Advice on whether or not to return a Hard Drive

Thanks for the replies Barty1884 and trampus123

OK, I'll open them and then test them. There is something fishy about this Amazon seller and I wish I'd never used them. Long story but I contacted Seagate re one of their Newegg listings and Seagate said the seller (Aero Malls) are not an authorized seller. I bought these from that same seller but on Amazon, before I'd contacted Seagate re another separate sale. I realize now that the reason for the item not being eligible until Oct 4th is because the WD Blue drives were only FBA (fulfilled by Amazon), and "sold by" Aero Malls who have a different return policy.

I'll test the drives and see what they say.

ftr, in either of your opinion do you think the packaging is poor or am I over-reacting?

I would agree with you but this form Zach @ Seagate regarding the inquiry I made into 4 TB Barracuda ST4000DM005 drives they had that listed on Newegg.ca that only showed 1 year warranty instead of the 2 year warranty listed on Seagate's site:

"Aero Malls Inc is not an authorized reseller, so may have some drives that do not have a Seagate warranty, but are being warrantied by a third party, such as if they purchased them secondhand from Dell or HP, where the warranty is through the computer manufacturer. "

and

"We have no direct contacts with Aero Malls Inc, who are the ones who created the listing you provided, as they are not an authorized reseller."

So if I'm reading this correctly Zach was saying that since they are not an authorized Seagate reseller the 1 year warranty they are offering must be from a third party because it is not from Seagate.

Listing here "Sold by Aero Malls Inc Shipped by Newegg" has only 1 year warranty:
https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16822179009

Then Zach sent a link to the exact same drive on Newegg.ca "Sold and Shipped by Newegg", with a two year warranty:
https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822179009&ignorebbr=1

But this is more a switch and bait tactic by Newegg. Click on the link that Zach sent above and then click on any other capacity for that drive (500 GB to 3 TB) then click back on the 4 TB capacity. Now you'll notice that it has switched from "Sold and Shipped by Newegg" to Sold by Aero Malls Inc Shipped by Newegg" and that the warranty has switched from 2 to 1 year.

As a matter of fact, if you just independently start at Newegg.ca's homepage and go to Components > Hard Drives > Desktop Internal Hard Drives, then no matter what search refinements or parameters you set, that particular Barracuda 4 TB will always default to the Aero Malls Inc choice. The "Sold and Shipped by Newegg" choice won't show up as a search result. What you have to do is go to the right hand column under Best Service Sellers and manually switch it back to the "Newegg" choice. Very sneaky

So not only are Newegg selling drives from non-authorized sellers they are making it the active default choice.

This is a classic bait and switch tactic imo.

To continue on with the above ...

I had two orders arrive from Amazon today. When I click on one to view return - an Espresso maker sold and shipped by Amazon, it is eligible for immediate return and I could proceed. I am not returning it, that's just an example.

But when I clicked to return the 4 TB drives I got this message:



I don't remember seeing that before with any return I'd done on Amazon. So when I phoned, I got the woman with terrible English on Amazon who kept telling me they were not eligible for return until Oct 4th as the items are not sold by Amazon. And guess who the seller is ... Aero Malls, the same company that Zach from Seagate had told me in a previous message was "not an authorized seller"

After thinking this whole thing through I'm on the same page with you USAFRet. The drives are still unopened and I intend to send them back. This whole situation is highly odd and unlike any other I've encountered in years of purchases off of Amazon. When I click on Aero Malls > Returns & Refunds > Please refer to the Amazon.ca Return Policy > it says:

"Electronics purchased from Amazon.ca, or a seller but fulfilled by Amazon, can be returned to Amazon.ca within 30 days of delivery of shipment via our online Returns Centre. These items must be in new condition with original packaging and accessories. "

So I emailed Aero Malls and inquired as to why I had to wait until Oct 4th. They just responded:

"I believe you should allow to return this hard drive, but you need to contact Amazon Customer Service for the require step to return your order. They should able to provide free return label for you to return the product.

Since this order is fulfill and process by Amazon, we don't even have access on provide label or return authorization process on our side. It's all support by Amazon itself on this order.

Best regards,
Customer Support Team
Aero Malls Inc."

Wow... pathetic.

The drives are still in the static packages but I can read the serial #'s through the static bag. So I went to WD and keyed in the serial #'s to check the warranty and I got this:



When I check on WD's "No Limited Warranty C-40" code it says:

"No limited warranty is provided by WD unless your WD Product ("Product") was purchased from an authorized distributor or authorized reseller. Distributors may sell Products to resellers who then sell Products to end users. Please see below for warranty information or obtaining service. No warranty service is provided unless the Product is returned to an authorized return center in the region (warranty regions are identified as Canada, U.S.A., Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, India and Thailand) where the Product was first shipped by WD, which may have regional specific warranty implications.
If your Product was purchased as a component integrated within a system by a system manufacturer, no limited warranty is provided by WD. Please contact the place of purchase or the system manufacturer directly for warranty service."

Phoned Amazon back and escalated it. They are now refunding 100% of my order and there is no need to send the drives back. I keep the drives and get my money back. The last Amazon escalation agent I had was super-agent. Best customer service person I've had in some time. She was totally on-board with me and my concerns and agreed I shouldn't accept what they were doing. Great lady, happy resolve.