Etech4Sale.com Switching Drives

kirbyrj

kirbyrj

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Feb 1, 2005
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A few days ago there was a post about a 250GB PATA drive from Outpost with rebates and in that thread there was a link to a $99 no rebate 250GB Maxtor PATA drive from etech4sale.com. Both the Diamond Max Plus 9 (6Y250P0) and the Max Line Plus II (7Y250P0) drives were available for $99 so I ordered the Max Line Plus II since it is rated for constant operation. I was phoned during the week asking me if I would consider the Diamond Max Plus 9 drive instead because they were out of the Max Line Plus II's, but I told them I'd wait the extra day for the Max Line Plus II. When I received my drive today, I got a 6Y200L0 200GB drive with 2MB buffer with a homemade sticker on it telling me it was a Max Line Plus II 250GB drive when clearly it was identified by Windows/Bios/RAID Controller as the 6Y200L0. So if you got that deal from a few days ago, make sure you check your drives. I sent in an RMA refund.

Also, as I'm writing this post, I just received a phone call from etech4sale (within 10 minutes after sending the RMA), and the man I talked to was very generous, and he is going to take the drive back with "no hard feelings." So I guess it all worked out (other than shipping the drive). I guess mistakes happen. I just don't like them when they happen to me :)
 
kirbyrj said:
Also, as I'm writing this post, I just received a phone call from etech4sale (within 10 minutes after sending the RMA), and the man I talked to was very generous, and he is going to take the drive back with "no hard feelings." So I guess it all worked out (other than shipping the drive). I guess mistakes happen. I just don't like them when they happen to me :)
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This "no hard feelings." crap? Just how are they making you feel better? If you're out a penny and, frankly, aren't getting at least the drive you paid good money for (not the fraudulent 'home brew' they gave you.) my feelings would still be pretty sore (And might well be on Tuesday.)

Could you like this thread from the old one please? I'd be VERY interested to know if this happens to anyone else.
 
mutazx said:
This "no hard feelings." crap? Just how are they making you feel better? If you're out a penny and, frankly, aren't getting at least the drive you paid good money for (not the fraudulent 'home brew' they gave you.) my feelings would still be pretty sore (And might well be on Tuesday.)

Could you like this thread from the old one please? I'd be VERY interested to know if this happens to anyone else.
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I would be pissed off too since they are selling me something that is NOT what I ordered. I would require that they pay for the shipping as well since it is not my mistake. Just from my point of view at least.
 
Well, my MaxLine II 250's will be here on Monday. I'm having them shipped to my office, so first thing I'll do is examine the label and if it looks fishy, I'll drop into one of my servers at work just to check the BIOS ID. They better not be screwing me over...

Their ratings were pretty high, and the experience you've had with them on the phone has been fairly pleasant compared to many, so I'm optimistic that that was just a fluke.

/knocks on wood
 
I too ordered 2 250 Gig H/D's. I ordered on the 3rd and on the 9th I still hadn't heard anything about my order so I called and was told that they had sold out fast and .... So I told him just to cancel my order. Well we talked for a little bit more and I told him I was interested in SATA drives mainly and he made me a deal for 2 250 SATA Maxtor's for $110.00 each, total with tax came out to $231.00, vs the 221.00 for the PATA H/D's. Checked out other web sites, including the Egg and most of them sell the same drive for $155.00 each. So if I get what he told me I would, and no home-made labels, then I will be happy.

Shipped the 9th and will be here on the 14th, already they are here in LA, now just to have them delivered here in my little town that will be Monday at the earliest. Oh well ...
 
Well I was the one that posted the link in the previous thread. I wasn't sure about dealing with etech4sale as I had never heard of them before, but they had a decent rating on resellerratings.com.

I recieved my DiamondMax plus 9 drive Thursday and it too had a funny homemade looking label. I thought it was a little odd, but just set it aside and didn't give it much more thought until now. Sooo, after seeing this thread I decided to check my drive to see if it was what I ordered. It was recognized correctly as a 6Y250P0 in the BIOS so I did get what I paid for. BUT, my other 2 orders for the other drives sat idle on thier site so I gave them a call. They guy I talked to was very polite and told me that they had been overrun with orders and that they were out of stock of the drives listed. He said that they were not able to get any more from the previous source and would not be able to sell any more at the $99 price due to an increased price that they had to pay for the drives. Bullshit? Maybe. But after some searching he did offer me and alternative at the same price but only with 2MB cache. I took it and ordered 5 of them. This was around 2PM local time. At around 6PM I recieved a shipping confirmation via e-mail with a tracking number.

So, short story long, they ran out of the original drives that were posted but were good enough to offer and alternative at the same price. I know it's not exactly the same drive, but the willingness to work with me over the phone and make me an alternative offer goes a long way in my book and I'll definitely do business with them again.

Next time I'll just make sure I get what I want ordered before I post the link. :D
 
kirbyrj said:
So I guess it all worked out (other than shipping the drive). I guess mistakes happen. I just don't like them when they happen to me :)
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well, I'll see if that mistake happens to me when my two drives come on Monday.

but I can tell you right now I aint gonna be too happy if I have to play this returning drives game. not happy at all.... :mad:
 
I ordered two of the 250GB 6Y... drives, but cancelled when I read about the 7Y drives. Some dude called and said they were out of the 7Y, but that I could have the 6Y's instead. I told him no and that I'd wait till they received some more 7Y's. He said it'd take about a week to get more 7Y's in. When I asked why they still had 2 6Y's left when their stock system showed only 11 to begin with before everyone rushed to buy them, he couldn't give me a straight answer. I told him I found it hard to believe that they were already out of the 7Y's when the quantity stock said 33 as vs the 11 6Y's they had and he just mumbled something. Anyway, two days ago, I got an email saying they're on their way. Supposed to get them Mon or Tues. Will have to check them... Thx for the heads-up!
 
^ feb 4th and still not shipped? sheez....

first they're taking forever to ship and now they might be pulling the ole "switch-a-roo" on people?

man, these guys are just asking for bad Resellers Rattings arent they?
 
I ordered on the 4th and mine shipped on the 8th. I chalked up the delay to using a different shipping address than my CC billing address, which they said would cause a delay. So I'm pleased with their shipping turnaround, I just hope my drives aren't switched.

If they're calling people when they knew they were out of stock, and never called me, then I have to hope it's because they still had stock of the 7Y's when they shipped mine. If not I will be very upset and will be calling them to rectify the problem. If they give me any grief or any restocking BS, I will dispute the charges on the CC and keep the damn drives until it's settled to my satisfaction...
 
they probably tried to call me for all I know but it didnt happen because I NEVER give the correct phone # on anything that I buy over the internet.

oh well, like I said earlier, my drives will be here tomorrow so we'll see. I'll post some pics if in fact I also get a fake Maxtor sticker as well.

you have to have evidence like this when you're going to dispute the charges with your CC and actually turn around and screw the vendor instead of them screwing you. :p
 
ozziegn said:
they probably tried to call me for all I know but it didnt happen because I NEVER give the correct phone # on anything that I buy over the internet.

oh well, like I said earlier, my drives will be here tomorrow so we'll see. I'll post some pics if in fact I also get a fake Maxtor sticker as well.

you have to have evidence like this when you're going to dispute the charges with your CC and actually turn around and screw the vendor instead of them screwing you. :p
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Why would you not give your real phone number? You trust them with your CC and address but put a fake phone thus screwing you over if something happens? Pretty stupid, especially since they could do a reverse lookup of your address to get your number on whitepages.com, but probably wont and just let you be screwed if something happens.
 
The phone number that showed up on my caller ID when they called me was 408 855 8000. Not sure if that is different than what the site says, but that's who called me. Give that a try :).
 
rusek said:
Pretty stupid, especially since they could do a reverse lookup of your address to get your number on whitepages.com,
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okay, first of all there's no sense in calling me stupid. you obviously have no idea of why I do what I do.

second, my phone # is a very hush-hush thing with me which is why I pay extra every year to have my # unlisted. its nice being able to come home at night and not having 5 or 10 people calling me and asking or begging for money from this organization or that supposedly non-profit club. yes, I use to have that crap happen to me all the time before I paid to have my number unlisted. almost three years later and I havent had not one call from any of those bozos...

third, I dont mind giving my CC # to retailors because I have had and always will have CC fraud protection AND buyer's protection meaning no retailor is gonna screw this boy.

so thats it. the next time you imply that someone is stupid for doing what they do, you might wanna hold that thought and rethink it over before you yourself infact might say something STUPID.
 
I think the POSSIBILITY of a phone call, and that's if you deal with a scumbag retailer, far outways the disadvantage of the retailer not being able to effectively contact you.
 
hey now, how 'bout we chill out a little here? Let's all get ready to focus our hate toward etech if they screw us collectively over
 
^ I agree and I'm sorry that I got a little warm under the collar.

I just cant stand it when people say silly things like that w/o knowing what peoples' reasons are for doing what they do and why they do it.

none the less, I'll post my findings tomorrow when my drives arrive. I really hope I dont have any phoney Maxtor stickers on mine because I know the sh*t's gonna hit the fan if in fact that does happen.
 
I ordered a pair of 6Y250P0 and got what I ordered, as far as I can tell. Is there a quick and easy way to tell how big the cache on the drive is via software? I'm running winxp...

I do agree that the label does look a little ... weird.
 
^ can you take a pic and show us what the label looks like?
 
6Y250P0.JPG


that's my second drive. it's in an anti-static bag so the label looks shiny, but it isn't really.

Note how there's no like... jumper settings, or cylinder/head information or any of that normal stuff. made in singapore, wonder how much that matters? heh.
 
i canceled my order, someone called me and asked me like 5 times if i was sure i wanted to cancel lol.
 
ok, now i'm worried.

I was getting concerned since my order for 2 was placed on the 3rd, and I haven't heard anything, but I did choose the "i'll wait for them to be available option" but now I'm going to contact them and see what the deal is. my order status is "Avail. Ck" what ever that heck that means.

I'll post again once they open this morning.

QM
 
quasimodem said:
ok, now i'm worried.

I was getting concerned since my order for 2 was placed on the 3rd, and I haven't heard anything, but I did choose the "i'll wait for them to be available option" but now I'm going to contact them and see what the deal is. my order status is "Avail. Ck" what ever that heck that means.

I'll post again once they open this morning.

QM
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My magic crystal ball tells me that they'll offer you a 5400rpm drive, a SATA drive, free shipping, and then ship you what you ordered anyway.

Frankly, correct drive or not, my reseller-rating feedback isn't going to be good.
 
syukton said:
I ordered a pair of 6Y250P0 and got what I ordered, as far as I can tell. Is there a quick and easy way to tell how big the cache on the drive is via software? I'm running winxp...

I do agree that the label does look a little ... weird.
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This question got me thinking...

I figured there would be a way under XP to find the cache-size, but I couldn't find it. Then I knew sandrasoft would tell me, but I didn't see it if it did.... so a GOOGLING I did go! It's surprising to me, how many responses had "The model number tells you" in them, but we're dealing with, what appears to be, home-brew labelling, so that isn't comforting. Finally, I found an app called ' AIDA32'. It's freeware, but looks to be discontinued now. You can still find it, just not on the author's page. YMMV, don't blame me if your PC implodes, yadda, yadda...
 
I'd consider contacting Maxtor customer support. They probably have a tool that will tell the exact model number by running it, and they'd be veeeerrry interested to know what's going on with a company who may be relabeling their drives.
 
Most BIOS'es report the drive model number when the drive is detected at boot time. So you shouldn't have to depend on the label or install other software to figure out the cache (I've used AIDA and didn't remember it detecting disk cache size, but maybe it does). If it's a 6Y250P0 or a 7Y250P0, it's an 8MB cache drive. If it's any other model, look it up on Maxtor's website or Google for it.
 
