Hard drive warranties...who is right?

[Yossarian]

Legally I would think they have to go by the documentation that came with the product over what it says on their site. There is legal precedent, see the Charlie McCarthy hearings. However you are but an ant to the behemoth that is WD and they would crush you, so in reality you have no warranty.

 

[Kelemvor]

I was just reading an article in the April 2005 issue of Maximum PC that address this EXACT same question. I'll see if I can find it and post the normal way it works.

OK, It's in the Watch Dog section on page 24:

QUESTION:

DEAR DOG: I recently had a 160GB Seagate drive die on me. Seagate's tech support people certified that the drive was indeed dead and assigned me an incident number. I was told to call warranty support to do the RMA. It turns out that even though I bought the Seagate-packaged drive brand new and had only used it for four months, it was out of warranty. I asked Seagate how this could be. I was aware that Seagate only covers this drive with a one-year warranty, but I was not aware that the start of the warranty is the day the drive ships from the factory, and not the day I bought it.

Is this standard industry practice, or just specific to Seagate? It seems very slimy to me, as I think most people consider the warranty to start from (at least) the day they buy the device. It would seem this is just another crappy way companies try to cut costs in areas where most people won't think to look.

My case has a happy ending, though, as I managed to convice a warranty support manager to extend my coverage on this drive. I do know that, unless this is standard for the industry, I won't be buying another Seagate drive and will warn my friends against it too. (Actually, because I deal with storage arrays at work and have to do occasional drive replacents, I'll be avoiding Seagate drives there as well.)

--Pete T

ANSWER:

THE DOG RESPONDS: It's true that drive makers can base warranties on the date of manufacture or shipping, but that's not the whole story. These dates are only applied if the customer is unable to produce a receipt.

It breaks down like this. When a hard drive is made, it's given a serial number and entered into a database. Because HD makers know that drives don't sell immediately, they'll add a few months to the clock, to account for a reasonable time by which the hard drive will likely be purchased. For its part, Seagate automatically adds three months to the manufacture date.

But what if the hard drive you buy has been sitting on a shelf for 12 or 24 months? Is it out of warranty the day you buy it? No. According to three major hard drive makers the Dog spoke with, a dated receipt starts the clock anew. If you lose that receipt however, you're at the mercy of the manufacture code. HD makers say they can't base the warranty information on the date of sale as that data doesn't get back to them. Plus, some consumers might feel it's an invasion of privacy to have the retailer report their names and drive serial numbers back to the manufacturer.

The lesson here is to save your receipt - it's your only proof of when you bought the hardware. Even without a receipt, there might be some wiggle room, as Pete discovered. Every hard drive manufacturer the Dog spoke with says it has extended warrantes on a case-by-case basis. Of course, it's better to avoid that question altogether, with proper receipt management.

So there you have it. If you want to email them for more info or to relate your story, their email is watchdog@maximumpc.com

And here was a little section underneath that article about warranties in general...

Interestingly, hard drive makers have different warranties depending on how the drives are sold. Western Digital's retail drives that come in boxes, for example, carry a one-year warranty. The same drives sold naked, or bare, are covered for three years. Boxed-drive byers who want to extend their converage, can purcahse WD's $20 "upgrade" to the three-year warranty.

Mactor's consumer drivves carry a standard one-year warranty from the date of sale (provided you have a receipt from an authorized Maxtor reseller), and bare internal HDs sold through a retail outlet carry a three-year warranty. Mactor's server hard drives carry a five-year warranty.

Seagate offers a standard five-year warranty on all of its internal drives. Both Seagate and Maxtor offer a standard one-year warranty on external hard drives, similar to the warranty offered on other constuimer-electronics items.

If you decide to buy a bare drive, there's a term you shoudl be familiar with: OEM (short for "oringinal equipment manufacturer🙂. Hard drives sold to major PC makers are general known as OEM parts. If the drive from your Gateway or HP computer takes a dump, you typically have to go to the PC maker for recourse. Sometimes "gray market" OEM drives get sold through retail stores, and they're virtually indistinguishable from the bare drives, which, obviously, blurs the lines of responsibility. Seagate, for example, takes no responsibility for OEM product of any stripe. Fortunately, the phenomenon of gray-market drivers isn't as big today as it was a few years ago.

Maxtor and Western Digital say they'll honor warranties on OEM drivesr, but the warranties might different from those for bare or retail drivers. THe lesson, again, is to save your receipt, and ask the retailer about the length of the warranty before making a purchase.

Finally, if you're curious about your hard drive's warranty, all three drive makers offer online serviers for you to check.

