Western Digital RMA

[DTN107]

I setup an Advance RMA with Western Digital on two hard-drives (750GB Black and 1TB Black drives). After a short term usage both drives started flaking out. Well UPS did treated the packages like soccer balls.

Anyhow I setup an Advance RMA back on June 24. It is now 6 days later and WD has yet to ship out the hard-drives.

I only done the Advance RMA with WD once before and it was great. Replacement drive came in 2 days later and was brand new! Not some refurbie hard-drive.

Is it normal to be waiting this long?

[Megalomaniac]

i waited for a over a month (just a day over) earlier in the year. Then another different one came it less than a week last week. so go figure.

[DougLite]

I setup an Advance RMA with Western Digital on two hard-drives (750GB Black and 1TB Black drives). After a short term usage both drives started flaking out. Well UPS did treated the packages like soccer balls.

Anyhow I setup an Advance RMA back on June 24. It is now 6 days later and WD has yet to ship out the hard-drives.

I only done the Advance RMA with WD once before and it was great. Replacement drive came in 2 days later and was brand new! Not some refurbie hard-drive.

Is it normal to be waiting this long?Which retailer/vendor did you buy the drives from?

[Ockie]

Which retailer/vendor did you buy the drives from?

I'm going to guess, but lets see if I'm right first :D

[DTN107]

Well to surprise you guys it was actually Amazon and not from the egg.

The shipping was a bit low coming from Amazon :(.

The 1TB was inside the usual small WD package. The 750GB was just slightly bubble wrap and place inside a similar WD box. Both small boxes were place in a single larger box and they use those air bags to fill up the vacant spaces. Unfortunately it seem they didn't use enough air bags and both smaller boxes were still able to run around inside.

My cousin is the one who order the hard-drives and just recently cancel his credit card. So I can't refund the hard-drives. I try to look into Amazon's RMA policy on hard-drives but it seems nonexistence. Reason why I set up my RMA through Western Digital instead of the vendor.

[DougLite]

Well to surprise you guys it was actually Amazon and not from the egg.

The shipping was a bit low coming from Amazon :(.

The 1TB was inside the usual small WD package. The 750GB was just slightly bubble wrap and place inside a similar WD box. Both small boxes were place in a single larger box and they use those air bags to fill up the vacant spaces. Unfortunately it seem they didn't use enough air bags and both smaller boxes were still able to run around inside.

My cousin is the one who order the hard-drives and just recently cancel his credit card. So I can't refund the hard-drives. I try to look into Amazon's RMA policy on hard-drives but it seems nonexistence. Reason why I set up my RMA through Western Digital instead of the vendor.We're not questioning you or even the shipper. However, bubble wrap and peanuts are bad, very bad. Hard drives need foam or molded plastic inserts - something that will hold the drive in place but deform if the box is punctured or crushed.

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1027963556&postcount=22 One of my best posts evar :D :o

[Ockie]

Well to surprise you guys it was actually Amazon and not from the egg.

The shipping was a bit low coming from Amazon :(.

The 1TB was inside the usual small WD package. The 750GB was just slightly bubble wrap and place inside a similar WD box. Both small boxes were place in a single larger box and they use those air bags to fill up the vacant spaces. Unfortunately it seem they didn't use enough air bags and both smaller boxes were still able to run around inside.

My cousin is the one who order the hard-drives and just recently cancel his credit card. So I can't refund the hard-drives. I try to look into Amazon's RMA policy on hard-drives but it seems nonexistence. Reason why I set up my RMA through Western Digital instead of the vendor.


So both came shipped together and both failed? Was this direct from Amazon or one of their sellers?

[DTN107]

To help clear up the fog:

1) The 1TB came in the plastic inserts
2) The 750GB came in bubble wrap
3) This was from direct Amazon (not a seller)
4) Both were inside individual small boxes and place inside a single large box which had more than 50% empty space.
6) Air bags were used to fill the vacant space but they were short on air bags. It still left roughly 30% vacant space.
7) The 750GB was very noisy and later failed.
8) The 1TB work fine for a few days and started to flake out as well.

[DougLite]

empty space? meaning the smaller boxes were allowed to slide around? Unbelievable.

[DTN107]

^
Sadly yes. I was a bit surprise to see this coming from Amazon. Now I'm stuck waiting to do an Advance RMA with WD. So far still waiting for them to send out the drives so I can reuse their package and ship my drives back. It seems I'm just having a bit of bad luck lately.

[Adidas4275]

I have always been happy with WDs rma service.

[Syntax Error]

^
Sadly yes. I was a bit surprise to see this coming from Amazon. Now I'm stuck waiting to do an Advance RMA with WD. So far still waiting for them to send out the drives so I can reuse their package and ship my drives back. It seems I'm just having a bit of bad luck lately.

Actually, I did get a similar experience from Amazon for an RMA drive as well, where the disk drive was propped in a small box probably meant for 2.5" disk drives against the plastic retainers. It had room around to slide around and its only cushion was the negligible amounts of bubble wrap in the package.

It seems like Amazon overall ships out well for sold drives, but RMA shipping may be less-than-desirable. :confused:

[DTN107]

750GB has been sent out. Waiting for tracking number,

No idea when 1TB will arrive. But if I think about it... the 750GB RMA process was alot quicker than Seagate. Hopefully the 1TB will ship out soon. Don't let me down WD :).

[DTN107]

All is well now. Both drives have been ship out by UPS 3 day select (damn UPS again).

Hopefully both drives are brand new like my last RMA process.

[aamsel]

Please post if you receive new drives.
I have done several RMA's with WD, and they have always been refurb's.

[freakyhair]

My last WD RMA experience was not happy. I waited over a month (and ended up moving!) UPS found me right after I moved. I received a slightly larger HD that was a refurb. I didn't use to for too long as I outgrew it.

I still use WD HD's though, and I buy them from the Egg. So far, that one bad one was the only bad one I've gotten.

[DTN107]

Perhaps if you have older drive like the 250GB or 320GB I think you have a higher chance getting a refurb than a new 1TB drives.

I hope I don't get any refurb's. They will be here on July 6 and I'll be taking a final exam till 9PM. I'll post the updates as soon as I open them.

[DTN107]

Weird... UPS just deliver my hdds this morning. That is 3 days earlier than the expected delivery date. UPS has never treated me this nice lol.

Oh well anyhow guys both drives are brand new and not refurbs!