S
Steve Hawkins Jr
Hello all,
I have just had a very bad experience with Monarch Computer, and
Samsung SP1614N 160gb hard disk drives. Has anyone else experienced
problems with these particular drives and/or with this company? Also,
is there a "manufacturer's seal" on these drive packages? IE: a peice
of tape or something on the packaging, sealing the package, and
indicating that the drive has not been tampered with or plugged up
since manufacture. There was not one on all the units that I
received.
I hope no one has to go through the hassle that I have gone through
with this company, repeatedly they sent me bad hard drives, and even
refused to give me a refund.
Here's the story:
I ordered two identical drives so I could setup a raid1 array. They
both show up together, loosely packed in peanuts, with just a little
bit of bubble wrap around them. I immediately ran Samsung's HUTIL,
with the low-level format option (write and verify all zeros to
drive). One drive passed, the other did not. To make sure it
wasn't just my system, such as a controller, CPU, memory, power
supply, or cable issue, I tried two other test beds. One of my own,
and one of a fellow technician's. Needless to say, it still tested
bad.
So, I RMA'd the bad drive and hoped for the best.
A replacement for the bad drive came in, in a timely manner, but this
time with even less packing material to protect the drive. Once
again, this drive failed a low level format.
Again, I RMA'd this drive, explained my problem, and hoped for the
best.
The process repeated itself. Little packing around the hard drive,
tested drive, fails low level format with HUTIL on multiple machines.
So for a third time, I RMA'd the drive, and requested that they please
pack with more padding, and run Samsung's HUTIL low level format test
on the drive, and make sure it passes it, before they send me another
drive.
The process repeated itself again. There was plenty of packaging
around the hard drive, and the shipping slip inside the box showed
where one of the supervisors had requested that the drive be tested,
and that my drives were failing low level format. Still, the drive
failed the low level format test on three completely different
machines, one of which is in a different physical location, several
miles away!
Finally, I attempted to obtain a refund from Monarch for both drives.
I called Monarch up, spoke with a person in RMA's, requested a full
refund for both drives, including shipping. The representative told
me that he would have to research the matter and call me back. Two
hours later, I had not received a phone call back.
I called them back instead.
I asked to speak to a supervisor in RMA's, and was put through
shortly.
The supervisor told me that they did not issue refunds or credits for
hard disk drives. This is contrary to their return policy on their
website.
He also said that it was unprecedented for any person to have this
number of bad hard disks in a row. He tried to blame Samsung's
testing software and my equipment. He would not accept the fact that
I kept getting bad drives, and that the drives were in fact defective.
I asked to speak to his manager or supervisor. He said that they were
not available.
I told him that this was unacceptable. I also told him that if he
would not refund the charges, I would be forced to dispute them with
my credit card company. And I quote his response "You can play that
game if you want to".
At this point I said "Good day sir", and he hung up.
I have just had a very bad experience with Monarch Computer, and
Samsung SP1614N 160gb hard disk drives. Has anyone else experienced
problems with these particular drives and/or with this company? Also,
is there a "manufacturer's seal" on these drive packages? IE: a peice
of tape or something on the packaging, sealing the package, and
indicating that the drive has not been tampered with or plugged up
since manufacture. There was not one on all the units that I
received.
I hope no one has to go through the hassle that I have gone through
with this company, repeatedly they sent me bad hard drives, and even
refused to give me a refund.
Here's the story:
I ordered two identical drives so I could setup a raid1 array. They
both show up together, loosely packed in peanuts, with just a little
bit of bubble wrap around them. I immediately ran Samsung's HUTIL,
with the low-level format option (write and verify all zeros to
drive). One drive passed, the other did not. To make sure it
wasn't just my system, such as a controller, CPU, memory, power
supply, or cable issue, I tried two other test beds. One of my own,
and one of a fellow technician's. Needless to say, it still tested
bad.
So, I RMA'd the bad drive and hoped for the best.
A replacement for the bad drive came in, in a timely manner, but this
time with even less packing material to protect the drive. Once
again, this drive failed a low level format.
Again, I RMA'd this drive, explained my problem, and hoped for the
best.
The process repeated itself. Little packing around the hard drive,
tested drive, fails low level format with HUTIL on multiple machines.
So for a third time, I RMA'd the drive, and requested that they please
pack with more padding, and run Samsung's HUTIL low level format test
on the drive, and make sure it passes it, before they send me another
drive.
The process repeated itself again. There was plenty of packaging
around the hard drive, and the shipping slip inside the box showed
where one of the supervisors had requested that the drive be tested,
and that my drives were failing low level format. Still, the drive
failed the low level format test on three completely different
machines, one of which is in a different physical location, several
miles away!
Finally, I attempted to obtain a refund from Monarch for both drives.
I called Monarch up, spoke with a person in RMA's, requested a full
refund for both drives, including shipping. The representative told
me that he would have to research the matter and call me back. Two
hours later, I had not received a phone call back.
I called them back instead.
I asked to speak to a supervisor in RMA's, and was put through
shortly.
The supervisor told me that they did not issue refunds or credits for
hard disk drives. This is contrary to their return policy on their
website.
He also said that it was unprecedented for any person to have this
number of bad hard disks in a row. He tried to blame Samsung's
testing software and my equipment. He would not accept the fact that
I kept getting bad drives, and that the drives were in fact defective.
I asked to speak to his manager or supervisor. He said that they were
not available.
I told him that this was unacceptable. I also told him that if he
would not refund the charges, I would be forced to dispute them with
my credit card company. And I quote his response "You can play that
game if you want to".
At this point I said "Good day sir", and he hung up.