Western Digital directly ripped me off for $140, and don't care about customers.

U

urbanriot

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 30, 2006
Messages
159
I had an advance RMA with Western Digital, they sent me a drive that was lost by UPS, which I didn't find out about until a few weeks went by and I called Western Digital and they said, "oops, sorry UPS lost your drive." So I called up UPS, and they said, "Yep, we lost your drive, sorry about that. You'll have to contact Western Digital for a replacement, they'll take care of it."

So I call up Western Digital, and they apologize for my drive, and they'll send me another one. So a week later my drive arrives, and this is a month or so later, and I see a charge on my credit card for the drive I didn't get (!)

So I call up Western Digital, and a gentleman whose english was not so clear, assured me that once my drive was sent back, I'd receive credits on the transaction, and they apologized again for the mistake.

So I send my drive back and wait patiently for my credit. Instead, I'm billed a second time, for another hard drive!

I call Western Digital and they agree they've received my drive... and they agree they lost a drive, however they can't issue a refund and it must be done through VISA. I suggested to this gentleman, whose english also wasn't so good, that this doesn't make sense and politely asked if I could speak with someone else. He said nobody could help me, that I'd have to call Visa, and wished me a wonderful day before hanging up.

So... we call VISA, and after a month of sending them documentation, and paperwork, they send me a nice letter saying they apologize, but they can't help me with my problem , and that I'd have to call Western Digital to have them sort it out. VISA further states that with my credit card number, they can charge whatever they want and I've agreed to it.


I'm so stressed, I've been charged $140 from Western Digital's mistakes... and anyone you call, you get someone in a country that doesn't care about you or want to help you.

I used to love their hard drives, but the company has the worst customer support ever.

a) Does anyone have any advice for me, on how I can get my money that they've stolen from me?

b) Does anyone have any numbers I can call Western Digital at, where someone might be in North America and possibly care about this problem?
 
Here's an oddball idea...

Contact Maximum PC Magazine and see if they will take this as one of their consumer protection stories. It sound right up their alley.
 
Where did you buy the drives from? Maybe the store/website will be able to help you through this clusterf%$# of a sitiuation. :(
 
I think you gave up way to easy with Western Digital. I would not have gotten off the phone until they issued the credit. Also depending the time of day you call you will have better luck getting a manager / not india
 
Wait, I don't get this story.


You send them a drive for RMA on advanced replacement.
They recieved your drive.
They shipped you a new replacement drive.
New replacement drive got lost.
You got charged?
Then you called again, they said they will re-send you another drive.
You got charged again?



Something doesn't add up. If the drive destined to them (doa drive) didn't get to thier location, then they will charge you, but not the other way.





Also, dispute it on your credit card, just tell them you made no authorization, it doesn't matter what you say. Start barking and start using the word "mail fraud", etc.
Dispute it with UPS, it should be insured (not UPS responsibilty to replace it, keep that in mind, unless if it was insured).
File a BBB complaint
Start barking up the trees



I think you are letting them roll over you, you need to start barking and start taking names and numbers + extensions down.
 
If you purchased the drive on a CC, youre protected, contact your cred company. Otherwise i would escalate my customer service needs through supervisors, as needed, until the desired results are obtained. Repeat as necessary :D .
 
I've done an advance RMA twice with WD. Worked just fine, though that charge (NOT hold) they put on your CC is very annoying.
 
urbanriot said:
So... we call VISA, and after a month of sending them documentation, and paperwork, they send me a nice letter saying they apologize, but they can't help me with my problem , and that I'd have to call Western Digital to have them sort it out. VISA further states that with my credit card number, they can charge whatever they want and I've agreed to it.
Click to expand...
WTF? Are you such a bad customer for VISA? Seriously, I have never been denied a disputed charge request.

I would suggest to follow Ockie's plan of attack: make noise.
 
i have never had issues with RMA but i have on a few occasions been sent rebate checks with my name spelled incorrectly. now i have a big ass name and mistakes happen but if you make enough noise they will help you.

vesa is able to credit you if you can prove you where charged for stuff you did not receive. a credit report site was charging me for a few months without ever giving me access to the service after the first month and vesa fixed everything for me. then you bug WD about giving you what is yours. even if it seems like it is not worth the effort do it to correct an issue not to get your moneys worth.
 
TechLarry said:
Here's an oddball idea...

Contact Maximum PC Magazine and see if they will take this as one of their consumer protection stories. It sound right up their alley.
Click to expand...

This sounds like a very good idea.

