Hi,
@hammy NanoEvery
Different PCB layout again.
Tom... 
These are Every not IOT boards and bought direct from this web site ( very cheap in batches of three) .
The company “ core “ that you linked too is in Australia and may not be the same as Core in China ( the business details are certainly different if you google them )
Core Electronixs in Australia are an official Arduino distributer Core in China are not
Hmm. Is anyone? 
They have a list of authorized distributors
OK, point taken. 
Ok, Arduino came back to me and They did NOT mention anything about the boards being fake.
Mentioning this just to debunk the sceptics 
All the boards were bought by official Arduino.cc suppliers, according to their list. I will continue to buy from resellers because of the high extra cost when buying from them directly.
So this thread can be closed, the takeaway is to check your boards and send them back if they look terrible.
You may imagine so.
How could that be?
Yes... and then I woke up from my dream... 
Oh, should've explained that better: when ordering from Arduino.cc directly you pay VAT, in my case 21%. The price at Arduino.cc (excluding VAT) is the same as the VAT included price at the Arduino.cc distributors.
I don't know what the Arduino.cc shipping cost is from Italy but that must be more than the free shipping I got from Amazon.nl or the 2,95 euro's which I pay when ordering locally.
I mention that as people who ask questions here often have the attitude that the matter is closed when they say so.
Not realising two things - one that it is "not all about them" and the other that if they were capable of knowing when they got it right, they would/ need not be asking the questions in the first place.
There is a reason for topics to be closed - by the moderators - when people, most often the OP, become abusive.
You are of course correct regarding shipping and presumably, VAT. It presumably is cheaper for a reseller to buy in bulk from Arduino.cc and ship locally. We - outside of the USA - basically cannot afford to have products shipped from the USA either.
Point taken, although I have the feeling your perception is a slight bit critical. My intention with 'closed' was not to bother the people with this post anymore. And... I am very aware to the fact that life is not revolving around me... LOL. So my intention was good but ok, changed it to SOLVED.
I asked Arduino.cc permission to post their reply here so after the negative experience I can now end this with a positive note. Kudos to them!
Reply from Arduino.cc:
It's always sad to hear that a customer had a bad experience with our products it's always appreciated and heartwarming when we see people like you who care enough about our brand to provide this critical but very useful feedback. We are proud that our users demand better because it means we have created the expectation of quality with our boards.
Looking into the products you received they seem original Arduino products at their core but (as an example) the Nano 33 IoT should have the contacts for the headers plated so if you receive it like that you are entitled to a replacement as well as with the connector if it is not sturdy or even comes out anytime during the warranty period during regular operation. All you have to do in this case (as it is not a product that was purchased directly from our website) is just contact the buyer (in amazon's case they directly deal with this as well so you can contact them directly) and they will handle this process for you.
Meanwhile, on our end, I can assure you this feedback does not go unchecked and will be informing the appropriate teams. And will become extra vigilant for similar irregularities.
Again, thank you so much for your help in improving our products!
I wish you a wonderful day!
after asking permission to post the replies:
Yes, although we are not proud of the state of the boards you have received we want to encourage people to reach out when they observe that the boards do have flaws, comparing your board to the board we display in the store irregularities like the lack of plating are glaring and in a perfect work, these would never happen, in the real world however where errors and mistakes happen the best way to come close to that perfection is to have users like yourself reporting these flaws that unfortunately may have missed out quality control so anyone that comes across these flaws should feel free to contact us.
We apologize when you do have to do this but we also tremendously appreciate it!
For me the case is closed (ohoh, I'm in trouble again... )
THANK YOU Arduino.cc, I don't mind mishaps, it's the response that counts.
just add the "Solution" tick to your post #27 and it will be flagged as "solved" in the topic list and fall into oblivion at some point
Done, thank you!
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