sold a hard drive wih data on from Scan

[neonplanet40]

trading standards should be told about it, i don't know the legal side but you got sold 2nd hand goods as new.

Bit harsh given that its a mistake no?

[GoNz0]

not the 1st for a lot of companies, as soon as there is the risk of a fine it would stop.

several companies i deal with sell as seconds so you are aware its open box, refurb etc.

and who says its a mistake ?

and no im not having a dig at scan, just retailers in general as it leaves people without a product for a week when "mistakes" like this happen.

[neonplanet40]

Who says its not?

[GoNz0]

broken seal, new one stuck over the top. its not hard to spot a sealed packets been opened when its returned, but someone decided it was ok to put back into stock when its no longer new.

it should have been sold in the shop as open box if they cannot sell seconds on the website.

[smelly]

OK guys thanks for all the comments.

Firstly Scan has offered to RMA for a new hard drive and they the set paper work into motion - no complaints at all.

The HDD came in a plastic HDD container, it wasn't sealed. Most HDD I've had before came in a sealed anti static bag this did not.

My post wasn't about bad customer service or Scan cheating anyone it's about how data can be transferred through a seemingly innocent source. I mean how would the previous owner feel if I revealed some data from it like websites visited?? It's just simply not acceptable that this can occur. I don't expect Scan to destroy data on a HDD that is sent back to them due to whatever reason, but i also don't expect the lax in control of data that once belonged to someone.

Am i expecting too much? How would you feel if you sent back a dodgy HDD that you thought would never work after you've but your system on it??

The point I'm trying to make is that care must be taken over ones data from from all sides.

[mcmiller]

I'm working for a big tech company at the moment and have to deal with companies like cisco, nortel etc... and a very very large percentage is refurb, ive got no idea though how its sold on, i suspect that they dont tell customer as they just sell a contract

[mcmiller]

OK guys thanks for all the comments.

Firstly Scan has offered to RMA for a new hard drive and they the set paper work into motion - no complaints at all.

The HDD came in a plastic HDD container, it wasn't sealed. Most HDD I've had before came in a sealed anti static bag this did not.

My post wasn't about bad customer service or Scan cheating anyone it's about how data can be transferred through a seemingly innocent source. I mean how would the previous owner feel if I revealed some data from it like websites visited?? It's just simply not acceptable that this can occur. I don't expect Scan to destroy data on a HDD that is sent back to them due to whatever reason, but i also don't expect the lax in control of data that once belonged to someone.

Am i expecting too much? How would you feel if you sent back a dodgy HDD that you thought would never work after you've but your system on it??

The point I'm trying to make is that care must be taken over ones data from from all sides.

Surely the guy who sent it back has a responsibility as well? Unless it was swapped out unknowingly.

[sadbuttrue]

I guess the moral of the story is, make sure any hdd you return to a company can NEVER be sold again

[neonplanet40]

What u mean? Like accidently shake it when its turned on?

[finlay666]

I had a RMA motherboard accidentally sent out to me by Scan, tbh given it had an RMA number on the box (and damage on the cpu pins) I think it was an honest mistake, they sorted collection and refund and I ordered another one in the mean time.

I found the service fine, mistakes happen, everyone is human after all. It's how they dealt with it that matters, a rather well known forum was rather awkward when I tried to return a faulty monitor.... last time I used them (was about to buy another £500 monitor too)

[Saracen]

Bit harsh given that its a mistake no?

Not necessarily, no.

My understanding of the way trading standards works is that for relatively minor breaches like this, all such a report would do is to be recorded as a complaint. No action is likely unless there's a pattern of such complaints. If there were to be a pattern, say for arguments sake, 20 similar complaints, then all that's likely to happen is a gentle word will be had, maybe an advisory letter that reselling second had goods as new is not acceptable, and the company is effectively put on a warning. If a significant and persistent pattern of complaints were to continue to arrive at TS after such a warning, well, that's when enforcement action or prosecution is on the cards.

