Very possible, at the time he was going through divorce, and the only way he could contact his kids was email. So having his computer go down was infuriating for him.
I recently did an advance RMA with Maxtor and had few problems.
I had to run thier powermax utility to determine the error code that I needed to
give them (drive was having SMART errors). Went to the website and plugged
that code in to start the RMA request.
At first I got rejected because you also have to type in the serial number of
your drive exactly as it appears on the sticker! At first it thought I
had an OEM drive, but I still have the box it came in from the store, so I
knew there had to be some confusion.
After that it was pretty easy to get a replacement drive sent, and the first thing
I did once it was in the system was run powermax on it to make sure I wasn't
having any immediate problems.
I had to run thier powermax utility to determine the error code that I needed to
give them (drive was having SMART errors). Went to the website and plugged
that code in to start the RMA request.
At first I got rejected because you also have to type in the serial number of
your drive exactly as it appears on the sticker! At first it thought I
had an OEM drive, but I still have the box it came in from the store, so I
knew there had to be some confusion.
After that it was pretty easy to get a replacement drive sent, and the first thing
I did once it was in the system was run powermax on it to make sure I wasn't
having any immediate problems.
UPDATE:
Well, I tested the drive overnight with seatools, it came up completely clean. I'm still waiting to hear back from seagate with their reasoning as to why they sent a refurbished drive. However at this point I'm just happy to have this drive back, and uness they offer to advance-send me a new one I'll just stick with this one.
I'll post the response here when I get it.
Well, I tested the drive overnight with seatools, it came up completely clean. I'm still waiting to hear back from seagate with their reasoning as to why they sent a refurbished drive. However at this point I'm just happy to have this drive back, and uness they offer to advance-send me a new one I'll just stick with this one.
I'll post the response here when I get it.
I don't think I've ever RMA'ed anything to the manufacturer and not receive a refurbished replacement. Only e-commerce / retail stores give you a new item.
My only experience with Seagate RMA was positive:
I bought a 40GB a couple years back and it crapped out after approx 8 months. I RMA'ed it and they sent me back a brand new 80GB!
I also have an Seagate SATA drive that I got off Newegg refurb for a great price, it came sealed by Seagate with "Refurbished" on the label. I checked it with "SeaTools", no probs, and it came up as warrantied to 2009 on the website. I'll still only use it for non-crit stuff but HD tach shows it to be a lot peppier than my WD and other Seagate drives.
Mike G
I bought a 40GB a couple years back and it crapped out after approx 8 months. I RMA'ed it and they sent me back a brand new 80GB!
I also have an Seagate SATA drive that I got off Newegg refurb for a great price, it came sealed by Seagate with "Refurbished" on the label. I checked it with "SeaTools", no probs, and it came up as warrantied to 2009 on the website. I'll still only use it for non-crit stuff but HD tach shows it to be a lot peppier than my WD and other Seagate drives.
Mike G
man, that's messed up. you pay for a NEW DRIVE and you get a WARRANTY and they send you a refurb?
You didn't pay the price of a refurbished drive, but a new drive. You dont deserve to pay say $100 for a defective new drive then end up with a $60 refurbished drive. That's not right. Plus from my experience arent warranties when they replace your faulty product with a new product?
You didn't pay the price of a refurbished drive, but a new drive. You dont deserve to pay say $100 for a defective new drive then end up with a $60 refurbished drive. That's not right. Plus from my experience arent warranties when they replace your faulty product with a new product?
Yes. I'm sorry you feel this is some sort of bum deal, but the drives are warranted as 'good as new', so to speak. Does it really matter if the drive is 'new' or 'refurb' if it has the same warranty and it works?
Almost every warranty I've ever seen says something along the lines of: "we will repair or replace the item at our discretion if it is found to be defective." Not "we will give you a brand-new X if your item doesn't work." Otherwise, people would buy something, use it for a while, RMA it for a new one, etc. etc. Once you open and use the item, it's not "new" anymore.