Seagate: http://support.seagate.com/customer/warranty_validation.jsp
Western Digital: http://websupport.wdc.com/warranty/seri...ttype=end&requesttype=warranty&lang=en
Maxtor: http://www4.maxtor.com/en/support/service/rma/create/01_serial_number.cfm?dt=

Damn that's a lot of typing.

 

[NFS4]

Thanks for all of the info, FrankyJunior. I'm gonna get on the phone with them now and rake them over the coals 😉

 

[Scarpozzi]

Agreed: Check to see what the outside of the box states regarding the warranty and that should help make a case.

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
I missed out on that deal, but it's totally 100% horse-you-know-what if WD is trying to skip out on their warranty responsibilities. I would try to get some sort of documentation from WD CSR's refusal to honor their stated warranty in writing, (as on OM's web site, WD's manual pages, WD's web site, etc.)., and then type up a complaint, and send it to your local AG's office, ATTN: consumer fraud division, and CC: a copy of your complaint to the head corp. guys at WD. That should get their attention. Then hopefully they will take the proper steps necessary to honor the warranty, not just for you, but for all of the other purchasers of this same HD that are having the problem as well.

And if nothing else - OM themselves advertised the drive on their web site with a one year warranty. They should be forced to honor that themselves, since they made the claim to you, the purchaser. So you may have grounds to demand that OM offer you a one-year store replacement warranty for no additional cost to you. This may depend on your local OM store manager being understanding, or it may require similar threatening calls to OM corporate.

But it blows my mind that, even with a recent purchase reciept, and the drive still under warranty, that WD won't even allow you to pay for a warranty extension - is that because the warranty is about to run out, or because they have a policy against offering warranty extentions for external drives, period. (Presumably because they would get "abused" more than internal drives, and thus tend to fail sooner.)

Oh, and when you get written documentation from a WD CSR indicating refusal to honor stated warranty obligations, send a copy of the materials to TheInq or TheReg, they eat up this sort of thing. Good luck. The future of the WD warranty world is resting on you. 🙂

Edit: Btw, if the terms & conditions stated on the packaging or materials conflict with the terms & conditions now currently stated on WD's web site, I would think that WD would be forced to honer the T&C of the actual product that you bought, because it was negligent of them (and the retail store selling it), to not recall or prominently re-label the packaging to that effect, when WD decided to change the T&Cs on the warranty. In fact the same sort of thing happened when they changed their retail-kit warranty period from three years to one - they were still forced to honor the "three-year warranty" printed prominently on the outside of the boxes of existing stock that continued to sell for months after the change was made.

 

[NFS4]

OK, I just got off the phone with Western Digital...AGAIN. This time I talked to someone in the Western Digital external drive tech support line.

She gave me information to send in my proof of purchase (receipt and copy of S/N) in by either fax or email. Even then, she said that they could give me NO GUARANTEE that they would extend the warranty. It's up to the descretion of the people that review every case. WTF?

But get this, one of my drives (I bought two) warranties expires on 3/28/05. The other warranty EXPIRED on October 4th, 2004. Can you believe that crap...and OfficeMax was still selling these things:| She said that I should take that particular drive back.

 

[psiu]

Originally posted by: NFS4
OK, I just got off the phone with Western Digital...AGAIN. This time I talked to someone in the Western Digital external drive tech support line.

She gave me information to send in my proof of purchase (receipt and copy of S/N) in by either fax or email. Even then, she said that they could give me NO GUARANTEE that they would extend the warranty. It's up to the descretion of the people that review every case. WTF?

But get this, one of my drives (I bought two) warranties expires on 3/28/05. The other warranty EXPIRED on October 4th, 2004. Can you believe that crap...and OfficeMax was still selling these things:| She said that I should take that particular drive back.

Honestly, I think you should look up your states consumer protection division (whatever they will be called there, can also try AG's office for starters) and ask them what THEY think.

This whole thing sounds like bull, and I honestly believe WD would lose in court. The wararnty info (like what you scanned in) is pretty ironclad. I don't think they would get very far saying their computer says the date is expired when you have a dated receipt and possibly a credit card statement documenting date of purchase.

 

[eelw]

Originally posted by: NFS4Even then, she said that they could give me NO GUARANTEE that they would extend the warranty. It's up to the descretion of the people that review every case. WTF?

She's only protecting her own ass. 1st level agents can't approve the warranty extension. That responsibility is for the supervisors at the call center. Don't sweat this issue any further. Should you require warranty servicing, call for support at that time and a supervisor will provide the necessary concession codes to allow this warranty replacement.

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: NFS4
OK, I just got off the phone with Western Digital...AGAIN. This time I talked to someone in the Western Digital external drive tech support line.

She gave me information to send in my proof of purchase (receipt and copy of S/N) in by either fax or email. Even then, she said that they could give me NO GUARANTEE that they would extend the warranty. It's up to the descretion of the people that review every case. WTF?

