ShoppingExpress - Beware Seagate NAS Drive Warranties

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  paulojr on 22/12/2014 - 12:30

  Yeh, I no longer buy Seagate due to warranty concerns and also am a bit careful with ShoppingExpress. I ran into false advertising problems with logitech android keyboards with them earlier but it became painful to resolve so haven't chanced them up on it. I got the feeling it was going to be painful to get ANY result.

  As for what your saying, that really sounds wrong. Warranty does not start from manufacturing date, yes sure manfacturers often use this if no receipt is provided, but once a valid receipt is offered they should then set the date from the date of the receipt. Sounds really dodgy, might want to clarify with your local consumer affairs group. Only possible reason for that I can see is if Shopping Express is not recognised as a valid business or reseller of seagate, then perhaps it would make sense but that would put the warranty responsibility squarely on SE.

  P.S. Should never ever keep any kind of electronics in storage for long periods of time. Certain components have a shelf life and inactivity can actually shorten the life of a device more than actual use..

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    rogbargain on 22/12/2014 - 16:59

    Can't remember where, but I'm sure I read the same about credit cards ;)
    Date of manufacture shows it's been cooling its heels for just over a year, so it's not too crusty yet.
    In fairness, SE has been clear that it's the invoice date that counts (at least for them).

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  Riczter on 22/12/2014 - 12:50

  +1

  I could just use my invoice to get warranty service (From Seagate's online RMA?

  No, From Shopping express. Consumer law states that the retailer is responsible for warranty correct? The consumer has the option of skipping the retailer and going straight to the manufacturer if he wishes, but the retailer is meant to be the first contact.. That's how I understand it anyway.

  Sounds to me like SE is saying they will cover the warranty themselves if seagate wont for the 5 years as was originally offered. So… good job SE??? I don't see what the problem is??

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    rogbargain on 22/12/2014 - 16:09

    I guess I've got 2 problems- one is I've got a higher level of confidence in Seagate being around in 5 years than Shopping Express. Fingers crossed, the drive won't fail within 5 years. But the issue is they represented it as a manufacturer backed warranty - which it doesn't appear to be - I've asked several times for them to clarify why, but they haven't.

    Second is that hard drive warranty durations chop and change and are also dependent on distribution channels / country of purchase. There's no mention of warranty on the invoice, so proving the duration you're entitled to at the retail level is going to come down to the honesty/record keeping of the retailer or the tenacity of the customer. Having the ability to go online to the manufacturer, do a warranty check, have certainty of the duration and do a direct RMA (and subsequent RMAs if necessary) is the service SE claimed to sell me. Instead I got an email saying it "should be all good".

    • 

      Store RepShoppingExpress @ Shopping Express on 23/12/2014 - 14:21

      Hi rogbargain,

      I have replied you below to ease your worries. At the same time, to put our "existence" out of your consideration, please consider sending an email to Seagate with regards to this and get a confirmation for the 5 Years mentioned on their website.

      Hope this piece of advice help you and anyone that needed reassurance and prefer claiming warranties directly from Manufacturers.

      Merry Xmas 2014 & a Happy New Year

      Cheers
      SE

      P.S. Do shoot me a PM if you need further help. I am currently on holiday overseas atm so my reply may not be that fast.

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  Cheeper on 22/12/2014 - 13:52

  +1 Riczter..

  A product purchased "new" from any genuine retailer has a warranty and that warranty begins from the moment of purchase, not when it was manufactured.
  Some retailers and manufacturers will try to skip around this but when you look at it, it all makes sense….

  Going by Seagate's rules you could actually purchase a drive with zero warranty if it has been sitting on the shelf long enough.
  Won't happen,…. your receipt of purchase is the end all to this argument.

  • 

    plmko on 22/12/2014 - 16:35

    I'd like to add that the manufacture date makes sense as it's just their automated system trying to count up your warranty based on credible data Seagate have access to.

    Ignoring the fact that you're meant to go to the retailer you bought it off first, consumer law states that if you don't have an invoice, the manufacturer can choose to grant you warranty or not. In this case the manufacture date is the only number they have to work with, so products with zero warranty on the shelf is possible.

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  khomeini on 22/12/2014 - 14:05

  Thanks for the warning Rogbargain… and good first post :)

  I think the thing to be careful of regardless of reassurances from SE is whether they will still be around in 5yrs time. The same could be said of Seagate sure, but it's got a bit more gravitas than a smaller retailer like SE.

