(Currently Disputed) Hard Drive warrany warning...

[Bremen]

Originally posted by: Auric
Quick, anyone who recently purchased a Seagate from Newegg...

validate the warranty.

omg!! it dosn't come up with anything... does this mean my 4GB narrow SCSI drive isn't covered under warranty?? The 4 SATA drives I bought in december do show up though so I know the site works, but I'm concerned, what if the SCSI drive fails??? I mean its unlikely as its just sitting on my bookcase... what if it fails and takes the 4 quantums sitting on the bookcase with it??? Will Seagate cover the quantums as well since their defective hardware caused the damage (did seagate buy quantum? I can't remember)

Another question, can I return my antec case because my double height SCSI drives don't fit in the removeable drive trays??? What if I want to put a 5.25" HD in the case??? (hey my dad still uses his! thank the lord he finally threw out the ega monitors, oy!)

 

[AtlantaBob]

Originally posted by: Auric
Quick, anyone who recently purchased a Seagate from Newegg...

validate the warranty.

Just verified it to be sure--as it happens, I'm having to send back a 300 GB PATA drive. The Warranty's good until August, 2011.

 

[absynthe97]

Today I live chatted with Newegg.. here is the conversation:

Sarah: Hi! Thanks for contacting us. How can I help you today?
Rob: I was interested in the manufacturer's warranty for seagate drives
Rob: I have heard that OEM drives do have a 5 year warranty, but there is no info about it on the product pages
Sarah: Thank you for your patience...
Sarah: I would suggest that you contact Seagate for warranty info.
Rob: I did and they said that it depends on what the purchaser decided. So in this case only newegg would know where or under what circumstances they purchased the drives
Sarah: I do apologize but it would but the manufacture that would have the info on the warranty of their item.
Rob: Is there a phone number for a newegg rep that could answer about the drive. Seagate cannot answer the question unless they have the serial number. So only newegg could tell me before I make a purchase
Sarah: I do apologize but we do not have access to serial number, however I can give you the phone number to our phone center.
Sarah: 800.390.1119
Sarah: However they have the same info that chat agents have.
Sarah: Do you have any other questions, or is there anything else I can assist you with today?


Okay.. so then I called newegg. The person on the line said that I would have to contact Seagate to find the answer. I told her that I had contacted Seagate and that the person I spoke to said that the warranty period depends on where you buy it and that they can only give warranty details when they can pin it to a drive with the serial number. She said that she didnt have any info available. I asked if I could speak with someone who knows the chain of purchasing for a drive. She said that there is no guarantee where they buy the drive, whether it be direct from seagate or another supplier. Then.. she went into a sales pitch about their extended warranties.. after she told me all about it I asked if my drive did indeed have a warranty, would the extended warranty add a year to it. She said no.. that it extends the 30 days warranty and then it would spill over to the manufacturer's if there was one. So basically.. IF the drives are covered... she was asking me to pay 50 dollars to get an extra year of a newegg warranty and then use 4 years of my five year warranty.

This seems shady already when you have a drive that everyone here so far seems to be certain is covered by the five year warranty, yet has a product page that does not mention this and also has a nice drop down to get their 1,2 or 3 year extended warranty for too much money.

So then I called Seagate and after getting to the main holding line.. it said to press 1 for warranty and returns. So I hit one and I am given to someone that sounded foreign. I asked him about the warranty and he said that all OEM drives that are not part of a system already are covered by a 5 year. I told him how I heard something completely different from someone last friday.. he just repeated the same answer... Soooo.. I call again and this time wait on hold on the main line. After 40 minutes I get another accented person who tells me that OEM drives only have a 1 year warranty. I told him about what I heard on Friday and then he related that he actually is in Europe and that I should probably call back tomorrow when the US office is open again.

Okay... so I get wishy washy answers everywhere I go. I have all sorts of people here with religious devotion to newegg that swear up and down that I am a competitor just trying to smear newegg's reputation OR that I am completely stupid and have no idea what I am saying.

