WD Warranty

[Zarathustra[H]]

Hey all,

I had my first WD Red start dropping read errors recently. Luckily enough I am under warranty, so I initiated an RMA on WD's web page.

Am I understanding this correctly, do they really expect the CUSTOMER to pay return shipping to China for a defective product they made!?

That seems kind of... Insane. Under the warranty period, they should be covering everything, and sending me a pre-paid label!

Does anyone else have experience with them?

 

[mwroobel]

Are you A US purchaser in the US (from your profile I would guess so). The return shipping address for RMA in the USA is:
Arvato c/o Western Digital
4600 Commerce Crossings Drive
Dock Door #4
Louisville KY, 40229
United States

As for shipping, you cover shipping to them and they pay return shipping back to you, which is standard with all the drive companies.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Are you A US purchaser in the US (from your profile I would guess so). The return shipping address for RMA in the USA is:
Arvato c/o Western Digital
4600 Commerce Crossings Drive
Dock Door #4
Louisville KY, 40229
United States

Whoa, That was weird. I logged in and checked again and you are correct, I now have a U.S. address to ship to. The first time it was giving me an address in Shenzhen (sp?) China. Must have been some weird form error with the customer service portal.

As for shipping, you cover shipping to them and they pay return shipping back to you, which is standard with all the drive companies.

Well, that is kind of shitty. As a customer I expect the party at fault (and in case of manufacturing defects, that's the manufacturer) to take full responsibility for all costs involved in replacement. If my company had a product failure in the field and told our customers it was their responsibility to cover returns, we would lose a customer...

Well, at least it's domestic now.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[mwroobel]

If the drives fail in the first 60 days of ownership, sometimes you can finagle them into sending you a call tag,

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

If the drives fail in the first 60 days of ownership, sometimes you can finagle them into sending you a call tag,

Good to know. Unfortunately it's been a bit longer than that.

Is it also standard practice for them to send back drivers with shorter warranty than the drive being replaced?

The serial number I sent them had a warranty expiration date of 09/12/2017, in the W serial number checker.

If I enter the serial number of the drive shipped to me in the same system (I haven't received it yet, but I lifted the number off the RMA system) it says it will expire in 03/14/2017


Original drive is on top, replacement drive is on bottom:

That's a half a year difference!?

 

[arestavo]

Good to know. Unfortunately it's been a bit longer than that.

Is it also standard practice for them to send back drivers with shorter warranty than the drive being replaced?

The serial number I sent them had a warranty expiration date of 09/12/2017, in the W serial number checker.

If I enter the serial number of the drive shipped to me in the same system (I haven't received it yet, but I lifted the number off the RMA system) it says it will expire in 03/14/2017


Original drive is on top, replacement drive is on bottom:
View attachment 10600

That's a half a year difference!?

When you get it in, and if it's true I'd call them up and complain.

 

[mwroobel]

That is standard with most of the manufacturers. They base the warranty end date on the date of manufacture, but they will have you send proof of purchase if you need service and adjust accordingly. They probably hope you accept the date in the system as 99.9% of the time it probably works out in their favor.

 

[ReaperX22]

It's very normal for you to have to cover costs. As I used to work for an online IT store, if anything was ever DOA (dead on arrival) once delivered, we'd always cover costs back to us and then the replacement to them. However well after this DOA time ( which was typically < 30 days), the customer is expected to pay the costs. This is especially true for online businesses, as often they're far cheaper than walking into your local computer store. The shipping costs and product combined are still usually cheaper than a standard brick and mortar store. As a result if there are warranty claims you'd expect the customer to pay, because if they bought it locally, you'd still need to go back to the store. Same thing, you need to ship it back/get it back to the store.. Which is what annoyed me when people complained 2 years into their warranty period for a 3 year warranty item. You buy online, you get it cheaper, you pay to have it shipped back. /end.

In Aus, at least, the warranty is always based off the date of purchase, not the manufacturing date. It's very normal for drives to be replaced with refurbished models that will cover the standard warranty period (2-3 years). You don't get a renewed warranty (which a lot of people tried to do!). Otherwise I'd just get a magnet everytime and run it across my drives, get a new set near the end of the warranty period, then renew my warranty lol.

Going direct to manufacturer is different I guess, but in Aus the retailer themselves are responsible for the warranty, not the manufacturer (though you can claim with the manufacturer) but the date of purchase is what covers the warranty period. Lose your invoice? Badluck.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Good to know. Unfortunately it's been a bit longer than that.

Is it also standard practice for them to send back drivers with shorter warranty than the drive being replaced?

The serial number I sent them had a warranty expiration date of 09/12/2017, in the W serial number checker.

If I enter the serial number of the drive shipped to me in the same system (I haven't received it yet, but I lifted the number off the RMA system) it says it will expire in 03/14/2017


Original drive is on top, replacement drive is on bottom:
View attachment 10600

That's a half a year difference!?

Turns out they do this on purpose, and add more time to the warranty once the bad drive is received.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

So, I received the warranty replacement today, and I'm a little disappointed. The disk appears to have been manhandled. There are scratches on it, and they seem to have been "touched up" using a shitty black permanent marker, there are also wear marks around the screw holes...

The label is also not the red WD RED label, but a simple black and white one.

I feel like I've gotten a beaten up refurbished return drive.

Is this really what they do? Receive returns from people and then send them right back out again?

 

[auntjemima]

That's pretty shitty regarding the drive condition. That generic label is a bit sketchy, but maybe the returned drive label was bad.. who knows.

With my one return I had in the past, WD external NAS drive, it went really smooth and I got a brand new version of my old drive. I was a bit disappointed that the new drives warranty date was the same as the old and not extended, even though it was brand new. Cabt get everything, I suppose.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

That's pretty shitty regarding the drive condition. That generic label is a bit sketchy, but maybe the returned drive label was bad.. who knows.

With my one return I had in the past, WD external NAS drive, it went really smooth and I got a brand new version of my old drive. I was a bit disappointed that the new drives warranty date was the same as the old and not extended, even though it was brand new. Cabt get everything, I suppose.

The drive was obviously used by its condition (but they wiped the smart data, as there was no real usage logged there) I presume that if it was sent back out again, it must have passed a full functional test.

While I do find it a bit disconcerting, truth is, I don't care if the drive is pretty or not, it's just going in my server 24/7. All I care is that it works right.

 

[auntjemima]

I'm the same as you.. it's been repaired and it's not something you often sit back and admire.

 

[Zepher]

I rma'd a 1TB Black a few years back and they didn't have any 1TB drives to give me so they asked if I would take a 2TB Black instead.
The replacement has a recertified label which is slightly different than the standard Black label,

 

[Furious_Styles]

I've owned 3 WD blacks over the past 5-7 years, all 1tb models. All of them are still in use. However recently when building a PC for a friend a new 4TB black got damaged by a defective power cord. I actually had no problems RMAing it and did not pay shipping in either direction. The drive they sent me looked brand new. I was surprised the whole process worked painlessly.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

I've owned 3 WD blacks over the past 5-7 years, all 1tb models. All of them are still in use. However recently when building a PC for a friend a new 4TB black got damaged by a defective power cord. I actually had no problems RMAing it and did not pay shipping in either direction. The drive they sent me looked brand new. I was surprised the whole process worked painlessly.

That is surprising, because technically that is damage that is not their fault, and shouldn't even have warranty coverage at all. I don't think I would have even filed an RMA.