Is Seagate a godawful company?

[DKlein]

It seems so to me, but maybe I'm just having a bad experience.

I bought a 2TB HDD off of them 6 months ago on Amazon. They clearly advertised it on the webpage as having a 2 year warranty.

Well, the drive died on me today. Quite a short life. Not sure if any data will be salvageable.

The real icing on the cake is that their website is now telling me it's out of warranty. In fact, it was out of warranty in 2015, one year before I bought the drive. So they blatantly lied on their advertisement, or their webpage is as bad as my hard drive.

It took me a while just to find a way to directly contact someone about the issue. I tried calling them, just to find out there's a $15 charge if you're out of warranty. I hung up immediately, since apparently I am and now would have to pay them $15 to find out why.

How did this company get so popular? This has been so far the worst RMA experience I've had with any tech company, and with a product that died so early in its lifetime. Seems more like a scam than a professional organization.

 

[CA19100]

Get Amazon involved if you bought it through them.

 

[UsandThem]

How did this company get so popular? This has been so far the worst RMA experience I've had with any tech company, and with a product that died so early in its lifetime. Seems more like a scam than a professional organization.

They used to be better, but slowly have evolved to what you experienced. There's a reason a lot of us old timers here don't recommend them when people ask which drive to buy.

I used to use them exclusively back in the 90s till around around 2005. Now I would personally pay extra for another brand. But I'm sure there are some here who swear by them, but I'm not one of them anymore.

 

[mxnerd]

Are you sure it's sold by Seagate, not some 3rd party?

 

[UsandThem]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/543527/seagate-warranty-bait-and-switch/

http://www.portvapes.co.uk/?id=Latest-exam-1Z0-876-Dumps&exid=threads/seagate-warranty-does-not-cover-oem-drives.213200/

 

[Elixer]

Seagate actually had a good warranty program back when they had 5 year warranties, but, seems that their cost cutting is killing everything.

 

[whm1974]

They used to be better, but slowly have evolved to what you experienced. There's a reason a lot of us old timers here don't recommend them when people ask which drive to buy.

I used to use them exclusively back in the 90s till around around 2005. Now I would personally pay extra for another brand. But I'm sure there are some here who swear by them, but I'm not one of them anymore.

Yeah I would be a WD drive or maybe even a Toshiba one instead.

 

[UsandThem]

I forgot about this older thread until now. A moderator here had the exact same warranty issues:

http://www.portvapes.co.uk/?id=Latest-exam-1Z0-876-Dumps&exid=thread...renty-on-seagate-it-may-have-expired.2480932/

 

[R0H1T]

I forgot about this older thread until now. A moderator here had the exact same warranty issues:

http://www.portvapes.co.uk/?id=Latest-exam-1Z0-876-Dumps&exid=thread...renty-on-seagate-it-may-have-expired.2480932/

Seagate at this point in time is no better than a bunch of crooks & thugs, I'd rather buy tapes than recommend that god awful brand to anyone else.

If push comes to shove the OP could probably sue them for not honoring their warranty, provided the local or state laws are on his side.

 

[whm1974]

At this point in time I rather get a good large SSD if I can afford one. I have two Crucial M500 SSDs and they are great. But not everyone can purchase them.

 

[Shmee]

Seagate consumer drives are generally terrible and cheap, but this is a new low it sounds like.

 

[rchunter]

Yeah, I wouldn't touch seagate barracuda drives. Their nas and enterprise drives are generally ok. I still prefer other brands..(wd--hgst)

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Seagate got a bad case of herpes from Maxtor...

 

[DKlein]

Are you sure it's sold by Seagate, not some 3rd party?

Went through Amazon, and yes apparently it was a 3rd party ("Finity India" or some such). Regardless, the drive died in 6 months, Seagate's website is miserable to navigate to actually talk to someone (I eventually did and they confirmed it's OEM AKA FU), and they pulled a blatant warranty bait and switch. Still pissed at Seagate primarily.

They used to be a highly regarded brand, but I guess that was 5-10 years ago (note my rig lol... I should come here more often). I guess I just haven't been paying close enough attention to how brands have shifted in a while and made a bad assumption of continued quality.

I'll continue through Amazon ("return" not okayed yet), and if not might also bother by credit card over it; I think they give an extra 1 year warranty to everything purchased.

