You may want to check your Seagate Warranty!

[xbassman]

I bought a Seagate 120GB pata retail drive Oct 2003. It had a 3 year warranty.
Well, I checked their online warranty status link and it said my warranty expired 12-2004.

I figured it must be a glitch, so I e-mailed them. Here, was their response:

Dear Scott,

The unit with the serial number 3JT204LT is out of warranty from Dec 2004.
The warranty period for a drive starts right from the time it is being
shipped out of Seagate. This drive was shipped out of Seagate during Oct
2003 and the warranty expired by Dec 2004. So this drive carried a one year
warranty. For further queries you could always mail us.



(Click on link below to verify warranty)
http://support.seagate.com/cus...arranty_validation.jsp



Seagate does not perform any warranty services on OUT of warranty units, nor
does Seagate authorize or recommend any specific companies that perform this
service.



Please contact your supplier or one of your nearest service distributor for
the exchange of your drive.



DISCLAIMER: All companies mentioned in this message are independent of
Seagate Technology LLC. Seagate makes no warranty, implied or otherwise,
regarding the performance or reliability of these companies or products.
This information is provided, as is, solely for your information.



We apologize for the inconvenience.



Kind Regards,
Betty.


Seagate Warranty Support

 

[walkure]

By their reasoning, it was "shipped out of Seagate" in Dec. 2001 (if warranty expired in Dec. 2004). Are you sure it had a 3 year warranty?

BTW I just bought a Seagate 160GB SATA w/NCQ... I think it has a 5 year

 

[xbassman]

Are you sure it had a 3 year warranty?

Yup...I wouldn't have bought it if it didn't.
HDD's and opticals are the least reliable components you buy!

 

[xbassman]

Well, it seems I got somebody's attention.
Seagate customer service has decided to review my claim and asked that I send them a sales receipt.

Kinda funny though. Today UPS brought the new Samsung Spinright I ordered to replace the Seagate.
Oh well, I still have a couple of those screaming WD 800JB's in service.

 

[globalcitizen]

Yup 5 years for me. I made sure of it before I bought mine. Expires August 2009.
Bad luck. Hope your warranty gets settled.

 

[intogamer]

I have 5 years. !!!! that sucks. seagate should update to 7 years! thanks for the heads up.

 

[Ken90630]

The warranty period for a drive starts right from the time it is being shipped out of Seagate

Say what? What kind of idiotic policy is that? The warranty hourglass starts dripping sand before we even buy the drive? So if it sits on a shelf at a retail store for a few months before we buy it, our warranty is 5 years minus those few months?

I was actually gonna go buy a Seagate 120GB drive at Best Buy tomorrow, due to a great sale they have on right now, but now I'm gonna call Seagate about the above before I do. And I better get a better answer than you got, xbassman. I hope that was an ignorant employee that e-mailed you.

 

[bendixG15]

Bought a 80 gb Seagate from BB on Jan 4, 2005 (all kinds of rebates)

Just verified warranty on web site
Seagate says warranty expires Nov 19, 2009
Actual warranty period is about 7 weeks short of 5 years.

Fine with me....................

 

[xbassman]

Well, we'll see what happens. I have to go to CompUSA to get a copy of my sales receipt so I can send it in.

 

[Neos]

Making me think, xbassman. I have a 40 gig Seagate in my Athlon 1.5, XP Pro, 256k ram machine. It was bought in Oct 04. In trying to rectify the noise problem at startup (made another post) - I have noted that Seagate technical is not that pleasant to deal with. They did send a replacement - but it does the same thing ...and it is a refurb. Still have a problem.

Are all HD makers like this - or is this just an isolated incident?

 

[xbassman]

Well, This is my first exp with Seagate customer service.
I have dealt with IBM/Hitachi, Western Digital and Quantum/Maxtor with no problems. (Except Hitachi wouldn't do advanced replacement)

 

[xbassman]

and the plot thickens!

My wife went to CompUSA yesterday only to find out that starting Friday they could only pull up receipts dating back for one year! I may be screwed.

I am going to have to google some more. So far the only thing I have to back up my claim is an article on storagereview.com dated June 2003 (4 months before my purchase) where they quoted Seagate representatives saying that some Barricuda models (including mine) were covered by a full 3 year warranty.

