Was your new hard drive subjected to excessive shock in shipment?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Leroy
  • Start date Start date
L

Leroy

I run a small 2-man computer repair shop in the midwest. Have been
doing this for over 8 years.

Never have I had so many failures of hard drives as within the past 40
days. It doesn't matter if it's Maxtor or Western Digital. Many of
them are failing out of the box or within 1 week of service.

I do not feel that this is the manufacturer's fault.

I do not believe that this is my wholesaler's fault as they go to
extra length to wrap each drive in bubblewrap as well as styro
peanuts. I do believe that all packages containing hard drives should
be marked with FRAGILE stickers.

I know that this is Fedex's fault! The way that they handle this
merchandise is deplorable. The boxes are arriving at my location with
holes punched in them. Some of them look like they were pierced with a
forklift. The driver's drop them on the floor, etc. The list goes on
and on. Yes - UPS is worse than fedex. But everybody knows this. We
never thought that FEDEX would handle cargo like this.

The irony of all of this is that the manufacturer is forced to repair
these drives under warranty! I am forced to warranty a new drive to my
customers - which usually means a loss of 4 hours of technical service
work (to re-install software on the replacement drive). The customer
may lose data too.

If shock watch labels were included with each shipment of hard drives
and visible from the outside of the container, the recipient would
know at a glance if these drives were subjected to excessive shock
during shipment.

Go here for more info:

http://www.uline.com/Browse_Listing_1053.asp

http://www.uline.com/ProductDetail.asp?model=S-5160&ref=1053

http://www.uline.com/PDF/CF_236.PDF

http://www.uline.com/ProductDetail.asp?model=S-6691

If anyone has any suggestions, similar experiences, etc., I would
welcome your comments. No, I do not work for uline. I simply found
them via Google. If anyone knows of other similar suppliers, please
let me know.
 
fedex my butt, they are reducing quality the drives. Haven't you noticed
that all the warranty's have been reduced from 3 to 1 year.
 
Refuse delivery of visiblely damaged boxes, be sure that
FedEx knows why you refused delivery and send the sender an
email about the problem. If you have a camera take a
picture of the box(es).


| I run a small 2-man computer repair shop in the midwest.
Have been
| doing this for over 8 years.
|
| Never have I had so many failures of hard drives as within
the past 40
| days. It doesn't matter if it's Maxtor or Western Digital.
Many of
| them are failing out of the box or within 1 week of
service.
|
| I do not feel that this is the manufacturer's fault.
|
| I do not believe that this is my wholesaler's fault as
they go to
| extra length to wrap each drive in bubblewrap as well as
styro
| peanuts. I do believe that all packages containing hard
drives should
| be marked with FRAGILE stickers.
|
| I know that this is Fedex's fault! The way that they
handle this
| merchandise is deplorable. The boxes are arriving at my
location with
| holes punched in them. Some of them look like they were
pierced with a
| forklift. The driver's drop them on the floor, etc. The
list goes on
| and on. Yes - UPS is worse than fedex. But everybody knows
this. We
| never thought that FEDEX would handle cargo like this.
|
| The irony of all of this is that the manufacturer is
forced to repair
| these drives under warranty! I am forced to warranty a new
drive to my
| customers - which usually means a loss of 4 hours of
technical service
| work (to re-install software on the replacement drive).
The customer
| may lose data too.
|
| If shock watch labels were included with each shipment of
hard drives
| and visible from the outside of the container, the
recipient would
| know at a glance if these drives were subjected to
excessive shock
| during shipment.
|
| Go here for more info:
|
| http://www.uline.com/Browse_Listing_1053.asp
|
|
http://www.uline.com/ProductDetail.asp?model=S-5160&ref=1053

|
| http://www.uline.com/PDF/CF_236.PDF
|
| http://www.uline.com/ProductDetail.asp?model=S-6691
|
| If anyone has any suggestions, similar experiences, etc.,
I would
| welcome your comments. No, I do not work for uline. I
simply found
| them via Google. If anyone knows of other similar
suppliers, please
| let me know.
 
FedEx, UPS and others can never guaranty safe delivery. One of their
conditions for delivery from the wholesaler's site: package must withstand
a drop of 6 feet. Boxes can normally withstand such a drop but not most
delicate computer components. The couriers do not care about the "fragile"
stickers. Time is money for them and the boxes are mishandled, thrown or
drop because everyone is in a rush to get the boxes out.

Y.
 
The manufacturers may or may not be reducing the quality of the
drives.
Reducing the warranty period does not necessarily reflect lower
quality for the drives.
Since drives of any quality can fail at any time whether new or not so
new, reducing the warranty period on even the highest quality drives
will save money in warranty replacements at the 1-3 year time frame.
 
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