Lemon Law

[seekermeister]

I am the unfortunate owner of several Seagate 7200.11 hard drives, one of which I have already RMAed 3 times before, and now it has gone sour again. I have no interest in continuing to replace the drive with with others that are going to keep failing every few months. Does the lemon law apply to hard drives, or will Seagate replace it with a model that isn't prone to making lemonade? I understand that this model of drive is known to have problems, but why can't they fix it properly?

 

[LiquidSnak]

No, unfortunately the lemon law applies to some kind of fancy term I can't remember right now that means long term goods. Washing machines/dryers aren't even covered.

 

[IownAmoneyPit]

The HP computer I have when bought new had the same model drive and required a firmware update from HP to prevent bricking of the drive that only supposedly affected drives manufactured in a certain time period in 2008/2009. Mine still works after applying the update and having also owned a personal media drive made by HP that only lasted a year & died, it also had the same seagate model # drive (after tearing it apart) had no firmware update

After I lost a lot of data with the one failed drive I decided to replace the Segate drive with a WD black Cavier after researching Quality/Cost/Warrenty

 

[Barman58]

Have you asked seagate?

If you speak to them calmly, (try to escalate the issue beyond the lower levels ), explain the history and that you no longer have confidence in the particular model / batch.

They may decide to change for another model, (without liability ), of course they may refuse to do anything but I have found that manufacturers are often quite concernrd about quality issues once you get past the first line of defence, who only have limited options

 

[IownAmoneyPit]

Have you asked seagate?

If you speak to them calmly, (try to escalate the issue beyond the lower levels ), explain the history and that you no longer have confidence in the particular model / batch.

They may decide to change for another model, (without liability ), of course they may refuse to do anything but I have found that manufacturers are often quite concernrd about quality issues once you get past the first line of defence, who only have limited options

Unfortunately for some people like me who bought an OEM machine, Seagate may have no obligation to replace defective hardware and the consumer would have to deal directly with the OEM (Depends on agreement between OEM & Seagate)

However as the OP stated he has successfully RMA'd a defective drive previously and is just ticked off that this is the third time. Seagate will again RMA the drive for the same defective model as that is all they are obliged to do

Some companies/stores have a no lemon policy of a replacement of equal value (different brand) or full refund after 3 failures

 

[strollin]

You would need to find out what the lemon law (if any) applies to IN YOUR STATE. Perhaps you could try contacting your state's Attorney General office.

I am sorry to hear you are having troubles with your drives. I was under the impression that the firmware fix that Seagate came out with solved the problem. I have 2 of the drives (purchased with the later firmware) and have been very happy with them.

Hope the situation gets solved to your satisfaction.

 

[Mark Phelps]

From what I recall, the phrase "lemon law" applied to purchases of automobiles, so to confirm that, I checked several sources, including a couple of State Attorney General websites, and got essentially the same information as the following quote from Wikipedia:

Lemon laws are American state laws that provide a remedy for purchasers of cars in order to compensate for cars that repeatedly fail to meet standards of quality and performance. These cars are called lemons. The federal lemon law (the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act) protects citizens of all states. State lemon laws vary by state and may not necessarily cover used or leased cars. The rights afforded to consumers by lemon laws may exceed the warranties expressed in purchase contracts. Lemon law is the common nickname for these laws, but each state has different names for the laws and acts.

So, the "lemon laws" do not apply to the purchase of consumer goods. Sorry.

 

[LiquidSnak]

They do apply to some consumer goods, and in some states, even computers. It would be best to get into contact with your state government to find out the specifics of consumer rights in your state.

Although the phrase "lemon law" is indeed credited to the consumer rights regarding defective vehicles and the treatment of that situation.