Western Digital RMA problems

[djmartins]

Hi all,

Built two new systems and used 3 WD drives, 2x 750Gb Blacks and one 1Tb Black.
Less than a week later one of the 750s died.
Bios could see there was something attached to the SATA but couldn't recognize the drive!
So, I ALREADY have a 30% failure rate on these "Caviar" drives.
Did an RMA on the thing and got a notice that WD is sending me an 808Gb
Green drive!
Special drive for China since the Chinese love the number 8.
Green=low performance 3 year warranty!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have also had to RMA TWO 6Gb memory kits to OCZ because each kit had
one bad DDR3 stick.
They BETTER NOT replace that memory with cheaper/lower performance stuff.
Two products from so called "top" manufacturers with a 30% failure rate.
What is going on in the computer industry?
Service sucks and products have high failure rates.
More fine Chinese/Indian outsourcing issues?
If WD doesn't make this right I will NEVER buy another one of their products, I am one of those consumers who won't go back after being screwed once.

regards,
DJ

 

[Blain]

Did you contact WD and explain to them that the Green was not acceptable as a replacement for the Black?
As far as the OCZ goes... At least they have fancy heatspreaders, and you got them cheap, right?

In the future stick with G.Skill, Mushkin, Cordair XMS or Patriot.

 

[CurseTheSky]

It's understandable that you're upset about the inconveniences and / or losses, but you need to realize that you're only a very small percentage of their entire customer base. So while you may have experienced a 30% failure rate with your products, others (like myself) have experienced a 0% failure rate. What I'm trying to say is that just because one of your drives died, it doesn't mean they're an unreliable company.

Second, there is no such thing as an 808 GB drive. They have 750 GB drives, and the next size up is 1 TB. If it's truly reading 808 GB (and considering the memory you've had fail), I would suspect something is wrong with your motherboard. Speaking of memory, how did you determine the sticks were bad in the memory kits... did you simply plug them in and find out they're not working or did you run a test like memtest86?

I'd contact WD and explain that you want a Black drive, not a Blue or Green. They should comply.

 

[djmartins]

It's understandable that you're upset about the inconveniences and / or losses, but you need to realize that you're only a very small percentage of their entire customer base. So while you may have experienced a 30% failure rate with your products, others (like myself) have experienced a 0% failure rate. What I'm trying to say is that just because one of your drives died, it doesn't mean they're an unreliable company.

Second, there is no such thing as an 808 GB drive. They have 750 GB drives, and the next size up is 1 TB. If it's truly reading 808 GB (and considering the memory you've had fail), I would suspect something is wrong with your motherboard. Speaking of memory, how did you determine the sticks were bad in the memory kits... did you simply plug them in and find out they're not working or did you run a test like memtest86?

I'd contact WD and explain that you want a Black drive, not a Blue or Green. They should comply.

There IS such a thing as an 808Gb drive.
Look up a WD8088AADS-00L5B1, made for the Chinese market.
I have not received the 808Gb drive, it is being sent for my 750Gb Caviar
that failed.
I emailed WD about the drive, no response yet.
I found out my system was unstable and then did extensive testing to
find the two bad sticks.

regards,
Doug

 

[RebateMonger]

I have a 180 GB Western Digital drive that was only sold through CompUSA. They do make "non-standard" capacities for different markets.

 

[Blain]

I emailed WD about the drive, no response yet.

Don't play email tag... Call them directly to get this straightened out.

 

[qazwsxokmijn]

You don't have the right to say you have XX% failure rate from a manufacturer when you've only bought two or three products from them.

When you have a PC shop, or at least a frequent system builder, then you can.

 

[Blain]

Don't be a hater, let him rant if he wants.

 

[djmartins]

You don't have the right to say you have XX% failure rate from a manufacturer when you've only bought two or three products from them.

When you have a PC shop, or at least a frequent system builder, then you can.

That's funny, I DID say it because I DO have 1/3 failure rate.
So, when did you become a giver of rights?
LMAO!
I am not impressed with the low quality in PC components these days.


regards,
DJ

 

[Blain]

I am impressed with the low quality in PC compinents.

 

[E6700]

I just RMA my 4 1/2 years old raptor 8mb 74gb hd last week due to bad sector and they sent me a refurbished raptor 16mb 74gb but 0 hours of usage that is awsome their RMA process is super fast,they sent out the drive the same day that they recieved mine.

 

[djmartins]

Called them up and was told they won't have any Blacks in for another month.
Was told I could speak to their supervisor and put on hold,
then told he was busy and would call back.
Now they are closed so I am not getting that call back.

Hope none of the other drives fail since I am getting stuck with a Chinese
Green drive with only a 3 year warranty even though I bought a Black......

Looks like WD has lost a customer for life since I don't do repeat
business with a company if they really mess up on me.
It is the only option I have left as a consumer.


regards,
DJ

 

[her209]

That's funny, I DID say it because I DO have 1/3 failure rate.
So, when did you become a giver of rights?
LMAO!
I am not impressed with the low quality in PC components these days.


regards,
DJ

Isn't that like saying WD has a 100% failure rate if you bought only one drive and it failed?

 

[Elixer]

I just RMA my 4 1/2 years old raptor 8mb 74gb hd last week due to bad sector and they sent me a refurbished raptor 16mb 74gb but 0 hours of usage that is awsome their RMA process is super fast,they sent out the drive the same day that they recieved mine.

You do know they reset the params long before they ship out the drive to you right ?

Just curious, how did you package the HD anyway? Did you use the 2" of foam all the way around like they say, or something else?

 

[pjkenned]

You don't have the right to say you have XX% failure rate from a manufacturer when you've only bought two or three products from them.

When you have a PC shop, or at least a frequent system builder, then you can.

Doing burn-in/ stress tests for the new WHS I've killed 3x 1.5B WD Greens of 8 within 14 days. I know 8 drives is too small of a sample to draw conclusions, but I'm now buying Hitachi 2TB drives because the things albeit hot and louder (alas they sit in a 4U far away) they just work. Then again I killed 2 of 15 7200.11's this time last year during burn-in (one firmware one DOA) and the rest have been flawless.

 

[qazwsxokmijn]

Doing burn-in/ stress tests for the new WHS I've killed 3x 1.5B WD Greens of 8 within 14 days. I know 8 drives is too small of a sample to draw conclusions, but I'm now buying Hitachi 2TB drives because the things albeit hot and louder (alas they sit in a 4U far away) they just work. Then again I killed 2 of 15 7200.11's this time last year during burn-in (one firmware one DOA) and the rest have been flawless.

Jesus you must have some money to keep killing HDDs!

 

[Blain]

Called them up and was told they won't have any Blacks in for another month.
Was told I could speak to their supervisor and put on hold,
then told he was busy and would call back.
Now they are closed so I am not getting that call back.

Hope none of the other drives fail since I am getting stuck with a Chinese
Green drive with only a 3 year warranty even though I bought a Black......

Sounds like a stalling tactic or worse, some kind of bait & switch...
I would tell them I bought a Black and a Black is the only drive I'd accept (maybe an RE4).
Tell them you're willing to wait.

 

[pjkenned]

Jesus you must have some money to keep killing HDDs!

Hard drives have an inverted bell curve failure rate so if you can break the drives that would otherwise die within the first three months, you end up rebuilding raid arrays much less. The current home server build is already on week three of burn-in and in the next day or two I'm going to install the final OSes (Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Home Server in Hyper-V) and start final testing. Whole goal is to weed out weak drives now versus have them die with live data.