Every time Ive had to dispute charges, Visa/company has taken care of it. Never once have I had to fill out or send paperwork.
 
So is this what I am hearing happened?

You do an advanced RMA
WD sends out a replacement drive and puts a hold on your credit card for $140.
Drive gets lost in the mail
You didn't realize the drive got lost until a few weeks later
You report to WD that UPS lost the replacement drive and they send out another drive and put another $140 hold on your credit card (without canceling the first hold).
It takes another week until you received the replacement drive.
30 days has gone by without them receiving your drive so they charge your credit card for $140
You send back your defective drive and they credit you for $140
Another 30 days goes by and they charge you another $140 hold on the second hard drive.

Is that correct?

If it is then there are a few things you might want to keep in mind for the future. One would have been checking the UPS tracking number daily for the first replacement drive's progress so you would have realized it was missing sooner. Another would have been realizing that WD put a second $140 hold on your credit card and then having WD remove it before you got charged.

This is totally WD's fault though. I don't understand why they won't just credit your credit card for the $140 charge that should have never been there. Were you explaining the situation correctly?

When you said you called Visa, do you mean you actually called Visa and not just the issuing bank? What you need to do is call the bank who issued you the card (look for a phone number on the back of your credit card). Expain the situation and tell them that Western Digital charged you for a hard drive which you never received and are refusing to refund you so you need them to issue a charge-back on the $140 charge. Once they agree to issue a charge-back your card would usually be instantly credited for the amount ($140 in your case) and they start an investigation. At least that was my experience when I had to do a charge-back to Paypal on my Chase Visa because of a fraudulent Ebay seller.

It's kind of sad to see when stuff like this happens. Personally my experience with WD Advance RMA has been extremely positive. Your able to buy a return label online through their site. The replacement drive arrives within a week. Put the defective drive in the box the replacement came in. Print out the UPS label you bought and tape it on your package. Drop it off at a UPS location. Pretty simple. I actually had to do that 3 times in the past month. I had two 5000YS and one replacement 5000YS pass the SMART re-allocated sector count threshold :rolleyes:
 
Ockie said:
Wait, I don't get this story.


You send them a drive for RMA on advanced replacement.
...
Click to expand...

No, advance replacement means THEY send YOU a drive, and then you send them back your drive in their box. Since I didn't receive their drive initially as it was lost in shipping, I didn't send them back the broken drive, and they charged my credit card, even though they admitted UPS lost the drive I was supposed to receive.

xenotype said:
If you purchased the drive on a CC, youre protected, contact your cred company. Otherwise i would escalate my customer service needs through supervisors, as needed, until the desired results are obtained. Repeat as necessary :D .
Click to expand...

I went as high up the chain you can go with my VISA company, and also had a local corporate account manager that I'm friends with try to give me a hand. VISA absolutely refuses to issue a credit since we gave WD our VISA number, and that authorized WD to charge whatever charges they feel necessary. Somehow WD was able to justify the charges with VISA as the two hashed it out for weeks (I was faxing documents to VISA steady). According to many VISA reps, this happens often with Western Digital. Unfortunately, I can't bring our business to another VISA company as it was purchased with our very necessary corporate credit card.

Ockie said:
File a BBB complaint
Click to expand...

Good idea! Since I'm in Canada, have to figure out how to do that.

Update: Someone PM'd me a number to call for second level support. I had a helpful guy by the name of Efram agree there's no reason for me to receive the first charge and he's going to do what he can to help. The second charge might be because I didn't send the drive back within the time expected, but that was because we were disputing charges with people in India.

Thanks for the responses guys... also, the Maximum PC suggestion is pretty good too. I might consider that if I don't get a full refund, just to get the word out. This is one of the unfortunate side effects of farming out technical support to a country of people that are completely disconnected to WD customers and users. It disturbed me when VISA stated this happens often with WD.
 
I did an advanced RMA this summer with WD, I can't remember if I used a mastercard or visa though. Either way the whole thing took less then a week. Not that it matters to you, if you had to go through all that crap.

Hopefully this was just a one time thing, I can't imagine Visa reps saying that WD has been causing alot of problems. I'll continue to use WD either way though, I've had the least amount of problems with them compared to the other brands out there.
 
Seagate and WD have some of the best RMA programs on earth, so I hope they can get it resolved for you.

I have yet to have an issue with either of them, sounds more like a mixup of communication so hopefully level 2 can help you out.
 
It definitely sounds like you gave up on WD too soon. They are at fault, and you need to escalate until it's solved.
 
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