IBM Deskstar 75GXP Class Action Settlement

[pm]

I came home and opened my mail and found a Class Action Settlement statement for the 75GXP lawsuit.

Bottom line:
$100 check if you RMA'd a 75GXP to IBM, and got a replacement and this replacement died and then you called IBM again, and decided you didn't want a replacement.

or

25 blank CD's and a (worthless?) coupon otherwise


And meanwhile the lawyers get just under $10 million in fees and expenses, and the plaintiffs get $1000 each.

File a claim or request exclusion, and get more details at:
http://www.ibmdeskstar75gxplitigation.com

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Dude, what if it died within 2 weeks and I returned it to Egghead (now amazon), and within another 6 months died again and I RMAed it to IBM. I should get double LoL.

 

[FuZoRBlade]

I'd rather take the 100$ check. 25 blank cd's are pretty much worth nothing...

 

[pm]

Well, yeah, 25 CD's are not worth much, but the idea is that you haven't had a drive failure.

 

[whoiswes]

had two fail, but RMA'd both. i think one of them might still be good - they're sitting unused in a closet, for obvious reasons.

thanks for the post OP, i would never have known there was a lawsuit.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

My deathstar is half dead now as of August 2004. I still use it but not as much. I apparently still trust it enough that I haven't backed it up yet (except once to format it to NTFS). hrmmm

 

[Baked]

I just got my IBM CAS a couple of days ago. I returned a DIA 75GXP to the store and RMA a dead one to IBM. I hope I get the money.

 

[Eug]

Hmmm... I think I threw out that busted 75GXP. Damn.

 

[ponyo]

Sweet! I just found my purchase order! I RMAed my drive too so I qualify.

I thought I was screwed since I threw out the receipt years ago. Forgot I still had old purchase confirmation email on my Yahoo email.

 

[owensdj]

There is something I don't understand about the 75GXP settlement. On page 8 of the papers you get it sounds like you're not entitled to receive the $100 if you got a replacement drive in exchange for your failed drive and the replacement drive didn't fail. Wouldn't everyone who contacted IBM about a 75GXP drive failure have received a replament drive?

This doesn't seem fair to me. I'd rather have the $100 than a replacement 75GXP drive that could fail at any moment.

 

[boomerang]

Originally posted by: owensdj
There is something I don't understand about the 75GXP settlement. On page 8 of the papers you get it sounds like you're not entitled to receive the $100 if you got a replacement drive in exchange for your failed drive and the replacement drive didn't fail. Wouldn't everyone who contacted IBM about a 75GXP drive failure have received a replament drive?

This doesn't seem fair to me. I'd rather have the $100 than a replacement 75GXP drive that could fail at any moment.

That's the way I read it. Above posters should read carefully before spending the money.

I had no less than four different drives fail on me. They replaced them under warranty and are off the hook according to the details of the class action.

 

[pm]

If this is the case, then I plan to file a letter of objection with the court.

Requiring that people have a receipt for a purchase from about 5 years ago is ridiculous - especially since IBM didn't require the receipt in order to do a warranty repair.

And then this clause: the lawsuit is not about whether or not IBM offered good warranty service, it's about the high failure rate of the drives. So whether or not IBM offered a replacement drive should be irrelevant, the original case was that the drives had a higher probability of dying.

I have sent in an email to the settlement administrator asking for clarification. Hopefully, we are just misinterpreting the wording... although I have a feeling we aren't.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Don't forget you can get a coupon for 15% discount from IBM, just in case you want to buy a supercomputer cluster.

 

[ai42]

Originally posted by: pm
If this is the case, then I plan to file a letter of objection with the court.

Requiring that people have a receipt for a purchase from about 5 years ago is ridiculous - especially since IBM didn't require the receipt in order to do a warranty repair.

And then this clause: the lawsuit is not about whether or not IBM offered good warranty service, it's about the high failure rate of the drives. So whether or not IBM offered a replacement drive should be irrelevant, the original case was that the drives had a higher probability of dying.

I have sent in an email to the settlement administrator asking for clarification. Hopefully, we are just misinterpreting the wording... although I have a feeling we aren't.

I'm in the same boat as you. Heck if I know where my reciept for my 45GB 75GXP is. IBM had to replace the replacment twice! I suppose I can't get $300 for that one drive dying on me 3 times though.

 

[pm]

I actually looked and found my original receipt. I bought the drive at MWave.com and they have a record of it online that I can print out.

So I've been reading how to object to this settlement. Apparently, I need to be in the Burleson County courthouse in person on July 1st to object in person.

Well, that certainly is likely to limit the number of objections.

Which leaves me the choice of opting-out, or submitting a claim and getting my 25 blank CD's and a useless coupon. I think I'll file my exclusion letter.

Didn't GW Bush pass a "tort reform" law? One that ties lawyer fees in class action suits to how many people redeem the coupons and that moves them into federal courthouses?

Reading all of the literature cover-to-cover is annoying me in a way that I very rarely get annoyed.

My wife unfortunately nixed the idea of me getting a lawyer to represent me in court that day.