 

[master_shake_]

they're not as bad as you think.

they're worse.

between bait and switch warranties and bait and switch specs they are not even worth thinking about buying unless you really really need a paper weight.

same drive part number different amount of platters way different performance.

 

[UsandThem]

Went through Amazon, and yes apparently it was a 3rd party ("Finity India" or some such).

You gotta watch that. Many, if not most 3rd party sellers on Amazon, Newegg, and other companies that allow marketplace selling are not authorized sellers of the product they sell. This is a huge thing to watch out for.

I order from Amazon a lot, and several times they have made 3rd party sellers the default option when I select a product because they are cheaper than Amazon because "sold by" Amazon orders are taxed in my state. I have to go back in and manually select Amazon as the seller. There are products from watches and headphones to electronic devices that state the warranty is only valid if sold by an authorized dealer.

Not defending Seagate here because I have seen many horror stories, just a FYI for anybody who is not aware of this.

 

[Dave2150]

Yep, they really are that bad. Avoid at all costs. Pay the extra for WD.

 

[whm1974]

You gotta watch that. Many, if not most 3rd party sellers on Amazon, Newegg, and other companies that allow marketplace selling are not authorized sellers of the product they sell. This is a huge thing to watch out for.

I order from Amazon a lot, and several times they have made 3rd party sellers the default option when I select a product because they are cheaper than Amazon because "sold by" Amazon orders are taxed in my state. I have to go back in and manually select Amazon as the seller. There are products from watches and headphones to electronic devices that state the warranty is only valid if sold by an authorized dealer.

Not defending Seagate here because I have seen many horror stories, just a FYI for anybody who is not aware of this.

If I was an online vendor, I would not allow 3rd party sellers. In fact I'm not going to buy anything from them on Amazon or Newegg due to the issues I read about people are having in this forum and others.

 

[UsandThem]

If I was an online vendor, I would not allow 3rd party sellers. In fact I'm not going to buy anything from them on Amazon or Newegg due to the issues I read about people are having in this forum and others.

I use highly rated 3rd party sellers for inexpensive items, pet food, CDs, movies, etc. I wouldn't use them for expensive items or items that had a warranty unless they were an authorized reseller though. Not worth saving $20 on high-end headphones and other electronics if they have no warranty.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Still pissed at Seagate primarily.

Not sure why you would be pissed at Seagate, for any reason whatsoever.

You went shopping based on price, bought used from a grey-market seller, and now you're pissed that you got a lemon? C'mon man, own up at least some responsibility here.

Edit: You might want to change your OP, so as not to unnecessarily libel Seagate here; they're not the ones who sold you the drive.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If I was an online vendor, I would not allow 3rd party sellers.

It's not up to them. It's up to Amazon. And they seem to turn a blind eye.

Read the sad story of "Forearm Forklift", and how Amazon's enabling of their knock-off competitors to make a quick buck at their expense, is making a decent US-based company struggle.

 

[VirtualLarry]

While I'm not a huge fan of Seagate these days, and my opinion is that their level of quality has declined commensurate with their shorter warranties, I do have some Seagate drives in two of my NAS units, and thus far, they've been solid.

 

[whm1974]

It's not up to them. It's up to Amazon. And they seem to turn a blind eye.

Read the sad story of "Forearm Forklift", and how Amazon's enabling of their knock-off competitors to make a quick buck at their expense, is making a decent US-based company struggle.

I'm talking about if I was an online vendor such as Amazon or Newegg I wouldn't allow 3rd parties to use my store to sell stuff.

 

[adamantine.me]

Sounds like you went through a third party. Seagate has a reputation for having a higher failure rate than other brands, but I don't think that was the issue in this instance since the warranty would have covered you.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Is the third-party seller still operating? Did you try contacting them?

If you point out politely that they sold you a drive with an expired warranty, they might say (or at least pretend) that it was not intentional and ship you a replacement.

If they fail to to that, you can rate them 1-star and explain they are selling out-of-warranty parts as in-warranty. 1 star ratings get their attention.

If they still refuse to make it right you can contact Amazon customer support.

Finally, if not even Amazon will help, did you pay with a credit card? Sometimes they have their own warranty support, and even if not they can sometimes help with fraudulent sellers.

Seagate may well be a sleazy company, but it sounds like in this case it is the third-party seller at fault not them.