How is WD's RMA process

devman

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Just ran a disk check on my 2500KS after some BSODs due to disk errors, and it turned up about 300 bad clusters, I checked my system event log and its got red x's with disk errors all over the place. So I'm wondering if anyone has experience with Western Digitals RMA process, just to kinda give me a heads up on what to expect.
 
Just ran a disk check on my 2500KS after some BSODs due to disk errors, and it turned up about 300 bad clusters, I checked my system event log and its got red x's with disk errors all over the place. So I'm wondering if anyone has experience with Western Digitals RMA process, just to kinda give me a heads up on what to expect.

I did an RMA with them on 2 drives a long time ago. Took 3 months to get my drives from them. They kept telling me they were out of stock.

When you do get your RMA make sure you WIPE your drive before sending it back to WD... I use DBAN . I've heard of companies getting drives back like that and repairing and sending back out and data still on them.
 
I RMA'd a Raptor a couple of months ago with no problems. I did the "cross-ship" option where I gave them a credit card number to use to charge for the cost of the drive if they didn't receive mine within 30 days. Went flawlessly and had my replacement drive within a week.
 
I did an RMA with them on 2 drives a long time ago. Took 3 months to get my drives from them. They kept telling me they were out of stock.

When you do get your RMA make sure you WIPE your drive before sending it back to WD... I use DBAN . I've heard of companies getting drives back like that and repairing and sending back out and data still on them.

If a drive is bad, they will not ship it out to someone else. Yeesh :rolleyes:

Anyway, I had a bad Raptor 150 and RMA'd it. I had them send me the new drive and then I shipped my drive back to them in the same box. You do need a credit card for this, but I highly recommend doing it this way.
 
Just thought I'd report back with my own experiences, which were fantastic.

I made my RMA request on Sunday and had my replacement drive by Wednesday, so I'm impressed, the packing was superb, I even used their prepaid UPS label option for return shipping, used the box they sent me.

I have to say pretty painless, and my faith in WD has been restored fully, in fact I just bought a Raptor :D.

Well done WD.
 
just sent one on wednesday and it was shipped today UPS and will be here on monday.

No recept needed just the serial number and go to their website... no emails or anything just the serial number... best RMA process I have ever dealt with..

the only reason I buy all WD and Samsung Drives are bc of customer service
 
their RMA support is the best imo. ive only ordered hd's made by them for about 4-5 years now.

true story no joke, between 12 or 1PM i put in an RMA for a 80gig IDE drive. i did advanced replacement and i had my replacement drive on my step before i woke up the next day. i believe it was delivered at 10AM. i live in southern cali so my location i think has to do with why it got here so quickly, but still it shows they processed the RMA right when they recieved it. they pay shipping both ways so you really dont spend ANYTHING on shipping.. except the gas to drop off the package at your local ups store.

quite painless and fast.
 
I'm guessing if your drive was manufactured within the past year or so, it goes painlessly, however...

My RMA on a WD that died recently, a retail-boxed unit which I bought from CC 6 months ago, is taking FOREVER. It's a PATA 2500JB manufactured in September, 2005. Supposedly because of the s/n I need to Update the Warranty, which will have already taken 2 weeks this upcoming Monday. I filed the Warranty Update Monday before last, the auto-reply said it'd take about 48 hours. Then I sent a friendly "What's going on?" email referencing the incident number last Monday. The guy sent an email saying, "I sent it to the RMA department."

I'm thinking this Monday, I'm gonna have to spend some time on the phone. Yay! I love phoning large CS zoos.
 
My one experience was great. Did the cross ship option on a hard drive and I had it in a few days. Was easy, I give them top marks!
 
Their RMA is even better for resellers. We normally got a replacement drive within 1-2 days (they are in the same shipping zone as me, southern california).

In my experience, however, it is better to do the cross ship option if you are an end user. It seemed that whenever we did the cross-ship, instead of sending the drive in and waiting for them to send one back, the cross-ship method always netted a new drive instead of a reconditioned one. This was for over 40 returns. For customers who didn't mind waiting for a return, and didn't do cross ship, they always got a WD Recertified drive.

I can't verify that it is WDs policy, but that was our experience.
 
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