# Western Digital No Longer Honoring Warranties on OEM or Bare Drives.



## newtekie1 (Mar 20, 2015)

I bought a WD Blue 1TB back in April from newegg(direct from newegg, not one of the marketplace sellers).  It died, surprise.

I go to WD's site to file an RMA, add the drive to my account's registered products.  And when I try to RMA it I get the error that the drive isn't eligible for RMA because it is either out of Warranty or an OEM drive.  It definitely isn't out of warranty.

So I call WD support, and sit on hold for close to an hour. When I finally get someone I explain that I bought the drive from Newegg, it is not from a pre-built system, and that the drive is still under warranty.  He confirms that the warranty period hasn't expired, but says the drive was sold as an OEM drive.  He tells me that their new policy is that all OEM drives are not covered by their warranty, only drives sold in Retail packaging are covered by their warranty!  They no longer handle warranties on OEM packaged drives, even if the end user purchased the OEM drive directly and it didn't come in a pre-built system!  WTF!?!  He apologized but said there was nothing he could do, the computer system would not allow him to even create an RMA for a drive sold in OEM packaging.

Of course, since 90% of drives sold from e-tailors(like newegg, tigerdirect, ncix, etc.) are OEM packaging, none of those drives are covered by warranty anymore.  This is bullshit, and I wanted to let you all know if you're considering buying a hard drive.

*Update*: The original call was yesterday afternoon.  I just called again, this time asking for the call to be escalated to a manager and he was able to get me an RMA number for the drive as well as getting me a free pre-paid return label "for my troubles".  Still, this new policy concerns me.  Of course maybe I just got a dumbass tech support guy the first time that was tired of doing his job and was just making shit up to get me off the phone as quick as possible(like I said I did wait on hold almost an hour the first time, so I'm guessing the call center staff was being overworked)...

IDK, either way, I'm going to be very hesitant about buying WD drives in the future.


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## OneMoar (Mar 20, 2015)

what
....
this is retarded
somebody needs to explain to corporate what OEM vs OEM Packaging... means
the OEM drives are the same price as the ones in the retail packaging newegg orders them direct from WD


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## neatfeatguy (Mar 20, 2015)

Appreciate the info. I guess that's something else I'll have to keep in mind for any future HDD purchases.


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## rtwjunkie (Mar 20, 2015)

OneMoar said:


> what
> ....
> this is retarded
> somebody needs to explain to corporate what OEM vs OEM Packaging... means
> the OEM drives are the same price as the ones in the retail packaging newegg orders them direct from WD


 
You took the words right out of my mouth.


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## OneMoar (Mar 20, 2015)

as far as the packaging goes newegg's packaging is better then the retail box with the retail box you get some flimsy cardboard and a some white foam
newegg's drives have always come in those near indestructible balloon cases that you can walk on without fear of braking it
and they are usually double wrapped in a additional layer of bubble wrap
this is complete fucking non-sense


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## Tatty_One (Mar 20, 2015)

What absolute crap, although to be honest I am not all that surprised, it seems to be the way things are going or like Intel's approach to OEM processors where they only offer a 3 month warranty, same damn chip, just not boxed with a cooler, customer support my arse!


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## rtwjunkie (Mar 20, 2015)

Apparently they are hoping people will just buy a new HDD.  In reality, I think they will find that everyone flocks to Seagate and they lose a good portion of the HDD business.

EDIT:  Maybe @SuperSoph_WD can shed some light on the rationale behind this?


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## OneMoar (Mar 20, 2015)

rtwjunkie said:


> Apparently they are hoping people will just buy a new HDD.  In reality, I think they will find that everyone flocks to Seagate and they lose a good portion of the HDD business.


newegg needs to put a disclaimer up on all of WD's product pages that says this is purchase is no longer protected by a manufacturer warranty,that will get it changed right quick



rtwjunkie said:


> Apparently they are hoping people will just buy a new HDD.  In reality, I think they will find that everyone flocks to Seagate and they lose a good portion of the HDD business.
> 
> EDIT:  Maybe @SuperSoph_WD can shed some light on the rationale behind this?


most likely doesn't know anything about it ...probly frantically making phone calls before we all LYNCH Western Digital


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## newtekie1 (Mar 20, 2015)

OneMoar said:


> as far as the packaging goes newegg's packaging is better then the retail box with the retail box you get some flimsy cardboard and a some white foam
> newegg's drives have always come in those near indestructible balloon cases that you can walk on without fear of braking it
> and they are usually double wrapped in a additional layer of bubble wrap
> this is complete fucking non-sense



I don't think it is about the actual packaging, but rather that WD is trying to shift the RMA/support responsibility away from WD an onto the e-tailor that sold the drive to save money on support.


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## Toothless (Mar 20, 2015)

Suddenly, Seagate sales soar!


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## INSTG8R (Mar 20, 2015)

Wow I can't even remember buying what I would consider a "retail" HDD. I mean you order an HDD from an online shop it's pretty much "OEM" It never comes in a retail box.


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## rtwjunkie (Mar 20, 2015)

INSTG8R said:


> Wow I can't even remember buying what I would consider a "retail" HDD. I mean you order an HDD from an online shop it's pretty much "OEM" It never comes in a retail box.


 
There are a few entries that are retail.  Usually the only clue is in the photos (on Newegg-don't know about other etailers) in which you see a picture of a box.  Also the warranty period is/was different.


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## NTM2003 (Mar 20, 2015)

another reason for me to stick with a 500gb SSD for my new build thanks for this info i was just about to buy the 2tb wd black for my new build as a 2nd HDD


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## SuperSoph_WD (Mar 20, 2015)

Hello, @newtekie1 !

I'm very sorry to hear about this luckless situation that you've encountered, but our RMA policy about OEM drives has never been a secret. 
I'd suggest you to take a look at this knowledge base article that explains in details about Retail & OEM drives and see for yourself: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=RqGgWW
This has been our policy since the beginning. Usually when we sell drives to an OEM, they purchase the HDDs along with all the warranty responsibilities, and this is why WD doesn't handle it. 
I am going to PM you with some more questions, so that you give me more details about your WD Blue drive. 
But unfortunately, it's a Friday and I'm not going to be able to provide you with further details until the beginning of next week. 

I hope you'd bear with the me and the drive until then. 
SuperSoph_WD


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## OneMoar (Mar 20, 2015)

SuperSoph_WD said:


> Hello, @newtekie1 !
> 
> I'm very sorry to hear about this luckless situation that you've encountered, but our RMA policy about OEM drives has never been a secret.
> I'd suggest you to take a look at this knowledge base article that explains in details about Retail & OEM drives and see for yourself: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=RqGgWW
> ...



