Best online vendor for reliable drives

S

ScretHate

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 5, 2001
Messages
1,889
I'm in the market for a good storage drive that I'd like to last a while. I've come across some pretty shoddy shipping in the past, which led my drives to die out early or not work at all. So I'm asking: what online vendor does the most to ensure that their drives are unlikely to incur damages in the shipping process?
 
Buy a retail packed drive and you don't have to worry. Short of that, Dell actually does a great job.
 
cdw does as well. I know because they are one of the approved vendors at work. All drives are individually shipped in foam packs or the ones with the plastic ends that keep the drive in the center of the box with lots of space around.
 
drescherjm said:
All drives are individually shipped in foam packs or the ones with the plastic ends that keep the drive in the center of the box with lots of space around.
Click to expand...

Amazon ships them this way as well. I purchased 8 ST31500341AS drives that came with the plastic ends holding it in the center of the box. Also free shipping and no tax bonus, depending on where you are
 
drescherjm said:
cdw does as well. I know because they are one of the approved vendors at work. All drives are individually shipped in foam packs or the ones with the plastic ends that keep the drive in the center of the box with lots of space around.
Click to expand...

Exactly how Dell packages. All similar to retail.
 
I have had good luck with

OEM Direct (Dell, IBM, HP, Apple etc)
CDW
Amazon
Manufacture (Western Digital, Maxtor, Seagate)
Couple random dudes on ebay

Your best bet for drives are going to usually be venders that supply mostly to enterprise customers.
 
Any reputable retailer will take care of the drives, should they have issues. I know Amazon will pay for shipping, and even have UPS come pick it up

We've given you plenty of good responses. I mean, what are you looking for in a retailer?
 
Ok I'll go ahead and mention the bad for balance. Newegg still has yet to figure out how to properly package an OEM drive. Sometimes they are packed well and sometimes try suck. They do a better job if you buy 4+ though.

Retails are packed well from the manufacturer for any vendor though because of that retail box design.
 
MaxBurn said:
Retails are packed well from the manufacturer for any vendor though because of that retail box design.
Click to expand...

I've seen Seagate retail boxes that are barely bigger than the drive.

Needless to say, they alone do not come close to meeting the requirements of 2" of padding on all sides that UPS demands if you just walk into a UPS store with a HD and want it shipped...
 
ScretHate said:
What about shipping? Is UPS or Fedex better?
Click to expand...

Fedex has delivered my monitors in the past. Box arrives as pristine as can be. Also Amazon overnight deliveries in the past. Perfect service, delivers who appear to personally care in their service.

UPS? Here's what I don't understand:

My mom lives a few miles from me. Roughly five minute drive in 35mph speed limit roads... So, I ship to her house or my place for whatever's convenient at that time and that week...

For deliveries to my place, I must sign. Not even a neighbor. Package will never be left at my door. But items arrive in a pristine box.

For deliveries to my mom's house, no one has ever had to sign, to my knowledge. $2K+ worth of stuff has been left on the porch before many times. (UPS is aware whenever a box is insured for $1K+)

Here's the rub: My mom's two miles away, and boxes are routinely damaged. A box just a week ago was crushed in all three directions.


I have a heavy item coming Thu to my mom's house that contains a heavy item that Amazon for some reason packed with two delicate items.

I plan to be at my mom's house when it arrives. I want to see the box, and not have it just left on the porch.

I have an 80% expectation that I will refuse to accept the delivery on Thu.

But if it came to my door two miles away, I have 100% expectation I would sign for it with a smile on my face.

I'd really like to know WTF is up UPS. This is normal for quite some time now, from the same places. Pristine at my place, crushed at my mom's.

Suggests something's occurring very locally, no?
 
FedEx and DHL are by far the best shipping methods.

UPS - Sure if it is books, wood, or something equally solid and non breakable. I remember reading on their site one time under their shipping terms and conditions that all packages are expected to experience at one 5 foot fall between pickup and delivery. After that all computer parts come FedEx, they get here before noon, boxes are in excellent condition, and they are just as fast if not faster then UPS.
 
C7J0yc3 said:
FedEx and DHL are by far the best shipping methods.
Click to expand...

DHL is by far the worst.

I once had something delivered that was supposed to by signature-only. Instead they just dropped it off and left.

This was at 0900 on a day when we were experiencing heavy, heavy rain (even already at the time they dropped it off), and flooding conditions around the area...

I didn't get home 'til almost 10 hours later... The box was was absolutely soaked...

While I give DHL credit for responding to my complaint and calling me, I still could never recommend DHL, even if you're shipping dog shit... These people displayed that they have absolutely zero care or concern about the items they deliver...

The only other items I've ever had them deliver were two UPSes... The boxes were now malformed, due to the styrofoam padding inside being absolutely pulverized...

So, a total of three items, with all three completely FUBARed...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top