Somtimes, you gotta love customer service...

[Level42]

My dad owned a 80 GB external Western Digital harddrive that he bought almost 2 years ago. He was having problems with it, it lost the USB connection to the PC after about 4 minutes. I tried it on my Mac and 2 laptops with exactly the same results.
My dad's not the world's most patient man and since the drive was "only" 80 GB, he already had bought a new one. He said I could have the defective one and see if I could get it repaired under warranty. (WD warranty is 2 years).

So I returned it to the store. It did take 4 weeks, but now I'm sitting here with a (good as new)  _500 GB_  "My book" drive that's probably been refurbished by WD, but who cares

Now that's the kind of customer service I like


And thanks dad

[ChadTower]

Returned to the store?  Around here you wouldn't get a replacement if you tried that after 2 weeks nevermind 2 years.

[ark_ader]

Yeah its usually return to manufacturer.  Hope your dad zero'd the drive before he sent it in or stuck a nice big magnet next to it.....

I don't like discussing returning faulty hard drives in fear of tempting the hard drive fairy to kill all mine. 

[Level42]

Returned to the store?  Around here you wouldn't get a replacement if you tried that after 2 weeks nevermind 2 years.

Yes, we have laws here about that. The company (or person) who sells you a product is responsible for carrying out the warranty for you. No-one else. Even though some companies try to shift that responsibility. The 2 year thing may be a WD thing, but I also think that EU regulations say 2 years is the minimum warranty for a lot of stuff you buy these days.

See, sometimes a strong government isn't so bad.

Anyway, the store sent it to WD and WD replaced the drive. So the supplier effects the warranty, but the seller is still responsible.

[saint]

Returned to the store?  Around here you wouldn't get a replacement if you tried that after 2 weeks nevermind 2 years.

Yes, we have laws here about that. The company (or person) who sells you a product is responsible for carrying out the warranty for you. No-one else. Even though some companies try to shift that responsibility. The 2 year thing may be a WD thing, but I also think that EU regulations say 2 years is the minimum warranty for a lot of stuff you buy these days.

See, sometimes a strong government isn't so bad.

Anyway, the store sent it to WD and WD replaced the drive. So the supplier effects the warranty, but the seller is still responsible.

Ooh. I want that law passed here.

[polaris]

we have it in the uk too(Trading standards act 1974 i believe) i assumed it was EU wide, i find that most smaller shops try to get you to deal with the manufacturer more, whereas bigger shops particularly big chains like supermarkets just instantly give you a refund rather than send it back to the manufacturer. i bought a vhs from tesco and forgot the code lock for it ,and they gave me the money back after 18 months (cant remember why it had a lock)

[ChadTower]

Ooh. I want that law passed here.

In RI the store has to issue rebates at the point of purchase... and then submit to the manufacturer themselves for reimbursement.  I think that is the closest we get around here to what he described.

[DaveMMR]

Returned to the store?  Around here you wouldn't get a replacement if you tried that after 2 weeks nevermind 2 years.

Yes, we have laws here about that. The company (or person) who sells you a product is responsible for carrying out the warranty for you. No-one else. Even though some companies try to shift that responsibility. The 2 year thing may be a WD thing, but I also think that EU regulations say 2 years is the minimum warranty for a lot of stuff you buy these days.

See, sometimes a strong government isn't so bad.

Anyway, the store sent it to WD and WD replaced the drive. So the supplier effects the warranty, but the seller is still responsible.

Ooh. I want that law passed here.

Ditto.  And none of that "restocking fee" BS. 

[ChadTower]

That's probably an economy of scale issue, like so many other things in the US.  Such laws are easy to deal with in places with relatively small populations... but if you scale it up to the size of the US it would never work.  Too many people would abuse the crap out of it.  People committing fraud at retail is the reason we have all the crappy return policies we have now.