Maxtor Hard Drives maybe not covered by warranty!

lukax

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That's my story:
I bought a stand alone maxtor hard drive the 29 October 2004 in an Italian shop.
The 20 of April 2005 my hard drive crashed and i went back to the store to have it substitute under its 2 years warranty. The store refused to take it because they said they have been instructed by maxtor of substitute the hard drives within the first year of warranty and after that time all the issue has to be solved directly through the maxtor warranty service.
I wrote to maxtor asking them how to obtain my warranty and they just refuse to apply it.

Maxtor reply:
Unfortunately, I have checked the system again and found that your hard drive warranty is due to 13/10/2005. Despite the valid warranty, your hard drive also cannot be replaced with Maxtor as it is an OEM drive. This means that the hard drive and its warranty, has been sold to an Original Equipment Manufacturer. To obtain warranty on this hard drive, you will need to go back to the manufacturer of your computer system or your original place of purchase. We pay sympathy to your situation but we really cant do anything for this OEM drive.

I am going to be very careful with my next hard drive.
I hope this is going to be helpful to somebody since the only thing I am sure is that I paid and nobody changed my drive when crashed even if under 2 years "by law" warranty.

Luca
 

PCcashCow

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That really sucks, but thats how OEM works, although it's very uncommon with HHD, but it also explains why the price differs. The wholesaler should be able to help you in this case though.
 

maury73

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Unfortunately PCCashCow is right. I'm italian and the law is very clear: OEM parts are not covered by 2 years warranty by the manufacturer, it the PC builder that must provide the second year warranty, but you installed the drive by yourself, so the PC builder is you!

I know, It's a totally nonsense, but according to laws, you are the person who must provide the second year warranty to yourself!

This is one of the reasons for wich OEM devices cost less than retail ones.
 

waylander

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If you know anyone in the computer industry then take it to him and ask it to get the warranty done for you, just pay him $50 under the table....
 

ches111

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As the Cow said,

That is the way it works. When you purchase a computer with a hardrive in it already the OEM vendor then takes over support of the warranty for all parts. This is why i always build and always buy retail HD. Maxtor was quick to RMA a drive for me after almost 4 years (5 year warranty on the drive). They had it to my door in two days and I did not even have to pay to ship it back to them as shipping was provided if i used the same box they had sent the new one in.

The person you bought your computer from is who should warrant your HD. If you are out of the warranty period for them then you really have no recourse.
 

BGP_Spook

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Fine print. It hurts my eyes when I read it, and it sucks whenever I don't.

The term "warranty" means absolutely nothing unless you know the gritty details.

You might be surprised at the kind of stuff you and I agree to.

Funny story actually. I was reading the Terms of Use or the EULA on a game not too long ago at about the fifth paragrpah in all caps was the sentence "O MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE ANYONE IS STILL READING THIS."
 

PCcashCow

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Also, if you look around the net, not to many people sell OEM CPU's anymore. Durring the K6 days (seems like last week to me) OEM processors used to be all I would buy. Now-a-days, because >1% of hardware out there has a problem with it, I can only get retail because it's just not worth the risk.

What I learned on this board, 'penny wise, pound foolish'. Extra cash with system reliant hardware is sometimes worth the cash just for an RMA window.
 

FITCamaro

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Is this true of even OEM hard drives in America? I buy drives from newegg.com and they're always OEM since thats all they really sell. Is the 3-5 year warranty that they list valid through the manufacturer for 3-5 years? Meaning if I buy a hard drive on it and it dies in two years, I can get it replaced right?

I don't buy Maxtor drives for this reason though. They are well known for dying right after the 1 year mark.
 

cmptrdude79

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I don't know about that. My buddy from High School is on his 3rd Maxtor drive inside 6 months. Now, he downloads an insane amount of...uh...research material...24/7, and it really thrashes the drive, but still.

He just ordered a replacement Seagate drive from Newegg. Bit the bullet, and threw the Maxtor drive away.

Years ago, Maxtor was the only HD to have, but their quality has slipped, and as far as I can see, is still slipping. Bottom line: Don't buy a Maxtor, unless you have a data death wish.

-J
 

ches111

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FIT,

It is true of American versions too. Not just Maxtor either. If you buy a drive that is marked as OEM or as we call it "white box" and NOT retail then you are SOL on the warranty with nearly all HD vendors.

You have to pay a very small premium to go retail over white box. and what you get is the RMA process pretty much no questions asked.
 

kamel5547

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I don't know about that. My buddy from High School is on his 3rd Maxtor drive inside 6 months. Now, he downloads an insane amount of...uh...research material...24/7, and it really thrashes the drive, but still.

He just ordered a replacement Seagate drive from Newegg. Bit the bullet, and threw the Maxtor drive away.

Years ago, Maxtor was the only HD to have, but their quality has slipped, and as far as I can see, is still slipping. Bottom line: Don't buy a Maxtor, unless you have a data death wish.

-J

Good thing Seagate and Maxtor are the same company now eh?
 

kittle

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I would be more careful of who you buy your hardware from next time.
chances are high you would have had the same deal with WD, seagate or whoever.
 

lukax

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Thanks everybody for partecipating,
the problem is that I bought the hard drive as a stand alone component and nobody ever told me this was an OEM drive!
Sure next time I won't buy a drive in one of this "great prices" stores, but still I think this is not a good publicity for maxtor itself and in it is a too easy (legal?!) way to avoid the law.
Luca
 

FITCamaro

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Well my question then is how can newegg tout a 3-5 year warranty(at least for the drives I buy)? I mean when you buy an OEM CPU the warranty on it is shorter than the retail chip.

How does anyone get the warranty then? I mean even if you buy the drive through Dell or an OEM. You go back to them and they give you a new drive. Who do they go back to? Normally when a business provides an exchange for a defective product under warranty, they ship the product back to the manufacturer and get a credit for it.

