OT - Always stand your ground!

[Confused]

I, like David McOwen, have had a Fujitsu hard drive fail recently, as described in this article at The Register (and 2 related stories). I contacted Fujitsu about this last week, but after seeing these links decided to take another approach.

The mail i sent to Fujitsu is as follows:


I purchased a Fujitsu-Siemens Personal Computer off my friend when she moved to America a couple of months ago, as she couldn't take the machine with her.

However, last week, the 40gb Hard Drive has failed. The computer just suddenly locked up, and upon restarting, there was no signs of the Hard Drive listed in BIOS. I tried replacing the cable, as well as trying it in another computer, with the same results. While I had the hard drive out of the machine, I had the opportunity to hear (or rather, not hear) the drive. There was no spinning up, no noises at all coming from it.

I contacted your Customer Support via telephone, and the person I spoke to said that I would have to contact the reseller of the computer system. Unfortunately, my friend did not purchase an extended warranty, and the machine is over a year old (it was purchased March 2001), and also because I was not the person who bought the machine.

Of course, I was most dissatisfied with this level of service, or rather lack of. I have also unfortunately had a Seagate hard drive go down in another machine that I administrate, and replacing that was extremely easy. Five minutes on the Seagate website, and I had an RMA number and an address to send the drive to, and a 3yr warranty with the drive. This is how it should be.

Yeterday, I came across the following article on The Register.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/27136.html

This, as well as the two "Related stories" listed at the bottom describe the problem with the Hard Drive in question. It was manufactured in February 2001, so therefore falls into this time scale.

I would appreciate it greatly if you could contact me as soon as possible with details of where to send this defective drive to get a replacement. If not, then I shall personally take the drive into your Offices at Bracknell, Berkshire, UK, which I drive past every day on my way to work, to make a formal complaint, as well as contacting many internet sites, such as The Register.

Thank you for your time, and I hope to hear from you soon with details on where to send this defective drive.

Yours

Garry Mitchell


Lets see what the response to this is! And if needbe, i WILL go into their offices and kick up a fuss 🙂

 

[Actaeon]

Originally posted by: Confused
I, like David McOwen, have had a Fujitsu hard drive fail recently, as described in this article at The Register (and 2 related stories). I contacted Fujitsu about this last week, but after seeing these links decided to take another approach.

The mail i sent to Fujitsu is as follows:


I purchased a Fujitsu-Siemens Personal Computer off my friend when she moved to America a couple of months ago, as she couldn't take the machine with her.

However, last week, the 40gb Hard Drive has failed. The computer just suddenly locked up, and upon restarting, there was no signs of the Hard Drive listed in BIOS. I tried replacing the cable, as well as trying it in another computer, with the same results. While I had the hard drive out of the machine, I had the opportunity to hear (or rather, not hear) the drive. There was no spinning up, no noises at all coming from it.

I contacted your Customer Support via telephone, and the person I spoke to said that I would have to contact the reseller of the computer system. Unfortunately, my friend did not purchase an extended warranty, and the machine is over a year old (it was purchased March 2001), and also because I was not the person who bought the machine.

Of course, I was most dissatisfied with this level of service, or rather lack of. I have also unfortunately had a Seagate hard drive go down in another machine that I administrate, and replacing that was extremely easy. Five minutes on the Seagate website, and I had an RMA number and an address to send the drive to, and a 3yr warranty with the drive. This is how it should be.

Yeterday, I came across the following article on The Register.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/27136.html

This, as well as the two "Related stories" listed at the bottom describe the problem with the Hard Drive in question. It was manufactured in February 2001, so therefore falls into this time scale.

I would appreciate it greatly if you could contact me as soon as possible with details of where to send this defective drive to get a replacement. If not, then I shall personally take the drive into your Offices at Bracknell, Berkshire, UK, which I drive past every day on my way to work, to make a formal complaint, as well as contacting many internet sites, such as The Register.

Thank you for your time, and I hope to hear from you soon with details on where to send this defective drive.

Yours

Garry Mitchell


Lets see what the response to this is! And if needbe, i WILL go into their offices and kick up a fuss 🙂

Bah, I don't like companys with bad Customer support. I hope everything works out, and you get a replacement for your HD! Keep us informed!

 

[deerslayer]

Give em he11 😉🙂

Bad customer support sucks! :|

 

[RaySun2Be]

Go Get Em, Confused! :|

Ray hands Confused is extra hard titanium "cane of smiting bad people", with just enough flex to give it good *SNAP*

Ya just gotta promise not to use it on teammates, as it is NOT intended for friendly *whacking* but rather harder hitting to get idiot's attention.

