SpinachEater :
I am not challenging what you said but more so I am curious how that works exactly if you are correct. Do you mean manufacturer or seller? I don't understand your "different batch" comment. A new stepping in a CPU makes it a different CPU version from the previous. It isn't just the next batch that ships out, there is an actual manufacturing change that occurs. Even the numbers change right on the chip (B3 = SL9UM, G0=SLACR). How can a manufacturer or seller justify that the stepping doesn't have to be correct when advertised as a specific stepping?
I am not a computer parts manufacturer, but to a manufacturer a batch is what I make today. Yesterday I made a older batch, and tomorrow I will make a newer batch. I don't go backwards in my operation, and I don't make two batches today that are similar but different (unless one is a test batch).
The use of today, yesterday, tomorrow are not absolute time terms. I know a manufacturer that a batch is what they make using a specific purchasing unit quantity of a power relay used in their equipment... their purchasing unit is 120 day supply of that particular relay. Another manufacturer that I know makes a FDA compliant product and assigns batch numbers every 3 hours on their production line. Bottom line never fall in love with general units of time and the word "batch".
In computer manufacturing the stepping may be the next batch or version. Whether a stepping is a batch or version will get you different answers from different people. A version ususally means the item has been altered, improved, or an identical product made at a different plant (when product is transferred from the little production line to the big production line), while a batch is usually referred to as a small "reset" of the process. Because the stepping could mean the production was shifted from big production line to little production line or visa versa, or the chip is now painted Green rather than Pink, the stepping may not actually mean all that much to the manufacturer. Maybe the new stepping is a big deal, maybe it is nothing more than a painted chip difference.
Regardless of the merits of batch versus version, yes the stepping was a change in the manufacturing process. As previously stated what I make today is not what I made yesterday. Intel announced that they had tested the next stepping (batch or version) and was resetting the production line to that new stepping. Yes it was an annoucement. Intel could have said "we are shifting our production of this chip to another line to make room for Penryn development and assigning a new batch number to signify the changes to the chip and the manufacturing line". In such a statement, which is the most important fact, the changes or the new line?
For the resellers:
At some point Tiger/New et al were buying the old stepping. Now they are buying the new stepping. Tomorrow they get another completely different stepping. Hmmmm, sounds like to them they are buying different batches. And in 90% of the cases the new stepping might be just an improvement in the manufacturing process or a reduction in the price of the product (not all steppings are peformance improvements in the product).
Now any business worth their salt is going to rotate their stock. Ooops, wait a minute. Take my two examples above. For the equipment manufacturer with 120 day batch cycles, how important is it for me to really rotate my stock? I mean I get deliveries every 30 days and do I really need to get my panties in a wad over a product that is 30 days older than another product on my shelf? And for the FDA product, do I really need to get my stockroom in an uproar over a product that is 3 or 6 hours newer than another product? These examples and the often minor differences between batches (steppings) of chips could chip retailers to be rather loose with their stock rotations.
Is it fraud to advertise new steppings and deliver old? Fraud is an intentional act with the intent to cause damage to the other party. A stock room that poorly rotates their stock is not fraud, it is a poorly managed stockroom. Fred the stockroom manager might get fired for being lazy but he is not going to jail for fraud. I suspect that Tiger had a lot of the old steppings at one point. And the website reflected such inventory. At some point the web guys said, "hey, we got lots of the new steppings in stock, so let's update the website". If the inventory was 10% old steppings at that point would such inventory levels constitute Fraud? Most likely not as the majority of the product was the new steppings. And it is quite possible that web guy and inventory guy never spoke with each other, and they completely skipped Fred who could have confessed to not properly rotating a tray of 1000 chips.
Did the OP get what he paid for? Sure. 99.9% complete. He wanted a Q6600, he purchased a Q6600, he got a Q6600. Might not be the stepping (batch) that was advertised or "wanted", but the chip meets the legal definition of a Q6600.
Would I return the chip? Sure, most likely would. Is it fraud? No. I would treat this entire issue as a die lot of yarn.