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Seagate, warranty period, unknown.
I thought they were kidding. But, apparently, Seagate doesn't know what warranty period they have on their shit.
I'll get a bit over elaborate, but the back story is as follows:
I bought a second & third NAS, a ReadyNAS1100 & a ReadyNAS NV+, both SPARC based, both stone-age tech, reliable, and, cheap. Sadly, since they are dated, there is not much actual development going on for em. There is a few bugfixes, but thats about it. As a result, the Linux that these things run on haven't been updated to support 2TB+ drives, and that meant i was of looking for a good cheap drive with low powerdraw (heat-management) with good reliability. The NV+ i already got is stocked with 2TB Seagate drives SV35.5, with 5 year warranty, but since then there has been a few new drives released to the market, some better, some worse. So i started snooping about. Turns out the Pipeline series from Seagate could suit my needs fairly well, but when i went to check retailers i got confusing information about the warranty period, so i went to Seagate. You'd think it's a fairly straight forward question.
"Hi. I was wondering, what is the warranty period for a retail Seagate Pipeline ST2000VM003. I'd like to know before i buy one."
I couldn't even guess at the response i got.
I'm sorry, come again. Serial of a not yet bought drive? How do you get that?
Anyway, so, i expected them to have misunderstood my question, and so asked them again, with the same response in return. So now i'm starting to get a bit pissed of, and send a final message asking them if they are really sure about this pre-sales support, promising that i'd tell everyone i meet, and post on every PC related forum i frequent, about their stupid handling and providing a final chance of providing a answer.
This is what i get in return:
B!
I'll get a bit over elaborate, but the back story is as follows:
I bought a second & third NAS, a ReadyNAS1100 & a ReadyNAS NV+, both SPARC based, both stone-age tech, reliable, and, cheap. Sadly, since they are dated, there is not much actual development going on for em. There is a few bugfixes, but thats about it. As a result, the Linux that these things run on haven't been updated to support 2TB+ drives, and that meant i was of looking for a good cheap drive with low powerdraw (heat-management) with good reliability. The NV+ i already got is stocked with 2TB Seagate drives SV35.5, with 5 year warranty, but since then there has been a few new drives released to the market, some better, some worse. So i started snooping about. Turns out the Pipeline series from Seagate could suit my needs fairly well, but when i went to check retailers i got confusing information about the warranty period, so i went to Seagate. You'd think it's a fairly straight forward question.
"Hi. I was wondering, what is the warranty period for a retail Seagate Pipeline ST2000VM003. I'd like to know before i buy one."
I couldn't even guess at the response i got.
Thank you for contacting Seagate.
Regarding your email concerning your question. We need the device serial number to determine the warranty status of the device.
If you have additional questions please let us know.
I'm sorry, come again. Serial of a not yet bought drive? How do you get that?
Anyway, so, i expected them to have misunderstood my question, and so asked them again, with the same response in return. So now i'm starting to get a bit pissed of, and send a final message asking them if they are really sure about this pre-sales support, promising that i'd tell everyone i meet, and post on every PC related forum i frequent, about their stupid handling and providing a final chance of providing a answer.
This is what i get in return:
Are they for real? Of course i'm going to buy a retail drive from a retailer, what else, travel to a local (in sweden?) factory outlet, and buy a rejected 'retail' (as if) drive of the guy in the garbage room? How about they specify the warranty period one of these drives come with when they are sold as new... I've pretty much given up on Seagate at this point. Is there anyone else that can help Seagate with the warranty period for a retail pipeline drive sold in the EU? 1, 2, 3, 5 years? Oh, and feel free to spread the word, the support isn't able to provide any pre-sales support, what so ever. Unless you include the "If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact Seagate Technical Support." bit that isn't really that helpful...
Thank you for contacting Seagate Technical Support.
Unfortunately without a serial number we can not determine the warranty on any specific drive. The normal range is between 2 and 3 years.
I checked the data sheet just to ensure and under 2.13 Warranty it states that we do need a serial number:
http://www.seagate.com/files/staticfiles/support/docs/manual/ce/Pipeline%20HD%20Series/100633414f.pdf
We always suggest to purchase a drive with a retailer to ensure a better warranty period.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact Seagate Technical Support.
Best regards
Kerstin
B!
3 Replies
- Last year they announced they are reducing their warranties. I think they are still in transition, and that the length of the warranty depends on when the drive is manufactured. bestbuy.com claims 3 years on that drive.
I gave up on Seagate a while ago myself, I had too many failures. - I've had 3 WD drives fail on me. 2IBM. 6 Seagate.
I've only ever had 3 WD drives. Had 3 IBM drives, the infamous "Deathstar" drives, so no wonder there. I must have had 30-40 Seagate drives over the years of those 6 defective ones. Clearly it's empirical, but from what i've experienced Seagate actually hasn't been bad, with a lower failure rate then the others. On the other hand, i never had a Maxstor drive die, or Fudji, Quantum... I'm going with a gut feeling, it's more about the luck of the draw then anything else. But something i noticed is that either the drive dies early, like after a few months use, or it dies up closer to 5 years. So the 5 year warranty has been great for me, but i can see why Seagate (and everyone else) cut it.
But i just freaking cant understand why, if your theory is right, they don't just say "drives made before date X has 3 years warranty, later drives has 2 years." Or what ever the relevant numbers are. And quoting me a pass from the PDF isn't really likely to get on my good side. I'm asking for support, not "hey, help me read your PDF, where it should be stated what warranty periods you guys offer in the first place"
B! - My experience with Seagate drives over the past 8 years or so has not been as happy as yours. I agree that "luck of the draw" is a factor, and that I probably don't own enough drives to have a solid statistical measure. However, I had enough bad drives to persuade me to switch away from them. Most of these were not in RAID arrays btw.
I agree that their communication on the topic is not doing them any favors.
Here's a couple of links reporting on the warranty changes about a year ago. I don't know how long drives might remain in retailer inventory.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/ ... ty_periods
http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/seag ... -20111219/
http://www.storagereview.com/western_di ... ty_lengths
http://www.eurobyte.co.za/seagate_warranty_policy.htm
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