I have bought numerous WD drives from newegg in OEM-style packages never had a issue with registering or RMAing ANY of them in fact I RMA'd a drive last year that I bought its still registered on my account ...
its been this way for YEARS never had a issue with RMAing anything bought from newegg regardless of packaging or lable


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## Batou1986 (Mar 20, 2015)

SuperSoph_WD said:


> Hello, @newtekie1 !
> 
> I'm very sorry to hear about this luckless situation that you've encountered, but our RMA policy about OEM drives has never been a secret.
> I'd suggest you to take a look at this knowledge base article that explains in details about Retail & OEM drives and see for yourself: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=RqGgWW
> ...


All I can say is I have used WD drives exclusively for the last 10+ years in all computers for myself and others.
OEM always applied to pre built systems from manufacturers not bare drives, unless WD has been selling newegg drives intended for OEM's or vice versa this policy has changed.
If this policy now extends to bare drives  I may have to switch my business to Samsung.

I did just look on newegg and seen bare drives as well as bare OEM drives that were cheaper, in newtekkies case it seems that newegg might have mislabeled the drive he bought as bare drive instead of OEM bare drive


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## Sasqui (Mar 20, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> *Update*: The original call was yesterday afternoon. I just called again, this time asking for the call to be escalated to a manager and he was able to get me an RMA number for the drive as well as getting me a free pre-paid return label "for my troubles". Still, this new policy concerns me. Of course maybe I just got a dumbass tech support guy the first time that was tired of doing his job and was just making shit up to get me off the phone as quick as possible(like I said I did wait on hold almost an hour the first time, so I'm guessing the call center staff was being overworked)...
> 
> IDK, either way, I'm going to be very hesitant about buying WD drives in the future.



Newsflash, Seagate has been doing this for years.  I hope it was a mistake on the part of the WD support guy, or a channel issue with Newegg!!!



SuperSoph_WD said:


> Hello, @newtekie1 !
> 
> I'm very sorry to hear about this luckless situation that you've encountered, but our RMA policy about OEM drives has never been a secret.
> I'd suggest you to take a look at this knowledge base article that explains in details about Retail & OEM drives and see for yourself: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=RqGgWW
> ...



So is there a difference between a bare drive and OEM???


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## OneMoar (Mar 20, 2015)

ok i just registered anouther 1TB blue drive I bought from newegg in the same OEM packaging last November
both of the blue drives listed here where bought from newegg and arrived in OEM packaging
notice both the serial numbers are indeed 'BARE DRIVE' and not retail-box. one I RMA'd once


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## Frick (Mar 20, 2015)

It feels like they're talking about different things. That they don't support OEM HDD's as in HDD's in Dell machines I can buy, but packaging? Can OEM in this instance be called bulk?


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## OneMoar (Mar 20, 2015)

Now has newegg been labling 'OEM' drives as 'BARE DRIVES' ?


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## Batou1986 (Mar 20, 2015)

OneMoar said:


> Now has newegg been labling 'OEM' drives as 'BARE DRIVES' ?


This is the question because a bare drive isn't necessarily an OEM drive but OEM drives are always bare drives.
Just because a drive comes in bulk (bare) packaging doesn't make it an OEM drive as you can clearly see on neweggs site


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## newtekie1 (Mar 20, 2015)

OneMoar said:


> Now has newegg been labling 'OEM' drives as 'BARE DRIVES' ?


Shouldn't really matter, OEM Packaging and Bare Drive has always meant the same thing if it is being sold to the end user.  I doubt newegg is ripping these drives out of Dells and selling them...

Furthermore, why even let the end user register the drive and then claim it is in warranty if you aren't going to handle the warranty?  With the old system, when you tried to register a drive from a pre-built it wouldn't even let you or it would register and then say no limited warranty.



Sasqui said:


> Newsflash, Seagate has been doing this for years. I hope it was a mistake on the part of the WD support guy, or a channel issue with Newegg!!!



No they haven't.  Seagate more than happily handles warranties on OEM drives.  What they don't handle is drives from pre-built systems.  But if the drive is OEM and sold to the end user, Seagate still handled the warranty.  WD used to handle the warranty for OEM drives sold to the end user, but now it seems they don't...



SuperSoph_WD said:


> Hello, @newtekie1 !
> 
> I'm very sorry to hear about this luckless situation that you've encountered, but our RMA policy about OEM drives has never been a secret.
> I'd suggest you to take a look at this knowledge base article that explains in details about Retail & OEM drives and see for yourself: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=RqGgWW
> ...



So you're confirming that drives bought by the end user off sites like Newegg that are labelled Bare/OEM, or anything not coming in retail packaging, have no warranty.

I suggest you start contacting these retailers than, because right now they all are claiming your drives have warranties when they don't.

Damn, I bet all those people that bought WD Black drives because they supposedly had a 5-year warranty are going to be mighty pissed off...


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## rtwjunkie (Mar 20, 2015)

Batou1986 said:


> This is the question because a bare drive isn't necessarily an OEM drive but OEM drives are always bare drives.
> Just because a drive comes in bulk (bare) packaging doesn't make it an OEM drive as you can clearly see on neweggs site



OK, I am now officially confused!


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## OneMoar (Mar 20, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> Shouldn't really matter, OEM Packaging and Bare Drive has always meant the same thing if it is being sold to the end user.  I doubt newegg is ripping these drives out of Dells and selling them.


agree something is wrong here the drive I registered not 10M ago was a "bare drive" I bought in November`ish from newegg


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## MrGenius (Mar 20, 2015)

I've got a few things.

1. Thanks for calling this to our attention newtekie1.

2. Because I tend to buy only WD lately. Though I'm not so fond of their subsidiary company HGST.

3. I hate to brag, but I've never bought a new HDD that *wasn't *in retail packaging(or retailed as bare/non-OEM). Because I live close to a Frys, and know all too well the value of being able to return purchases in person(and because Frys doesn't sell OEM drives that I'm aware of). If you bought it at Frys, you just take it back and get another one, or get most of your money back(if not all)...on the spot! For those reasons specifically, a new HDD or new motherboard are the 2 things I would most likely _*never*_ buy anywhere else. Since they prematurely fail the most, in my experience.

Sorry...had to do it.


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## Ahhzz (Mar 20, 2015)

SuperSoph_WD said:


> Hello, @newtekie1 !
> 
> I'm very sorry to hear about this luckless situation that you've encountered, but our RMA policy about OEM drives has never been a secret.
> I'd suggest you to take a look at this knowledge base article that explains in details about Retail & OEM drives and see for yourself: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=RqGgWW
> ...