But get this, one of my drives (I bought two) warranties expires on 3/28/05. The other warranty EXPIRED on October 4th, 2004. Can you believe that crap...and OfficeMax was still selling these things:| She said that I should take that particular drive back.

Office Max doesn't give a sh!t when the warranty expires. They're so overpriced on computer hardware, the only way they sell this crap is if they have some hot deal and clear out the old hardware.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Sometimes manufacturer warranty periods for HDD's start at the date of manufacture while the retail store's warranty starts at the date of purchase.

 

[alent1234]

In the last year there have been a bunch of crazy HD sales and people report that the drives are close to the end of their warranty periods when they open the box.

I think something like 1/3 the price of a HD is the warranty and in these cases the manufacturer gives the retailer a special discount to clear out old stock and basically sell warranty-free hard drives.

 

[Kelemvor]

If anyone reads my post, Seagate, WD, and Maxtor all said that the warranty only starts as of the manufacture date if you don't have a receipt. If you can show when you bought it, then that's when the warranty starts. I know NFS4 talked to some dweeb that said she can't guarantee it but MaximumPC talked to the higher ups and that's what they all said. And like it states in the original post:

THIS LIMITED WARRANTY SHALL COMMENCE ON THE PURCHASE DATE APPEARING ON YOUR PURCHASE RECEIPT

The warranty starts on the purchase date appearing on the receipt. But if you don't have a receipt, they have to start it sometime so they pick when it was made.

I'd just use the thing and not worry about it unless it actually dies. Just make sure you keep your receipts.

 

[ElFenix]

hmmm... wonder if these drives are available anywhere still?

guess i should tape the receipt to the drive if i manage to find one

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
hmmm... wonder if these drives are available anywhere still?

guess i should tape the receipt to the drive if i manage to find one

There should be one in Garner, NC available b/c I just returned it 😛

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: NFS4
OK, I just got off the phone with Western Digital...AGAIN. This time I talked to someone in the Western Digital external drive tech support line.

She gave me information to send in my proof of purchase (receipt and copy of S/N) in by either fax or email. Even then, she said that they could give me NO GUARANTEE that they would extend the warranty. It's up to the descretion of the people that review every case. WTF?

But get this, one of my drives (I bought two) warranties expires on 3/28/05. The other warranty EXPIRED on October 4th, 2004. Can you believe that crap...and OfficeMax was still selling these things:| She said that I should take that particular drive back.

Wow. Do you have any of that in writing (fax/e-mail/etc.)? Thanks for fighting the good fight on this one, but given that you have a retail-store reciept for the purchase of one of those drives, it blows my mind that WD: 1) Wouldn't extend their proper one-year warranty on that device to you, and 2) would even suggest of taking it back to the retailer that sold it to you.

I sincerely hope that teh CSR was just totally clueless and mis-informed, because otherwise, WD is really in the process of screwing over their distribution-channel partners. (In fact that is in heavy contrast to most HDs - all of the recent retail-kit internal drives that I've purchased over the lat couple of years, have a small paper insert in them in bold print, that says "DO NOT RETURN TO STORE - CALL MFG RMA DEPT FIRST", or something of that nature.) What in the heck is going on there over at WD???

I still don't get why the CSR was going on about extending the warranty - they issue should have been about honoring the existing one, not any sort of extension. Perhaps the CSR was clueless. Still, this is one heck of s story, the online news outlets should really be informed of your saga, NFS4.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: FrankyJunior
I'd just use the thing and not worry about it unless it actually dies. Just make sure you keep your receipts.

Except for the fact that if you care at all about the warranty, it's best to take action immediately after you've purchased the item, and get the warranty period extended/corrected in their database, IMHO, because if it shows "expired" in the database, the first-level techs may never let you talk to the second-tier people in order to do the warranty override! You could well be screwed with no warranty at all that way.

 

[Phoenix86]

Originally posted by: Yossarian
Legally I would think they have to go by the documentation that came with the product over what it says on their site. There is legal precedent, see the Charlie McCarthy hearings. However you are but an ant to the behemoth that is WD and they would crush you, so in reality you have no warranty.

Bingo, you have the warr in writing, what more do you want?!?

If they aren't going to hold up to their end of the contract in writting I think the answer is obvious. Seek legal action. Not worth it I'm sure, perhaps the threat will get it done. You gotta remember though just because WD is massive doesn't mean they want to waste lawyers time in small claims court. The cost of fighting it won't be worth it to them either.

Take it as far as you want. You have good ground to stand on. Fight the man!

Oh, and WD sucks with their skimpy warr. Seagate >WD for noise and warr, and are on par with them for performance.

Good luck.