OT Warning--> Western Digital

Hannibal_ wrote on 9/29/2004, 10:56 AM

Just a note as much to vent as a warning about western digital's service and support. In the grand scheme of life it's a small thing and I may be wrong but I feel that if a company sells me a defective product they should make it right without delay.
I bought a WD2500 8meg and it turned out to be dead on arrival. Called Customer support who insisted that I run their diagnostic software and report its findings. After spending half a day finding the program and trying to make it work, I finally convinced the third customer service rep that the drive would NOT COMMUNICATE. On the 22nd I was assured that a remanufactured drive would be sent out immediately. (advance replacement) I asked if I could have a new drive and was told no. Asked if they would pay shipping both ways. "no" Checked Monday and no drive had been shipped. Checked Weds and no drive had been shipped. Asked why not. " Sir we dont know" Asked to speak to a supervisor. "Sir you have to give me a reason before I can connect you to a supervisor"
"Because you wont ship my drive"
"Sir I told you we dont know why it hasnt shipped"
"OK can I speak to a supervisor now?"
"You have to tell me why"
" OK I want to tell him how happy I am with your service"
" OK sir, I will connect you"
On hold
On hold some more
Still on hold.
(OK, to be fair it was only maybe two minutes)
" Hello this is #### #######, A supervisor may I help you?"
" Yes I'm having trouble getting a replacement drive sent out. Whats the hold up?"
" Its a supply chain problem Carl. As soon as we have one ready to ship we will send it out"
OK now that were on a first name basis, I ask, "Are you telling me I have to wait until another one breaks so you can fix it and send it to me?"
" No, Its not like that. we are required to call them refurbished because we re-use <parts> in them but they are as good as new."
"OK but if you dont have any then can I have a new one?
" No we cant do that. We will send out a similar, refurbished drive as soon as one becomes available."
"OK, I've lost all confidence in your product, support and company and I will make it known to whoever I can" (hence this post)
"OK Carl have a nice day"
I guess MAXTOR is now my drive of choice.
<End vent>

Carl

Comments

InformationSponge wrote on 9/29/2004, 11:17 AM

I had a similar problem with them a year ago -- their high capacity drives are kinda flakey (I had a 200gb drive go "clicky" within a week of getting it, also had a 250gb drive go "clicky"). I switched to Maxtor a year ago and have been very happy and haven't had any problems. However, milage may vary and I may have just been unlucky. I've had other WD drives for a few years and they are still running solid, just seems like the 200+gb drives are the ones I've had problems with.

John_Cline wrote on 9/29/2004, 11:29 AM

Curiously, I have had nothing but problems with Maxtor drives. I had very good luck for years with Western Digital drives, but my new "drives of choice" are the Hitachi 7K250 series drives. Fast, quiet and reliable. I have been pounding the blazes out of a number of them for a while now and not so much as a hiccup.

John

johnmeyer wrote on 9/29/2004, 11:57 AM

Both my Maxtor and my WD external Firewire drives have been repaired under warranty this past year. The customer support reps at both companies were just fine, and I was happy with their performance. However, I know what it is like when you get lousy service, and I sympathize with your plight.

Arks wrote on 9/29/2004, 1:21 PM

did you buy the DOA drive direct from Western Digital or some other vendor? If it was from some other vendor, why didnt you get it replaced via them? Probably would have saved you a lot of hassle.

B

Hunter wrote on 9/29/2004, 1:59 PM

That's why Seagate inside my box. Super quiet too, pwr supply fan is louder and I have my case open.

Chanimal wrote on 9/29/2004, 4:14 PM

That's my question. If I bought i locally, I would have just returned it to the store (i.e., Fry's is great about that). Why bother, when you should have a 15 - 30 day retail return.

Besides, they have more clout with WD.

Hannibal_ wrote on 9/29/2004, 7:21 PM

I bought online during a COMP USA Special About three months before and it sat on a shelf until I absolutely had to swap it in.
Now I'm confused and a little concerned. Within an hour of my conversation with Mr supervisor their support site shows the have shipped not one but two drives 2nd day delivery.
Two different model numbers
WD2500 SB
WD2500 JB (model of defective drive)
I'm not looking forward to my next conversation with these charactors.

Carl

swarrine wrote on 9/29/2004, 7:32 PM

Ooooh Comp USA -

A very reliable company if you want to get screwed.

Crap USA (borowing from someone else) sucks. In fact, just type in Yahoo Comp USA sucks and you will find many web sites that support the fact that they do indeed suck.