I've had ZERO issues RMAing drives I've purchased from NewEgg, and a couple of other Tech stores in the past, but if this is becoming a mainstay of Western Digital's policy, meaning they're now going to start making a fuss about it, that'll stop my singing. You can find a post I referred someone to WD Black in the last week here over other brands. That'll change.


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## Batou1986 (Mar 20, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> Shouldn't really matter, OEM Packaging and Bare Drive has always meant the same thing if it is being sold to the end user. I doubt newegg is ripping these drives out of Dells and selling them...









Its pretty shitty for newegg to do this its also pretty shitty that WD is selling OEM no warranty drives to a retail distributer so that distributor can pull one over on people.


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## Sasqui (Mar 20, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> No they haven't. Seagate more than happily handles warranties on OEM drives. What they don't handle is drives from pre-built systems. But if the drive is OEM and sold to the end user, Seagate still handled the warranty. WD used to handle the warranty for OEM drives sold to the end user, but now it seems they don't...



Yes, you are correct... the line between OEM and Bare drive is a blurry one, and it shouldn't be!

I lost two Seagate 500GB drives in a Dell system (failed at the same time in a Raid 1 array, yikes!), Seagate wouldn't help... but yes, they were officially OEM drives (through Dell).

Bare drives from a retailer should not be considered OEM unless they state as such!


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## newtekie1 (Mar 20, 2015)

This is the exact drive I bought.  It would seem it doesn't matter if it says OEM or not, the drive I bought is just labeled "Bare Drive", there is no mention of OEM anywhere. So it seems when WD says Bare Drive they mean OEM(I've always figured those two were the same anyway, so that is nothing new).


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## Batou1986 (Mar 20, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> This is the exact drive I bought.  It would seem it doesn't matter if it says OEM or not, the drive I bought is just labeled "Bare Drive", there is no mention of OEM anywhere. So it seems when WD says Bare Drive they mean OEM(I've always figured those two were the same anyway, so that is nothing new).


Yea thats a 2 year warranty drive someone at WD goofed


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## rtwjunkie (Mar 20, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> This is the exact drive I bought.  It would seem it doesn't matter if it says OEM or not, the drive I bought is just labeled "Bare Drive", there is no mention of OEM anywhere. So it seems when WD says Bare Drive they mean OEM(I've always figured those two were the same anyway, so that is nothing new).


 
Still clear as mud to me....which should I buy to have a warranty from now on, besides Retail, since Newegg for instance lists them as both "bare drive" and "oem"?


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## newtekie1 (Mar 20, 2015)

Batou1986 said:


> Yea thats a 2 year warranty drive someone at WD goofed


That's the issue.  Newegg and all these other retailers are claiming these drives have 2, 3, and 5 year warranties(depending on the drive).  But if what the WD tech support claims is true, and it seems it is since SuperSoph_WD has confirmed it, these drive actually have no warranty at all.



rtwjunkie said:


> Still clear as mud to me....which should I buy to have a warranty from now on, besides Retail, since Newegg for instance lists them as both "bare drive" and "oem"?



It seems like your only option to get a warranty is to buy a retail drive.  Anything labeled Bare Drive or Bare Drive-OEM or OEM will not have a warranty, even if Newegg's site says it does.


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## rtwjunkie (Mar 20, 2015)

If this IS true, and not a new policy, how have I RMA'd 2 drives direct to WD?  They weren't retail, I can tell you that.  I've bought a total of 4 retail drives in my lifetime. 

As to the warranties, the warranty on Retail drives is the shortest I believe (either one or two years), which has usually been my reason for buying whatever label they call it I am buying that isn't Retail.


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## Batou1986 (Mar 20, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> That's the issue.  Newegg and all these other retailers are claiming these drives have 2, 3, and 5 year warranties(depending on the drive).  But if what the WD tech support claims is true, and it seems it is since SuperSoph_WD has confirmed it, these drive actually have no warranty at all.
> 
> 
> 
> It seems like your only option to get a warranty is to buy a retail drive.  Anything labeled Bare Drive or Bare Drive-OEM or OEM will not have a warranty, even if Newegg's site says it does.


Sounds like you may have stumbled on to a larger problem, possibly WD has gotten serial numbers and model numbers mixed up in their system or something.
I sincerely doubt they would intentionally lie about warranties and put themselves in legal hot water.
Newegg isn't the only site with these listed as 2 year drives so that eliminates them as the culprit or any mistake on your part.


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## newtekie1 (Mar 20, 2015)

rtwjunkie said:


> If this IS true, and not a new policy, how have I RMA'd 2 drives direct to WD?  They weren't retail, I can tell you that.  I've bought a total of 4 retail drives in my lifetime.
> 
> As to the warranties, the warranty on Retail drives is the shortest I believe (either one or two years), which has usually been my reason for buying whatever label they call it I am buying that isn't Retail.



I know, I've RMA'd drives to WD in the past too, this is the first time I've had trouble and the first time I've been told OEM/Bare Drives don't have a warranty.

So either this is a new policy, or they are changing how they are handling an old policy to lump in Bare Drives sold to the end user to get out of RMAing drives



Batou1986 said:


> Sounds like you may have stumbled on to a larger problem, possibly WD has gotten serial numbers and model numbers mixed up in their system or something.
> I sincerely doubt they would intentionally lie about warranties and put themselves in legal hot water.
> Newegg isn't the only site with these listed as 2 year drives so that eliminates them as the culprit or any mistake on your part.



The warranties on products change all the time, and the retailers often get no real notice.  Or the manufacturer changes the warranty and sends out an update to the retailers AFTER the change has taken affect, so the retailer hasn't had time to update their website.

Newegg's been wrong with warranty information before, and I'm sure if I hadn't got the issue resolved with WD I could have called Newegg and they would have taken care of me since their site says 2 year warranty, at least I know Newegg would be good enough to honor what they said.


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## dorsetknob (Mar 20, 2015)

Bare  oem or retail i think you will find that in the UK  this is covered by the Sale of Goods Act 1979 and Goods have to be fit for use for 2years irrespective of any offered warranty

Eu has same sort of Legal protection ( as Apple found out in Italy with their 1 yr Warranty debacle last year ).

Ps NOT APPLE BASHING it was an example that came to mind.


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## remixedcat (Mar 21, 2015)

WTF??? Not going with WD than if this is the case.

Guess I'll stick to Seagate


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## AsRock (Mar 21, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> I don't think it is about the actual packaging, but rather that WD is trying to shift the RMA/support responsibility away from WD an onto the e-tailor that sold the drive to save money on support.