I want to know how its legal to advertise a warranty when no one is able to get it for that period of time. If you can only get it for 1 year, then it should be listed as a 1 year warranty.

I buy mostly Western Digital drives so I went and checked their warranty policy. It says nothing about the warranty being provided by the OEM after 1 year. Here's the link:

http://support.wdc.com/warranty/policy.asp

Actually, OEM drives get longer warranties than retail according to the chart on that page. Says all retail drives but Raptors get a 1 year warranty. But any decent drive OEM gets 3-5 years and says nothing about OEM providing the warranty after a period of time.

I also checked Samsungs and Seagates warranty policies and they do not have that stipulation mentioned anywhere in their warranty literature. So it looks like its just Maxtor.
 

ches111

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FIT,

Try calling WD for a problem with your DELL. You will be sent back to Dell the OEM the only rason you may get 3 - 5 years is that Dell may warrant the whole PC for that long. You will not get support from them at all for an OEM drive. Regardless of what it says. GUARANTEED!

If Newegg is selling an OEM version of an HD and giving it a warranty of 3 - 5 years it is through them only.
 

FITCamaro

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I don't buy Dell. Wrong example. I know stuff from Dell is covered only by Dell.

On Western Digital's website it says it covers drives sold by authorized distributors and authorized reseller. Thats a place like newegg.com.

I even talked to them and they confirmed this. On OEM hard drives from them, you have a 30 day return policy, a 1 year exchange policy, and the remaining manufacturer's warranty is provided through the manufacturer of the drive.
 

MoNeY3865

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FIT,

You are correct on WD warrenty coverage. WD recently warrenteed and replaced an "OEM" drive of mine that was 2.5 years old and bought from Newegg. I had no problems and did everything through their website, but that could be just WD providing superior support for it's OEM's. I can't say more about support from any other company.
 

Rolaids0

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I just checked my OEM hdd's (seagate, one ide 40GB the other a 250GB sata) on their validate page. Both show the full support period. I e-mailed pre-sales support to verify, this is what they had to say (longish):
All of the current Seagate internal drives have five year warranties if
sold since July of last year. However, if the drive was purchased
originally from Seagate prior to this time, they may not have this
warranty. The only way we track warranty is by the serial number of the
hard drive.

If the drive was sold originally through distribution channels, it went
from Seagate to a direct distributor, like those listed on our website at
http://www.seagate.com/cda/reseller/distributors/ They sell to various
resellers or companies that have accounts set up with them. They do not
sell to the public. Resellers turn around and sell to the end users.

Some drives are also sold from Seagate, or one of this direct
distributors, in a retail box through a few authorized retailers like
those listed on the Seagate site at http://www.seagate.com/buy/retail/
These will always have the full five year warranty, when purchased, if
they are internal drive versions.

There are also drives sold directly to some very large OEM manufacturers
of systems to be sold only as a component of the complete systems they
sell. They are sold under a contractual agreement with Seagate, and
usually the warranty is specified in the agreement. So, they may be able
to return drives to Seagate for warranty replacement, but the end user
normally cannot pull the drive from the system and return it under
warranty directly to Seagate. Only the OEM manufacturer it was sold to
can do that for whatever the agreed upon warranty period is.

Sometimes one of these OEM manufacturers dump some drives on the market,
as they may not sell as many systems as they intended. These drives may
have been modified for this OEM manufacturer, and may or may not work on a
standard system. Most likely, they will have no warranty direct through
Seagate. These are called "OEM" or gray market drives. You will find
these component or OEM drives on eBay quite frequently. Usually they are
priced very attractively, so they sell better. If we had the serial
number, we could tell you if they have a warranty through Seagate or not.
Without a serial number, we really could not tell you.

We suggest you purchase drives from a reputable reseller or retailer, to
make sure you are getting a distribution model. Then, you will have the
full warranty, if this is important to you.

The drives I have were both bought after July 2005, they are both OEM versions of the drives. So it seems Seagate is standing by their warranty so long as where you are getting the drive from is reputable. All bought from NewEgg.
 

ZOldDude

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Apr 22, 2006
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That's my story:
I bought a stand alone maxtor hard drive the 29 October 2004 in an Italian shop.
The 20 of April 2005 my hard drive crashed and i went back to the store to have it substitute under its 2 years warranty. The store refused to take it because they said they have been instructed by maxtor of substitute the hard drives within the first year of warranty and after that time all the issue has to be solved directly through the maxtor warranty service.
I wrote to maxtor asking them how to obtain my warranty and they just refuse to apply it.

Maxtor reply:
Unfortunately, I have checked the system again and found that your hard drive warranty is due to 13/10/2005. Despite the valid warranty, your hard drive also cannot be replaced with Maxtor as it is an OEM drive. This means that the hard drive and its warranty, has been sold to an Original Equipment Manufacturer. To obtain warranty on this hard drive, you will need to go back to the manufacturer of your computer system or your original place of purchase. We pay sympathy to your situation but we really cant do anything for this OEM drive.

I am going to be very careful with my next hard drive.
I hope this is going to be helpful to somebody since the only thing I am sure is that I paid and nobody changed my drive when crashed even if under 2 years "by law" warranty.

Luca

Tell them that you built the computer...YOU are the builder and replace it for me.

I don't know what the laws are in your country...but a well worded email pointing out that if Maxtor or it's new owner Seagate will not provide warrenty will leave you with no other option than to only use WD (or whatever brand) for all your builds from now on WILL get results.

I deal with companys that say "no way" all the time and never take "no" for a final answere.

Take it from me,if they think they will lose sales (even if the company has been bought..as in this case) they will bend over backwards to keep you happy.

Z