Western Digital No Longer Honoring Warranties on OEM or Bare Drives.

[rtwjunkie]

my hdd's from Newegg all arrive in hard drive boxes, all with an air pillow sleeve around the drive inside the box.

 

[Batou1986]

my hdd's from Newegg all arrive in hard drive boxes, all with an air pillow sleeve around the drive inside the box.

Same all my drives even the bare ones arrived wrapped in those pillow packs inside a box with packing material.

 

[newtekie1]

Same all my drives even the bare ones arrived wrapped in those pillow packs inside a box with packing material.

Same here. Hard drive in a pillow pack, in a sealed box, in packing material, in a bigger box.

Though I did get a 2.5" drive a few weeks ago that they just threw in the bigger box with my other components, and not surprisingly that drive was DOA. But that is the only drive I've received like that from them in a really long time, and I'm ordering drives every week.

 

[Jetster]

Lately from Newegg the 3.5 have arrived in the bubble sleeve and 2.5 in the black plastic end caps. Ive had no issues

You know a good thing to note is I haven't have a drive fail in quite a while. I think they are getting better. Its been at least 5 years sense I have returned a drive

 

[95Viper]

Lately from Newegg the 3.5 have arrived in the bubble sleeve

+1 on that.

I got the same bubble enclosure with the drive inside and the drive was wrapped in the anti-static film bag.
I was like... Well, this is different; because, I was use to getting them in the foam or bubble wrap.

 

[OneMoar]

Still no further replies from either a newegg or WD rep

 

[dorsetknob]

In defense of SuperSoph_WD please read post 14
Quote
""But unfortunately, it's a Friday and I'm not going to be able to provide you with further details until the beginning of next week.

I hope you'd bear with the me and the drive until then.
SuperSoph_WD""

You Got to Give them time to wipe their ass and forumulate their response

 

[rtwjunkie]

Still no further replies from either a newegg or WD rep

I know Supersoph_WD is usually off over the weekends.

 

[R-T-B]

Newegg HDD shipping is a joke!...(for 3.5 inch HDD's)
The packaging on the 2.5 inch drives approaches good packing.

Last time I had to ship back a defective hard drive (to seagate, i think) I was requested to ship it in the box with 2 inches of foam on every side of the hard drive...

and when i received the hard drive back it was packed in a box with 2 inches of foam On all sides.

Speaking of Newegg and the shipping of hard drives have you noticed that with the 3 1/2 inch drives that they ship, they just stick it in the box, throw some paper on top and then ship it to you... where is the protection for the bottom of the hard drive?

Was it an HGST drive by chance?

On their desktop drives I believe newegg orders them more or less directly, and they don't usually use the bubble sleeve. It's what stopped me buying the "Deskstar/Deathstar" line, it seems that part of their company will never learn.

 

[Athlonite]

Hello, @newtekie1 !

I'm very sorry to hear about this luckless situation that you've encountered, but our RMA policy about OEM drives has never been a secret.
I'd suggest you to take a look at this knowledge base article that explains in details about Retail & OEM drives and see for yourself: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=RqGgWW
This has been our policy since the beginning. Usually when we sell drives to an OEM, they purchase the HDDs along with all the warranty responsibilities, and this is why WD doesn't handle it.
I am going to PM you with some more questions, so that you give me more details about your WD Blue drive.
But unfortunately, it's a Friday and I'm not going to be able to provide you with further details until the beginning of next week.

I hope you'd bear with the me and the drive until then.
SuperSoph_WD

If that's the case then why do WD sell OEM HDD's to non OEMs for resale they should only be supplying retail HDD's to retail/etail stores

 

[Aquinus]

If that's the case then why do WD sell OEM HDD's to non OEMs for resale they should only be supplying retail HDD's to retail/etail stores

I don't think that actually happens at NewEgg. As I said before, I suspect it's a clerical error on WD's part because I've RMA'ed *many* WD bare drives without an issue. Warranty tends to be tied to the serial number which is why the website should be considered authoritative. If it really were an OEM drive, the website should catch it and say there is no warranty on the drive or that it's not a valid serial number for support. If I were @newtekie1 I would have asked for a manager the moment the rep said they couldn't do an RMA.

