Warranty on OEM HDD's

...Moving this conversation here, as it was off-topic of original thread...

So here's the scenario:

About 1 yr. ago, one of my Seagate SATA HDD's went belly-up. First time EVER that I had a Seagate die while under warranty. I go to Seagate's website, find the online RMA form and enter all information. I get a message saying that the drive is not eligible for RMA. HUH??

I have the receipt. The drive is only 1 yr. old. I try again, and get the same message. Fine. I call Seagate Customer Service, 'cause something must be screwed up with the website. Representative asks me for the Serial # of the drive, and then says, "OH! That's an OEM designated drive. That's not covered by the retail warranty." WHAT?

After much debate, still no warranty for me. Basically what she said is that OEM designated drives are warrantied ONLY through the PC manufacturer or reseller. She claimed there was nothing she could do, even though I have purchased nothing but Seagate for over 10 years.

So, I called NewEgg. I bitched that their website was misleading by advertising the retail warranty for OEM drives. The NewEgg rep would neither confirm nor deny... merely repeatedly stated that, "warranty was subject to the terms of the manufacturer". The rep DID offer me 25% off of a replacement drive though, LMAO. (Yeah, ok... I bought two).

Anyway, I have recounted this event many times, many places... usually when awesome deals on OEM drives surface. I warn people not to be fooled, purchase the drives with the understanding that if it fails, you're out a drive.

But, every time, I'm confronted by individuals that claim they RMA their OEM drives all the time. They think I'm either looney or a liar. And, I'm totally confused.

Was there something different in the Serial # of the drive I received, as opposed to ALL the rest of them that are sold? I can't imagine that. Yet, some apparently successfully enter their OEM Serial #'s into RMA, yet mine was flagged like a pedophile in a candy store.

Comments? Anyone?

Joe Average said:

Like I said, I don't know what the Seagate rep was smoking, but... well, whatever I guess. I wouldn't have given up quite so easily. Seagate is generally regarded as having the best warranty in the hard drive manufacturing business, so I can't for a second believe someone would dare just say "Buy this drive, if it fails, you're on your own" or words to that effect.

Click to expand...

LOL, that's not exactly what she said.

Actually, her explanation was this:
--Seagate sells the OEM designated drives in bulk to PC manufacturers at a significantly discounted rate. This rate is based on the agreement that the PC manufacturer shall cover the drive under the PC warranty. Under this contract agreement, Seagate is not responsible to warranty those drives, thus lowering their operating expenses... thus allowing for the OEM discounts.
According to her, for example, you could not remove the Seagate HDD from your HP and RMA it directly through Seagate. You would be required to RMA it with HP.

She then went on to explain that OEM drives "are not intended for the retail market", despite the fact that resellers offer them in great abundance. In these instances, it is the reseller who is responsible for the drive warranty, which is usually covered only by the resellers return policy. In the case of NewEgg... 30 days.

While I can certainly see the reasoning, why does it seem like I'm the ONLY person who's run into this situation?? (looking in the mirror for the big 'ole target on my back)

wjogert said:

LOL, that's not exactly what she said.

Actually, her explanation was this:
--Seagate sells the OEM designated drives in bulk to PC manufacturers at a significantly discounted rate. This rate is based on the agreement that the PC manufacturer shall cover the drive under the PC warranty. Under this contract agreement, Seagate is not responsible to warranty those drives, thus lowering their operating expenses... thus allowing for the OEM discounts.
According to her, for example, you could not remove the Seagate HDD from your HP and RMA it directly through Seagate. You would be required to RMA it with HP.

She then went on to explain that OEM drives "are not intended for the retail market", despite the fact that resellers offer them in great abundance. In these instances, it is the reseller who is responsible for the drive warranty, which is usually covered only by the resellers return policy. In the case of NewEgg... 30 days.

While I can certainly see the reasoning, why does it seem like I'm the ONLY person who's run into this situation?? (looking in the mirror for the big 'ole target on my back)

Click to expand...

I posted in the previous thread before I saw that you created this one. I'm guessing what happened is either Seagate got the SN# wrong in their database, or they shipped Newegg the wrong drives. OEM branded and OEM drives are two different things.

