Beware of buying HDDs from eBuyer

[miniyazz]

Ebuyer have now agreed to replace the faulty drive


Just a warning for anyone considering buying a hard drive from eBuyer.

I bought a 2TB WD drive about 18 months ago from them, and it recently started dying. I was planning on RMAing it with WD but it turns out they imported the drive from overseas (America, in this case), so I can't RMA it direct with WD even though the warranty doesn't expire until February 2013.

This happened to me a couple of years ago with Scan, and to their credit they replaced the drive themselves. Not so with eBuyer.

I phoned them up and they don't want to know, leaving me with no option but to use it as an expensive doorstop, since (unsurprisingly) I don't live in America.

Since there is no way of telling where they source their HDDs from without the serial number (am I buying UK stock or from overseas?), I will no longer be buying HDDs from them as I will not risk being lumbered with a 1 year warranty instead of the usual 3 or 5 years offered by the manufacturers themselves.

I recommend you steer clear.

[Saracen]

I guess you could have, if cynical enough :-

- bought it
- on receipt, immediately check the serial # online
- if not valid for the expected period, return under the DSR.

Too late for that now, of course. But, whether ebuyer or anyone else, it's not a bad idea to be sure you're getting what you expected. And, did they specify the warranty period when you bought? If so, can you prove it? It's always worth keeping a printout of the advertised product, tech specs etc., when buying, just in case.

[MaddAussie]

Was it over £100 pounds and did you pay with a credit card? If so you may have recourse through your credit card company.

[MoonPig]

Last HDD i got from eBuyer was a 2TB WD Green ... That they forgot to charge me for. I'm happy with their service

[miniyazz]

Haha it was £99.99

They didn't specify the warranty period - their argument is that it is an OEM drive and therefore has a one year warranty. Oddly enough, I just clicked on four random OEM drives on their list and three out of the four have a three year warranty in the "more details" section (and the other has no warranty information).

Edit: they have 15 3.5" 'oem' sata drives on their site at the moment. 11 of them have 3 or 5 year warranty and 4 do not specify.

[jim]

Haha it was £99.99

Doesn't mean it isn't an option, Visa have a system for transactions under £100 as well although there's nothing forcing them to do it - if they turn you down, they're entitled to do so.

I think it is, or rather was, called Visa Chargeback. Mastercard may have an equivalent but they didn't when I last checked.

[miniyazz]

Thanks, I'll look into that.

I've just been back on the blower to them and pointed out that 11 of the 15 OEM drives had 3 or 5 years warranty on them and for some reason they responded by emailing me a link to a query about OEM/Retail drives on WD's site (here).

It gets slightly messy with regards to differences between drives: Retail, OEM (OEM drive but not sold to the end user as part of a system), and OEM (sold to end user as part of a system) - I'll call them Retail, OEM and Component Drive respectively.

As it happens there's a link there to their Warranty Policy with different types of drives, which shows the warranty length with different types of drive. My drive is the WD Caviar Green, which Retail has 3 years, OEM has 2 years and Component drive has no warranty as this is then provided by the system builder.

The drive I bought was OEM but not as part of a system, nor did it come with any obscure hardware, so by my reckoning, it's meant to have 2 years' warranty even though it's an 'OEM' drive.

I've emailed them back and will call them again tomorrow as they're now closed.

[Pancake]

Happens Dabs and Aria too, grey market goods.

[TooNice]

Does WD even have a department that deals with returns in the UK? The one time I've used their RMA service, I've had to send it to Germany if I recall correctly.

On a side note, Scan might have replaced the HD for you last time, but they did not for my sound card. Granted, I didn't need to send it all the way to the US, but it's not very uncommon for e-tailers to simply refer the customer to the manufacturer.

[MaddAussie]

TBH the last time I returned a drive to WD they where excellent, drive was 18 months old failed completely, the retailer didnt want to know (was a small local retailer) phoned WD and they said send it back. 2 weeks later a brand new drive arrived when I looked at it it was double the capacity too

[mikerr]

They're all at it with grey imports of HDDs

The problem is we've all got so accustomed to hard drive manufacturers offering 3-5 year warranties that we assume they always do
then it comes as a surprise to find sometimes you've only got a year (the retailer's part) and not the extended manufacturers warranty in some cases.

Always liked samsung for their ease of returns via rexo.co.uk

[miniyazz]

I checked the warranty status on the rest of my drives at the same time and it looks like Samsung's warranty/RMA service has been merged with Seagate's, so I'm not sure how good it is any more.

[petercook7]

i guess you could slap them with the sales goods, if the manufacturer offers such a long warranty then it should last that long otherwise they will not do it.

[Saracen]

i guess you could slap them with the sales goods, if the manufacturer offers such a long warranty then it should last that long otherwise they will not do it.

How long the manufacturer's warranty is has little to no bearing on the Sale of Goods Act, since we simply don't know the manufacturer's logic. They may calculate that the cost of replacing those they get back is justified by the extra sales they get from not offering less coverage than competitors.

If he goes the SoG route, he will have to be able to prove, on balance of probability, that the fault was inherent at the time of purchase of the drive, and that means ruling out wear and tear, abuse, accident, etc, and probably, a report from an independent engineer specifying that. And what will all that cost? Is it worth it? I doubt it, personally.

[b0redom]

I had to RMA a WD Green drive a few weeks ago. I did it all online, iirc the replacement was shipped (in advance) from somewhere in Europe. I had to return the drive to their offices in Swindon. Might be worth trying to get into contact with them directly and see what they say?

[miniyazz]

Not a bad thought, I might give that a try if all else fails