No more 5 year Seagate warranty

[gussie]

After purchasing many bare-OEM-Bulk Seagate drives from reputable UK retailers, even Computer Fairs - I never had an issue until now.

I've been purchasing several Seagate 500GB SATA drives from Ebuyer - see http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/113428 - they clearly state that these drives have a Seagate Manufacturers 5 Year Warranty.

I first ordered four drives on 7th May - all have a 5 year warranty

9QG0WLFB 9BJ146-500 In Warranty Expiration 02-Apr-2012 Exchange
9QG0WKKN 9BJ146-500 In Warranty Expiration 02-Apr-2012 Exchange
9QG0WKL8 9BJ146-500 In Warranty Expiration 02-Apr-2012 Exchange
9QG0P02C 9BJ146-500 In Warranty Expiration 02-Apr-2012 Exchange

I then ordered another four drives on 31st May - these have NO Seagate 5 year warranty

9QG0WZV6 9BJ146-500 Component (*see details below) Contact Place of Purchase
9QG0WYNG 9BJ146-500 Component (*see details below) Contact Place of Purchase
9QG0WZ4J 9BJ146-500 Component (*see details below) Contact Place of Purchase
9QG0W7YF 9BJ146-500 Component (*see details below) Contact Place of Purchase

Same model - same country of manufacture - even similar serial numbers.

I have another six drives on the way.

In the past, customers like me have assumed that all bare drives - traditionally described as OEM - supplied by bone fide retailers are backed by a Seagate 5 year warranty.

I did raise this via Seagates online support - but simply got back a terse reply stating that Component drives are only supported by the supplier under his terms and conditions - hardly the answer I was looking for.

It seems now that Seagate is renaging on its 5 year warranty terms, at least for the purchase of bare drives - as these carry no indication of warranty terms unlike retail packaged drives.

Are Ebuyer and Seagate knowingly colluding - by allowing the purchase of stock for resales to end users, that should only be used in integration.

How the hell, are customers like me to know if a bare drive supplied by a retailer has a 5 year warranty or not?

[Paren]

Ah, when it says "Contact Place of Purchase", these drives are the ones you normally find in pre-manufactured computers.

Seagate must have changed it I reckon. I think we might have to return them to Ebuyer within the warranty period from now on if that's the case.

[Dave]

I have just replied to your eNote regarding this. We honour the warranty period if the manufacturer will not or cannot do so for any reason as long as a warranty is stated on our product description at the time of purchase.

[Jakg]

:X

Just as i was about to buy a 7200.10

[gussie]

Originally Posted by Dave

I have just replied to your eNote regarding this. We honour the warranty period if the manufacturer will not or cannot do so for any reason as long as a warranty is stated on our product description at the time of purchase.

Sorry but that is not acceptable - you have mislead your customers by selling stock that is never intended for end users - only system integrators to build into their products.

I have requested an RMA for the four drives already received on the basis of incorrect item shipped.

I will refuse delivery of four drives scheduled for today and two early next week.

I'm also contacting Sheffield Trading Standards about your misrepresentation of the products you sell.

Seagate have confirmed to me by email that these drives cannot be warrantied by Seagate. They were never intended to be sold to end users as bare drives - only to System Integrators who would then assemble them into PCs etc, and then any support is directly with the System Integrator.

There is no 5 year warranty on these drives period.

Ebuyer can promise what they like.

The 300 or so purchasers so far of this drive will get a nasty shock if they ever need to replace their drives.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by gussie

Sorry but that is not acceptable - you have mislead your customers by selling stock that is never intended for end users - only system integrators to build into their products.

I have requested an RMA for the four drives already received on the basis of incorrect item shipped.

I will refuse delivery of four drives scheduled for today and two early next week.

I'm also contacting Sheffield Trading Standards about your misrepresentation of the products you sell.

Seagate have confirmed to me by email that these drives cannot be warrantied by Seagate. They were never intended to be sold to end users as bare drives - only by System Integrators who would assemble them into PCs etc, and then any support is directly with the System Integrator.

There is no 5 year warranty on these drives period.

Ebuyer can promise what they like.

As far as I know, we received absolutely no indication of this until now. I will forward your concerns on to our product manager and let him know of this problem if it has not already been brought to his attention. If you no longer wish to keep them, like I said that is fine. Also, if you have any issues with our service, please email complaints@ebuyer.com.