I thought the USR 56k modem class action lawsuit was bad... but this one is even worse. Primarily because I actually "suffered" in this case - whereas in the 56k modem one, I knew that I wasn't really buying a 56K USR modem but really something that'd be lucky to hit 53k.

 

[Medea]

Originally posted by: pm
If this is the case, then I plan to file a letter of objection with the court.

Requiring that people have a receipt for a purchase from about 5 years ago is ridiculous - especially since IBM didn't require the receipt in order to do a warranty repair.

BTW, you don't need the receipt if you still have the drive's S/N. I saved the drive I got after I RMA'd it. They sent back the same drive, supposedly refurbished in Malaysia or somewhere, and there was no way in hell that I was going to use the same drive.

That's what I find unfair. Why would anyone in their right mind install the same drive that went bad in the first place? Since I didn't use the drive a second time, have it go bad again and report it to IBM, then I'm only going to get the CD's. Big whoop! :|

 

[Medea]

Originally posted by: pm
So I've been reading how to object to this settlement. Apparently, I need to be in the Burleson County courthouse in person on July 1st to object in person.

July 1st is the date of the Settlement Hearing. No members of the class have to be present.

June 17th is the deadline to file objections.

IBM Deskstar 75GXP Class Action Website

 

[Penth]

Originally posted by: pm
I came home and opened my mail and found a Class Action Settlement statement for the 75GXP lawsuit.

Bottom line:
$100 check if you RMA'd a 75GXP to IBM, and got a replacement and this replacement died and then you called IBM again, and decided you didn't want a replacement.

or

25 blank CD's and a (worthless?) coupon otherwise


And meanwhile the lawyers get just under $10 million in fees and expenses, and the plaintiffs get $1000 each.

File a claim or request exclusion, and get more details at:
http://www.ibmdeskstar75gxplitigation.com

Wait, you don't get the $100 unless your SECOND drive failed? And you called them about it and rejected that?

 

[Medea]

Originally posted by: Penth
Wait, you don't get the $100 unless your SECOND drive failed?

Essentially, yes, that's the great settlement. If you RMA'd the bad drive (which I think a huge number of people did), then the 2d IBM drive had to fail also. :|

Directly from the Stipulation of Settlement:

"In order to receive a 75GXP Cash Award, a Class Member must satisfy the requirements of 24(a) [ability to satisfy proof of purchase] above and:
(i). have experienced a HDD failure; and
(ii). not have received a non-75GXP replacement hard disk drive or monetary credit (whether from IBM or from any other entity or person; and
(iii). not have received a 75GXP warranty replacement, or did receive a warranty replacement and can document that he or she reported to IBM a failure with the 75GXP warranty replacement and did not seek, or was not offered, another warranty replacement."
- pgs 21-22.

Otherwise, you get a choice of a Benefit, i.e., "25 blank CD-ROMs with jewel cases - or a Discount Certificate redeemable once for a 15% discount of up to $300 off the combined purchase price of one or more products offered for sale by IBM directly to end users through IBM.com." The purchase has to be a one-time deal and via a toll-free number that IBM will establish. - pgs 13-14.

Given the rate that these drives failed, one HD failure per person was more than adequate. I was somewhat lucky in that I had done a backup maybe around 4 days before the HD crashed, so I lost a relatively small amount of data - but imagine those people who lost a significant if not all of their data.

 

[Jeff7]

Too bad the Deskstars that died on me were 120GXP and 180GXP drives. I guess they wouldn't qualify. Also too bad that they didn't fix the drive issues by the time those later families were on the market. No more IBM/Hitachi drives for me.

 

[pm]

I've been trying to decide what to do about this settlement.

I had a drive and I was really impressed with it at the time that I bought it - it was fast and it was reasonably priced. I ended up recommending it to 4 friends. And then I started to hear rumors that the drive is prone to failure, so I bought another drive (a WD) and used it to back up the 75GXP - and warned my non-so-computer-literate friends. Sure enough about 8 months later, the drive failed. So I called IBM and they were really good about replacing it. I got another 75GXP and set it up for very light use as a secondary storage drive on an infrequently used system. And then that drive failed about 9 months later and I just sighed and gave up. What would be the point of RMA'ing it again if you can't trust the drive to live for even a year? And then gradually, one by one, my friend's drives all failed too. One is still working.. but the other 3 are dead too. One just died last week.

I was actually pleased when I heard about the lawsuit. I lost data, and my friend's lost data and it's all been a real annoyance. And now this settlement is practically an insult it's so bad.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had decided that I would exclude myself. In fact, I wrote the letter and printed it out last night since there's not that much time.

Does anyone have any better advice on how I could make my disgust a little more apparent? I'm willing to spend some money if need be - but unfortunately, not enough money to hire a lawyer to represent me. I am certainly willing to write a carefully worded letter and put it through whatever hoops are required.

 

[jfrog]

I got 2 75GXP's that still work None have important data on them, though. The problem with these drives and the 60GXP is the connector between the HDA and the circuit board. I found a failed 60GXP in the trash a month ago, reseated the circuit board and got it to work...