My question to all of you guys that are so utterly certain of the five year is where are you basing your knowledge?!? Did you call Newegg recently? Did you call seagate at all? Are you a member of newegg's purchasing staff and are completely aware of company policy?

My best bet at this moment is that newegg does not always buy drives direct from the manufacturer. Maybe sometimes they buy them from other suppliers or maybe even auctions. Maybe, in order to get us a low price, they buy these drives that may not be covered by warranty. This would be okay with me if it was clearly stated.

The whole thing with the seagate employee telling me that the OEM drives can actually be bought direct from seagate without the warranty is puzzling to me. Maybe he was crazy, wanted to make a funny or was getting fired. All I know is that I didnt say a word about newegg and he brought up newegg... that is why I assumed that this policy was across the board.

The only evidence that I have seen is that many people do have the five year warranty. I have seen screenshots of the seagate warranty checker. But this does not mean that you are guaranteed a five year warranty with your drive. This is what I would expect since the newegg pages dont mention it and the three newegg people (including the one from last week) all seem to have no knowledge or no ability to say that there is a warranty... dont worry.

Here is a link to some people mentioning it on neweggs reviews:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148108

Now I know that reviews, phone support and general internet chatter doesnt amount to much. I am just trying to find out the truth. If I buy an OEM seagate drive from newegg.. am I guaranteed a five year warranty? To listen to many in this thread... it is silly to think that there is no warranty. I should just trust what newegg has done in the past and never question senior members of this forum.

I implore anyone who is so certain to post some hard info as to why OEM drives from newegg always have the 5 year warranty. And if you dont have the info.. call up seagate or newegg and find someone at one of these companies that can give a definitive answer. I do see a glaring hole in the warranty wording that it has to be a new drive (that could be defined a number of ways) I have also seen wording on seagates website that an OEM drive is only warranted if it is sold to the person who will be putting it in a system. It very clearly states that dell or someone else is responsible for the warranty. The deal is only with them. It doesnt seem like the furthest jump of the imagination that and OEM drive is sold to Company A... Company A decides they have way too many in stock.. then Company A sells the OEM drives to Newegg... and perhaps through that kind of pass... the OEM drive is no longer covered. I have no idea as I cannot find any clear info on seagate's site and I have to rely on what people tell me.


So far.. the only person who seemed to have a solid understanding of the warranty process was the person at seagate I spoke to last friday. Forgive me if I place his opinion (however fuzzy that may be) above some random people I have never met on this forum.
At least he gave details and didnt just say "you are wrong.. they have a warranty.. DUH!"

 

[NeweggSupport]

Greetings All!


Our deepest apologies for the confusion and inconvenience. In an attempt to shed a little light on the subject...

All of Newegg's OEM hard drives include a manufacturer's warranty. This warranty period could be anywhere from 3 to 5 years, depending on the manufacturer. With respect to the original post, Seagate hard drives should include a 5-year warranty on its newest drives.

Rest assured, we will do our best to list all necessary information and make it readily available online. As we speak, all involved parties are working to assist with this matter.

Meanwhile, if anyone has additional questions or concerns, please feel free to send us a PM at your convenience.

Thank you all for the great feedback. We truly appreciate it.

 

[amish]

Originally posted by: NeweggSupport
Greetings All!


Our deepest apologies for the confusion and inconvenience. In an attempt to shed a little light on the subject...

All of Newegg's OEM hard drives include a manufacturer's warranty. This warranty period could be anywhere from 3 to 5 years, depending on the manufacturer. With respect to the original post, Seagate hard drives should include a 5-year warranty on its newest drives.

Rest assured, we will do our best to list all necessary information and make it readily available online. As we speak, all involved parties are working to assist with this matter.

Meanwhile, if anyone has additional questions or concerns, please feel free to send us a PM at your convenience.

