Western Digital Cuts Hard Drive Warranties – Seagate Follows Suit

[Brink]

Western Digital Cuts Hard Drive Warranties – Seagate Follows Suit

Western Digital and Seagate are leaders in mechanical hard drives to be sure, but I think we can all agree this time they are leading the industry in a very negative direction. Back in 2008 Seagate lowered the standard HDD warranty from 5 years to 3, and as expected, just about everyone followed suit shortly after. Now they are dropping the coverage period on some products to as little as one year depending on the model.

Here is what we’ve hammered down so far:

Read more at:
Maximum PC | Western Digital Cuts Hard Drive Warranties

 

[Lebon14]

That's sad knowing that hard drives can be quite unpredictable.

 

[PwnFrnzy]

Well this is horrible, seems these industries can care less about their consumer base these days.

 

[oneextraid]

Make them cheaper, die sooner, sell more and make more money. American automobile industry business model.

 

[Phone Man]

Its only on some models. WD will still have 5 yr on the Black and enterprise models. Seagate will also still have 5 yr on some models. I have not seen any direct information from WD or Seagate as to the exact changes but need to check their sites and see what can be found. I did read some were that Seagate would have a different warranty period for "retail drives" and "bulk drives" like they and WD had years ago. The retail drives are the ones in the fancy box and you usually find in a retail shop. The bulk drive are the ones is a plain box and found online and usually cheaper. Will have to see after Jan 1 and see how this shakes out. As a consumer we will really have to watch what we buy and from whom. Here is a link to WD current policy. Will have to check after Jan 1 and see what changes.

WD Support / Warranty Services / End User / Worldwide Warranty Policy and Limitations

Jim

 

[MilesAhead]

Make them cheaper, die sooner, sell more and make more money. American automobile industry business model.

For some reason this quote popped into my head:

"Live fast, die young and leave a good looking corpse"

 

[seekermeister]

Its only on some models. WD will still have 5 yr on the Black and enterprise models. Seagate will also still have 5 yr on some models. I have not seen any direct information from WD or Seagate as to the exact changes but need to check their sites and see what can be found. I did read some were that Seagate would have a different warranty period for "retail drives" and "bulk drives" like they and WD had years ago. The retail drives are the ones in the fancy box and you usually find in a retail shop. The bulk drive are the ones is a plain box and found online and usually cheaper. Will have to see after Jan 1 and see how this shakes out. As a consumer we will really have to watch what we buy and from whom. Here is a link to WD current policy. Will have to check after Jan 1 and see what changes.

WD Support / Warranty Services / End User / Worldwide Warranty Policy and Limitations

Jim

I wonder if that warranty data is the most current, because it conflicts with the info in the Maximum PC article on the length of the Caviar Blacks? It is times of shortages that changes like this seem to occur. I wonder if it will remain the same when the supply returns to normal?

EDIT: I think that you may be right about needing to check back after the first of the year, because I had missed the part about the delayed changes. But I didn't see anything on their warranty page that seemed to specifically say that Black and Enterprise drives would remain as they have been.

 

[Sammy888]

Realistically, most people do not typically use their HD more than 3 years. Most of the time, they upgrade to a larger HD. Perhaps this change in warranty is more in line with the direction of SSD hard drives where most people are now heading towards.

 

[mjf]

At least drives purchased prior to 2012 seem subject to the warranty terms at the date purchased.
The build quality must be such that the manufacturers feel their drives may normally fail after 12 months! WD appear to be acquiring Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. Does that leave Samsung?

 

[SledgeDG]

my latest WD died just 20 days out of warranty!!!!
I'm not wasting any more money on them that's for sure

-DG

 

[Phone Man]

Its only on some models. WD will still have 5 yr on the Black and enterprise models. Seagate will also still have 5 yr on some models. I have not seen any direct information from WD or Seagate as to the exact changes but need to check their sites and see what can be found. I did read some were that Seagate would have a different warranty period for "retail drives" and "bulk drives" like they and WD had years ago. The retail drives are the ones in the fancy box and you usually find in a retail shop. The bulk drive are the ones is a plain box and found online and usually cheaper. Will have to see after Jan 1 and see how this shakes out. As a consumer we will really have to watch what we buy and from whom. Here is a link to WD current policy. Will have to check after Jan 1 and see what changes.

WD Support / Warranty Services / End User / Worldwide Warranty Policy and Limitations

Jim

I wonder if that warranty data is the most current, because it conflicts with the info in the Maximum PC article on the length of the Caviar Blacks? It is times of shortages that changes like this seem to occur. I wonder if it will remain the same when the supply returns to normal?

EDIT: I think that you may be right about needing to check back after the first of the year, because I had missed the part about the delayed changes. But I didn't see anything on their warranty page that seemed to specifically say that Black and Enterprise drives would remain as they have been.

I have subscribed to MaximumPC for years but I don't think they got their facts correct. The link to the WD warranty page is the current information and will have to wait for an update. The Cavier Black which it what I use in all my systems have a 5 year warranty, that is why I question MaximumPC as they say the Blacks will "remain" at 3 years. They need better proof readers to get the facts straight. Like I said we need to get the facts from Seagate and WD for the real story.

Jim

 

[seekermeister]

my latest WD died just 20 days out of warranty!!!!
I'm not wasting any more money on them that's for sure

-DG

It's a roll of the dice, I don't think that WDC has built in obsolescence to correspond to the warranty expiration, but whether they do or not, obviously the longer the warranty period the better.

I'm not going to say that WDC drives are better than Seagate, but their warranty support definitely is.

 

[0pTicaL]

Make them cheaper, die sooner, sell more and make more money. American automobile industry business model.

But Toyota has proved to the Americans that the model does not work.

 

[oneextraid]

Why do you think Obama had to bail out GM and Chrysler. They haven't caught up to Japanese quality.

 

[Britton30]

It'll work out, HDDs prices will rise and SSDs will take over which will bring prices down eventually.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Just seems like really poor timing to hit the consumer with warranty reductions at the same time prices hitting these weather induced highs.

 

[Win7User512]

Make them cheaper, die sooner, sell more and make more money. American automobile industry business model.

To quote Metallica: "Sad but true."

 

[GeneO]

The article has a mistake. They say the WD Caviar black remains at 3yrs. It is actually 5 years now so they have reduced it by 2 years - if the rest of the article is correct.

Most brand HDD drives nowadays are very reliable. - I haven't had one die in ages and I have 6 externals and 6 internals - if you operate them in a proper environment and know their limitations (e.g. I have two old crappy Seagate external Freeagent drives I don't turn on often or for very long because they get way too hot).

Now I have probably cursed one of my hard drives to failure.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi everyone

c'mon guys

when you buy a product do you give "a figs leaf" on what the warranty is -- in some cases the better the warranty you could even think that the WORSE the product is.

In over 36 years of buying electronics etc I don't think I'VE EVER had to return a product that failed during its warranty period.

Note also that these days companies make MORE money on supplying "Extended" warranties than they make on selling the product.

Incidentally if you look at the accounts from BMW (who aren't renowned for making horrible cars) they actually make MORE money from their Finance division than they do from selling their cars.

Maybe BMW should become a "Bank".

I think that would be one "BANK" I could actually trust. !!!!

Cheers
jimbo

 

[badger906]

id still feel safer knowing i have a warranty. take your bank situation, Not trusting a bank would lead to the common stereotype: money under your mattress. if your house burns down, good bye money.

if the "bank" was a warranty, even if your house did burn down (drive craps a brick) youve still got your money/hdd... well im lost in my story lol