Or and want to make sure the HDD gets to end user best possible condition and not just in a static bag shoved in a box.

Lets face it how are these OEM drives handled 1/2 the time and would not be surprised a lot of dropped before they get to the end user.

How ever i still think it's BS and they should make sure retailers are aware and post details when selling WD drives, some thing else comes to mind is to complain to Newegg even if the drives way passed the 30 day return as they fed the false info in the 1st place ( @Newegg_Service ).  Then if it was coming back on them i bet they soon change it.

EDIT:


OneMoar said:


> I have bought numerous WD drives from newegg in OEM-style packages never had a issue with registering or RMAing ANY of them in fact I RMA'd a drive last year that I bought its still registered on my account ...
> its been this way for YEARS never had a issue with RMAing anything bought from newegg regardless of packaging or lable



Same here be thinking twice from now on that's for sure.


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 21, 2015)

The way I understand it is:
OEM = Dell/HP/etc. The warranty is for the whole computer and individual components are not warrantied beyond that.
Bare Drive = retailer to user (OEM is Western Digital itself).  Only includes the drive.
Retail = retailer to user (OEM is Western Digital itself).  Includes fancy box with some accessories (like a cable) and maybe some software.

Newegg sells all three variations.  The question we need answered is how to distinguish (e.g. by Model Number) which drives Western Digital will accept returns on and which they will not.  Newegg doesn't seem to be doing a very good job at distinguishing it because they use OEM and Bare Drive interchangeably.



newtekie1 said:


> This is the exact drive I bought.  It would seem it doesn't matter if it says OEM or not, the drive I bought is just labeled "Bare Drive", there is no mention of OEM anywhere. So it seems when WD says Bare Drive they mean OEM(I've always figured those two were the same anyway, so that is nothing new).


There's absolutely nothing on that page saying WD won't honor the two year warranty and that's a massive problem for Newegg and Western Digital.


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## R-T-B (Mar 21, 2015)

> Because I tend to buy only WD lately. Though I'm not so fond of their subsidiary company HGST.



HGST (and the previous company Hitachi) actually has always had a top notch RMA system in my book.  They'll even cross-ship if asked directly.

Their desktop drives are meh, but the Ultrastar line is a very solid piece of HD.  You'd be hard pressed to find better.  Of course, they cost an arm and a leg accordingly.  (But then again, they have a 6 year warranty, and will likely last that).

Now, Seagate is a second rate RMA company.  They stamp their drives "refurb" with a metal stamp (I doubt they even ARE refurbs, no one does that anymore) and subtract from your warranty when you use it (like things shouldn't just work?  Let's punish you for using the warranty).  It's bullshit.

WD used to have a HGST grade warranty if not better.  But if this is true and not just tech support screwup, they just fell to lowest rank in my books.


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## Champ (Mar 21, 2015)

So I brought drives from BB. Are those covered?


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## rtwjunkie (Mar 21, 2015)

Champ said:


> So I brought drives from BB. Are those covered?


 
Meaning Best Buy? Those drives were in nice boxes, etc, right? Those will be retail, and ok, since retail warranty is not in dispute.


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## Schmuckley (Mar 21, 2015)

Hmm..What about WD Blue drives in a blister-pack @ TD?


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## rtwjunkie (Mar 21, 2015)

Schmuckley said:


> Hmm..What about WD Blue drives in a blister-pack @ TD?


 
Good question...whether those are being classified as bare or OEM by WD is unknown.


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## Schmuckley (Mar 21, 2015)

dorsetknob said:


> Bare oem or retail i think you will find that in the UK this is covered by the Sale of Goods Act 1979 and Goods have to be fit for use for 2years irrespective of any offered warranty
> 
> Eu has same sort of Legal protection ( as Apple found out in Italy with their 1 yr Warranty debacle last year ).





rtwjunkie said:


> Good question...whether those are being classified as bare or OEM by WD is unknown.



Welp..moar SSDs!


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## rtwjunkie (Mar 21, 2015)

SSD's are certainly starting to get cheap enough!  When a 2 or 3 TB is as cheap as the same size HDD, I will probably not look back!  But with my server especially, I can only afford HDD's.


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## newtekie1 (Mar 21, 2015)

Schmuckley said:


> Hmm..What about WD Blue drives in a blister-pack @ TD?



WD ships the drive in just a static bag, TD/Newegg/Whoever packages it from there.  The TD blister pack drives are Bare Drives.


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## 95Viper (Mar 21, 2015)

I think/believe there was confusion on the CSR's part, partly; and, possibly, Newegg's...

I don't work for or speak for WD, Newegg or any other party; however, I will try to give some of my take on reading through the US warranty info and other info at the website for WD.

The main warranty page states you will get full coverage on Retail boxed drives and component drives (Any Non-Kitted Hard Drive sold to Authorized WD Distributors.).
It lists the model numbers.



> *Warranty Policy*
> Retail Kits that are assembled and branded by Western Digital, along with internal drives sold as "Component Drives" (internal hard drives that WD sold and specifically did not package as part of a Western Digital assembled and branded retail kit), come with a limited warranty.



The confusion it seems, is, what is a component, OEM, or, so-called, bare drive.
WD, it seems, sells these drives in bulk to resellers, OEMs, or others, with or without warranties.

WD sells drives with warranties they cover and drives without warranties.  The drives without warranties are sold this way to the OEM/reseller so they can cover the drive the way they wish... so the end user deals with the OEM/reseller; and, the OEM/reseller deals with WD.

And, the only way to check, to be sure you got what you ordered, is to enter the info at the warranty check site or have WD check the drives info.

This info is my advice for your protection ---> If you order/buy a drive (not in a retail box) you should enter the required info on the WD site, when you receive it, to see if it is covered under the warranty you were suppose to get from the reseller.
If it is not a WD covered drive and you were suppose to get a WD covered drive, contact the reseller to return it, and get the properly covered drive.

Some links:

How to check the warranty on a WD drive or product

Don't gripe at me... this is only advice to help.
It only takes a second to see if you got what you were suppose to get.
Good luck and hope you always get what you wanted.


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## rtwjunkie (Mar 21, 2015)

95Viper said:


> I think/believe there was confusion on the CSR's part, partly; and, possibly, Newegg's...
> 
> I don't work for or speak for WD, Newegg or any other party; however, I will try to give some of my take on reading through the US warranty info and other info at the website for WD.
> 
> ...


That's very helpful advice! I guess there is no way to check by just model number before you purchase, since it is serial number based?


