Seagate

DO NOT deal with them.

I have a LOT of data. The last few years I've gone all digital with my pictures, work, music and comic. So I've learned to back everything up. Often.

I have a 500GB Western Digital MyBook external next to my computer. I dropped the first one and WD replaced it before I even sent it back. I appreciate that customer service more than ever now.

The MyBook was getting full (I have a LOT of data). So I went to Best Buy for a bigger one. Seagate makes a 1.5 TB drive. I hadn't used them before but I figured a hard drive is a hard drive.

Mistake #1.

A few months later, the Seagate died during a backup. It would add a couple of files and crash, taking the desktop with it. I no longer had the box or the receipt. I figured that was the end of it.

Bill visited and suggested returning it to the manufacturer. He assured me the loss of the box and receipt would be no problem. Just go online and register it on their website.

Mistake #2.

It took twenty minutes through their Gordian Knot of a site to find the return page. I had to enter the serial number four differnet times. And once I was done, all Seagate sent me was a pdf on how to ship it back. It mainly told me to put it in that box I don't have.

So I ship it. And a week later I get three emails from donotreply@seagate.com. Always a helpful sign. The last email said this:


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Line/
Seq Seagate PN/
Customer PN PN Description/
Cust Line Ref # Issue Date/
Receipt Date Req Qty/
Rcv Qty # Exp Not Rcv Qty/
OOW Charges

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



1 9ZB2A8-570 ST315005FDA2E1-RK 20-MAR-2009 1 1
1 1 No receipts 0 0.00 0



Serial No Expected Not Received: 2GEV3H2H


3 9ZB2A8-570 ST315005FDA2E1-RK 20-MAR-2009 0 0
3 RETURN UNREPAIRED 27-MAR-2009 1 0.00 0
Serial No Received: 2GEV3H2H






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Total Requested Quantity : 1
Total Clean Received Quantity : 0
Total Expected Not Received Qty : 1
Total Discrepant Quantity : 0
Total Return Unrepaired Quantity : 1
Total OOW Charges : 0.00


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Dear Sir or Madam,

Your RMA (Return Material Authorization) Number is 1001733990.
Your Order Reference Number is 1001733990.

This document details the RMA as received. If there are any differences from the Order Acknowledgement, please amend your records accordingly.

Best regards,
Seagate Technology


******** ALWAYS REFERENCE RMA NUMBER ********
when inquiring about or sending in your order

To this day, I have no idea what it means. For awhile I thought they had lost the drive. They seem to have a serial number but don't have the serial number. The serial number is on the drive itself but no one can find it. Do they need the store receipt? The one they never asked for? Did they not like the way I shipped it back? Do they just hate the Irish?

Yesterday I get a phone call. UPS is delivering something with a tracking number that doesn't work. Stay there. Don't take a shower. Don't go into a room where you can't hear the doorbell. Just wait for UPS.

Today they delivered the drive. It wasn't a replacement like WD sent me. It was my old drive with stickers on it. Stickers with more serial numbers and abbreviations. And two wires sticking out of the side. I picked it up and broken plastic rattled inside it.

Just to satisfy my own curiosity, I plugged it in. My data was still there. And it crashed.

Now I'm just confused. Seagate didn't fix my drive. In fact, they broke it a little more. But why send it back? Why pay the expense to send me a more broken product back? And why make me fucking sign for it?

Bill figures they're not a company set up for end users. I don't think they're a company set up for humans. Unless that human is Franz Kafka. It's one thing to screw me but why spend your own money to screw me? It just doesn't make sense.

BTW, the WD MyBook drive? Still working perfectly.