I did come across info about Seagate having database probs, but can't seem to find it now.

 

[xbassman]

Still in the hunt for an RMA!

Today I got a copy of my receipt from CompUSA's corporate office. I just got through sending it to Seagate.
Hopefully they will do the right thing and honor their end. The box it was pulled out of already has a 160 GB Samsung Spinright in it's place so I am not in a rush anymore.

 

[Algere]

Originally posted by: intogamer
I have 5 years. !!!! that sucks. seagate should update to 7 years! thanks for the heads up.

5 years is good enough for me. By the time 5 years are up, the same hard drive model will usually be dirt cheap. For example a 40GB Maxtor I bought 3 years ago for about $120 is now around $30, probably less with a rebate.

 

[BentValve]

IMO HDDs should carry a car battery type warranty...buy an 80 month HDD and it dies in 40 months , get 40 months credit/value towards your new HDD.

 

[dev0lution]

Go back to look at press coverage of Seagate's 5 year warranty announcement, it says prior to the announcement in June '04 they were offering 1 year warranties like everyone else on PATA drives.

Check the warranty terms in the documents that came with the drive. It should state the length of coverage as well as state that the warranty period began when Seagate sold the drive, not the date you purchased the drive.

 

[xbassman]

Originally posted by: dev0lution
Check the warranty terms in the documents that came with the drive. It should state the length of coverage as well as state that the warranty period began when Seagate sold the drive, not the date you purchased the drive.

Fact is, I don't have the paperwork that came with the drive.....
In the first response I rec'd they stated the drive shipped from Seagate Oct 2003. It was purchased Oct. 12, 2003.

 

[dev0lution]

Added an edit above....

 

[xbassman]

Originally posted by: dev0lution
Added an edit above....

Your link had me worried for a bit, then I noticed the date was 2002.

Here's a quote from an article on storage review dated June 15, 2003...

These days, warranties covering ATA drives confuse many readers. According to Seagate, the Barracuda 7200.7 Plus (model numbers ST3120026A and ST3160023A) come backed by three-year programs. All other 7200.7's, including the serial ATA models, are protected by a standard one-year warranty.

My drive is a ST3120026A.

linked

 

[Zepper]

A lot of hardware companies have gone with dating their warranties from the date of mfr. They have to have some starting point and few home users actually file their receipts. Besides which many receipts don't list the serial no. and w/o that, you can't really tell which drive the receipt applies to. Note that the OP didn't retain his receipt...
. IAC, it was around Oct 2002 when several drive mfrs (including Seagate - the relevant press release can still be found on their site and by googling for it) went to the one year warranty starting with drives sold in a certain month. So drives sold thru Sept. 02 had 3 yr warr - the same drive sold the next month had only a one yr. warr. Sorry.
. Sometime last year Seagate reconsidered their warranty and it is now 5yr on retail models - warr period on OEM drives may vary.
.bh.

 

[xbassman]

Zepper, you're not getting the whole story here.....

The drive in question should have been covered by a 3 year warranty.
I have another one that was purchased 3 months later that shows up correctly in their system with warranty expiring January, 2007.

 

[JBT]

I bought a refurb Seagate 200GB SATA from Newegg a month or so ago according to seagates website its warrenty expires in Oct of 2009.

 

[goog]

My 200GB SATA bought late November 2004 expires Nov. 9, 2009, close enough for me. Interesting sidenote Sandra gives wrong serial # info.

 

[rahvin]

Originally posted by: xbassman
Zepper, you're not getting the whole story here.....

The drive in question should have been covered by a 3 year warranty.
I have another one that was purchased 3 months later that shows up correctly in their system with warranty expiring January, 2007.

I feel for you but storagereview isn't seagate and press representatives are notoriously bad. Unfortunatly I don't think you can fault seagate for an incorrect statement on storagereview. Either way I would email storagereview about the screwup and include the evidenciary emails.

 

[xbassman]

Umm...
The remark from storagereview.com is not the basis of my claim, it mearly supports it.

For years now, when i make HD purchase decisions the #1 factor in my decision has been warranty, then comes peformance and quiet operation.

Over the last several years I have had too many failed hd's to shop any other way.