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## newtekie1 (Mar 21, 2015)

95Viper said:


> This info is my advice for your protection ---> If you order/buy a drive (not in a retail box) you should enter the required info on the WD site, when you receive it, to see if it is covered under the warranty you were suppose to get from the reseller.
> If it is not a WD covered drive and you were suppose to get a WD covered drive, contact the reseller to return it, and get the properly covered drive.



The problem is that I did exactly that.  When entering the drive information into my WD Portal it says the drive is covered by a limited warranty.  However, it would not let me create an RMA.  It was when I called tech support that I was told that the drive was not covered because it was OEM even though it was sold as a bare drive and not part of a pre-built.  Again, the tech support guy directly told me that all drives not sold in retail packaging have no warranty support from WD.  There is no confusion on Neweggs part, there is no confusion on the end users part, it is entirely WD not providing warranty support for any drive that isn't sold in retail packaging.

However, there definitely is confusion in the fact that the WD website says two different things, SuperSoph_WD's link seem to say the drives aren't covered but 95Viper's link says they should be, but that is just another shady move by WD(or maybe they just haven't been able to update every page on their website yet, but then don't implement the policy until the changes are done...).  I doubt they even bothered to inform their retailers(like newegg) so they could update their product pages, which again adds confusion since Newegg is still saying these drives have warranties.  Either way, all of this is just super shady on WD's part.


----------



## Static~Charge (Mar 21, 2015)

FordGT90Concept said:


> The way I understand it is:
> OEM = Dell/HP/etc. The warranty is for the whole computer and individual components are not warrantied beyond that.
> Bare Drive = retailer to user (OEM is Western Digital itself).  Only includes the drive.
> Retail = retailer to user (OEM is Western Digital itself).  Includes fancy box with some accessories (like a cable) and maybe some software.



^ This. A bare drive is *not* an OEM drive; it is a retail drive minus the box (and plastic endcaps, installation sheet, and bag of screws).

First Western Digital slashes their warranty, then they try to weasel out of honoring it. If they want to drive potential customers to their competitor and to SSDs, they're doing a great job. 

Unfortunately, the Seagate drives at work have been dropping like flies lately. The machines that they're in are still under extended warranty, so Dell is replacing them on their nickel.


----------



## Jetster (Mar 21, 2015)

This is not new. What is new is companies are getting tougher on warranties. All the major manufactures are first saying no. Then if you are persistent they approve the warranty appearing to save the day. Its a bottom line thing and is turning into best practices.


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## Aquinus (Mar 21, 2015)

I've replaced two WD Blacks that were bare drives from NewEgg in the last year and a half without any issue. I've RMA'ed a lot of bare drives from NewEgg over the years without any issues. I would like to think this was a one off case and maybe you just got that new worker that didn't know what he was doing. Either way, I've had too good of experiences with WD to believe that they're trying to manipulate people. I've had nothing but good experiences with WD's RMA process in the past which is better than I can say for many other companies.


----------



## R-T-B (Mar 21, 2015)

Jetster said:


> This is not new. What is new is companies are getting tougher on warranties. All the major manufactures are first saying no. Then if you are persistent they approve the warranty appearing to save the day. Its a bottom line thing and is turning into best practices.



This.  Warranties in general are starting to feel like "mail in rebates" in that you'll get it only if your persistent.


----------



## Jetster (Mar 21, 2015)

Bare WD drives are covered for two years


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## GLD (Mar 21, 2015)

Thanks for the 411 newtekie1. I haven't had to warranty a hdd, and mostly bought WD drives. I will be sticking to Seagate SSHD drives in the future. The one I have now has been great! Noticeably faster all around then a reg. hdd.


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## newtekie1 (Mar 21, 2015)

Aquinus said:


> I've replaced two WD Blacks that were bare drives from NewEgg in the last year and a half without any issue. I've RMA'ed a lot of bare drives from NewEgg over the years without any issues. I would like to think this was a one off case and maybe you just got that new worker that didn't know what he was doing. Either way, I've had too good of experiences with WD to believe that they're trying to manipulate people. I've had nothing but good experiences with WD's RMA process in the past which is better than I can say for many other companies.



I'd think that it might be a one off case until SuperSoph_WD confirmed this is actually their policy, though he claims it isn't new...



Jetster said:


> Bare WD drives are covered for two years



Not anymore apparently.


----------



## Jetster (Mar 21, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> Not anymore apparently.



Ill check. I just bought one about 6 months ago


----------



## Jetster (Mar 21, 2015)

Bare Drive. Its covered 2 years

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339







Now OEM may be a different thing

I just check Newegg and they have OEM drives also. Under the specs it lists the warranty as 2 years. So if they put that there then someones covering it be it NE or WD


----------



## newtekie1 (Mar 21, 2015)

Apparantly you didn't read the thread.  My drive registered and claimed it had a warranty too.  It was only when I actually tried to RMA it that it wouldn't work, it would not complete the last step and actually generate a RMA, and when I called to figure out why I was told drives not sold in retail packaging were no longer covered by warranty by WD.  It doesn't matter what Newegg says, it doesn't matter if the drive registers and claims to have a warranty, WD will not process RMA's on any drive not sold in retail packaging.


----------



## 95Viper (Mar 21, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> WD will not process RMA's on any drive not sold in retail packaging.



Not trying to be argumentative...

I was curious, so I called Customer Service at WD pre-sales, the rep I spoke with knew about the "component drive", RTL (retail box), and OEM drives.

And, stated, after checking with his Supervisor, that the RTL and component drives are covered under the warranty posted on the web site warranty page.
Also, stated, if you put in the serial number and it shows a warranty and date... it is covered.  If it states "No Limited Warranty" then it is an OEM drive that is warranted by the OEM.
If they told it was not covered after you got a valid warranty output from the warranty verification page, the rep was wrong.

Try calling the Customer Service dept. for pre-sales (not support) and they would be glad to help.
I called 1 (800) 275-4932 and went through the prompts to the "pre-sales" for internal drives.


----------



## Jetster (Mar 21, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> Apparantly you didn't read the thread.  My drive registered and claimed it had a warranty too.  It was only when I actually tried to RMA it that it wouldn't work, it would not complete the last step and actually generate a RMA, and when I called to figure out why I was told drives not sold in retail packaging were no longer covered by warranty by WD.  It doesn't matter what Newegg says, it doesn't matter if the drive registers and claims to have a warranty, WD will not process RMA's on any drive not sold in retail packaging.



I read it. Its just not sinking in. Then they need to stop saying it covered. Well no more WD drives for me


----------



## newtekie1 (Mar 22, 2015)

95Viper said:


> Not trying to be argumentative...
> 
> I was curious, so I called Customer Service at WD pre-sales, the rep I spoke with knew about the "component drive", RTL (retail box), and OEM drives.
> 
> ...



