Never buy hard drives from Newegg!

C

c3k

2[H]4U
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Sep 8, 2007
Messages
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Folks,

Just a word to the wise. Newegg no longer believes in packaging hard drives when they ship them.

I just received my order of two WD 1TB blacks. They were LITERALLY sealed in antistatic bags (one ripped) and placed in the bottom of a box. My invoice, crumpled, was tossed on top. Overlaying it all was a strip of airbag packing with 5 cells. That's it. The box was nicely crushed.

The drives? Who knows. Do I really want to trust them? They've been treated worse than a bowling ball.

Never again, Newegg. Never again.
 
I've normally had a great experience with NewEgg's service. Did you try contacting customer service yet? This is really out of the norm for them IMO.
 
That's typical. If you're lucky they'll pack it right, but if you're unlucky you get drives that have bounced around in the box.
 
sounds like there were OEM drives to me.

Shopped at newegg for many many yrs never a single issue or problem ever.:D
 
Even with that shock resistant packaging it looks like there's enough space for the drive to slide around. Definitely better than the shitty bubble packets that I've seen them use before, but still not quite up to OEM shipping standards.
 
I used to love newegg. stories like this sent me to amazon. Don't regret it. I'm just glad I left before having any bad experiences.
 
Hard drives are the one thing I won't buy from newegg unless they are in retail packaging. FOr OEM drives just get them from Amazon from now on. they pack them very well.
 
if the OEM drives are damaged as a result of the shipping, will newegg take them back? or what recourse do you have?
 
I refuse to open the anti-static wrap. I've asked for a customer service supervisor to contact me. No word.

Yes, these were OEM drives. To reiterate, they were simply put in the bottom of a box (about the size of a shoe box made for boots), my invoice, crumpled, placed on the bare drives, then 4 air cells (the ones the size of a soft drink can) placed on top.

The box was crushed, and when I picked it up, the drives slid from one side of the box to the other. There was nothing to keep them from moving side to side or top to bottom. Any movement of the box caused the drives to slide and jump around, slamming into one another.

Why would I waste my time with an install and check? I have no idea how roughly they were handled, but based on the box crush, it was pretty rough.

Would you trust a drive that the neighbor kids used as a football? Even if it passes a check?

A plastic bubble drive holder, secured into a small box, would be cheaper and better.

Newegg: you deserve to lose the market share you've lost.
 
1: "Never" is an awfully strong word
2: That's basically standard, I think only amazon does something different.
3: 100% of the drives that have been through my fileserver came from newegg. zero packing and shipping problems. Also ordered them in groups of 4 so I got half of a nice styrofoam container. (very likely the way they get them is packed in bunches of 8)
 
FnordMan said:
1: "Never" is an awfully strong word
2: That's basically standard, I think only amazon does something different.
3: 100% of the drives that have been through my fileserver came from newegg. zero packing and shipping problems. Also ordered them in groups of 4 so I got half of a nice styrofoam container. (very likely the way they get them is packed in bunches of 8)
Click to expand...

How many drives did you order for your fileserver? Between ordering in groups of 4 and a small sample size, it's very possible you just got lucky. For what it's worth, most oem shipping boxes come in packs of 20.

The biggest problem with Newegg is that they're completely inconsistent with their packaging. If you're lucky it's great, but if you're not and you happen to be on the east coast, you're without workable drives for a decent amount of time.
 
Can't comment on newegg as they don't sell here but I can say that when companies want, they can make things right, even with single OEM drives.

For example a notoriously cheap on packaging French retailer called cdiscount puts drives in individual bubble envelopes then in a box. Not great but better than directly in the box. Others have figured out long ago that HDDs were fragile and invested in HDD boxes, I'm sure they cost less than 1$, and some you can even use again, for example one I got yesterday with a 4TB Seagate and uses foam.
 
When I complained about this in the last decade I remember that I had elevated failure rates from improperly shipped drives.

There is no question in my mind that I would send them back unopened. Of course the next sucker would then get them maybe properly packaged and know nothing of the previous hit-the-concrete round trip.

Which brings us back to the original topic - when this was a hot topic 8 years ago or so Newegg promised improvements. They didn't follow through and that's why you should spend extra bucks to buy elsewhere.
 
Neb said:
Even with that shock resistant packaging it looks like there's enough space for the drive to slide around. Definitely better than the shitty bubble packets that I've seen them use before, but still not quite up to OEM shipping standards.
Click to expand...

I just had a 3.5" 1tb hard drive shipped in their new packaging, and there was no room for it to slide, even getting the drive out of the packaging was tough due to how snug it was.
 
I just ordered a boat load of components from newegg.

Two of which were oem HDD.
Both were in individual cushioned sleeving.

My order was expertly packed.

You got an outlier. Sorry.
 
magoo said:
I just ordered a boat load of components from newegg.

Two of which were oem HDD.
Both were in individual cushioned sleeving.
Click to expand...

How do you know your drives weren't previously shipped without?
 
I've noticed this trend from NE since about a year ago across a wide range of products. It would appear NE has a lot of confidence in maunfacturer retail packaging to absorb shipping shocks on its own. So far... no problems on my poorly shipped things but who knows. I'm sure they have done some testing and add extra packaging in some instances. I'm curious how my 27" monitor will arrive on Tuesday.
 
i've never had an issue with a drive i've purchased from ne... i've purchased over 20...
 
