RMA better sent to retailer or manufacturer?

  • Thread starter Thread starter AN O'Nymous
  • Start date Start date
A

AN O'Nymous

I have a Seagate hard drive that is under warranty. I have obtained RMA
numbers from both the retailer and Seagate.

The drive seems to be working fine after being frozen in the freezer
and reformatted, although it hasn't been used as long as when it
started giving problems...just long enough to do copy all its data out
and do half of a full surface scan (with no errors).

If I return it to the retailer, they may quickly test it for just 5
minutes, find it is OK and send it back to me. Effort wasted. The drive
was definitely making screeching noises and Windows definitely could
not read the boot sector until I froze it, and copying data out was
very slow. I don't want to play Russian Roulette with my data and
definitely want to replace this drive.

If I return it to Seagate, I'm not sure what their testing procedure is
but I will get a refurbished hard drive as replacement (according to
their warranty policy, anyway). Can I expect a refurbished hard drive
to perform reliably?

Thanks.
 
If I return it to Seagate, I'm not sure what their testing procedure is
but I will get a refurbished hard drive as replacement (according to
their warranty policy, anyway). Can I expect a refurbished hard drive
to perform reliably?

Thanks.
Click to expand...


You will be best off to send it back to the MFG.
Chances are you will get a new unit as replacement.


BTW: when you send it back..get some kind of *confirmed* delivery...

I once had one lost and could not blame anyone but myself
 
I have a Seagate hard drive that is under warranty. I have obtained RMA
numbers from both the retailer and Seagate.

The drive seems to be working fine after being frozen in the freezer
and reformatted, although it hasn't been used as long as when it
started giving problems...just long enough to do copy all its data out
and do half of a full surface scan (with no errors).

If I return it to the retailer, they may quickly test it for just 5
minutes, find it is OK and send it back to me. Effort wasted. The drive
was definitely making screeching noises and Windows definitely could
not read the boot sector until I froze it, and copying data out was
very slow. I don't want to play Russian Roulette with my data and
definitely want to replace this drive.

If I return it to Seagate, I'm not sure what their testing procedure is
but I will get a refurbished hard drive as replacement (according to
their warranty policy, anyway). Can I expect a refurbished hard drive
to perform reliably?

Thanks.
Click to expand...


I don't know what the odds are of getting a refurb'd drive
in the UK from Seagate, but whatever they are, it would seem
that to increase your odds of getting a new drive you would
have to try RMA to the retailer first. It would not be
surprising if they test it ok, if it seems ok right now, and
return it. That's the problem with HDDs in general and why
I won't trust any drive that has any kind of *issue*,
including being a refurb'd replacement, in any role other
than a member in a redundant array.

So your time and shipping costs are the gamble, only you can
decide if it's worthwhile to try the retailer first. You
could put a note in that describes the condition, that it
appears ok in brief tests but still had the problem, so they
don't just assume you did something wrong. I'd leave out
the bit about the freezer though, and put a very tiny mark
in an unnoticable spot or record the #s off of it to be sure
whether what you get in return is same or different drive if
not factory sealed.
 
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