Samsung RMA, just what do you have to do to get one issued?

[Puffnstuff]

My 840 pro died and nowhere on samsungs site is the option to submit an rma. I ended up having to contact their support via email to request one. Just how pathetic is that? Now they are stalling with issuing me one on a 840 pro that just froze up aka controller panic just like the old sandforce drives did and I had two different makes of them do that to me. I've heard other people complain about getting service from them but this is ridiculous. This is my last Samsung product unless I get a 3rd party warranty where Samsung is not a part of the service process.

Now I'm back on a spinner, an old wd velociraptor 600gb which is pretty slow comparatively speaking waiting for a new intel 520 to show up so I can make it my boot drive while I wait for Samsung to issue a rma for their pro drive. I got the thing in the first place because it was supposed to be the most reliable drive on the market. Even the Samsung magician 4 software said my drive was in good health just before it croaked on me which doesn't say much for their utility.

 

[Blain]

My 840 pro died and nowhere on samsungs site is the option to submit an rma.
I ended up having to contact their support via email to request one. Just how pathetic is that?

They refer to it as an XRA.
Is this where you went?

 

[Puffnstuff]

No I didn't see that on their site however they just responded to me and the rma process has been started. Thanks Blain for bringing that site to my attention.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

No I didn't see that on their site however they just responded to me and the rma process has been started. Thanks Blain for bringing that site to my attention.

Well . . . that's good to know . . . I'd poked around without end on their website just hoping to get e-mail tech-support, and I began to think they had a brick wall in the RMA process. I just don't think they make any of it easy.

 

[Elixer]

I could never do a RMA through the website, I had to call in, then, they gave me the e-mail address of the people that do the SSD warranties.
Was a huge PITA.

 

[Charlie98]

I could never do a RMA through the website, I had to call in, then, they gave me the e-mail address of the people that do the SSD warranties.
Was a huge PITA.

Same here.

This is my last Samsung product unless I get a 3rd party warranty where Samsung is not a part of the service process.

The SSD warranty is a 3rd party vendor... and I think that's why it's such a PITA.

I like Samsung stuff (I have a Samsung monitor that I like very much, for example) but I probably wouldn't buy another Samsung SSD.

 

[Puffnstuff]

This is exactly why I am moving to intel ssd's. Intel has a good rma setup as does evga. Samsung just lost a loyal customer with this mess. When I say third party I mean an extended warranty that I can use in lieu of the Samsung warranty that won't be a royal pain to use.

 

[Elixer]

Believe it or not, OCZ (before Toshiba) had fantastic RMAs, very, very fast, 1 day air turnaround time.

Toshiba branded OCZ, I have no experience with OCZ, but, with Toshiba, they are OK, but slow. Took 2-3 weeks to get them to update their site once they received the product.

 

[Charlie98]

This is exactly why I am moving to intel ssd's. Intel has a good rma setup as does evga. Samsung just lost a loyal customer with this mess. When I say third party I mean an extended warranty that I can use in lieu of the Samsung warranty that won't be a royal pain to use.

You know, once I got hold of someone on the phone, I had a new refurb drive in 2 days... so at least they were responsive once I actually found someone. ...but I did jack with the Samsung website for 3 days trying to get in.

 

[Elixer]

Oh, that reminds me, Samsung sends back refurbs.
Toshiba sends back new units.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Well I'm still waiting for Samsung support to issue that rma so I can send my defective drive in. At least my intel drive arrives today so I can clone my velociraptor to it and get back on a ssd. I'm going to keep my boot drive cloned to the velociraptor from now on just in case another ssd goes down I'll have a spinner ready to take its place.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Samsung it pitiful as they have still not responded to my rma request. I just filled out another request for service since they haven't responded to the other two. Then to top things off their email system rejected one of my submissions. On the other hand my intel 520 is up and running smoothly and the intel migration software works fast and efficiently. Intel is now my official supplier of ssd's.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Also looks like Samsung uses a 3rd party called total tech solutions and you can see their super cool site at http://www.totalts.com. PS try not to laugh but they are dropping support for Samsung hd's so I wonder what else they're going to stop supporting.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Well it's Friday night and guess what? Still nothing from Samsung on the rma. My reply to Samsung support is still being rejected by their mail server. Yep they are definitely helping me make my mind up on not buying from them again.

 

[Charlie98]

Call them...

 

[Puffnstuff]

I finally received the shipping label from them today after dropping Samsung an email about the problem. I will definitely not buy another Samsung ssd.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Well after a bunch of going back and forth with Samsung I finally received my replacement 840 pro today and I can confirm that it is a refurb. It has a refurb label across the back of it and magician says that it has .23tb of data written to it. I hope Samsung improves their rma process for everyone else who might need a drive replaced.

 

[Charlie98]

Well after a bunch of going back and forth with Samsung I finally received my replacement 840 pro today and I can confirm that it is a refurb. It has a refurb label across the back of it and magician says that it has .23tb of data written to it. I hope Samsung improves their rma process for everyone else who might need a drive replaced.

Were the hours zeroed out?

 

[Puffnstuff]

Where are the hours reported at?

 

[Charlie98]

Use CrystalDiskInfo...

 

[aviator79]

Well, it is true, sometimes the RMA process does not go so well. Sometimes it does.
I am just surprised, that you have one of the really rare failing PROs. I personally like my Samsung stuff. I always hope I don't need RMAs on any of my tech stuff, regardless of which manufacturer.

 

[Puffnstuff]

I almost forgot about answering the hour thing. It would seem that the innards were all new as the drive has only 33 hours on it now. I installed it into my alienware laptop using the original win 7 x64 home premium and yesterday I installed win 8 pro (free upgrade to 8.1 pro) and so far so good. If Samsung will improve their rma process I will consider another drive from them in the future.

 

[Charlie98]

I almost forgot about answering the hour thing. It would seem that the innards were all new as the drive has only 33 hours on it now. I installed it into my alienware laptop using the original win 7 x64 home premium and yesterday I installed win 8 pro (free upgrade to 8.1 pro) and so far so good. If Samsung will improve their rma process I will consider another drive from them in the future.

Well, I suspect they reset the SMART data... my refurb had 0 hours on it.

FWIW, my refurb 840Pro has been 100% since I put it in service, so much so that I'm thinking about putting it back into my business machine (where it was intended) to replace the flaky Plextor (which gets missed, sometimes, on boot, for some reason.)

 

[Puffnstuff]

Well as long as it lasts and does what it is supposed to I'll be happy.

 

[Charlie98]

Well as long as it lasts and does what it is supposed to I'll be happy.

It's taken me a while to build my trust up in it again, believe me.