[SunRescue] Q: Regarding Sun Educator promo Ultra 5 system

Thu Apr 20 12:42:33 CDT 2000

<RANT="on">

Okay, I'll have to add my 2 cents, as this subject really burns me up at the
moment:

I've RMA'd with Western Digital, Maxtor, Quantum, and Seagate - here are
some observations:

Maxtor:  Absolute easiest drive RMA I've ever done.  Pleasure to deal with,
even sent back a larger drive than I RMA'd.  Great & painless

Quantum: Not too bad, a bit of a hassle to get to the right place for the
RMA at the time (it's been a while), but overall good to deal with

Seagate:  I've had the OEM drive troubles others have discussed.  However,
in every case I've been able to speak with a customer service rep, explain
the fact that I had no idea which system the drive may have originally
shipped with or who to talk to at the system manufacturer, and they were
*always* willing to exchange the drive without any hassle after that
explaination.  Basically, they don't like handling the warranty process for
the OEM drives, since conceivably they're providing warranty drives directly
to those vendors, but they'll handle it for you if you plead ignorance.
BTW, Seagate uses the absolute best shipping boxes in the business - full
foam all around the drive, instead of skimpy stryofoam pieces on either end
of a suspended drive...

Western Digital:  The *were* great to deal with about RMAs, up until I just
tried to RMA a drive about 2 months ago.  The RMA process was painless, they
advanced shipped out the replacement drive, everything seemed A-Ok.  Then,
about a month later, the RMA'd drive showed back up on my door, with 2
really big labels on it - "Drive Not Repaired" and "Drive Refused".  The
warehouse techs at Western Digital refused my RMA'd drive because (get this,
I love it) there was a slight crack in the plastic "socket" that the IDE
cable plugs into (and by slight, I mean hairline).  No functional damage to
the drive, apparently the thing either cracked during shipping, or was
already cracked and just unnoticeable to me.  Anyways, when I called and
pressed with WD Tech Support, I was given a manager who explained that this
bit of cosmetic damage was considered "warranty-voiding" damage, because a
slight crack to that piece of the casing can *GASP* lead to ESD
(Electro-static discharge) damage!  Great, I think, they're using the old
static electricity boogieman to deny my warranty claim.  

After much argument with the guy, he finally relented that WD was getting
too many warranty returns, had been too easy on the warranty policy, and had
instructed it's factory techs to be absolutely anal about incoming drives
essentially in order to cut warranty costs (his marketing-speak was that
they were "standing behind their quality product", but his arguments
basically boiled down to the fact that they had more warranty returns then
they wanted, so they were going to find as many excuses to deny warranty
claims as possible).  The best bit was that they then tried to sleaze me
into a "Drive trade-up" program (which they're pushing hard - when I made
the RMA, the tech must have pushed this like 5 times, and both the frontline
tech and this manager also pushed it a bunch).  To replace my 3.2gb drive
with the same drive (refurbed) would run me $109 + shipping (at that time, 
hitechcafe was running 4.3gb Seagates for $99, new).  Then, to make matters
worse, I was informed that I'd probably have to return the advance ship
drive first, because it wasn't sent out under this "trade-up" program, and
if I didn't send it back I'd be billed some silly amount of money (I think
it was the original factory price of the drive, something like $399 or
$499).  After pushing some more, the manager relented, and instructed me to
send my drive into him for final review, upon which he would try to get the
warehouse to accept the drive if he thought the "physical damage" was
accidental.  That was 3 weeks ago, I've heard nothing yet, but I'm not
backing down on my side.  My main observation to the guy was this:  Western
Digital, in trying to cut costs, is cutting customers.  I turned down any
and all "Trade-up" offers (they're not worth what they ask, and they're
basically almost a bait-and-switch from actual warranty replacement), and
told them very clearly that I'd take my (and my customer's and client's)
money down the street to Seagate or IBM.

Oh, yeah, and I forgot to mention that Western Digital *requires* that you
run a WD diagnostic utility on your drive before they'll even speak to you
about RMA.  In the case of this drive, I called in to get the RMA and was
greeted with instant grief because I hadn't run the utility yet.  The tech
didn't stop with his lecture until I interrupted his "rant" to inform him of
the drive problem:  Head crash and platter damage, the disk didn't even spin
without a huge grinding noice

After that, he got very polite and quickly processed the RMA for me ;)

Oh well, I guess YMMV, but I for one am thouroughly displeased with Western
Digital at this stage.  Luckily I rarely have to deal with PC stuff these
days...

Chris

-- 
Chris Petersen
Systems Engineer, Industry Services, Unigraphics Solutions Inc.
Co-founder, auctions.workstations.org
Email: havoc at apk.net

> 
> I've rma'd every brand of drives (worked for a while in the RMA dept for a
> small reseller).  The manufacturers are Always better than distributers
> for hard drives, but not by much.  Seagate and IBM both make some drives
> that they'll tell you to talk to the OEM they sold them to about.  Don't
> bother, they won't talk to you without a contract.  WD has never made any
> to my knowledge, and they'll take anything back, with little or no hastle.
> Quantum wasn't soo bad, nor was Seagate, just not as easy.  Fujitsu will
> talk to you if you dig deep enough, but it takes some real work.  JTS (I
> think that's right) I have no experience with, and I belive they rebadge
> other brands drives.
> 	Nick
> 
> On Wed, 19 Apr 2000, Paul Khoury wrote:
> 
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: nick at ns.snowman.net <nick at ns.snowman.net>
> > To: rescue at sunhelp.org <rescue at sunhelp.org>
> > Date: Wednesday, April 19, 2000 3:23 PM
> > Subject: Re: [SunRescue] Q: Regarding Sun Educator promo Ultra 5 system
> > 
> > 
> > As to Western Digital drives, I've had great luck with them, and
> > >they take their drives back!  I know this is a shock to anyone who's tried
> > >to rma a Seagate or Fujitsu drive.  You call the number, give them your
> > >serial num, your date code, and if it's within 3 or 5 years (depending on
> > >drive) they'll ship you a new one.  That's it.  It's great!
> > 
> > Try with IBM or Quantum - they won't even deal with you unless you're an
> > OEM.
> > 
> > Is Fujitsu that bad?  I heard they're good on their warranty return policy,
> > unless
> > that changed - but I've had good luck on the few of their drives I've used.
> > 
> > Again, for Seagate, depends on the model - the ST3480 (I think that's it), I
> > hate
> > those - they fail when you least expect them...
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rescue maillist  -  Rescue at sunhelp.org
> > http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue
> > 
> 
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