Seagate Warranty Support BS $22-27 to RMA

[Codesmith]

Whenever I have had to a return a Western Digital hard drive their advanced replacement was 100% free. They merely put an outstanding authorization on my credit card which they canceled when they recieve the defective hard drive.

Before buying a Seagate hard drive I carefully searched their support pages to ensure I would get the same level of customer service.

Now I find that there is a "hidden" $24.99 fee for all advance replacement.

They throw in a free return shippling label which does saves me about $5 in shipping costs, but its still $20 more than I would have to pay if I were returning a Western Digital hard drive.

Even more annoying is there is no mention of this advance replacement fee anywhere on the website.

You have to be 2/3rd through the process of requesting an RMA before it is mentioned.

Then when you are completely finished they tack on a 8% "tax", making it $26.95. The sales tax in my area is no where near 8%, nor does my state require out of state retailers to collect sales tax. I think they just charge everone the same tax rate then keep the money if the state they ship to doesn't require it.

If I chose to do a regular RMA they won't accept the drive's original packaging. I will have to pay $10 + 6.95 shipping for an approved packaging kit. Then maybe $5 for the shipping.

If this were a Western Digital Drive I would receive a replacement drive via 2nd Day shipping and only be out $5 for the return shpping.

If Western Digital offered 5 year warranties on all its drives rather than just the "Enterpise" models I would just stop using Seagate all together.

I don't like paying $22-27 because their hard drive couldn't last 5 years without breaking!

 

[badge]

Whenever I have had to a return a Western Digital hard drive their advanced replacement was 100% free. They merely put an outstanding authorization on my credit card which they canceled when they recieve the defective hard drive.

Before buying a Seagate hard drive I carefully searched their support pages to ensure I would get the same level of customer service.

Now I find that there is a "hidden" $24.99 fee for all advance replacement.

They throw in a free return shippling label which does saves me about $5 in shipping costs, but its still $20 more than I would have to pay if I were returning a Western Digital hard drive.

Even more annoying is there is no mention of this advance replacement fee anywhere on the website.

You have to be 2/3rd through the process of requesting an RMA before it is mentioned.

Then when you are completely finished they tack on a 8% "tax", making it $26.95. The sales tax in my area is no where near 8%, nor does my state require out of state retailers to collect sales tax. I think they just charge everone the same tax rate then keep the money if the state they ship to doesn't require it.

If I chose to do a regular RMA they won't accept the drive's original packaging. I will have to pay $10 + 6.95 shipping for an approved packaging kit. Then maybe $5 for the shipping.

If this were a Western Digital Drive I would receive a replacement drive via 2nd Day shipping and only be out $5 for the return shpping.

If Western Digital offered 5 year warranties on all its drives rather than just the "Enterpise" models I would just stop using Seagate all together.

I don't like paying $22-27 because their hard drive couldn't last 5 years without breaking!

I'll take your advice, warning about the hidden charges. I own one Seagate drive. I can give a warning about Sapphire, Inc. video cards. I have not received three seperate rebates for three seperate video card purchases since May '06. Sapphire's rebate department has a 'D' rating with the Better Business Burea and has yet to respond to the CA attorney general's office regarding my complaint. DON'T BUY SAPPHIRE! Thank you much.

 

[zenmaster]

If this is true, I would consider their warranty a SCAM.
I wager the fees they are chargin are close to their cost for the new unit they are sending you.

Hence you get a new drive at cost.

Their perpendicular drive technology at this point would cause me to buy Seagate anyway, but boy I but that may not be the case as soon as WD starts shipping them.

 

[Codesmith]

What upsets me is that I still can't find anywhere on their site where they mention a fee for advanced replacement.

I think this is deliberate so that people will assume that the service is free of charge.

They also quit selling hard drive packaging kits. Although they do have a link to a 3rd party seller.

I have advanced replaced two hard drives and one monitor, and three memory modules and was never charged a fee.

 

[Doughbuy]

I never use the prepackaged kit... I just always keep the kits my HDD's come in, so if any dies, I use the original box and ship it out...

Thats what I suggest to ya'll, always keep original packaging. They cant get you then.

 

[kamel5547]

If this is true, I would consider their warranty a SCAM.
I wager the fees they are chargin are close to their cost for the new unit they are sending you.

Hence you get a new drive at cost.

Their perpendicular drive technology at this point would cause me to buy Seagate anyway, but boy I but that may not be the case as soon as WD starts shipping them.

A warranty only covers what is spelled out in the terms and conditions, if it doesn't say "we will ship you a new X before recieving your broken X" then that is not covered. Its not a scam... how many of you actually have read the warranty cards? Knowing the specifics of what is stated in a warranty and being able to argue based on their written policy cna be very helpful.