Thank you all for the great feedback. We truly appreciate it.

:thumbsup::beer: you guys are great

 

[Auric]

May I suggest not wasting anymore of your time (telephoning is especially ill advised in my opine). Apparently, the monger has failed to provide the relevant warranty info and additionally failed to clarify during contact so that you have remaining doubt so simply take yer bidness elsewhere.

There have been numerous complaints about their packaging of HDD's anyway and their prices are not consistently competitive either so it's unlikely you'll have to spend more elsewhere.

Nutha tack would be to get their policy in writing (again, email FTW), and if sassifactory then order the friggin' thing and bung the serial into the manufacturer's form and if it comes up any different than expected, return it for a full refund and then feel free to go on an intarweb crusade.

Up to now it seems like just a bunch of drama and he said/she said phone games.

 

[absynthe97]

I agree this has been a bunch of drama... I am confirming things with NeweggSupport through PM and also going to call Seagate tomorrow to find out if any supplier is able to buy a warranty-less drive. The 50 cent difference was kind of shocking to me and if it was completely false I want to confirm it with Seagate.

The best thing would probably be to buy the drive and then check the serial. If it is not covered.. return it within the appropriate number of days. I have however been very happy with newegg in the past and wanted such a policy if it did exist to change. I was also concerned because so many people in the reviews rave about the 5 year warranty and I was wondering if they didnt really have one from all of the conflicting info I was getting.

Anyway.. after I confirm things tomorrow.. and it turns out fine.. I will recant and make a new post just to state that my original statement was false so some members who browsed across this thread will not get the wrong idea.

 

[Zap]

Ya know, I've heard that if you wear an aluminum foil hat while ordering the drive, you get an additional 1 year warranty.

In RMA process and ending up with a refurbished drive. Buh bye 5 yr. warranty.

That "reviewer" on Newegg is as dumb as most of the others. Warranty on the replacement drive will be the balance of the warranty on the original drive. I've RMA'd a drive to Seagate and the replacement had the exact warranty end date as the drive I sent in. That's how it works and I'm pretty sure it's spelled out in their warranty terms.

Originally posted by: Bremen
(did seagate buy quantum? I can't remember)

Maxtor bought Quantum. Seagate bought Maxtor. Ergo... BTW, IIRC Seagate also bought Conner.

Originally posted by: absynthe97
all OEM drives that are not part of a system already are covered by a 5 year.

That's basically the warranty terms in a nutshell. "Part of a system" means in a Dell or other name brand computer that has a separate warranty through the computer company, not through the HDD manufacturer.

Let me append to this by saying that "all internal drives that are not part of a system are covered for 5 years." This includes retail box drives and excludes external drives.

Originally posted by: absynthe97
Okay... so I get wishy washy answers everywhere I go.

You aren't asking the right questions to the right people, plus are getting "canned" responses. People at the front line for answering phones have just a general list of answers that cover probably 95% of the calls they get.

Originally posted by: absynthe97
The whole thing with the seagate employee telling me that the OEM drives can actually be bought direct from seagate without the warranty is puzzling to me.

Yes, though not in any quantities that would interest you or me.

Originally posted by: NeweggSupport
All of Newegg's OEM hard drives include a manufacturer's warranty.

The word of God.

Originally posted by: absynthe97
The best thing would probably be to buy the drive and then check the serial. If it is not covered.. return it within the appropriate number of days.

Why didn't you do that to begin with?

 

[Azimuth40]

Well this is as good a time as any to make a first post. I can add some input to this. I purchased Newegg's two for one deal in December so less than 90 days ago. They were giving away a seagate 250G 7200.9 if you bought one of the new 500G 7200.10's $199 total on a weekend sale. At that price if anything shady was going to happen then this deal would have been it.

