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

Thu Apr 20 16:33:17 CDT 2000

<rant mode, setting 3 of 10>

Western Digital sucks, just plain and simple like that. I sent a drive with
the old click of death grind-o noises back and they did the same thing to
me. since I am not really interested in PeeCee junk anymore I have given up
with them.

Recently WD announced they would be getting out of the "enterprise" hard
drive business, which their press release went on to say this means no more
SCSI drives, just IDE crap which by me is fine since they make junk anyway.
Funny, I don't think I have ever seen a SCSI WD drive in a real computer
anyhow, good riddance WD! (WD should mean Worthless Drives)

<rant mode reset, 1 of 10>

Mike N
----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Petersen <havoc at apk.net>
To: <rescue at sunhelp.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2000 10:42 AM
Subject: Re: [SunRescue] Q: Regarding Sun Educator promo Ultra 5 system

> <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...
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > > http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue
> > >
> >
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> >
>
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