So .... if this were a one-off mistake, and knowing Scan, I for one would be shocked if it were commonplace, then notifying TS would have no adverse effect. And in the hypothetical event that it wasn't an isolated incident but a common practice, then frankly, the quicker it's stopped by TS, the better for all customers.

It's worth bearing in mind that no company of any size, no matter how good, is going to avoid having some unhappy customers. It's inherent in the nature of the business, if only because some customers will be wholly unreasonable and unrealistic, and complain if they don't get their way. And that's why TS don't act on single reports but wait for a trigger level of complaints to build up.

So mistakes happen, and this is probably one. It is still worryingly lax, though. But, if this were a miscreant company and not Scan, and if everyone dismisses it when it happens to them as a 'one-off', then TS will never get the pattern they need to put a stop to it.

Even if it were to be reported to TS, I rather doubt Scan have anything to be worried about, but if it were to establish that there's a pattern, then they'd deserve a slap from TS.

[santa claus]

Well let's not talk ourselves into or out of anything here. Maybe it was a mistake; maybe it wasn't. Scan can let us know publicly what their policy is on refurb kit but as posted previously, "new" is not necessarily what you expect it to be. How do you feel about receiving a shiny, new top spec pc, all delivered to you in a custom cardboard box with little colour coded cables and that "ooh-she's-all-mine" feeling as you delicately fire her up for the first time but unknown to you her HDD (and whatever else) has been round the block a fair few times already?

I doubt that it's what most customers feel they would be paying for .

[Saracen]

Well let's not talk ourselves into or out of anything here. Maybe it was a mistake; maybe it wasn't. Scan can let us know publicly what their policy is on refurb kit but as posted previously, "new" is not necessarily what you expect it to be. How do you feel about receiving a shiny, new top spec pc, all delivered to you in a custom cardboard box with little colour coded cables and that "ooh-she's-all-mine" feeling as you delicately fire her up for the first time but unknown to you her HDD (and whatever else) has been round the block a fair few times already?

I doubt that it's what most customers feel they would be paying for .

Personally, if I received clearly second-hand goods when I had paid for new, I'd be miffed if I thought it was a mistake, and most annoyed if I thought it was deliberate.

[santa claus]

Personally, if I received clearly second-hand goods when I had paid for new, I'd be miffed if I thought it was a mistake, and most annoyed if I thought it was deliberate.

You may be feeling most annoyed more often Saracen. I think re-mastering is an industry loophole, er, I mean practice which allows the re-use of certain parts. Pretty lousy eh?

[Saracen]

You may be feeling most annoyed more often Saracen. I think re-mastering is an industry loophole, er, I mean practice which allows the re-use of certain parts. Pretty lousy eh?

Not just lousy. I'd say, illegal, if the buyers aren't aware of it.

Either an item is new, or it isn't, and if it isn't, but is sold as such, then it'd be misrepresentation. Of course, that doesn't exclude some uses of second-hand parts, such as replacing a faulty hard drive in a system under warranty with a part that was not brand new, or possibly replacing a hard drive that was RMA'd with a "used" drive. But then we get a whole area of complication. If I bought a new hard drive and it was DOA, and went straight back, I would not expect to get a used drive as a replacement. But if a drive I'd used intensely for 2.5 years was replaced under a 3-year warranty with a drive was was technically used, but manufactured last month, I'd think I'd done quite well. And there's quite a spectrum in-between.

As for what MESH do, I've no idea. I haven't seen one of their PCs for years, and when I did, it was a press sample for review, so I doubt they'd pull that type of stunt. But if people buy a PC knowing the drive was "re-mastered", then fair enough. But if I bought a new PC and I found out it came with new parts, they could have it back. Having said that, the last time I bought a new PC as a whole unit, the 486 was only a twinkle in Andy Grove's eyes.

[ehhhhhhh]

I would add that I have received/witnessed many times that scan sent second hand-like products...

once I've opened a thread in the scan forums but they got it deleted soon...nice way to deal with people.... (thumbs up)

I don't want to bash scan or anything, because overall they are the best, though they should keep an eye on products which were returned (keep an eye = don't send it to anyone else ;-)

anyway, I gotta go, because I spy 'Scan enforcement officers'