required.