Side note: I always initiate RMA's without a member of support. I do it completely through the website and typically do an advance RMA so I can use the box to send back the old one (plus than I'm only 2 or 3 days with a drive down instead of a week.) So my RMAs have always gone flawlessly by doing it this way. I suspect the human factor fouled it up.

 

[newtekie1]

I don't think that actually happens at NewEgg. As I said before, I suspect it's a clerical error on WD's part because I've RMA'ed *many* WD bare drives without an issue. Warranty tends to be tied to the serial number which is why the website should be considered authoritative. If it really were an OEM drive, the website should catch it and say there is no warranty on the drive or that it's not a valid serial number for support. If I were @newtekie1 I would have asked for a manager the moment the rep said they couldn't do an RMA.

Again, I was told this is a new policy. I too have RMA'd many drives in the past. SuperSoph_WD says this is an old policy though. So my guess is they are using the old policy and changing how it is enforced to get out of RMAing drives.

Side note: I always initiate RMA's without a member of support. I do it completely through the website and typically do an advance RMA so I can use the box to send back the old one (plus than I'm only 2 or 3 days with a drive down instead of a week.) So my RMAs have always gone flawlessly by doing it this way. I suspect the human factor fouled it up.

I tried to do it through the website, it wouldn't let me, that is why I had to call tech support.

 

[D007]

This will definitely affect my purchasing from WD from now on.
I consider this underhanded and it just lost them a customer.
I have always used WD but not anymore..

 

[dorsetknob]

Newtekie1

Hello, @newtekie1 !

I'm very sorry to hear about this luckless situation that you've encountered, but our RMA policy about OEM drives has never been a secret.
I'd suggest you to take a look at this knowledge base article that explains in details about Retail & OEM drives and see for yourself: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=RqGgWW
This has been our policy since the beginning. Usually when we sell drives to an OEM, they purchase the HDDs along with all the warranty responsibilities, and this is why WD doesn't handle it.
I am going to PM you with some more questions, so that you give me more details about your WD Blue drive.
But unfortunately, it's a Friday and I'm not going to be able to provide you with further details until the beginning of next week.

I hope you'd bear with the me and the drive until then.
SuperSoph_WD

Did you receive any Pm's " as promised" or was this as it looks a politicians promise

 

[Athlonite]

This will definitely affect my purchasing from WD from now on.
I consider this underhanded and it just lost them a customer.
I have always used WD but not anymore..

Why is it that you don't take it back to where you bought it from first, if the place you purchased the HDD from is selling OEM HDD's then they are the ones to see about warranty replacements first

 

[AsRock]

Why is it that you don't take it back to where you bought it from first, if the place you purchased the HDD from is selling OEM HDD's then they are the ones to see about warranty replacements first

Depends who you get it from, if from like Newegg after 30 days it's the manufacture.

 

[Athlonite]

Depends who you get it from, if from like Newegg after 30 days it's the manufacture.

that's a gip then here in NZ it's the retailer/etailer who is responsible for any warranty returns for the term of no less than 12 months if it fails after that they may replace it or tell you to go to the manufacturer

 

[dorsetknob]

Situation here in the UK ( and as far as i know the EU ) is

for the Retail Seller ( New Items )
Manufactures Warranty Period ""of not less than 2 years"" any Disclaimer as LESS is then in Breach of The Sale of Goods Act .

"IF in Doubt on ANY Warranty Claim CONSULT YOUR LOCAL CONSUMERS AFFAIRS UNIT"

or "TAKE LOCAL LEGAL ADVICE"
keep a paper trail YOU MAY NEED IT

 

[AsRock]

that's a gip then here in NZ it's the retailer/etailer who is responsible for any warranty returns for the term of no less than 12 months if it fails after that they may replace it or tell you to go to the manufacturer

Call it what you must i have always known newegg be that way in the US.