If you look to Comp USA for satisfaction, their normal corporate reply is to say that each store is individual and they (corporate) are not responsible.

Comp USA is a lousy outfit and I would be really surprised if you get any satisfaction out of them. If you actually do get satisfaction, please report it. I will show you a video of me falling out of my chair:-)

TheHappyFriar wrote on 9/29/2004, 7:33 PM

Some stores (like circuity City & Officemax) also offer that replacement warrenty for an extra $15. When I buy something that I can't afford to replace (ie my monitor) i do those. That SAY you can just bring the dead thing back & you'll get a new one (or a simular one if they don't exist anymore).

As for the two drives, i wouldn't say a thing. Let them call you. It was eigther a) their mistake or b) are sending you two to be extra nice for giving you really lousy service.

If they want you to send it back, tell them you need a pre-paid evelope sent to you first. :D

Rednroll wrote on 9/29/2004, 8:35 PM

My Hard drives of choice are Seagate. Most people doing audio work will agree due to their speed and reliability. IBM HD's are another good choice. I recently just bought a 200 Gig Western Digital drive from Sam's Club, because I needed some extra storage space to backup my data from my Seagate drives. I hope I don't have any problems like everyone else is seeing. It is only a backup drive, so it's not working too hard anyways. That does sound like some sh*tty customer service though.

mvpvideos2007 wrote on 9/29/2004, 9:48 PM

I have had great luck with WD. I have 7 drives, and only one, a year ago, gave me problems. I called them, they gave me a return number, shipping lable, sent it to them and they sent me a new one.

BillyBoy wrote on 9/29/2004, 9:49 PM

Getting "good" customer service starts with being diplomatic, polite and patient. The only drives I even had trouble with were the Maxtor externals not because f the drive itself, the cheesy interface card.

Replaced not once but twice and no questions asked. Shipped IMMEDIATELY without needing to return the original drive first. What Maxtor and I'm sure Western Digital if you're don't rant and whiine will simply ask for a credit card number which they only use if you don't return the original drive in a set time usually 10 days.

Again, if you're NICE and don't yell and scream you need to talk to a supervisor and all the other mistakes you made the freight is free both ways. They even sent a preaddressed label for me both times and sent it out FedX, and I had it the next day.

When I got a bought a Canon digital camera at Circuit City it died in a couple weeks. No problem I only had to take it back to the store, I didn't get past "the camera died.... and they handed me an brand new replacement in shrink wrap right off the floor.

Of course I'm always NICE. <wink>

InformationSponge wrote on 9/30/2004, 7:23 AM

I've had my best luck with Circuit City and Best Buy. If you return within their time allotments, they always take stuff back without any question. I think there are a few exceptions, but I've taken back stuff to them and have never had a problem (and have never been charged any restock fees). I will concur about CompUSA. Unless you have bought their ripoff extended warranty, they tend to treat you like dirt if you have any problems -- they also ding you a 15% restock fee on a variety of their inventory.

mhbstevens wrote on 9/30/2004, 8:19 AM

The bottom line here is that the largest capacity drives are always "new technology" and subject to quality issues. My philosophy is to stick with multiple true and tested drives. I have 120m WD's banked and never had a problem. Maybe by next year these drives will be fine and we will be disscusing the new 600M ones!

Mike

Steve Mann wrote on 9/30/2004, 9:45 AM

You're in the wrong century if you think 600Mb is big. But, Hitachi will be marketing a 1Tb drive by the end of next year.

Actually, somone has to hold the "unreliable" trophy once in a while. Just a few years ago the IBM 60Gb "Deathstar" (actually the Deskstar Model) experienced a six-percent failure rate - very high for hard disks. The 70Gb Deskstar had a less than 1% failure rate, but IBM couldn't give them away. Fry's was selling them for $50 with manufacturer's rebate.

I suspect that this was one of the reasons that IBM sold its isk manufacturing division to Hitachi two years ago.

Steve

bowman01 wrote on 10/2/2004, 2:25 AM

I'm running 4 WD JB drives, haven't had any problems. i have 2 seagate drives, whisper quiet but run twice as hot. Apparently their new ones don't run that hot anymore. I'd always buy a new drive that has 3 year warrranty if possible, which the WD jb drives do.

JasonMurray wrote on 10/3/2004, 8:39 PM

Of course I'm always NICE. <wink>

Best. Advice. Ever.

You'll attract more flies with honey than you will with vinegar. :)