I just went to the Seagate site and used the warranty checker for the 500G it shows

5QG0ABN0 9BJ146-305 In Warranty Expiration 21-Oct-2011 Exchange

first number above is the serial number and second is the part number OEM make in China

The 250G shows

9ND01AAF 9BD133-304 In Warranty Expiration 29-Sep-2009 Exchange

Made in Thailand

So it would appear that I have a 5 year on the 500Gig and a three year on the free 250Gig.

I will be installing them this week now that I have the the rest of the pieces. Guess I better hurry before the 250 expires.

So that meets all the requirements bought from Newegg, Seagate OEM drives and a recent purchase. Works for me. You can plug the numbers above into the Seagate site (there legit) if anyone's FUD meter is blinking.

 

[JEDIYoda]

What I think we all would like to know just out of curiosity is how many other websites has
absynthe97 used to spread this baseless rumor????

 

[DrMrLordX]

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for absynthe97 to provide any answers to that question.

 

[Roguestar]

By the way, some interesting reading about hard drive failure

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6376021.stm

Done by a company that uses a rather large number of them .


Kudos to NeweggSupport for clarifying this, and I too would like to know how old absynthe97 is and what other forums he's posted this on. (google, anyone?)

 

[absynthe97]

I called Seagate again and spoke to 4 different people. The first started by saying that OEM drives are covered but when I asked her to double check it as I have heard different answers.. she came back and said that Newegg can get a drive with 0-5 years of warranty. She said other suppliers listed in the authorized retailers listing do sell them with warranties no matter what. She said that these pages list the warranty on the product page. She said that newegg sometimes will list the warranty sometimes wont. She said if it is listed then you do have the warranty, if the warranty does not show up on the product page then you may or may not have the warranty.

I called again to double check but got a foreign sounding person (under the RMA choice of seagate). She said that all OEM drives are covered. I mentioned hearing different things and asked for a supervisor. He (also with a foreign accent) agreed that all OEM drives (bare, not with a system) are covered by the warranty.

So I called one more time and used the presales option. I told him the whole story and how I have had so many different answers. He said that drives bought direct from seagate will have the warranty. He also said that newegg does also buy from auctions and overstock selections. He said that these will not have the warranty. I asked how I have gotten so many answers and he said that the maxtor people have not been brought up to speed on the situation. I believe this guy. He said that there are other authorized retailers that only sell 5 year warranty drives. He said that the reason you dont see the warranty listed on newegg is because sometimes they do get drives from auctions and overstocks.

At this point I am satisfied with the information. I know the newegg support guy said said otherwise but I believe the seagate people. I realize that I could just buy the drive, check if it has the warranty and then return it if it did not. The problem is, I dont believe all people who buy drives will check the warranty as they will expect it to have one (as so many people here seem so certain of)

As I still have not seen any kind of binding statement from newegg I will leave this post as it is. It would be expected to make a statement in a public forum such as this and not be bound to anything. As it is.. if someone bought a drive.. it broke in three months... they check the warranty and it didnt have a warranty.. newegg would be in no way legally bound to fix the problem. None of the product pages mention the warranty, so why should one exist. Especially when the manufacturer, who is the actual provider of the warranty, says that not all OEM drives that you would find from newegg have the warranty.

I also dont like the situation where there is this extended warranty for a drive that supposedly always has the 5 year. It is a complete waste of 30-50 dollars for one year which overlaps the claimed seagate warranty.

If a moderator feels that this thread is improper, settled or violates any policies of the forum... feel free to delete it.

And to everyone that is so interested in my age or where I have posted.. I will answer your questions if you simply state how it is that you KNOW all seagate OEM drives are under warranty. I have only seen two bits of evidence. 1) Some drives sold by newegg are certainly covered. This has been proven with the serials 2) The newegg support guy said that they are covered. This however, in my mind, weighs against all of the other people who have made the same claim and others who have said that this isnt true. Perhaps he has not fully researched this. How did anyone "know" before the newegg support guy came on. So many of you knew. HOW? When you respond to the question I have repeatedly asked over and over.. I will answer your silly question.

