How do OEM HDD warranties work?

[Sukhoi]

I thought the whole deal with buying something OEM was that you didn't get any kind of a manufacturer warranty, yet I see Newegg claiming all their OEM HDDs have 3 year manufacturer warranties. What's going on here? Are HDDs just different and have OEM manufacturer warranties?

 

[bozo1]

Regardless of how Newegg and some other places label them, there are 3 types of drives as far as the manufacturers are concerned.

- Retail box. 3 year warranty in most cases. Some places like CompUsa sell retail boxed 'store' brands. You may be getting a Maxtor drive but it is labeled as Compusa and they only give you a 1 year warranty. All warranty claims have to go to CompUsa, not the drive manufacturer.

- Bare drive. This is what Newegg, Mwave, etc., usually sell. These drives come with a full 3-year warranty from the manufacturer.

- OEM drive. These are drives that are sold directly to OEM's like Gateway, Dell, etc. The warranty is for the length of the system you purchased it in and you have to do any warranty claims with the OEM. You occasionally see these types of drives for sale in the online/retail market but it is rare. They are all over Ebay however as the seller yanked them out of their Dell/Gateway/HP, whatever.

Newegg and the like are using the term OEM to simply mean that you are getting a drive without a pretty manual, pretty box, cable. What they are selling are 'bare drives'. OEM to the drive manufacturers mean what my 3rd example above is. Same term, two different meanings depending on who is using it which is where the confusion arises from.

 

[Salvador]

So.. Where do the Dell 120 GB "WD JB" drives fall into the grand scheme of things? They aren't pulls, but I do believe that they are OEM's that are warranteed by Dell for 1 year.

Sal

 

[bozo1]

More than likely they come out of their OEM stock meaning they are entirely responsible for the warranty on it. I'm sure their website lists that info.

 

[Musicman6425]

OEM doesn't mean that the item is not warrantied. Original Equipment Manufacturer. A company that manufactures a product and sells it to a reseller. OEM can also refer to the reseller itself in the sense that resellers are "OEM customers." As customers, they either add value to the product prior to reselling it, label it privately, or bundle it with their own products.

Either the company that sells you the item will exchange it if the device goes bad before the warranty is up or it will refer you to the manufacture.

When my HD went bad, I called Western Digital. They told me they would send out a packing slip for it, I could mail it to them (postage paid by them). After they received it, they would send me a replacement. - OR - I could use my credit card to reserve a HD. They would mail it that day. When I received it, I would mail in the defective drive. If they received it, they didn't charge me. If they didn't get it (meaning I was trying to get something for nothing) then they would charge my credit card. There was no problems.

 

[bozo1]

The point of this thread is that the term OEM, as applied to hard drives, is different than what we generally think of OEM being for other hardware - as far as the manufacturer is concerned. Going to any manufacturers website, you will see them stating that they do not warranty or RMA OEM hard drives when in fact they do unless it was one sold directly to Dell/Gateway/etc.

Thus the confusion between 'OEM' and 'bare drive'.

 

[John]

<< So.. Where do the Dell 120 GB "WD JB" drives fall into the grand scheme of things? They aren't pulls, but I do believe that they are OEM's that are warranteed by Dell for 1 year.

Sal >>



If you purchased the drive from the Dell peripherals section, it should have a (3) yr direct warranty with WD.

 

[hmsrolst]

I am not confident that the Newegg "three year manufacturer warranties" actually are. I recently bought a Barracuda IV from them, and when I checked the Seagate website for the warranty date, it only had a one year warranty. I called Newegg and they said that in fact the the last two years of the warranty were from Newegg. It concerns me, but I saved a copy of the web page stating the 3 year warranty. I'm curious if others have checked with manufacturers.

 

[Sukhoi]

Thanks for the info, I didn't realize HDDs could also be sold as "bare drives" with the 3 year manufacturer warranty.



<< I am not confident that the Newegg "three year manufacturer warranties" actually are. I recently bought a Barracuda IV from them, and when I checked the Seagate website for the warranty date, it only had a one year warranty. I called Newegg and they said that in fact the the last two years of the warranty were from Newegg. It concerns me, but I saved a copy of the web page stating the 3 year warranty. I'm curious if others have checked with manufacturers. >>



Interesting, especially considering I was going to get a Barracuda IV. I might have to go with a D740X afterall.

Edit: Just looked on the Seagate site and according to this document, the Barracuda IV line has a 3 year manufacturer warranty.

 

[bozo1]

Don't know about Newegg & Seagate but I've purchased WD and Maxtor drives from both them and Mwave and all had 3 year manufacturer warranties according to WD and Maxtors website when I plugged in the serial numbers.

 

[John]

<< I am not confident that the Newegg "three year manufacturer warranties" actually are. I recently bought a Barracuda IV from them, and when I checked the Seagate website for the warranty date, it only had a one year warranty. I called Newegg and they said that in fact the the last two years of the warranty were from Newegg. >>



That sounds very fishy to me. Newegg clearly states a 3 year manufacturer warranty in the product description. Only the refurbs HDD's will have some special warranty procedure.

 

[MrCraphead]

gg bozo1, some gewd to know info, thx. ;D

 

[mastertech01]

Isnt the retail warranty for that hard drive also 3 years? Seems like OEM would be only one year, hence the price break..otherwise what would be the incentive to purchase retail other than a pretty box? Extensions of the one year warranty would be via the reseller. To advertise 3 year manufacturer warranty thus would seem unethical, unless the reseller has a contract for extended warranty for reseller RMA with the manufacturer.

 

[Sukhoi]

<< Isnt the retail warranty for that hard drive also 3 years? Seems like OEM would be only one year, hence the price break..otherwise what would be the incentive to purchase retail other than a pretty box? Extensions of the one year warranty would be via the reseller. To advertise 3 year manufacturer warranty thus would seem unethical, unless the reseller has a contract for extended warranty for reseller RMA with the manufacturer. >>



Well, going by the "3 types of HDDs" rule, a bare drive with 3 year manufacturer warranty makes sense. The advantage of the retail drive is you get the pretty box, IDE cables, screws, brackets, etc.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

4 types:
bare - drive only
bulk - drive with driver disk, pocket size manual
oem - dell brand hd
retail - no need to explain more

 

[bozo1]

And again, some people keep missing the point of this thread - the term 'OEM' when used by a hard drive manufacturer when dealing with warranty is NOT the same as the term 'OEM' when used by some online resellers (Mwave, Newegg, etc., etc., etc.) MWave/Newegg/etc., use the term just as they use it when describing video cards, CDR's, etc. to mean that it doesn't come in a pretty box, no software, no cables. Regardless, what they are selling are 'bare drives' in hard drive manufacturer speak, and they come with the full 3-year warranty.

 

[QTPie]

OEM is usually in bulk, no retail box and software, etc.
Go to MFG's website and click on Warranty, then enter your HDD serial # to check for the warranty expiration. You usually get about one more yr on warranty (at least in my case, according to WD's site, my drives have 4 yrs warrranty since they were manufactured)