Strange Occurance

[buwish]

I really haven't been having very good luck of late with hardware, but this is the cherry on top. I went to a BB a bit north of where I live because it was one of the only stores in the area that had any Velociraptors HDDs. So, when I got home I took it out of the box and discover that instead of a raptor, there was a 20GB Maxtor drive in it from what would appear to be an old IBM. I think this drive may have been from 1998, because it is olllllld. The box was in perfect shape and sealed, as well as the drive itself (i.e. in the anti-static wrapping). It looks like someone working at the store or the factory pulled a fast one and got themselves a free drive.

I've never had this happen before...a bit irritating if you ask me.

 

[mindless728]

well, the v-raptor isn't worth it, the WD Black's are almost as fast and the Samsung Spinpoint F3's are probably faster (500GB/platter)

though go back to the store and complain, i would surely be pissed

 

[buwish]

O, that will be the first order of business tomorrow. I'll give em' hell. I was looking at a WD black as well, but I'm just looking for something that will run W7 in "snappy" fashion (i.e. a single drive/partition maybe) dedicated to the OS). I'll take a look at some benchmarks and see if I change my mind in regard to the WD blacks.

 

[buwish]

What a pain in the ass!

I ended up getting the velociraptor upon my return yesterday. I figure that it offered the most bang for the buck, plus I was curious to see what it could do. I had a hell of a time returning the "Maxtor" drive that was in the first box that I bought. The manager at the BB I went to said that she couldn't take it because she couldn't verify that I was trying to rip them off. So, I drove home (a bit of a drive) and called WD and they said BB had to deal with it. I then proceeded to call BB and "demanded" to speak with the general manager. Thankfully she took a look at my purchase record (BB credit card) and was satisfied that I wasn't trying to rip them off.

The manager I spoke to a WD said that what happened to me is kind of becoming a common occurance. Either someone from the store or factory sneaks an old drive in before they are shipped out or someone pays for or steals one from the store and brings it back with a different drive inside the box (seeing that they probably do not check it).

Hopefully this doesn't happen to anyone else, but if it does, be prepared for a battle and a half to get your money back or exchange.

 

[buwish]

Good plan and I recommend it every time. I made the manager stand there and watch me open the box to the HDD after I paid for it and before I left (one never knows if the batch could have been tampered with). I didn't file a complaint, but I did send the FTC's bur. of consumer protection an account of what happened just to maybe get the ball rolling on the matter if and when it happens to anyone else.