Haven't bought a hard drive from them in years, but I recently got an OEM DVD burner. It was nicely wrapped and in an appropriate sized box with enough air pouches to cushion it. Every retailer can have a badly packaged box - best thing to do is tell them about it even if the product works.
 
I thought that was standard practice. Last I ordered HD's from Newegg they came in the same fashion years ago. I only buy local now. Thank god for a Microcenter nearby.
 
c3k said:
I refuse to open the anti-static wrap. I've asked for a customer service supervisor to contact me. No word.

A plastic bubble drive holder, secured into a small box, would be cheaper and better.
Click to expand...

I suspect Newegg ships hard drives in approved packaging. Your packaging was simply an error.

I have recieved Newegg hard drives in many different types of packaging. Plastic bubble drive holder secured in a small box was one of the many ways. So was a bubble wrap sleeve.

If there were ssystemic problems with packaging, I am sure that Newegg wouls either fix the probloms or stop selling hard drives.

---

Not opening the pacakge seems a bit childish. For you to have a claim would require you to show the drive is defective. I think that requires the drive to be installed.
 
Another anecdotal +1 for NewEgg. Been ordering drives from them off and on going back basically to their first year. From 1-2 disks at a time up to 4-8 at a time. Never had one show up in a state or in a shipping state that made me leery. I have noticed an upward trend in their packaging of disks over the years.

The speed at which I'm told they run through orders makes me unsurprised you might have seen an outlier. Heck it makes me surprised I haven't. Return it instantly, and hope for a better experience. This is the 'good thing' to do because enough of that and corporate should notice the revenue loss from dealing with returned-due-to-poor-shipping hard disk orders and crack down on making sure they get it right, or so one can hope.

I would like to see some actual, solid research on what impact on DOA & longevity being shipped poorly/dropped repeatedly/etc has on a drive. Don't think I ever have seen anything.
 
Wow, this after they advertized that they are using new, football-kick proof packaging for OEM hard drives.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E2GCqslsgo

I'm glad I bought the Toshiba Retail 3TB drives when they were on sale for $99, they were well protected in Styrofoam from the factory.

ZipZoomFly was the only place I ever ordered bare hard drives from that well protected them.. Unfortunately they died a while back.
 
FnordMan said:
3: 100% of the drives that have been through my fileserver came from newegg. zero packing and shipping problems. Also ordered them in groups of 4 so I got half of a nice styrofoam container. (very likely the way they get them is packed in bunches of 8)
Click to expand...
That's how I got them last time I ordered 4 as well. (This was years ago.) They were in half of a stryofoam tray, extremely solidly packed. I just ordered another set of 5 yesterday with the sale on Seagate 4TB NAS drives, we'll see if they come the same way.
 
I'm curious. I'm on the east coast. The lack of packaging is inexcusable. Those of you with correct packaging: where do you live?

To those who say my drives should be okay, make me an offer. I'll ship 'em to you the same way they were shipped to me.

Ken

Edited to add: I posted a one-egg review to Newegg several days ago. I specifically knocked them for the lack of correct packaging. Amazingly, my review has not been posted. The censorship of a review critical of Newegg, rather than the manufacturer, should tell you something about the type of business ethic currently being practiced by them. Amazon, thank you for being there.
 
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c3k said:
I'm curious. I'm on the east coast. The lack of packaging is inexcusable. Those of you with correct packaging: where do you live?

To those who say my drives should be okay, make me an offer. I'll ship 'em to you the same way they were shipped to me.
Click to expand...

Newegg ships mine from Memphis. But I don't think that matters.

I don't recall anyone saying that they should bee OK. I did say you need to open the packages and test them to determineif they are.

The smallest drives I use are 1.5TB. My offer would be free including free shipping. I would expect the drives to be properly packaged. But since I don't need/want them, I wiil not make an offer.
 
I had a single drive shipped to me in a bubble envelope... but the drive was already in a box with a plastic cage, and the cage was slightly out of shape when it arrived. This drive was shipped from Pennsylvania.
 
c3k said:
I'm curious. I'm on the east coast. The lack of packaging is inexcusable. Those of you with correct packaging: where do you live?

To those who say my drives should be okay, make me an offer. I'll ship 'em to you the same way they were shipped to me.

Ken

Edited to add: I posted a one-egg review to Newegg several days ago. I specifically knocked them for the lack of correct packaging. Amazingly, my review has not been posted. The censorship of a review critical of Newegg, rather than the manufacturer, should tell you something about the type of business ethic currently being practiced by them. Amazon, thank you for being there.
Click to expand...



I live on the east coast.
Nearly all my stuff comes from the NJ warehouse.
Every package I've received....over 7 years now, has been properly packaged.

Yes, there have been changes from Styrofoam, to paper, to bubbles, what have you....but I can't complain.

that and my UPS guys are awesome.:D
 
i buy about 3-4 hard drives a week from NE, usually WD black that come in those packing thingys. never once had a issue
 
I just bought 6 4TB OEM reds and they were each packed in their own bubble boy thing that was made what looks to be, just for OEM hard drives. It was packed really well. All drives work great.
 
It depends. Mind you I haven`t bought 200 drives from Newegg, but the 10-20 OEM HDDS or DVD burners have come in varying states.

Some have come in an anti-static bag and thats pretty much it. Others have come in an anti-static bag surrounded by airbags on both sides. So its one of those things where it depends on the specific order.
Usually the single order (either one HDD or one DVD) OEMs have (all but 1) come in just one airbag and thats it. Multiple orders of the same HDD or bundled component orders are usually shipped well.
 
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