A hard disk failure last week caused a big issue for the Crossed Wires admins. The drive was a WD, and they’re not necessarily off the purchasing list because the drive failed: disk drives are mechanical devices, and especially the consumer-level ones are not indestructible. The reason they’re off the purchasing list is that I had to RMA the drive back to WD, and their nearest agent is in Singapore.
Firstly I verified that the drive was under warranty. WD’s website confirmed this (they have a tool that lets you look up warranty status by serial number). I phoned the retailer, who said that although the drive has a three-year warranty, they only handle the first 12 months.
Grrr.
So, back to WD’s website to lodge the RMA — I had to laugh at this point; after completing the RMA process I was asked to print the proforma invoice and packing slip, which said “send the drive to this address:”, followed by a blank field! Nice one! Luckily the address was found elsewhere on the website. There are only four or five places in the world that handle RMAs for WD — at least for retail (surely there must be more for their commercial gear!), and Singapore handles the whole of Asia Pacific.
Grrr again.
To their credit, only 9 days after sending the faulty one, I had a courier knocking on the door with a replacement. It’s clearly labelled “Recertified” though, which changes its warranty eligibility, so I’m going to be very careful about where I use it and what I store on it (having read some unfavourable comments about WD’s recertified drives).
The icing on the cake: I had an intermittent problem with my second drive in the Mac today. Guess what: it’s another WD – same model as the failed one in the server. Oh well, at least I’ve got another one ready to swap in… 🙂
Crossed Wires 