Yeah well I understand when you open your product its not new anymore, BUT you payed the price of a new product. Now this product doesnt work out of the box. Don't you think you deserve a working product since you payed for it? And it better be brand new if you payed the price of brand new product. Atleast that's how i see it.
I understand it'll work the same or maybe even better if it's refurbished sometimes. Personally if i buy something i want it new, always. I don't like used stuff. If i buy something thats broken outta the box, i believe i deserve either a full refund OR a NEW product of the same model. That to me would be good customer service in my opinion.
I totally understand what your saying and everything, but like i said, i payed for the new product and that's what i want PERIOD. Besides the warranty, he purchased a HD that was defective straight from the box. He didn't even get a chance to use it really. So he deserves to get a used HD for the price of a new one? That's all i'm saying. I sure as heck wouldnt be to pleased to get a used item back after i buy a new one and its 'broken.'
EDIT: as far as the warranty goes, you are probably correct. i dont have a copy of the warranty in front of me and i'm not much of a 'warranty' guy unless its something really expensive, so i dont know too much on how the WHOLE thing works.
He chose to go to Seagate RMA before the etailer where he got it. And Seagate's RMA policy is no secret.
So wheres your bytch?
So wheres your bytch?
now see, you got a point there. he should go to the retailer if he wants a new product.
i guess your right
First, I would have returned/exchanged it for a new drive with whoever I bought it from. Not sure if the OP covered this, I didn't read all of the posts so far.
Second, I wouldn't have a problem a refurb drive from seagate if it had the same warrenty as a new one.
Second, I wouldn't have a problem a refurb drive from seagate if it had the same warrenty as a new one.
Damn, I didn't mean to start such a long thread. I guess it's just one of those things taht draws a mixed opinion.
So far I'm still waiting for a response from Seagate. It's funny, when I was asking questions about the RMA sometimes they responded to my e-mail 20 minutes after I sent it. Now it's been a full day....
I just want to say in my (too many years) experience, on the occassions I have had to RMA Maxtor, WD or Seagate, I have gotten new drives.
I would add that 95% of the failures I have seen occured during burn-in. In my experiecce drive failures are due to manufacturing defects, shipping defects or defects in the surrounding hardware and you see this almost immediately. Yes drives like other components, can fail at three years, but I find this very very rare.
I would add that my worst warranty experiences have been, and don't flame me, with Seagate. This was with a failure at eight months, which in my expeirence is rare. Despite their announced five year warranty, clearly applicable on this drive, they made me spend a crazy amount of time after refusing me based on manufacture instead of sale date. The purchase was eight months before from an authorized retailer.
Again, I wish to contest the idea that refurb is the norm. In 15 years or so I have ocassion to RMA perhaps a dozen drives out of 300-400. I would say ten of those failures occured in the first days or month. We RMA's a failed Maxtor last month and the replacement was a new unit. I do not recall ever getting a refurb except from seagate.
I would also say a lot of the hype on warranties, especially long ones, is misplaced. I have yet ever to have worked with an IT department that would send in a drive after a year. prices fall too quickly to bother. You've cracked the case. To pay to package, mail and wait, in order to install a three-year-old model, or even last year's model, is non cost effective in the extreme. Just look at hdd costs today: $0.30 to $0.25 gig. The 40 gig you bought three years ago is worth $10. to open the case, box it up, fill out the RMA and pay to ship it, in order to go through the labor of reinstalling 40 gb back in -- is something no one in their right mind does.
Lastly a lot of what one reads is prurely anecdotal. People become imprinted and fierce haters of one brand or another due to a failure. In fact averaged MTBF data, when properly parsed, average out shockingly consistantly between manufactures. Look at deskstars, they are actually more reliable and have higher MTBF than average. But with the deathstar episode, which arose from the combination of bad firmware in a very very short run (six weeks or something like 0.012% of all deskstars made) combined with a bad response from the company, earned a extremly reliable line of drives a bad reputation amoung amatuers. We buy them all the time now and have no trouble.