[gussie]

Originally Posted by Dave

... I will forward your concerns on to our product manager and let him know of this problem if it has not already been brought to his attention ...

Perhaps he'd like to explain what has happened?

Ebuyer are collecting the four drives I have already received and are happy for me to refuse delivery of the six drives still scheduled for delivery - so thanks to Ebuyer for their prompt remedial actions.

I'd still like an explanation - if only to admit that component drives will now be sold.

We'll all be happy as long as we know the truth.

[Ozymandias]

Originally Posted by Dave

As far as I know, we received absolutely no indication of this until now.

I contacted eBuyer by telephone yesterday (Thu 08/06) on delivery of my drive and informed them of the lack of any Seagate warranty. I requested a replacement as the wrong item was delivered (no 5 year manufacturers warranty) and the replacement is identical. The whole batch looks to be the same

[Paren]

Dave, one thing that I realised what how are we supposed to know the length of the warranty if we can't check them with Seagate? Ie, if they're 3 year or 5 year etc. Or do all Seagate drives come with 5 years?

[Dave]

Originally Posted by merc_fan

Dave, one thing that I realised what how are we supposed to know the length of the warranty if we can't check them with Seagate? Ie, if they're 3 year or 5 year etc. Or do all Seagate drives come with 5 years?

If a product states that it has x years of warranty and the manufacturer tells the customer to refer to the supplier then we honour the warranty stated. All Seagate drives have 5 year warranty unless stated otherwise in the product description. If we make any errors in our description and a customer buys a product at that time then we will always honour this.

[jazzyb88]

So say something goes wrong three years down the line, what action would you take? Would you refund or get a replacement even though that drive may no longer be made? i.e they may have brought out at 7200.11 drive and phased out the current 7200.10.

[gussie]

Originally Posted by merc_fan

... how are we supposed to know the length of the warranty if we can't check them with Seagate? ...

You can't!

Only by entering the serial number into the Warranty checker on Seagates web site.

This is now an issue that will hit everyone who is buying bare Seagate drives.

Both Seagate and the Retailer needs to sort this out - I will no longer be buying the sweetspot Seagate 500GB SATA bare drives until I find a retailer who guarantees his stock is geniune end user and not intended for sytem build.

It's clear from my email exchanges with Seagate and conversations with their Indian call centre - that they don't give a damn!

[jazzyb88]

Here's an article from The Inquirer dated Dec 2004. It seems this isn't a new practice by Seagate, but as to what may have changed on eBuyer's end (if anything), i don't quite know.

[gussie]

Originally Posted by jazzyb88

So say something goes wrong three years down the line, what action would you take? Would you refund or get a replacement even though that drive may no longer be made? i.e they may have brought out at 7200.11 drive and phased out the current 7200.10.

With a drive that shows up as in warranty with Seagates Warranty checker (unlike the drives we are discussing) you would receive a refurbished drive from Seagate with the balance of the warranty intact.

If the drive is no longer made - you will receive the nearest equivalent.

In the past on returning a 120GB drive - I have received a 200GB unit.

Last year I got a 400GB unit to replace a 200GB - it depends what stock Seagate has at the time.

The point is that with a legitimate end user 5 year warranty - you will have no issues right up until the end date. You will get a replacement drive shipped out to you by UPS within a week.

I'd hate to think what hassle you'll have with Ebuyer 3 or 4 years down the line. Will you still have the paperwork - will Ebuyer still be in business - lots of uncertainties.

Far better to avoid these so called component drives.

[jazzyb88]

I agree with you, having a warranty with Seagate would be better but if eBuyer can honour the same sort of warranty i think i'd be okay with that. So far, i've only ordered a 500gb IDE and a 250gb SATA which are probably going to have no warranty. I think either eBuyer changed their terms of trade with Seagate and asked for component drives/unknowingly purchased them or Seagate are doing this behind our backs or without publishing anything formal?

[Ozymandias]

As a frequent upgrader I often upgrade my drives.

Up to now the warranty has been associated with the drive via the Seagate site. A used drive with a couple of years warranty is worth far more than a three year old drive with no warranty!