 

[newtekie1]

Did you receive any Pm's " as promised" or was this as it looks a politicians promise

Yes, and I provided the information he asked for. I haven't heard from him since I replied to his initial PM with the information he asked for.

Why is it that you don't take it back to where you bought it from first, if the place you purchased the HDD from is selling OEM HDD's then they are the ones to see about warranty replacements first

Not possible with Newegg. They don't take anything back after 30 days. Though, like I said, if I would have contacted them I'm sure they would have taken care of the issue, but I didn't need to since WD finally agreed to RMA the drive.

 

[dorsetknob]

WD finally agreed to RMA the drive.

glad to hear that the Issue has been provisionally resolved

Update us when you think its been Fully Resolved please

 

[OneMoar]

Yes, and I provided the information he asked for. I haven't heard from him since I replied to his initial PM with the information he asked for.



Not possible with Newegg. They don't take anything back after 30 days. Though, like I said, if I would have contacted them I'm sure they would have taken care of the issue, but I didn't need to since WD finally agreed to RMA the drive.

id still be in communication with newegg because its looking more and more like somebody got some part numbers mixxed up

 

[wiak]

there is a new EU law regarding warranties and distance sales, so if you product brakes within 2 years, you get a replacement or refund

regarding the issue, good luck
i just noticed you seem to be in US, more good luck to you from across the pond

 

[eidairaman1]

If Seagate Launched a true 1TB 15K RPM drive with 128 Cache on SATA 3 or Allowed APM to be shut off on the Momentus XT drives id go with them again

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey guys!

I'm sorry it took me so long to come back to you and write a response that would hopefully make things clear. I took the issue to my superiors to make sure that there is no confusion in the information I provide you with.

Firstly, to the question whether there's a difference between a bare drive an OEM drive.
Physically there is no difference between them. However, from a warranty standpoint, there is.
A true OEM drive has no warranty from Western Digital, because it is provided by the OEM as a part of their product build.
OEM/Bare or component drive are covered by Western Digital and they are also available from resellers like NewEgg, etc.
Here's a link to our Warranty Services on the website that explain everything: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=oP1iGY

They don't support OEM HDD's as in HDD's in Dell machines I can buy, but packaging? Can OEM in this instance be called bulk?
That's right! We don't support those sold as parts of an OEM system. We would be always happy to assist you with the diagnostics. However, there are cases when the OEM systems have built-in utilities that we are not familiar with. In these cases, we refer the customers back to the OEM for support.

So you're confirming that drives bought by the end user off sites like Newegg that are labeled Bare/OEM, or anything not coming in retail packaging, have no warranty.
No. I believe @FordGT90Concept hit the Bullseye and basically can answer you question:
OEM = Dell/HP/etc. The warranty is for the whole computer and individual components are not warranted beyond that.
Bare Drive = retailer to user (OEM is Western Digital itself). Only includes the drive. See warranty link above
Retail = retailer to user (OEM is Western Digital itself). Includes fancy box with some accessories (like a cable) and maybe some software
For any more details on that matter, check the link above to our Warranty policy.

Western Digital covers both bare and retail drives!
There are no changes in our Warranty policy whatsoever. On occasion, we change the warranties based upon industry standards (Bare drive vs. retail) but WD has never provided an end user with an RMA for a True OEM drive.

Whether this was a clerical error mistake or not:
Although NewEgg and other resellers buy HDDs directly from WD, they also buy drives from other distributors. Even though warranties can be updated from the date of purchase with a valid proof of that purchase, the warranty dates are initially set from the date of manufacturing + a little extra for the shipping and shelf time. If the warranty was not properly reflected when it was registered, it may have come from a different distributor/stock.

Hope I was able to answer your questions!
I'm sorry to see you, @newtekie1, so disappointed. But as I already mentioned, we haven't changed our policy. My guess is you were just 'lucky' enough to get a drive that has most probably been bought from another distributor which would explain why our online RMA system couldn't approve your RMA request.

SuperSoph_WD