My advice. Run the hdd through some good rigorous diagnostics when you install it (please this is easy and can be done unattended). If there is a wiff of a problem return it to your supplier or if retail, your retail vendor for a new replacement.
I would add that 95% of the failures I have seen occured during burn-in. In my experiecce drive failures are due to manufacturing defects, shipping defects or defects in the surrounding hardware and you see this almost immediately. Yes drives like other components, can fail at three years, but I find this very very rare.
I would add that my worst warranty experiences have been, and don't flame me, with Seagate. This was with a failure at eight months, which in my expeirence is rare. Despite their announced five year warranty, clearly applicable on this drive, they made me spend a crazy amount of time after refusing me based on manufacture instead of sale date. The purchase was eight months before from an authorized retailer.
Again, I wish to contest the idea that refurb is the norm. In 15 years or so I have ocassion to RMA perhaps a dozen drives out of 300-400. I would say ten of those failures occured in the first days or month. We RMA's a failed Maxtor last month and the replacement was a new unit. I do not recall ever getting a refurb except from seagate.
I would also say a lot of the hype on warranties, especially long ones, is misplaced. I have yet ever to have worked with an IT department that would send in a drive after a year. prices fall too quickly to bother. You've cracked the case. To pay to package, mail and wait, in order to install a three-year-old model, or even last year's model, is non cost effective in the extreme. Just look at hdd costs today: $0.30 to $0.25 gig. The 40 gig you bought three years ago is worth $10. to open the case, box it up, fill out the RMA and pay to ship it, in order to go through the labor of reinstalling 40 gb back in -- is something no one in their right mind does.
Lastly a lot of what one reads is prurely anecdotal. People become imprinted and fierce haters of one brand or another due to a failure. In fact averaged MTBF data, when properly parsed, average out shockingly consistantly between manufactures. Look at deskstars, they are actually more reliable and have higher MTBF than average. But with the deathstar episode, which arose from the combination of bad firmware in a very very short run (six weeks or something like 0.012% of all deskstars made) combined with a bad response from the company, earned a extremly reliable line of drives a bad reputation amoung amatuers. We buy them all the time now and have no trouble.
My advice. Run the hdd through some good rigorous diagnostics when you install it (please this is easy and can be done unattended). If there is a wiff of a problem return it to your supplier or if retail, your retail vendor for a new replacement.
while do not dispute your experience...it is not the case for many on the forums around..I had a Maxtor hdd die after 1.5yrs...getting write failures...no way I will use this drive again...no matter what the diagnostics say....to unreliable
the drive was a retail purchase with 1 yr warranty(when maxtor switched over but did not publicize) I would love to get a "new " 160gb drive back for my failed 160gb drive
I have owned a much smaller number of drives and never had one fail in days or weeks...only after 1-2 yrs so warranty for me is important
the drive was a retail purchase with 1 yr warranty(when maxtor switched over but did not publicize) I would love to get a "new " 160gb drive back for my failed 160gb drive
I have owned a much smaller number of drives and never had one fail in days or weeks...only after 1-2 yrs so warranty for me is important
I too recently got my replacment drive back, and it is a repaired hard drive, it says it on the sticker, if you read the RMA email they send you, it says all drivers will be replaced with factory repaired units.
Texun
Platinum Member
- Oct 21, 2001
- 2,058
- 1
- 81
I feel your pain. I had a Seagate 160g go FUBAR with no warning after 6 months. Their RMA process was excellent but I also got a refurb. The bad news is that the refurb'd drive failed during partitioning. It locked up, and when rebooting it took the board several seconds to identify the drive but would lock up again as soon as I tried to install Windows. I RMA'd it again and sold the replacement 15 minutes after it was delivered. I used Seatools on both and each time it reported errors so I bought a Samsung and moved on.