The only way I would feel satisfied that a drive has the warranty is if newegg decided to say that it has a warranty on the product page. This is what so many other online merchants do with their OEM drives. This would be a binding statement that would free anyone from the risk of buying an auctioned drive.

Once again.. if you are a moderator.. feel free to delete this thread if you feel that I am spreading false information. I strongly believe that there is more to the story than many others here think.

 

[DaveSimmons]

So it's a choice between trusting Newegg customer service and an anonymous forum poster who joined AT forums just to spread a negative rumor. Hmmm.

For anyone interested, I sent an email on Feb. 17 to Newegg and received this email in response:

From: "William.S.Lazaro \(cs.us1.Newegg\)" <william.s.lazaro@newegg.com>
To: "Dave Simmons"

Mr. Simmons,

Thank you for contacting Newegg and informing us of this thread.

These OEM hard drives still hold a manufacturers warranty, anywhere from
3 to 5 years depending on the manufacturer. In addition, a 30-day
replacement is advertised through Newegg, towards a refund or a
replacement.

We'll notify the appropriate parties and post a response to the
Anandtech Community shortly.

Thanks again for letting us know.

If you have any other questions or concerns, feel free to contact me at
your convenience.


William Lazaro
Customer Service Supervisor
---------------------------
9997 E. Rosehills Road
Whittier, CA 90601
T 800.390.1119 x25065
F 909.395.8907

 

[Frintin]

Kind of wondering why everyone is getting so worked up over a bit of investigative procedure.

The things that cause people to investigate are numerous. "Knowledge is power."

IF the warranty offer was clearer then there would be no concerns. The apparent inconsistencies between maker and vendor representatives causes the situation to be unclear.

Personally I buy OEM because I know the quality of an item has been proven to ME. I am satisfied that I should get the proven quality that I have observed over time. The difference between OEM price and retail is different from item to item, but in my experience the types of things I buy OEM are not different in quality.

I have never received a hard drive or optical drive (2 things I buy in their OEM version from Newegg) that does not carry the manufacturer's warranty. That does not mean that Newegg will continue to provide me with an OEM product that has manufacturer's warranty, from the information provided in this thread.

I appreciate the investigation, it is providing ME knowledge. I also do not have to be anything other than objective about all the parties involved. I like Newegg because they have proven to be quality to me. Sure I have seen changes to their packing. I have come across more and more product discrepancies. They have grown immensely and still prove to me to be up to the task of earning more than just my dollar. They earn my respect.

 

[absynthe97]

It is not a matter of trusting newegg vs. me

It is very simple for you to pick up your phone and call Seagate. Or if you prefer, email.

To me it is trusting Seagate (who actually provides the warranty) vs. trusting Newegg (who has never given me a clear answer on the phone thus far) I am happy that you got an email response that had an answer. The only answer I have seen from newegg is from neweggsupport (and now the above posted response). The emails I have sent to newegg have come back saying to check with the manufacturer. Since then, I have emailed back repeating that Seagate cannot tell me the details of the drives because only newegg knows how they acquired them. I have yet to receive a response. I have received much more information from Seagate.

If you feel I am lying.. call up Seagate and speak to a few different people. Try to make sure you get through to an actual Seagate rep that was not recently brought in through Maxtor or lives in India or wherever. Also, dont just call once and if the person says that they carry them simply accept it... ask them to double check the info. I have spoken to 6 people. Three of them seemed foreign and seemed to be reading off of a screen (one of them acknowledged not knowing the answer and said to call Seagate USA on the next business day). They claimed either they are covered by a 5 year or that they are covered by a 1 year warranty. The other 3 people I spoke to are from Seagate USA and all three of them told me that Newegg specifically does not always have warranty covered drives (they did give different details however). They said other suppliers to provide OEM drives with a guaranteed warranty.