I have no idea what is going on.  They've got some people saying they are covered, others saying they aren't.  They've got some pages on their website saying they are covered, others seemingly saying they aren't.  It is like the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing...

Either there is some shady shit going down at WD or the company's internal communication stinks.

I mean, I hate to say it, but this all reminds me of the dealings with BFG right before they went under. Heck I was dealing with an RMA with them when they closed shop.  Except I went as far as actually sending the defective card in only to be told they never receive it, then when I produced tracking info they magically found it in their warehouse, then I was told my warranty wasn't valid because the card only had a 1-year warranty(they only sold cards with lifetime warranties), when I showed them a picture of the retail box with lifetime warranty stated on it they never responded and were out of business a few weeks later...  I'm not saying WD is going out of business, I'm just saying this shady business reminds me of when BFG went under, and it scares me.  The whole thing just gives me a bad feeling, and I'll definitely steer away from WD drives for a while unless they are a super good deal because if they are going to hassle me every time I try to make a warranty claim it isn't worth it considering Seagate drives are usually the same price or just a few bucks more.


----------



## R-T-B (Mar 22, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> I have no idea what is going on.  They've got some people saying they are covered, others saying they aren't.  They've got some pages on their website saying they are covered, others seemingly saying they aren't.  It is like the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing...
> 
> Either there is some shady shit going down at WD or the company's internal communication stinks.
> 
> I mean, I hate to say it, but this all reminds me of the dealings with BFG right before they went under. Heck I was dealing with an RMA with them when they closed shop.  Except I went as far as actually sending the defective card in only to be told they never receive it, then when I produced tracking info they magically found it in their warehouse, then I was told my warranty wasn't valid because the card only had a 1-year warranty(they only sold cards with lifetime warranties), when I showed them a picture of the retail box with lifetime warranty stated on it they never responded and were out of business a few weeks later...  I'm not saying WD is going out of business, I'm just saying this shady business reminds me of when BFG went under, and it scares me.  The whole thing just gives me a bad feeling, and I'll definitely steer away from WD drives for a while unless they are a super good deal because if they are going to hassle me every time I try to make a warranty claim it isn't worth it considering Seagate drives are usually the same price or just a few bucks more.




Seagate's warranty isn't much better.  I mean yeah, they process it, but it stinks to high heavens how they treat you during it (badging your drive "refurb" and subtracting from your warranty period, etc).


----------



## CrAsHnBuRnXp (Mar 22, 2015)

I usually end up just buying a new drive because I refuse to have a refurb. So I usually end up RMAing the failed drive, buy a new one, and when I get the RMA back, sell it.


----------



## Batou1986 (Mar 22, 2015)

CrAsHnBuRnXp said:


> I usually end up just buying a new drive because I refuse to have a refurb. So I usually end up RMAing the failed drive, buy a new one, and when I get the RMA back, sell it.


after having an "Enterprise Grade" WD 3.5" raptor fail within 2 years and be replaced with a 2.5"  "Enterprise Grade" Velociraptor drive I was pretty happy with WD RMA until Velociraptor died a year later so I agree with your sentiment .
The thing that bothers me is I have plain ole WD 7200RPM IDE drives from 10 years ago that work fine to this day yet modern "Enterprise Grade" SATA drives seem to fail at alarming rates.
Thats another separate issue but the way things are now I'm likely going to need that 2 year warranty at some point so it damn well better be there.
If a manufacturer sells something with warranty and then tells me I have none when I have a problem thats a sure fire way to see that I go out and buy a new one from a different manufacturer.


----------



## newtekie1 (Mar 22, 2015)

R-T-B said:


> Seagate's warranty isn't much better.  I mean yeah, they process it, but it stinks to high heavens how they treat you during it (badging your drive "refurb" and subtracting from your warranty period, etc).



The refurb label doesn't really bother me, I've never had them subtract from the warranty period though, never even heard of that.


----------



## Aquinus (Mar 22, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> The refurb label doesn't really bother me, I've never had them subtract from the warranty period though, never even heard of that.


My refurbished drives that I've gotten back from WD tend to be more solid than the retail/bare drives I buy. I suspect something with WD putting it through more rigorous testing has something to do with it. Anyways, it's not like a refurbished drive is a bad thing assuming they did all the necessary QA. I have yet to have one of my refurbished WD blacks cause an isssue as I've replaced at least two of the four which were DoA (or dead after 5 minutes of use).

@95Viper has probably one of the most constructive replies so far IMHO:


95Viper said:


> Not trying to be argumentative...
> 
> I was curious, so I called Customer Service at WD pre-sales, the rep I spoke with knew about the "component drive", RTL (retail box), and OEM drives.
> 
> ...





Jetster said:


> I read it. Its just not sinking in. Then they need to stop saying it covered. Well no more WD drives for me


It should take more than a single incident by someone else, which could have been a hick up with their service. All in all, considering this is the first time I've heard about this particular issue, I would like to think it's a one-off situation. I wouldn't give up years of good luck with WD just because of a single disgruntled consumer (no offense @newtekie1 ).


----------



## blobster21 (Mar 22, 2015)

This thread is a huge gaping wound, the WD rep is sorely missed in this situation.


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## R-T-B (Mar 22, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> The refurb label doesn't really bother me, I've never had them subtract from the warranty period though, never even heard of that.



Just happened to me on my last return.  Could be isolated I suppose.  Maybe I should ask again.

But if you're looking to resell a drive after a frustrating experience with a series, the "refurb" label (on what is probably a new drive, given mine was manufactured this month) doesn't help things, I assure you.


----------



## rtwjunkie (Mar 22, 2015)

I actually have the same view as @Aquinus about refurb drives. When they leave the facility, they have had more attention and checks given to them than a new HDD. Mine just keep going and going and going!


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## R-T-B (Mar 22, 2015)

I'd actually be quite surprised if any of these refurb drives are really anything but old shells with new components inside...  that and ones people turned in with absolutely nothing wrong with them.  I really can't picture anyone actually taking the time to open up a malfunctioning HD and fix it.


----------



## newtekie1 (Mar 22, 2015)

R-T-B said:


> I'd actually be quite surprised if any of these refurb drives are really anything but old shells with new components inside... that and ones people turned in with absolutely nothing wrong with them. I really can't picture anyone actually taking the time to open up a malfunctioning HD and fix it.


Or drives with bad PCBs that have been replaced.


----------



## Aquinus (Mar 22, 2015)

blobster21 said:


> This thread is a huge gaping wound, the WD rep is sorely missed in this situation.