Best of luck. I loved the part about Seagate. 🙂

 

[Confused]

Originally posted by: RaySun2Be
Go Get Em, Confused! :|

Ray hands Confused is extra hard titanium "cane of smiting bad people", with just enough flex to give it good *SNAP*

Ya just gotta promise not to use it on teammates, as it is NOT intended for friendly *whacking* but rather harder hitting to get idiot's attention.

Best of luck. I loved the part about Seagate. 🙂

/me takes cane, and places gently into carrying case <-- don't want to damage it quite yet 🙂

Well i'll see if i get a reply within the next couple of days, if not then i'll go in sometime this week (i got 2 1/2 days off work to take at some time, could use one of them if needbe 🙂)

Yeah, i thought that putting in how easy it was with Seagate would be good, sorta like a "if they can do it this easily, why can't you :|" 🙂

 

[Assimilator1]

Good luck Garry 🙂

Btw didnt Tomshardware mention (in the 120Gb Samsung article) Fujitsu has taken over IBM's HDD sector? ,that could be bad news...........

 

[Confused]

Originally posted by: Assimilator1
Good luck Garry 🙂

Btw didnt Tomshardware mention (in the 120Gb Samsung article) Fujitsu has taken over IBM's HDD sector? ,that could be bad news...........

Originally said by: Tom's Hardware Guide
When it comes to hard drives for the desktop, Western Digital, Maxtor and Seagate are the brands that are known to almost everybody. IBM left the arena when it sold its desktop segment to Hitachi, Fujitsu has folded its sails and even Quantum was taken over by Maxtor a while ago

Seems like Fujitsu just packed up...and i can see why :|

 

[dmcowen674]

Let's get em from both sides of the pond Garry. I have not gotten a reply from my E-mail
requesting a drive with verfied good electronics yet. Looks like increased pressure will
be needed such as writing to heads of the Company, warnings on websites etc. We all
know design or part flaws can occur, I have a saying "Everything Man Makes Breaks",
they can save face by taking care of all those that suffer from this failure or they can
suffer a permanent black eye as a Company. Which will they chose???

 

[nagger]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Let's get em from both sides of the pond Garry. I have not gotten a reply from my E-mail
requesting a drive with verfied good electronics yet. Looks like increased pressure will
be needed such as writing to heads of the Company, warnings on websites etc. We all
know design or part flaws can occur, I have a saying "Everything Man Makes Breaks",
they can save face by taking care of all those that suffer from this failure or they can
suffer a permanent black eye as a Company. Which will they chose???

David,

I've spoken to my older brother (the one that lost a 40 Gb Fujitsu) and he told me that even switching electronics with a brand new Fujitsu HD didn't work for him.

Gary,

Good luck with Fujitsu's Customer support.

<--- proud owner of 6 Seagate HD's and with only 1 troublesome drive.

 

[Baldy18]

The best drives I've ever owned were Quantum drives. It was a shame when they were taken over by Maxtor. I'm not sure but they may still be making drives under the Quantum name but probably with Maxtor quality.

 

[dmcowen674]

<FONT size=1>>he told me that even switching electronics with a brand new Fujitsu HD didn't work for him.
</FONT>
Yikes, that would mean the electronics blasted the platters with garbage 0's and 1's. I didn't think that happened since the drive tried to boot twice after the initial failure.

What did the platters show, scrambled data or practically formatted without issuing the format command?

 

[Mardeth]

I have a IBM 20 Gb HDD which is 3 years old and I have used it for the past year 24/7 so even for a Seagate Barracuda 4 it would be hard not to brake for such a long using time, thought I can feel that this isnt a new HDD my computer often lags A LOT. As much as with my old 500MHz comp. which tells me that the problem is the HDD cos it was the only thing I didnt change. But anyhow I will be getting a new HDD this X-mas so the problem will be fixed soon enough.

 

[ElFenix]

maxtor rma is really easy. or it was.

 

[MoFunk]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
maxtor rma is really easy. or it was.

They have a GREAT RMA process, however they are going to go to a 1 year warranty, as are more HD manufacturers. They say that you will be able to "buy" and extended warranty. This is what a Maxtor rep told me Friday at a conference. He gave a date, but I can't remember at the moment. He says that drives purchased before a certain date will have the 3 year warranty and drives after will have the 1.

When buying a new drive, you may want to check with the manufacturer about this! I don't think that they are going to advertise it too heavily!

 

[blakeatwork]

My distributor told me that the Maxtor/Seagate/WD warranties are going to be one year on anything smaller then 100GB. I guess that makes sense, as I'm sure most people are really only interested in 100+ GB drives. Of course, for those with budgetary constraints, or just not wanting that big of a drive, they can purchase an extended warranty on the drive for about $35/US per year... Don't quote me, those were just the figures being tossed about.