Maximus825 said:

"OEM branded drive" meaning that it was re-branded by another company. That's not the same thing as a Seagate OEM drive. You'd have to contact the company that re-branded the drive for warranty service

Click to expand...

No, I mis-stated when I called it OEM branded. What I meant was OEM designated.
The drive looks no different than any of my dozens of Seagate drives... OEM or retail.

I call it OEM designated because they immediately knew it was an OEM when I read them the Serial #

UncleDavid218 said:

That is false. I had to RMA a Seagate drive after 4 years that started clicking very badly. I didn't have any issues and they sent me a new driver of twice the capacity.

Click to expand...

LMAO. I would have been happy with a replacement of the same capacity.

Story of my life it seems.
You get an upgrade... and I get the short end of a long stick

wjogert said:

No, I mis-stated when I called it OEM branded. What I meant was OEM designated.
The drive looks no different than any of my dozens of Seagate drives... OEM or retail.

I call it OEM designated because they immediately knew it was an OEM when I read them the Serial #

Click to expand...

Yes, you can tell if it's an OEM or retail boxed drive from the SN#. Your case is definitely an isolated incident and a mistake on Seagate's part. As an aside, I bought a Seagate OEM drive a few weeks ago from Newegg with bad SMART status, so I got it RMAd through Seagate no problem. New drive just arrived on Monday.

Hmmmph...

And to think, ever since then the ONLY drives I've bought have been retail... usually when an awesome deal surfaces, and then I try to stock up!

Now I wish I hadn't passed on the OEM 500Gb for $70.00. Oh well.

I've only RMAed one HD, a OEM WD from zipzoomfly. WD is awesome fast.

I bought two of those OEM Segate 500gb drives, soon to be RAID-0. I probably will never need to RMA them but the warenty checks out to Feb 14, 2013.

I purchased a 7200 rpm Hitachi 80GB laptop drive right after they first came out years past, from Newegg, and it was the OEM drive in simple anti-static packaging inside a box of foam peanuts when it arrived at my home. I used that drive for just over a year before it started making that dreaded tick-tick-tick noise. Ran the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test on it, got the disposition code (wasn't 000000 like it should have been meaning no errors), went to the Hitachi storage website, punched in the appropriate info on the RMA page, got the RMA info, shipped the drive, 3 weeks later I got a brand spankin' new 80GB replacement.

I don't know if there's a difference between the Hitachi warranty process for OEM "branded" or designated drives (it had a standard Hitachi/IBM drive label stuck on it) and Seagate, but I've RMAed drives from the manufacturers I listed in the other thread - including Seagate as well, in fact the most recent being a 320GB 7200.10 from a customer's box in Februrary that was purchased from (get this) Newegg - OEM bare drive, Seagate "branded" label (just like a retail drive would be in a retail box/package), shipped in nothing but an anti-static bag in a box full of foam peanuts.

Same process, for the most part: get the drive tested, if it fails the diagnostic, go to the manufacturer's site, locate the RMA page(s), input the info, get the RMA #, pack it up and ship it, wait for the replacement.

Not sure what Seagate is up to, but they made it, they are the ones responsible for handling the warranty. I get a load of shit from some damned cubicle worker and I ask for a supervisor, and when the supervisor gets on the phone, I simple say "I'd like to speak to your boss" and don't give up till it happens.

But I've never had that issue with hard drives, or Seagate. Never had to call into any manufacturer so far; the website has everything I've needed to accomplish the RMA swapout, and not once has it failed or given me trouble from any of them.

As always... YMMV... and it seems it does.

I have RMAed another drive before that WD, it was a Hitachi (deathstar) but it went back to newegg and they just refunded my purchase price and ironically it more than payed for the WD from ZZZ that went bad.

Well, it's obvious that something was amiss with that particular drive.

Not being accustomed with the RMA particulars, I just believed them when they said "ALL OEM drives"...
Had I known what I do now, I would have insisted to know what exactly in the serial # was the issue.

Hmmm... come to think of it, I still have that drive kickin' around.

we had a very similar experience to the OP with Hitachi. Except the response wasn't really in good English. Pretty sure I bought those drives through Mwave because NewEgg doesn't take purchase orders, which is really annoying.