[jazzyb88]

Originally Posted by Tech Report.com

However, it should be noted that Seagate's five-year warranty only applies to retail-boxed and bare drives sold through authorized resellers. For drives sold directly to OEMs for integration in their systems, warranty coverage is up to the OEM. That's standard industry practice.

Perhaps eBuyer is no longer an authorised reseller or they have incorrectly been identified by Seagate as an OEM seller?

[Paren]

The only other way to be 100% sure of getting a warranty is to go the expensive router - yep, get retail.

[jazzyb88]

Originally Posted by merc_fan

The only other way to be 100% sure of getting a warranty is to go the expensive router - yep, get retail.

Yeah but exactly how many retail drives does eBuyer sell? About five?

[Joel]

Hang about.....

Does this mean the drive i have just got that says 5 years warranty doesnt actually have one?!?!

HERE

I sincerely hope this is not the case

[sfxdude]

Forgive me for being naïve here, but I don't particularly see what the problem is...

Dave has said (twice!) that:

We honour the warranty period if the manufacturer will not or cannot do so for any reason as long as a warranty is stated on our product description at the time of purchase.

and:

If a product states that it has x years of warranty and the manufacturer tells the customer to refer to the supplier then we honour the warranty stated. All Seagate drives have 5 year warranty unless stated otherwise in the product description.

If you don't the warranty through Seagate, then you get it through eBuyer....no?

[gussie]

Originally Posted by Joel

Hang about.....

Does this mean the drive i have just got that says 5 years warranty doesnt actually have one?!?!

HERE

I sincerely hope this is not the case

You stick your drives serial number and model number into here :

http://support.seagate.com/customer/...validation.jsp

and it will either give you your end warranty date.

Or, it will say "Component ... Contact Place of Purchase" which means that there is NO Seagate warranty. The drive you have should belong to a PC or other device built by a Systems Integrator or Company, and the warranty is with them - and it may well only be 1 year.

[Dave]

Our product manager for hard drives is actually off until Monday so I haven't found anything out as yet.

I will again though state that if it says 5 years then 5 years is offered, whether it is Seagate or us.

[Joel]

ah its ok. Seagate say i have until 2012 for warranty

all good

[tauheedul]

I dont sell drives seperately, so this wont affect me (since i am a "system integrator"). I think Dave has properly described the situation here. Since they have advertised the item with a 5 year warranty they will accept back the seagate hard disk (even though they will make a loss from it because Seagate wont reimburse eBuyer for it). At least eBuyer are accepting the situation and are willing to take some action upon it.

If you want to have the proper warranty, in the future purchase the retail versions instead. eBuyer will correct the description, then Problem solved.

[bainy]

I don't see what the problem is as long as you get the 5 year warranty you pay for from either seagate or ebuyer. Ebuyer have pledged to support the 5 year warranty should seagate not and thats good enough for me, although I did check my warranty on seagate's warranty checker and all is well with my drive.

[sky_omega]

I just bought 2x 320GB 7200.10's and warranty says 5 year so if its not kept by segate im very happy ebuyer are honouring the warranty themselves.

[gussie]

Originally Posted by jazzyb88

Perhaps eBuyer is no longer an authorised reseller or they have incorrectly been identified by Seagate as an OEM seller?

See http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.js...5ee0a0aRCRD#uk

Ebuyer are an authorised reseller.

Seagate finally now looking into this - they agree these "Component" drives should never be sold directly to end users.

Have been promised an explanation - lets wait and see.

In the meantime the price of these drives has dropped substantially - now around £65 inc VAT elsewhere.

[jazzyb88]

Interesting. So this could be Seagate's fault? They sent the wrong type of drives to eBuyer?

Incidentally, i just received my 500gb PATA and its got a warranty with Seagate.

P.S. Which drives have dropped in price? The 320gb SATAs yesterday could be bought for £42 including Google Checkout offer and Free Shipping

[gussie]

Originally Posted by jazzyb88

Interesting. So this could be Seagate's fault? They sent the wrong type of drives to eBuyer?

Incidentally, i just received my 500gb PATA and its got a warranty with Seagate.

P.S. Which drives have dropped in price? The 320gb SATAs yesterday could be bought for £42 including Google Checkout offer and Free Shipping

I just hope they turn out to be pukka Seagate 5 year warranty ones!