I'm not exactly sure that's fair. Are you expecting 24/7 support for hard drives? It's worth remembering that it's still the weekend and many businesses operate Monday through Friday.

With respect to the refurbished drives: Regardless of whatever the issue was before, I'm sure they put it under at least the same if not more rigorous testing as their regular drives. I would imagine that if a drive was bad that they would want to make extra sure that it's a-okay before potentially sending yet another bad drive to a client (which would be a fast way to lose a customer.) So the question has to be asked: Do refurbished drives have a shorter warranties if you buy the from the store because they're refurbished and cheaper or because they're more confident that they won't alienate a customer by providing an unreliable drive? I really don't think the folks over at WD are stupid despite that feels that some people may have for them. I have to admit, I haven't lost a refurbished drive from WD yet, that's a lot more than I can say for retail or bare drives.

Either way, I hope it this all gets put to rest soon but, I suspect this was simply a clerical error on their part. It's too bad it resulted in piss poor customer service though.


----------



## redeye (Mar 22, 2015)

Newegg HDD shipping is a joke!...(for 3.5 inch HDD's)
The packaging on the 2.5 inch drives approaches good packing.

Last time I had to ship back a defective hard drive (to seagate, i think) I was requested to ship it in the box with 2 inches of foam on every side of the hard drive...

and when i received the hard drive back it was packed in a box with 2 inches of foam On all sides.

Speaking of Newegg and the shipping of hard drives have you noticed that with the 3 1/2 inch drives that they ship, they just stick it in the box, throw some paper on top and then ship it to you... where is the protection for the bottom of the hard drive?


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## rtwjunkie (Mar 22, 2015)

my hdd's from Newegg all arrive in hard drive boxes, all with an air pillow sleeve around the drive inside the box.


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## Batou1986 (Mar 22, 2015)

rtwjunkie said:


> my hdd's from Newegg all arrive in hard drive boxes, all with an air pillow sleeve around the drive inside the box.


Same all my drives even the bare ones arrived wrapped in those pillow packs inside a box with packing material.


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## newtekie1 (Mar 22, 2015)

Batou1986 said:


> Same all my drives even the bare ones arrived wrapped in those pillow packs inside a box with packing material.


Same here. Hard drive in a pillow pack, in a sealed box, in packing material, in a bigger box.

Though I did get a 2.5" drive a few weeks ago that they just threw in the bigger box with my other components, and not surprisingly that drive was DOA. But that is the only drive I've received like that from them in a really long time, and I'm ordering drives every week.


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## Jetster (Mar 22, 2015)

Lately from Newegg  the 3.5 have arrived in the bubble sleeve and 2.5 in the black plastic end caps. Ive had no issues

You know a good thing to note is I haven't have a drive fail in quite a while. I think they are getting better. Its been at least 5 years sense I have returned a drive


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## 95Viper (Mar 22, 2015)

Jetster said:


> Lately from Newegg the 3.5 have arrived in the bubble sleeve



+1 on that.

I got the same bubble enclosure with the drive inside and the drive was wrapped in the anti-static film bag.
I was like... Well, this is different;  because, I was use to getting them in the foam or bubble wrap.


----------



## OneMoar (Mar 22, 2015)

Still no further replies from either a newegg or WD rep


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## dorsetknob (Mar 22, 2015)

In defense of SuperSoph_WD  please read post 14 
Quote
""But unfortunately, it's a Friday and I'm not going to be able to provide you with further details until the beginning of next week.

I hope you'd bear with the me and the drive until then.
SuperSoph_WD""

You Got to Give them time to wipe their ass and forumulate their response


----------



## rtwjunkie (Mar 22, 2015)

OneMoar said:


> Still no further replies from either a newegg or WD rep


I know Supersoph_WD is usually off over the weekends.


----------



## R-T-B (Mar 24, 2015)

redeye said:


> Newegg HDD shipping is a joke!...(for 3.5 inch HDD's)
> The packaging on the 2.5 inch drives approaches good packing.
> 
> Last time I had to ship back a defective hard drive (to seagate, i think) I was requested to ship it in the box with 2 inches of foam on every side of the hard drive...
> ...



Was it an HGST drive by chance?

On their desktop drives I believe newegg orders them more or less directly, and they don't usually use the bubble sleeve.  It's what stopped me buying the "Deskstar/Deathstar" line, it seems that part of their company will never learn.


----------



## Athlonite (Mar 24, 2015)

SuperSoph_WD said:


> Hello, @newtekie1 !
> 
> I'm very sorry to hear about this luckless situation that you've encountered, but our RMA policy about OEM drives has never been a secret.
> I'd suggest you to take a look at this knowledge base article that explains in details about Retail & OEM drives and see for yourself: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=RqGgWW
> ...




If that's the case then why do WD sell OEM HDD's to non OEMs for resale they should only be supplying retail HDD's to retail/etail stores


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## Aquinus (Mar 24, 2015)

Athlonite said:


> If that's the case then why do WD sell OEM HDD's to non OEMs for resale they should only be supplying retail HDD's to retail/etail stores


I don't think that actually happens at NewEgg. As I said before, I suspect it's a clerical error on WD's part because I've RMA'ed *many* WD bare drives without an issue. Warranty tends to be tied to the serial number which is why the website should be considered authoritative. If it really were an OEM drive, the website should catch it and say there is no warranty on the drive or that it's not a valid serial number for support. If I were @newtekie1 I would have asked for a manager the moment the rep said they couldn't do an RMA.

Side note: I always initiate RMA's without a member of support. I do it completely through the website and typically do an advance RMA so I can use the box to send back the old one (plus than I'm only 2 or 3 days with a drive down instead of a week.) So my RMAs have always gone flawlessly by doing it this way. I suspect the human factor fouled it up.


----------



## newtekie1 (Mar 24, 2015)

Aquinus said:


> I don't think that actually happens at NewEgg. As I said before, I suspect it's a clerical error on WD's part because I've RMA'ed *many* WD bare drives without an issue. Warranty tends to be tied to the serial number which is why the website should be considered authoritative. If it really were an OEM drive, the website should catch it and say there is no warranty on the drive or that it's not a valid serial number for support. If I were @newtekie1 I would have asked for a manager the moment the rep said they couldn't do an RMA.



Again, I was told this is a new policy.  I too have RMA'd many drives in the past.  SuperSoph_WD says this is an old policy though.  So my guess is they are using the old policy and changing how it is enforced to get out of RMAing drives.