  Saying that I think you have a few options:

  1) Keep it and hope it doesn't break within the first 5yrs…. everybody wins!
  2) Get an official letter or email from SE saying that they will cover the 5yrs warranty for the drive from dates x to x.
  3) Complain till you're blue in the face & SE either reimburse you or find you a drive with actual 5yrs warranty as stipulated by Seagate
  4) A Current Affair? - it might help if they're also your neighbour and you have a feud thing happening…

  Good luck.

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  tonyjzx on 22/12/2014 - 17:29

  when they were selling these in oct or nov, i asked the rep what the go is with them saying it 5yrs and Seagate AU saying its 2yrs

  he ignored my questions

  its obvious really… same price buy HGST etc.

  3yrs instead

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  Store RepShoppingExpress @ Shopping Express on 23/12/2014 - 13:14

  Hi rogbargain,

  We have been informed by Seagate that they offer 5 years Manufacturer's warranty for their NAS drives. Even as of current on their website stating 5 years <== this is for Australia/New Zealand only.

  Warranty will be from your date of purchase, and you are always welcome to seek our assistance should there be issues in claiming the warranty for this drive within the time frame & within the T & Cs of the warranty offered by Seagate.

  Cheers
  SE

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    rogbargain on 24/12/2014 - 10:16

    Thanks for your response SE,

    As you've suggested above, I've logged a case with Seagate "email support" to clarify the status of this particular drive, and why their online warranty check doesn't recognise the Australian warranty duration for it, and will post the outcome back here.

    As a positive selling point for your stock, I guess we can expect your website to be changed again to reflect your renewed confidence in the 5 year warranty status of all the Seagate NAS drives you sell.

    • 

      rogbargain on 31/12/2014 - 15:32

      +1

      Hi SE,
      I've updated the original post with the outcome of contacting Seagate.
      They finally confirmed 5 years for the drive- lucky I didn't give up after the first 2 negative responses from them…

      • 

        Store RepShoppingExpress @ Shopping Express on 15/01/2015 - 09:16

        great :)

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  Chas k on 24/12/2014 - 02:14

  I have been building PC's for a few years now and have used many brands of HDD, the only brand which has failed me is Seagate on many occasions!! stay clear of them. Toshiba and WD are the way to go.

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    paulojr on 26/12/2014 - 11:55

    +1

    I concur on this, have used a truckload of drives myself and Seagate I no longer trust. Gen 11, Gen 12 and LP series all suffered from firmware issues that could cause the drives to self destruct (firmware becomes inaccessible therefore you data is lost even though its perfectly fine on the disk platter) Seagate went out of their way to avoid admitting to this yet I kept seeing variations of these problems over multiple drive generations and heaps of forums discussions clearly showing what the cause was. Data integrity is not a joke and with seagates handling of such issues I really can't say I trust then with data of any kind.

    For now WD is the only option for me, Hitachi's are too unpredictable (6TB's currently don't work correctly with NTFS compression) and I have no idea when Seagate will change their attitude to data integrity.

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  TheGMan on 24/12/2014 - 11:24

  +1

  the product has 5 year warranty but the warranty system says there is less than 2 years remaining… This sounds about right if it was manufactured near 3 years before you bought, which can happen. Having said that Seagate does have to offer warranty from the date of purchase, however their system doesnt know when youve purchased it.

  Suggestion… keep the receipt and if you have warranty issues then Seagate will have to warrant the product from date of purchase, this is standard practise across all different types of manufacturing. For example i use to work for a hot water system manufacturer, customer purchased a model that had not been made in 20 years but had a receipt of purchase 6 months prior to requesting warranty. The warranty was honored and all old stock was recovered from the retailer to avoid future warranty issues.

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  Azif on 03/01/2015 - 20:18

  Shopping express have been ignoring my emails about a hdd that has developed bad sectors and read errors and is still within warranty period. Under consumer law i should be able to return it directly to them right? I dont really want to send it to malaysia.

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    TheGMan on 05/01/2015 - 11:43

    Most HDD manufacturers will have a local delivery point plus give you free shipping labels to return the HDD, although you usually need to run a series of tests and have print outs attached of the results

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    Store RepShoppingExpress @ Shopping Express on 15/01/2015 - 09:15

    Hi dudeman500,

    Apologize for the late reply. Have you tried contacting us at 02-83388899? Would you mind PM me the ticket id?

    Cheers
    SE