I tell people that Seagate makes a great drive, they just never made one for me. However, I will say that the Seagate customer service people were great each time I called but I know it still sucks to get a refurb'd drive.
I tell people that Seagate makes a great drive, they just never made one for me. However, I will say that the Seagate customer service people were great each time I called but I know it still sucks to get a refurb'd drive.
I don't dispute the forums around, but I really can't take the forums seriously.
Why, well look at the storagereview.com "reliability survey." Those whose work touches on the math sciences should be able to recognize how statistics designed to tell us about drives really end up telling us about how surveys can be skewed..
I was just looking at a maxtor I have in my own work station. it is a 200 gig that has been running 24/7 for about 2 to 2.5 years. ok, mine is working but on storage review it looks like ~ 40% failed within a year.
this is the data you get from forums or reivews by casual end users. They remember. It is like a reverse brand loyalty.
The famed deathstar (two months of bad firmaware) was about 7% failure in the first year and it caused the biggest blowup ever including successful class action and suits by states attornies geenral.
Actual failures are a miniscule fraction of this. But "forums" and surveys show about 100x the actual failure rate. hmmm.
What I See from the survey is that people POWERFULLY remember failure and don't pay attention to success in hdds. And knowing that, at the time most of the drives in the survey were purchased, Seagate was well below market share to WD and Maxtor, the results are perfectly predictable.
Again I bring the deskstar example. hisotically and on average it is top of the line in reliability. but not only do the few who got the short lived deathstar drives remember it and mention it on forums, I am convincved that a huge number of people who never had the drive scream "deathstar" whenever deskstar it is mentioned.
My personal experience is very small sample but I am sorry a HDD should be able to perfrom without issue for more than 1.5yrs
From CS standpoint what does it tell someone if Maxtor/WD drops warranty on retail drives(more expensive than OEM from 3yrs to 1yr)
I owned only Maxtor and WD drives but I moved away from them for this reason...
what I see on the forums is people noting failure not in weeks/months but at 1 yr with some versions of the DM9
I know it is not a scientific sample what I refer and not statistical sound but try to get a properly blinded study..no way...
A 7% failure rate on HDD like the IBM is unacceptable when you are talking about reliabiltiy of data
I am sorry the trend seems to be that Maxtors newer drives maybe not be up to snuff...I am not using storagereview reader survey to diffucult to interpret the results but forum member comments do are important to a point...I do not listen to the fanboy or basher....
If and when maxtor evens out there warranty I will buy again but they are telling me as a consumer that there product may not last more than 1 yr...my data after my recent drive failure is too important
Seagate tells me with 5yr warranty they expect there product to last(if not warranty cost would kill them..maybe/maybe not who really knows)
So it maybe in 5yrs Maxtor=Seagate reliabilty but Maxtor missed the boat on my $$$
From CS standpoint what does it tell someone if Maxtor/WD drops warranty on retail drives(more expensive than OEM from 3yrs to 1yr)
I owned only Maxtor and WD drives but I moved away from them for this reason...
what I see on the forums is people noting failure not in weeks/months but at 1 yr with some versions of the DM9
I know it is not a scientific sample what I refer and not statistical sound but try to get a properly blinded study..no way...
A 7% failure rate on HDD like the IBM is unacceptable when you are talking about reliabiltiy of data
I am sorry the trend seems to be that Maxtors newer drives maybe not be up to snuff...I am not using storagereview reader survey to diffucult to interpret the results but forum member comments do are important to a point...I do not listen to the fanboy or basher....
If and when maxtor evens out there warranty I will buy again but they are telling me as a consumer that there product may not last more than 1 yr...my data after my recent drive failure is too important
Seagate tells me with 5yr warranty they expect there product to last(if not warranty cost would kill them..maybe/maybe not who really knows)
So it maybe in 5yrs Maxtor=Seagate reliabilty but Maxtor missed the boat on my $$$
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