Example: Years back I bought a pair of subwoofers from BestBuy and bought the protection plan (as a side note I went through 4 subs under the plan so it worked out for me). On one exchange they said the manufacturer no longer made that model and that I would have to pay the price difference between the new model and old... however I happened to know what the warranty said about this... It stated "we will replace the item with an equivalent item free of charge or refund your purchase price". I pointed it out and told them they could either give me the newer model or refund my purchase price on the old model, I ended up with the new model for free (I mean who wants to be refunding a two year old purchase?). Anyhow the point is that you have to read all the fine print and be able to argue that the warranty states differently than you are being told, if the warranty doesn't cover a particular subject (advanced replacement for example) then it is outside the scope of the warranty and not covered, that does not make it a "scam".

 

[badge]

If this is true, I would consider their warranty a SCAM.
I wager the fees they are chargin are close to their cost for the new unit they are sending you.

Hence you get a new drive at cost.

Their perpendicular drive technology at this point would cause me to buy Seagate anyway, but boy I but that may not be the case as soon as WD starts shipping them.

A warranty only covers what is spelled out in the terms and conditions, if it doesn't say "we will ship you a new X before recieving your broken X" then that is not covered. Its not a scam... how many of you actually have read the warranty cards? Knowing the specifics of what is stated in a warranty and being able to argue based on their written policy cna be very helpful.

Example: Years back I bought a pair of subwoofers from BestBuy and bought the protection plan (as a side note I went through 4 subs under the plan so it worked out for me). On one exchange they said the manufacturer no longer made that model and that I would have to pay the price difference between the new model and old... however I happened to know what the warranty said about this... It stated "we will replace the item with an equivalent item free of charge or refund your purchase price". I pointed it out and told them they could either give me the newer model or refund my purchase price on the old model, I ended up with the new model for free (I mean who wants to be refunding a two year old purchase?). Anyhow the point is that you have to read all the fine print and be able to argue that the warranty states differently than you are being told, if the warranty doesn't cover a particular subject (advanced replacement for example) then it is outside the scope of the warranty and not covered, that does not make it a "scam".

Viewsonic, Inc. just did an advance replacement for me for no charge. So OP is saying Seagate does not state there is a charge for advance replacement in their warranty. They should.

 

[Codesmith]

All my drives come in ESD bags, enclosed in bubble wrap and cussioned with foam "peanuts".

Although I had dozens of hard drives shipped to me in this way without a single drive being damaged, they will refuse the RMA and cancel the warranty if I used such packaging

PS I checked with Western Digital and when doing advanced replacments they still only charge your credit card if you fail to return the defective drive to them within 30 days.

BTW I am not pissed that they charge for Advanced replacement, I am pissed that they mention the Advanced Replacement option all over their website, but never mention the associated fee.


I went ahead and payed the $27 because I am only going to save $5-6 if I purchase a kit online and they say it could take up to two weeks for it to be delivered. So its $21 and wait up to a month or $27 and have it this week.

From now I am only going to recommend people buy Seagate drives if they are willing to get the retail version and hold on to the packaging for five years.


PS I checked Western Digitals packing instructions and if you don't have retail packaging they tell you how to properly secure you hard drive with bubble wrap.

So it looks like Seagate is being overly strict with its packaging requiremetns to push people to pay a fee to have their hard drives replaced.

 

[indemnify]

I have made the mistake of purchasing a 500 GB freeagent solid state drive. I bought it back in December '09, and 6 months later it burned up.

After arguing (that's right arguing – their staff isn't very kind) with several different people on the phone, told me that it would be replaced for free, but they made me jump through some hoops having to register online, fill out a request form – which took over a week to get a response, before having to spend $50 to ship it to them – having to fullfill their specific shipping requirements as to not void the warranty.

Two weeks after shipping, I receive an email saying that they refuse to honor the warranty – with no explanation. This is after the folks on the phone told me it would be replaced! To make matters worse, they want to bill me for them to ship me back the broken HD!

Bottom line, I have heard from IT geeks for years that Seagate's HDs are prone to failures and reliability problems. But I thought they were just being ridiculous – you know how geeks can be. But from what I've heard, it doesn't even come close to the truth. NEVER buy Seagate. NEVER.

I would recommend Hitachi or even Western Digital. Avoid Seagate at all costs, their operation is a borderline scam.

 

[Deluded1]

I woke thismorning to find the 5month old st3000 making that ticking sound(Broken) Yes $20 $30 is more than free (still?) I dont believe they are building these for 30 bucks if that is true(what??) thats why this 3tb died after 5 months.. heh NO WONDER. seriously I am relieved at how simple the RMA process at seagate is. My first ST HDD was an ST- 225 !! 25 Megabytes Yes Mega as in 1985 My point? Seagate has always been great. This is the first hdd from them that died during normal use. I in my experience either they crash in the first couple of hours or ended up in my garage somewhere when they became obsolete..This is the first failed drive - I was on my way to best buy for another when i thought i should at least see if it has any warranty WOW 15 minutes later the replacement was ordered. I could have returned it free but would have had to wait longer. I feel so relieved I am gonna go best buy sumthin!! I was happy to pay the$20+ bucks to expedite the process.