 

[Confused]

OK i got a reply to my email:




Dear Garry,

I enclose below the procedure explaining about our policy concerning all Fujitsu Hard Drives.


(See attached file: Customer Letter (Support).doc)








Dear Customer,

Thank you for your enquiry. You may have read recent press articles about a recall of Fujitsu desktop hard disk drives. All the articles we have seen to date are inaccurate, Fujitsu has made no such announcement, and there is no recall of these or any other disk drives from Fujitsu.

If you have a drive that has failed and wish to return it then the following guideline should help you. Should you have any further concerns or enquiries then please do not hesitate to contact us.

The Warranty on Hard Disk products is solely provided to the direct customer of Fujitsu Europe Ltd. Therefore the following rules apply.

If you have purchased your Hard Disk product from a PC vendor, either directly from the manufacturer or a retailer, your warranty is supported by this supplier. Typically this is for 12 months, however you may have purchased extended warranty, in which case, please return to your place of purchase for warranty support.

If you have purchased your Hard Disk product from a Fujitsu approved dealer or distributor, your warranty will be provided by that company. If however, they have ceased trading, your warranty may be supported by Fujitsu Europe Ltd directly. A copy of proof of purchase to our Warranty Service department would be required before your Warranty condition is validated.

We have experienced many problems with customers being sold defective product from Computer Fairs, and we do not approve this sales channel for our products. We do accept however that some legitimate suppliers sometimes chose to sell products in this way, in which case you should contact your supplier for warranty issues. Fujitsu Europe Ltd does not accept any direct claims for warranty for products purchased via this supply route

Should you feel you still have a valid Warranty claim based our Warranty Policy information provided above, please send a fax to Warranty Request on 020 86064532 providing the following information in both instances :

Drive Model Number:
Drive Part Number:
Drive Serial Number:
Date of Manufacture
Copy of Proof of Purchase
Explanatory letter of place, conditions of purchase and nature of fault

Assuring you of our best attention.


Yours faithfully


Customer Services


On behalf of Fujitsu Europe Ltd





Sounds a bit like a cop-out to me. I shall still make my point at their offices in my town. Even if it does get me chucked out of their offices, I shall argue my point, and see what will happen.



:|

 

[MoFunk]

Whatever happened to standing behind your product?

blakeatwork- I forgot that part about the drive size.

 

[cavemanmoron]

Originally posted by: Baldy18
The best drives I've ever owned were Quantum drives. It was a shame when they were taken over by Maxtor. I'm not sure but they may still be making drives under the Quantum name but probably with Maxtor quality.

i have had the misfortune of more bad used Quantum hard drives than Maxtor..
i have one now,my bios wont even find,
oh well it is like 5 years old LOL
i also have a WD that is messed up,it too is old..
I bought 2 IBM 40 GB 7200 rpm about 18 months ago,and have had to rma them both!
all luck o the draw?? maybe?
even a "Rolls Royce,or Mercedes breaks...😉

 

[networkman]

I'm convinced that there's no single company with better hard drives than any other.. at least not amongst the big 5 or 6 companies. All of them have had a higher-than-average failure on one model or another - it just happens; how the company chooses to address the issue and support the end user is what makes all the difference! 🙂 As someone who's been doing the RMA process for over a decade, I can assure you that some companies are better at it than others. 😉

From my own two cents experience, I've been very satified with the Seagate Barracua drives that were used in many of the Compaq servers that I've purchased and/or used - that's not to say there haven't been any failures, but I've not had any problem getting the failed units returned/replaced through either Compaq or Seagate. 🙂

 

[Crazee]

Originally posted by: blakeatwork
My distributor told me that the Maxtor/Seagate/WD warranties are going to be one year on anything smaller then 100GB. I guess that makes sense, as I'm sure most people are really only interested in 100+ GB drives. Of course, for those with budgetary constraints, or just not wanting that big of a drive, they can purchase an extended warranty on the drive for about $35/US per year... Don't quote me, those were just the figures being tossed about.

I can't speak for Seagate and Maxtor, but WD will still give a 3 year warranty on all the Special Edition hard drives with the 8mb cache no matter what the size is.

 

[dmcowen674]

Oh My Garry,

A drive is a drive no matter where it is bought from, the bast&%$ds :| . They are obviously skirting the issue. A full scale boycott and smear campaign of Fujitsu products is in order :disgust: . I have not gotten a reply yet. I will forward my complaint to the FTC here in the U.S. with numbers like 300,000 dead drives Federal action is needed to step in since they are blowing off individuals. :frown: :| :disgust: