You couldn't talk to WD sales? Should be a straight swap under their return policy if they have one.
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[H]ard Forum Storage Showoff Thread
- Thread starter EnderW
- Start date
Of course not! Warranty exchanges cost money--if company can frustrate the customer and make them give up, company wins! Short term anyways unless there's competition, or if it's par for the course, suck it up customer! No one gives 2Fs about you!
w1retap
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I talked to WD Support again, and again it was India. I was able to finally get my drives to show up in the WD Support page, however the India Tech Support tells me the RMA has to be done through their site. When I go to the site, this is what I get when I try to RMA. So, I'm just in the process of filing a credit card chargeback. This is ridiculous.
w1retap
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Ho-leee-balls. This just keeps getting better. Western Digital India called me based on my support ticket I created yesterday. Just sat on the phone with them for almost 2 hours. They said they wanted to help me create the RMA. They talked me through their website where I repeated the same steps to create the RMA, and it failed again, just as shown in the screenshot above ---^ ... next they said they'd create the RMA manually since that didn't work. I read my WD order number to them, and they said they couldn't find it. Then about 20 more minutes into the call, they said they found the order. They had me verify my email address no less than 8 times, and each time they couldn't understand my perfect english using the mil-std phonetic alphabet to read my email address. After numerous tries, finally they confirmed it.
I read them all 3 of my serial numbers I was trying to RMA. Had to do this several times, and I still don't think they got it right, because the lady couldn't pronounce the english alphabet properly. Anyhow, I just said yea that's fine, I'll validate everything is correct when I get the email from you, so I'll stay on the line to validate once you send it. She said that's not possible, because they can't send the email while on the phone. I asked why that is, and she said she had to talk to her supervisor. <on hold for 10 mintues> Then it was sure, we can do that for you, it is going to be a standard RMA with processing time of 2 to 3 weeks. I'm like no, I need these sooner than that, can I do an advanced RMA? They say no, they can't do an advanced RMA because they don't do any credit card payments there. I said, please, transfer me to someone who will. They said that's not possible. So I said.. ok, I'll just do the standard RMA since you say you can't do an advanced RMA.
So, she goes off for another 5 minutes or so talking to her supervisor and says sure, yes they can do an advanced RMA. Then she said she would have to escalate the call to the support team above their level. I say ok, that's fine. Then during the transfer it just goes back to the same lady again. She says she'll have to send me an email for the advanced RMA authorization and payment. I receive it, and it is just a link to Western Digital's support website where you put in your serial numbers as shown above which doesn't work.
I asked several times if I could be transferred to a US-based office, they said it was not possible.
I feel like I could do a Louis Rossman style video on this where he talks to the State of New York.
Edit: also, I can't even do the "30-day Money Back Guarantee" since my order doesn't show up under my account, despite it being validated as the correct order number placed on their website.
Edit 2: Thought I'd call WD's Corporate Office in California at 408-801-1000. Selected the option for support on Western Digital consumer products. It just disconnects you and there is no answer from a human, routing you back to the main menu. So I go to their enterprise support line. It routes me back to the same call center in India. lmao.. you literally can't get a hold of anyone in the US at this company unless you have a specific extension and insider information.
I read them all 3 of my serial numbers I was trying to RMA. Had to do this several times, and I still don't think they got it right, because the lady couldn't pronounce the english alphabet properly. Anyhow, I just said yea that's fine, I'll validate everything is correct when I get the email from you, so I'll stay on the line to validate once you send it. She said that's not possible, because they can't send the email while on the phone. I asked why that is, and she said she had to talk to her supervisor. <on hold for 10 mintues> Then it was sure, we can do that for you, it is going to be a standard RMA with processing time of 2 to 3 weeks. I'm like no, I need these sooner than that, can I do an advanced RMA? They say no, they can't do an advanced RMA because they don't do any credit card payments there. I said, please, transfer me to someone who will. They said that's not possible. So I said.. ok, I'll just do the standard RMA since you say you can't do an advanced RMA.
So, she goes off for another 5 minutes or so talking to her supervisor and says sure, yes they can do an advanced RMA. Then she said she would have to escalate the call to the support team above their level. I say ok, that's fine. Then during the transfer it just goes back to the same lady again. She says she'll have to send me an email for the advanced RMA authorization and payment. I receive it, and it is just a link to Western Digital's support website where you put in your serial numbers as shown above which doesn't work.
I asked several times if I could be transferred to a US-based office, they said it was not possible.
I feel like I could do a Louis Rossman style video on this where he talks to the State of New York.
Edit: also, I can't even do the "30-day Money Back Guarantee" since my order doesn't show up under my account, despite it being validated as the correct order number placed on their website.
Edit 2: Thought I'd call WD's Corporate Office in California at 408-801-1000. Selected the option for support on Western Digital consumer products. It just disconnects you and there is no answer from a human, routing you back to the main menu. So I go to their enterprise support line. It routes me back to the same call center in India. lmao.. you literally can't get a hold of anyone in the US at this company unless you have a specific extension and insider information.
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Geez and I thought SanDisk was bad a few years ago over a ssd that died. I think WD had owned them for a year or so at that point. At least it was just an extra email explaining to them that no I couldnt run their test program because the drive was totally dead and I repeated what I'd written in the RMA request form. I think I tested that ssd in 3 different systems with 3 different sata cables, different sata ports and a HD dock (esata and usb).
This is the nightmare that drive warranties have become. I had some trouble with them a few years ago for an HGST that was now warrant'd by WD, but they got it fairly easily compared to the hell they're putting you through. But compared to WD, I've heard Toshiba enterprise is so bad that most people don't even try.
w1retap
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Latest in the saga. Trying the email route. They don't seem to understand I purchased these drives from their webstore. I've made it clear in numerous emails and even attached my invoice. Insanity. They seem to think I'm in some bizarre country and bought them from a Jakarta market.
Absolutely insane--this is what any support in the third world looks like, which is none. Sad to see that anyone in the west is subjected to this garbage.
Here's a route that seems to work for a lot of companies, but really shouldn't (my wife would kill me if I told you this trick because she deals with it as head of support for a company)--find some of the principals of WD on linked in and message them. Chief of Support, Director of Support, VP of support, etc. Hit them all--you might be surprised how fast this is resolved.
w1retap
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I'll have to reactivate my LinkedIn. I can use leverage that I'll recommend for all multi-million dollar computer projects I manage at the Fortune 500 company I work for, we'll no longer be utilizing WD as a partner haha.
That would certainly do it!!
w1retap
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lol, I'm just waiting for them to say I need to send them some iTunes gift cards first before I get a RMA number.
Oops oops sorry wrong chat window. rofl
Oops oops sorry wrong chat window. rofl
w1retap
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Update.. I was able to get WD email support (after about 12 back and forth emails) to give me a return w/ refund. These will be yeeted into the UPS drop box as soon as possible this morning. Holy crap what a nightmare. There's another guy on a private tracker forum I'm on dealing with the same thing right now too, and his show up as "Out of Region" upon registration as well.
Do not purchase from WD.
Do not purchase from WD.
w1retap
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Pulled the trigger on these again.. we'll give it a go for round 2. 
Still waiting for a refund on the WD's.
Still waiting for a refund on the WD's.
TeeJayHoward
Limpness Supreme
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I grabbed a 16TB WD drive to shuck from Amazon during Black Friday. One of the disks in my NAS had failed, figured might as well upgrade. <12 hours between ordering and having it on my doorstep. ...Yeah. Before I even got the package opened, another disk had been marked degraded and one file had been corrupted. Rats. And of course, the 16TB deal is gone from Amazon now. Still available on WD's site, but after w1retap's issues, I ain't goin' near it. Looks like I can pick up 14TB drives from BestBuy for the same price, and they'd match everything else in my NAS except the one new 16TB drive, so I did that x4. (Had to make two orders because of their "3 per order" limit.)
I'm getting sick of Seagate drives dying on me. First the Constellation series, then the Barracudas, now the Ironwolfs. You'd think I'd learn my lesson.
I'm getting sick of Seagate drives dying on me. First the Constellation series, then the Barracudas, now the Ironwolfs. You'd think I'd learn my lesson.
Code:
[root@nas Downloads]# zpool status
pool: backup
state: ONLINE
scan: scrub repaired 0B in 0 days 19:36:54 with 0 errors on Sat Nov 13 23:55:08 2021
config:
NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
backup ONLINE 0 0 0
mirror-0 ONLINE 0 0 0
14TB-9MH4K35K ONLINE 0 0 0
14TB-9MH5P6BK ONLINE 0 0 0
mirror-1 ONLINE 0 0 0
14TB-Y6GBZW5D ONLINE 0 0 0
14TB-Y6GE8DPD ONLINE 0 0 0
mirror-2 ONLINE 0 0 0
14TB-Y6GK8E2C ONLINE 0 0 0
14TB-Y6GKB43C ONLINE 0 0 0
mirror-3 ONLINE 0 0 0
14TB-Y6GL164D ONLINE 0 0 0
14TB-Y6GTHUBC ONLINE 0 0 0
mirror-4 ONLINE 0 0 0
14TB-Y6GTNZVC ONLINE 0 0 0
14TB-Y6GTU4EC ONLINE 0 0 0
mirror-5 ONLINE 0 0 0
14TB-Y6GTUL9C ONLINE 0 0 0
14TB-Y6GU0N9C ONLINE 0 0 0
errors: No known data errors
pool: pool
state: DEGRADED
status: One or more devices is currently being resilvered. The pool will
continue to function, possibly in a degraded state.
action: Wait for the resilver to complete.
scan: resilver in progress since Sat Nov 25 15:13:19 2023
345G scanned at 115G/s, 157M issued at 52.3M/s, 52.2T total
0B resilvered, 0.00% done, 12 days 02:51:03 to go
config:
NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
pool DEGRADED 0 0 0
raidz1-0 DEGRADED 0 0 0
12TB-ZJV0VHSS ONLINE 0 0 0
12TB-ZCH0HBK0 ONLINE 0 0 0
12TB-ZJV2J70M ONLINE 0 0 0
12TB-ZJV0VZ0Z DEGRADED 0 0 0 too many errors
14TB-2BGTL7WR ONLINE 0 0 0
replacing-5 DEGRADED 0 0 0
12857538123529081610 UNAVAIL 0 0 0 was /dev/disk/by-vdev/12TB-ZJV0V6RQ-part1
16TB-4JG0ZJGW ONLINE 0 0 0
errors: No known data errors
[root@nas Downloads]# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
***
backup 73T 42T 31T 58% /backup
pool 51T 42T 8.6T 83% /pool