Seagate Service - Excellent!

[TechLarry]

Last week one of the six 300GB Baracuda's in my Windows Home Server started spewing SMART errors.

I unmounted the drive in WHS, pulled it, put in a spare, and mounted the spare.

I then logged on to Seagates site and went to the RMA process.

Put in the S/N, it came back that it was still in warranty (which I knew), and created an RMA right there. I opted for the $19.95 advanced shipment, which isn't a bad deal considering it includes 2-day shipping in both directions. You get the replacement ahead of time, put the old one in the box, put on the label they provide, and sent it back via UPS.

The whole thing took 3 days. I call that great service.

Now, this whole thing has brought out a weakness in WHS IMHO.

I had the email-notification option of my 3Ware 9500S-8 controller enabled. I started receiving emails from the card indicating the smart failures on the drive.

I checked the logs in WHS, and the smart errors were recorded there as well.

However, WHS did nothing at all to notify me of the errors, and in fact the drive showed as healthy in the WHS storage pane. Not good!

If I had not had the email feature of my card enabled, I would have never known until it was too late.

 

[shade_star]

I also had great service with them when I had to have some data recovery done. Top notch group to work with.

 

[Ockie]

And then some people tell me the seagate service is horrible. I've always found them to be top of their class.... quite painless.

 

[Old Hippie]

I also had great service with them when I had to have some data recovery done.

How were their prices compared to other services? Just wondering if you had a chance to compare.
TIA!

 

[dandragonrage]

Did they send you a new drive or a refurb? If refurb, then it was not excellent at all.

 

[axan]

the drive they send is refurb, i did the advanced rma about a month ago, i had to rma one of my 7200.10 500gb drives, in my case it took about 6 days before i got the drive (even though i paid for the 2nd day shipping) I like WD service better, advanced rma is only $9.99 and they send back a new drive (at least they did last time i did it). Next batch of drives for my file server will be WD

 

[TechLarry]

You almost always get repaired/recertified drives, no matter the manufacturer.

Just like when you get a computer repaired. You get repaired/recertified parts in most cases.

Nothing unusual about this at all.

Did they send you a new drive or a refurb? If refurb, then it was not excellent at all.

 

[axan]

well it's not true for wd, or at least I got a brand new drive my last rma, i look at production date and it was like 3 weeks from the date I got it.

 

[Grentz]

well it's not true for wd, or at least I got a brand new drive my last rma, i look at production date and it was like 3 weeks from the date I got it.

it depends sometimes on the model. I have gotten new drives from Seagate as well.

Also OP, why did you pay $20 if you had a spare drive anyways? Seems like wasted money IMO!

 

[Ockie]

well it's not true for wd, or at least I got a brand new drive my last rma, i look at production date and it was like 3 weeks from the date I got it.

Depends what they have in stock, if it's a very new model or a model they no longer have refurbs of, they will send you a new unit.... otherwise it's a refurbed one with a new label.

 

[TechLarry]

I have indeed received refurb drives from WD as well.

You may have just caught them when they were out of stock. In those circumstances the mfr will pull a new OEM drive down and ship it.

well it's not true for wd, or at least I got a brand new drive my last rma, i look at production date and it was like 3 weeks from the date I got it.

 

[TechLarry]

Not really. I didn't have to pay any extra for shipping as it was included, and I got the replacement in 2 days with prepaid return labels.

Works for me.

it depends sometimes on the model. I have gotten new drives from Seagate as well.

Also OP, why did you pay $20 if you had a spare drive anyways? Seems like wasted money IMO!

 

[maddude]

I've RMA'd with WD twice, and Seagate once, all have been refurb's. Seagate sent me back a 250 when I sent in a 160, so I was happy about that. All 3 are in use, and the oldest one, a WD has been in use 24/7 for 4 years now.