I do regret beginning the post with such a conclusive claim. When the first person at Seagate told me about being able to opt out of the warranty (for 50 cents!), I took it as fact. It has come out that certainly.. many seagate OEM drives do have the warranty.

I would delete the whole initial post of mine but it seems like other peoples reactions would look strange responding so strongly to a watered down initial post. If the mods or someone who isnt an angry old whatnot thinks its perfectly proper to go ahead and edit over my initial post.. sounds good to me.

I just felt there was a bit of trickery going on and thought it was important information. Especially with all this 50 dollar 1 year extended warranty junk.

Here is Seagate's number: 800 SEAGATE

If you press 1 you get English, then you can hit 1 for RMA (seems to be foreign every time I try) 2 for tech and 3 for presales

 

[DaveSimmons]

So far you've established that:
1. Not all Newegg item listings include warranty information
2. Seagate doesn't know their own policies very well, but every drive Newegg buys from them has a warranty. One person there speculates that Newegg might also be buying grey market drives that might not have a warrnty.

Against that:
1. Every customer that checked for a warranty in this thread had one.
2. Newegg customer support says all of their hard drives do come with a manufacturer warranty.

I have no reason to distrust Newegg, and every reason to trust them, so unless you can find some real evidence I'd put this in the "disproved" category.

Also, you've vented several times about Newegg's extended warranty offer. It's a general offer for all products, not ones without a built-in warranty. Go to buy.com and look at hard drives there, they offer to sell you a 2-year extended warranty on a 36GB Raptor for $30, even though their specs list it as coming with a 5-year warranty. You'll probably see the same silliness at Amazon, CC, etc.

 

[TTPete]

Lets get more specific. Ask the seagate rep what the warranty is on a specific drive and they should give you a definite answer. It could very well be possible that different lines of hard drives have different warranty periods. I know that the older Thermaltake PSU's have a 3yr warranty from date of your purchase but the new ones have a 5yr warranty from date of purchase. Newegg is an awsome place to buy and all their products carry a manufacturers warranty. Not all hard drives will carry a 5yr warranty and in 5 years, I will most likley have one of those fancy holographic/quartz crystal hard drives.

 

[absynthe97]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
So far you've established that:
1. Not all Newegg item listings include warranty information
2. Seagate doesn't know their own policies very well, but every drive Newegg buys from them has a warranty. One person there speculates that Newegg might also be buying grey market drives that might not have a warrnty.

I did not establish that every drive Newegg buys from them has a warranty. The three people who worked at Seagate U.S.A. (not from another country, not from Maxtor) all felt that they carry drives without warranties. Two of the three said that seagate does have the option to buy drives direct from them without a 5 year warranty (no warranty at all). They said that certain other retailers do NOT have this option. The first of the two said they can opt out to save 50 cents. The second said that they have the option to get a 0-5 year warranty.

Against that:
1. Every customer that checked for a warranty in this thread had one.
2. Newegg customer support says all of their hard drives do come with a manufacturer warranty.

Okay... every customer in this thread checked. How many is that? 3? 4? How many seagate drives does newegg sell? Way more than 3 or 4.

That is nice that the newegg customer support person said that it is covered. And someone also got an email (which for all we know could be from the same person). So at max so far we have two people (who are difficult to reach compared to seagate people) from newegg who say they always have the warranty. And we have three people from Seagate who say they do not always have the warranty.

Why don't you call Seagate? Seagate has nothing to lose by telling people about their warranty terms. Newegg has something to lose if people who believed they were buying warranty-covered drives find out they were not... or might not.

I also have to wonder about a lot of the people who have been so strongly against this post. I mean... before newegg support came on here and before the one guy got an email response.. you guys were 100% certain. Why? This is the question I have asked over and over again. Why do you believe with so much passion that newegg drives always come with the warranty?

And the extended warranty deal is a scam in many places. I don't deny that.