I think that label is suspect. Do your research; is there a serial number? Check Maxtor's website to find out the details. Yes, the powermax software is available from Maxtor here:
Powermax

I have used it many times and it's as good as the WD and Seagate software. I have been following this and I declined to order a drive. I am now glad for that. :(
 
Malatov said:
Most BIOS'es report the drive model number when the drive is detected at boot time. So you shouldn't have to depend on the label or install other software to figure out the cache (I've used AIDA and didn't remember it detecting disk cache size, but maybe it does). If it's a 6Y250P0 or a 7Y250P0, it's an 8MB cache drive. If it's any other model, look it up on Maxtor's website or Google for it.
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The ATA section:

ATA Device Properties
Model ID WDC WD800JB-00CRA1
Serial Number WD-WMA8E3780485
Revision 17.07W17
Parameters 155061 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors per track, 600 bytes per sector
LBA Sectors 156301488
Buffer 8 MB (Dual Ported, Read Ahead)
Multiple Sectors 16
ECC Bytes 40
Max. PIO Transfer Mode PIO 4
Max. UDMA Transfer Mode UDMA 5 (ATA-100)
Active UDMA Transfer Mode UDMA 5 (ATA-100)
Unformatted Capacity 89436 MB
 
brasherman said:
I think that label is suspect. Do your research; is there a serial number? Check Maxtor's website to find out the details. Yes, the powermax software is available from Maxtor here:
Powermax

I have used it many times and it's as good as the WD and Seagate software. I have been following this and I declined to order a drive. I am now glad for that. :(
Click to expand...

Note: PowerMax v 4.21 will not detect ATA or SATA hard disks connected to embedded or add in RAID controllers, NVIDIA Force 3, Force 4, VIA KT 600 and KT800 chipsets.

Is this true?
 
On the phone with them now, they are saying that they are out of stock of the high speed drives, and they will let me save 10 bucks on each of the slower drives. they also said i could have 300gb drives for $150 each. but they are "just sold out" of drives at this time.

I asked when they expect to get more, and he said, "there's no telling".

so i cancelled my order. Now I have to find another place.

oh well, calling the credit card company right now to see if any charges were made.

QM
 
*update on my order*

I just recieved my two 7Y250P0 drives and the both look like they're the genuine article so I'm happy. I happy opened either drive yet to test but the Maxtor sticker on both drives look legit.

*Ozzie wipes the sweat from his forehead...* :D

I'll take some pics in a little while.
 
here's a pic of the sticker thats on both of my Maxline 2 drives.

250GBmaxtor.jpg


-notice the manufacture date. they're not even a month old yet. :D
 
mutazx said:
That's great news ozz!
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yes it is, its very good news considering that I really didnt feel like having to get sh*tty with anyone on the phone today because I mightve gotten screwed.

thank God I didnt...
 
The drive I have in right now is recognized by my BIOS as a 6Y250P0 (which is what I ordered, all homemade-looking-sticker wonkyness aside). The drive itself is unusually quiet, I had to hold it up to my ear to make sure it was actually on. This is because these drives use FDB motors like Seagate has been using for years now in their Barracuda drives; FDB stands for Fluid Dynamic Bearing and is the pinnacle of current quiet drive technology. Everything other than the weird label points to it being exactly what I ordered, and the weird label may be totally fine. I'm going to contact Maxtor tomorrow about it.

I didn't know that the 6Y250P0 isn't rated for constant operation, but I've got it in a Zalman heatpipe cooler with a pair of 40mm fans blowing over it, so hopefully it'll treat me well. :)
 
ozziegn said:
here's a pic of the sticker thats on both of my Maxline 2 drives.
...
-notice the manufacture date. they're not even a month old yet. :D
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Hey Ozz, I just got mine and opened 'em up and they are identical to yours. Genuine Maxtor labels and 19JAN2005 mfg date. :)

Whew...

I'm pleased with them. I'm not sure why some folks got runarounds and funky labeled drives, but I'm figuring that the switch for the 2MB buffer drives was unintentional, probably some part-time warehouse guy who pulled the wrong part or something.
 
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