Warranties on Hard Disk

mawinmawin on 31/10/2009 - 13:15

I got a 320gb Western digital on my notebook (added manually, not came with laptop) some months ago. Recently i was hearing some strange sound from it, so called the WD Support (1800429861) for pro-active support. The support person said, it is better to get this replaced before lose of data and asked which country i live. When i said australia, he said for some countries (USA, canada, EU) they can send the replacement first and we got a month to post our defective to them (they need credit card detail for this to charge if not posted), but this option is not available for australia. I need to post my harddisk first to singapore and wait for the replacement. I got surprised that they ignore australia and no local warranty !. I cannot send my harddisk first as it means my notebook will be diskless. I will buy a new harddisk rather.

So wondering which harddisk vendor got a good Australian warranty, as it cant be WD for sure. (Too bad, i bought a 500GB ext disk from WD a week ago !).

We need a wiki on warranties to help on buying decisions.

General Discussion

Comments

  • HueyData on 31/10/2009 - 14:37

    See Warranties & consumer rights (ACCC). You should try to pursue a remedy from the seller.

  • SirCH on 31/10/2009 - 17:44

    Although IMO it's always best to get warranty repairs from the manufacturer if they're a reputable manufacturer (it's easier to deal direct) as the Warranties & consumer rights (ACCC) states, it's the seller's responsibility to remedy your problem.

  • mawinmawin on 31/10/2009 - 21:16

    When I question them why australia is not included, this is what they replied :

    Thank you for your reply.

    We truly apologize for this inconvenience. The reality is that this procedure has only been implemented in The U.S., Canada and the Europe Union. It's not that we have excluded Australia.

    I hope that we have met your expectations today and that you are satisfied with our service. If you have any further questions, please reply to this email and we will be happy to assist you further.

    Sincerely,
    Western Digital Service and Support

    So no real use from WD. My search for other vendors (Seagate/Hitachi) also same, overseas posting first.

    But samsung looks good. They got repair center in sydney and faster turn around ( Source : http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1005958&p… ), so will buy a samsung HDD.

  • Aneurism on 02/11/2009 - 16:28

    I think synnex is the australian supplier for seagate… although seagate hdd have been in generally crap of late for me.

  • A27272 on 02/11/2009 - 21:29

    I have returned a number of hard drives (WD and Seagate) and other computer hardware to my wholesaler. Generally with reputable dealers the process is (a) if DOA dead on arrival or dead withint 7 days then they will do a clean swap or (b) if it is past the 7 days period you need to return the hardware to the dealer together with a copy of your receipt, the dealer then issues you with a Return Authorisaton number (RA). You then wait for the hardware vendors assessment and hope that they replace or repair it.

    It is not common for dealers to immediately replace the hardware after some months if it dies or is faulty. Backing up is always good advice in any case.

    How come you havent returned to the place where you purchased it?

    As you said it probably easier to buy a new hard disk - that is exactly what I commonly do in this situation. Not only is it quicker - but less hassle as well. You can always use the "new replacement hard disk" as an external disk for backups.

    Good luck.

    • mawinmawin on 02/11/2009 - 23:55

      i bought in small computer shop in another city then where i live (bought in melbourne). I will buy samsung internal and use that in laptop.

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