All I have established is that it is very hard to find out the warranty terms for an item when a company does not post them. I have also established that some people are very heated in their beliefs when they have no evidence at all. I have been constantly citing my sources of information. Until the newegg support guy responded, there was no evidence posed that newegg ALWAYS provides drives with warranties. Yet so many people swore up and down that they did.. based on trust of a merchant.

 

[mcc4020]

Well, at least this isn't my first post, so nobody can accuse me of starting a username to supply false information. (cough, cough)

Anyway, regardless of who at Newegg answered the phone or said what about the mfg warranty, I find it incredible hard to fathom that anyone that was reached over the phone via a call to teh suppport line at Seagate would even know how much a warranty costs xx company, let alone be dumb enough to supply confidential information. There is no way in heck that any mfg is going to openly admit how much they charge each company for anything as those prices are negotiated by buyers and these are written into the contracts. In addition, I also find it hard to believe that someone in tech support knows every company that their company sells to and also that x company didn't get a warranty on whatever drive without checking a serial number. (and especially a rep that isn't even based at the corp HQ)

 

[absynthe97]

So if you doubt my honesty, call Seagate

800 SEAGATE

But don't just ask "Are all OEM drives covered by the 5 year" and if they say "Yes" come back here and claim I am wrong. Try asking them to double check.. maybe speak to two people.

The reason they know about newegg is because they are one of the 20 or so authorized retailers. And newegg is a fairly high volume buyer. Maybe the guy that told me that shouldnt have said it according to company policy. Maybe the girl that told me that newegg specifically can get a 0-5 year warranty shouldnt have said it.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?l...63f7f528b7c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

Stop trying to figure out my motives or if I am a liar or what my age is.

CALL SEAGATE
CALL
Its easy!
800 SEAGATE

I guarantee if you talk to a few people who are at Seagate U.S.A. and explain to them that you heard that not all OEM drives have warranties (not drives in a system but the bare drive) one of them will tell you the same stuff they have been telling me.

It is simple to see if I am lying... CALL SEAGATE

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: absynthe97

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
So far you've established that:
1. Not all Newegg item listings include warranty information
2. Seagate doesn't know their own policies very well, but every drive Newegg buys from them has a warranty. One person there speculates that Newegg might also be buying grey market drives that might not have a warrnty.

I did not establish that every drive Newegg buys from them has a warranty. The three people who worked at Seagate U.S.A. (not from another country, not from Maxtor) all felt that they carry drives without warranties. Two of the three said that seagate does have the option to buy drives direct from them without a 5 year warranty (no warranty at all). They said that certain other retailers do NOT have this option. The first of the two said they can opt out to save 50 cents. The second said that they have the option to get a 0-5 year warranty.

Actually you did find out that the drives Newegg buys from Seagate come with a warranty:

Originally posted by: absynthe97
So I called one more time and used the presales option. I told him the whole story and how I have had so many different answers. He said that drives bought direct from seagate will have the warranty.

[ followed by speculation that Newegg -also- buys grey-market drives: ]
He also said that newegg does also buy from auctions and overstock selections. He said that these will not have the warranty.

[ followed by why every call to Seagate gets you a different answer ]
I asked how I have gotten so many answers and he said that the maxtor people have not been brought up to speed on the situation. I believe this guy. He said that there are other authorized retailers that only sell 5 year warranty drives. He said that the reason you dont see the warranty listed on newegg is because sometimes they do get drives from auctions and overstocks.

At this point I am satisfied with the information.

So of the 8 different answers you got from Seagate, the one you say you believe says your original post about saving 50 cents is not true. Is this Seagate person lying, or do you realize now that your original claim is wrong?

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
At this point I am satisfied with the information.

So of the 8 different answers you got from Seagate, the one you say you believe says your original post about saving 50 cents is not true. Is this Seagate person lying, or do you realize now that your original claim is wrong?[/quote]
Don't be exactly a reply from him/her tonight, Dave. Most viral marketers only work from 9-5.