Western Digital Warranty Review

[Romanze]

I wanted to share my experience of the warranty process through Western Digital. Since I started building PC's many years ago, I chose WD for their internal hard disk drives. I now have had two failed 1TB Black hard drives due to bad sectors, both purchased 3 years apart if you were thinking its a batch issue. When the first one failed I didn't even think to check the warranty which was definitely still valid. When the second one failed about a month ago I went on the website, registered my product, and realized I have 3 years left. 

 

The first step, I tried was testing it with their proprietary software Life Guard Diagnostic. I did both quick and extended and it showed "failed due to bad sectors". It asked if I wanted to try and repair I chose yes, but unfortunately it did not work. So I started a support ticket. I asked if there was anything else I could do to fix the drive and also why it kept happening to me. They never answered instead they asked for my serial number then told me to follow this link to RMA the drive. The link was broken and stated "no results found". Then they sent a proper link.

 

Next I was trying to add my shipping address to my profile for the replacement hard drive. The support portion of their website is https://westerndigital.secure.force.com/ which is run from India. It would not allow my address to be entered. It would tell me my address in invalid. I live in South Florida. I could not continue the RMA process. I googled the issue and come to find the same problem has been around since January 2016. Many people not able to enter their address and continue the RMA process. So, back to the e-mail and asked them to enter it for me which they obliged. 

 

At this point I started to feel they would do whatever they could to not fill the warranty. After getting that squared away the RMA instructions were incredibly long. I had to print it and it was 3 pages worth. The shipping instructions were very particular stating two inch packing material, exact type of packing material to be used. Serial number written on 3 sides of the box in BOLD letters. RMA barcode to be taped to the top side. Which they gave you two labels to choose from (I still never understood which one was right). All the while the instructions telling me if anything was not right they would invalidate the RMA and nothing would be returned. 

 

Alas I received my new hard drive and they received my broken one. The one (very) positive outcome is they sent a 2TB back, although i'm not so sure its a Black, it doesn't say anywhere on the label, but it made the situation a lot better. After receiving the new hard drive I wanted to be proactive and register the hard drive right away. That's when I find out the new hard drive has 100 days left on the warranty. I felt it should at least be the 3 years left I had on the last one seeing that I sort of purchased a 5 year warranty with the drive. Back to the e-mail and it was fixed. 

 

Now I have to say this is the first warranty I have ever done, so maybe they are all like this, but it just seemed to me they were making the process so difficult to where I would not return the hard drive. I have been using Western Digital products for a very long time and its just a bummer their customer support was well, what it was. Sorry if it sounds like I am crying about it, but I waited a week to write this so I wasn't irritated anymore. 

[manikyath]

this is why you buy from a retailer that handles their warranties in-house, and never deal with manufacturer warranty directly.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I wanted to return a dying HDD (it was throwing bad sector errors) that was still under warranty (barely). I messed up while applying online because I was wanting them to cross ship the replacement and I checked a wrong box but, when I went back to try to fix it, something went hirribly wrong so I called them. I spoke to a gentleman apparrently from India, judging by the accent, and, except for some trruble understanding the accent at times, he took care of setting up the return for me with no trouble.

 

I received the replacement drive within a couple of days. Since it wasa cross ship, I had to supply a credit card number which they put a hold on for the cost of the replacement drive incase I failed to return the dying drive. That hold was removed the same day they received the old drive.

 

The drive I received (and was expecting to receive since it's WD's policy) was a refurbished drive that was the equivalent of or better than the original drive. It checked out fine and survived the torture test I gave it so I was a happy camper.

 

I do have an issue with WD replacing bad drives with refurbished drives no matter their age. If I had a drive fail just outside the vendor's return window (usually 30 days), I feel I should get a new replacement drive, not a refurb. In this case, the drive was three months shy of the end of it's warranty so I had no complaints.

[manikyath]

19 hours ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

I wanted to return a dying HDD (it was throwing bad sector errors) that was still under warranty (barely). I messed up while applying online because I was wanting them to cross ship the replacement and I checked a wrong box but, when I went back to try to fix it, something went hirribly wrong so I called them. I spoke to a gentleman apparrently from India, judging by the accent, and, except for some trruble understanding the accent at times, he took care of setting up the return for me with no trouble.

 

I received the replacement drive within a couple of days. Since it wasa cross ship, I had to supply a credit card number which they put a hold on for the cost of the replacement drive incase I failed to return the dying drive. That hold was removed the same day they received the old drive.

 

The drive I received (and was expecting to receive since it's WD's policy) was a refurbished drive that was the equivalent of or better than the original drive. It checked out fine and survived the torture test I gave it so I was a happy camper.

 

I do have an issue with WD replacing bad drives with refurbished drives no matter their age. If I had a drive fail just outside the vendor's return window (usually 30 days), I feel I should get a new replacement drive, not a refurb. In this case, the drive was three months shy of the end of it's warranty so I had no complaints.

first off: one hell of a thread necro.

 

past that, stores with in-house warranties

amazon is cheap, but you get what you pay for.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

2 hours ago, manikyath said:

first off: one hell of a thread necro.

 

past that, stores with in-house warranties

amazon is cheap, but you get what you pay for.

I'm aware it was a necropost (although one year isn't all that bad) but I also wanted to let people know that the reviewer's experience with WD wasn't necessarily typical of WD's warranty service.

[manikyath]

44 minutes ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

I'm aware it was a necropost (although one year isn't all that bad) but I also wanted to let people know that the reviewer's experience with WD wasn't necessarily typical of WD's warranty service.

manufacturer refunds are always a chore, i know because they're part of my job

that said, if you come in well prepared (you know, product number and serial on hand) and you keep in mind that it's a boring chore for the guy at the opposite end too, all is usually well.

unfortunately.. the latter of which.. tends to get forgotten a lot

 

i've done several bios password resets with HP, which is usually described as some sort of james bond undercover operation on forums.. it's dead simple if you know what's on hand: "i'm so and so and have a laptop so and so, and a former coworker put a bios pass on it, here's the P/N, S/N, and the UUID, you can contact me back on this mail address with the unlock key" takes all of 10 minutes if you're as prepared as the guy on the other side. both a good day for you and for him.