Thread: Western Digital buyers beware!

Originally Posted by pastypyro

Customer service is everything with these things because all drives eventually die.

Exactly.

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11/15/05 Update:

After not receiving a confirmation for my previous email, requesting cancellation of the RMA, I sent another email today to westerndigital@custhelp.com:

Hello again,

The least you could do is confirm that the RMA has been cancelled as
per my request. Why am not surprised that I didn't receive a reply?

Thanks,

Originally Posted by tj!2k4

but as far as home user vs business, they make no distinction:

I'm not defending them at all, however I can promise that the large business using hundreds of their drives is going to get preferential treatment. You don't matter, that's the way it works. You can harrass them by phone and email all you want. Maybe it will help you, it's helped me before. Likely they still won't care and you're simply wasting your time when you could be out enjoying life instead. I've personally experienced a huge difference in service with many brands when I contacted them representing a business vs. a home user.

Most manufacturers have poor customer service; they rely on their retailers to handle the majority of problems. That's why I never deal directly unless I have to. I've had good luck exchanging items even months after purchase. Retailers care about customer service and will often go out of their way to assist you. Manufacturers don't.

you all ***** way too much.

ive had a maxtor go 1 week after getting it 60 gb, and had to pay shipping my god! paying shipping to the company is no big deal, but some companies will charge you to ship back to you.

had another maxtor go bad a month ago 120 gb

everything else is WD and only had my 40 gb report bad SMART status after ~5 years of constant 24/7 service.

Originally Posted by fonseca

is going to get preferential treatment.

Don't get me riled up, I'll sic Al Sharpton on them!

Last year i had 2 WD Drives DOA in one order...

I just shipped them to them and i had new drives in 2 weeks...

I guess ive been lucky since i havent lost a single drive in any of my many computers.

I have had good results from my Maxtor drives, just for the record.

Have several that have been in constant use for more than 5 years.

You know, I had ONE 80GB WD800BB (basic 80GB, 2MB cache) hard drive die on me within warranty, and I used their advance RMA system online to get a replacement. The drive arrived in a timely fashion, but it took them FOREVER to release the ~$80 hold on my debit/credit card. I couldn't complain too badly, I was back in business fairly quickly.

I have two 80GB, (one 800BB, and one 800JB), a 120GB (JB model) and a 40GB (BB model), ALL Western Digital, all running without issues. That is, so far for the last three years. Meanwhile, I've also got a Quantum Fireball 20GB that has gotten a little bit noisier over the years, but I've had it since '99, and it's been through a car wreck, as well as been banged all over the place through 4 separate moves. Quite a tough little drive there.

In other news, I learned through my place of business that WD will no longer be honoring warranties from the date of purchase. Instead, they are going to rely on the "born-on date" on the label. That means that if the retailer had the drive on his shelf for four months, that's four less months of which you have a warranty when you buy it. More importantly, all of WD's IDE hard drives are now only a one year warranty.
This is how it's been laid out for me at my store. I can't be 100% positive that that's how WD is doing things in general, or if that's just with us (because we WERE dealing pretty heavily with returns on the 80GB BB drives).