Aquinus said:


> Side note: I always initiate RMA's without a member of support. I do it completely through the website and typically do an advance RMA so I can use the box to send back the old one (plus than I'm only 2 or 3 days with a drive down instead of a week.) So my RMAs have always gone flawlessly by doing it this way. I suspect the human factor fouled it up.



I tried to do it through the website, it wouldn't let me, that is why I had to call tech support.


----------



## D007 (Mar 24, 2015)

This will definitely affect my purchasing from WD from now on.
I consider this underhanded and it just lost them a customer.
I have always used WD but not anymore..


----------



## dorsetknob (Mar 24, 2015)

Newtekie1



SuperSoph_WD said:


> Hello, @newtekie1 !
> 
> I'm very sorry to hear about this luckless situation that you've encountered, but our RMA policy about OEM drives has never been a secret.
> I'd suggest you to take a look at this knowledge base article that explains in details about Retail & OEM drives and see for yourself: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=RqGgWW
> ...




Did you receive any Pm's  " as promised"  or was this as it looks a politicians promise


----------



## Athlonite (Mar 24, 2015)

D007 said:


> This will definitely affect my purchasing from WD from now on.
> I consider this underhanded and it just lost them a customer.
> I have always used WD but not anymore..



Why is it that you don't take it back to where you bought it from first, if the place you purchased the HDD from is selling OEM HDD's then they are the ones to see about warranty replacements first


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## AsRock (Mar 24, 2015)

Athlonite said:


> Why is it that you don't take it back to where you bought it from first, if the place you purchased the HDD from is selling OEM HDD's then they are the ones to see about warranty replacements first



Depends who you get it from,  if from like Newegg after 30 days it's the manufacture.


----------



## Athlonite (Mar 24, 2015)

AsRock said:


> Depends who you get it from,  if from like Newegg after 30 days it's the manufacture.




that's a gip then here in NZ it's the retailer/etailer who is responsible for any warranty returns for the term of no less than 12 months if it fails after that they may replace it or tell you to go to the manufacturer


----------



## dorsetknob (Mar 24, 2015)

Situation here in the UK ( and as far as i know the EU ) is

for the Retail Seller ( New Items )
Manufactures Warranty Period ""of not less than 2 years"" any Disclaimer   as LESS  is then in Breach of The Sale of Goods Act .

"IF in Doubt on ANY Warranty Claim CONSULT YOUR LOCAL CONSUMERS AFFAIRS UNIT"

or "TAKE LOCAL LEGAL ADVICE"
keep a paper trail YOU MAY NEED IT


----------



## AsRock (Mar 24, 2015)

Athlonite said:


> that's a gip then here in NZ it's the retailer/etailer who is responsible for any warranty returns for the term of no less than 12 months if it fails after that they may replace it or tell you to go to the manufacturer



Call it what you must i have always known newegg be that way in the US.


----------



## newtekie1 (Mar 24, 2015)

dorsetknob said:


> Did you receive any Pm's  " as promised"  or was this as it looks a politicians promise



Yes, and I provided the information he asked for.  I haven't heard from him since I replied to his initial PM with the information he asked for.



Athlonite said:


> Why is it that you don't take it back to where you bought it from first, if the place you purchased the HDD from is selling OEM HDD's then they are the ones to see about warranty replacements first



Not possible with Newegg.  They don't take anything back after 30 days.  Though, like I said, if I would have contacted them I'm sure they would have taken care of the issue, but I didn't need to since WD finally agreed to RMA the drive.


----------



## dorsetknob (Mar 24, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> WD finally agreed to RMA the drive.



glad to hear that the Issue has been provisionally resolved

Update us when you think its been Fully Resolved please


----------



## OneMoar (Mar 25, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> Yes, and I provided the information he asked for.  I haven't heard from him since I replied to his initial PM with the information he asked for.
> 
> 
> 
> Not possible with Newegg.  They don't take anything back after 30 days.  Though, like I said, if I would have contacted them I'm sure they would have taken care of the issue, but I didn't need to since WD finally agreed to RMA the drive.


id still be in communication with newegg because its looking more and more like somebody got some part numbers mixxed up


----------



## wiak (Mar 25, 2015)

there is a new EU law regarding warranties and distance sales, so if you product brakes within 2 years, you get a replacement or refund

regarding the issue, good luck
i just noticed you seem to be in US, more good luck to you from across the pond


----------



## eidairaman1 (Mar 25, 2015)

If Seagate Launched a true 1TB 15K RPM drive with 128 Cache on SATA 3 or Allowed APM to be shut off on the Momentus XT drives id go with them again


----------



## SuperSoph_WD (Mar 25, 2015)

Hey guys!

I'm sorry it took me so long to come back to you and write a response that would hopefully make things clear. I took the issue to my superiors to make sure that there is no confusion in the information I provide you with.

Firstly, to the question whether there's *a difference between a bare drive an OEM drive. *
Physically there is no difference between them. However, from a warranty standpoint, there is. 
A true OEM drive has no warranty from Western Digital, because it is provided by the OEM as a part of their product build. 
OEM/Bare or component drive are covered by Western Digital and they are also available from resellers like NewEgg, etc. 
Here's a link to *our Warranty Services* on the website that explain everything: *http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=oP1iGY*

_They don't support OEM HDD's as in HDD's in Dell machines I can buy, but packaging? Can OEM in this instance be called bulk?_
That's right! We don't support those sold as parts of an OEM system. We would be always happy to assist you with the diagnostics. However, there are cases when the OEM systems have built-in utilities that we are not familiar with. In these cases, we refer the customers back to the OEM for support. 

_So you're confirming that drives bought by the end user off sites like Newegg that are labeled Bare/OEM, or anything not coming in retail packaging, have no warranty._
*No. I believe @FordGT90Concept hit the Bullseye and basically can answer you question: *
_*OEM = *Dell/HP/etc. The warranty is for the whole computer and individual components are not warranted beyond that.
*Bare Drive = *retailer to user (OEM is Western Digital itself). Only includes the drive.  See warranty link above
*Retail = *retailer to user (OEM is Western Digital itself). Includes fancy box with some accessories (like a cable) and maybe some software_
For any more details on that matter, check the link above to our Warranty policy.

*Western Digital covers both bare and retail drives! *
*There are no changes in our Warranty policy* whatsoever. On occasion, we change the warranties based upon industry standards (Bare drive vs. retail) but *WD has never provided an end user with an RMA for a True OEM drive. *

*Whether this was a clerical error mistake or not:*
Although NewEgg and other resellers buy HDDs directly from WD, they also buy drives from other distributors. Even though warranties can be updated from the date of purchase with a valid proof of that purchase_, *the warranty dates are initially set from the date of manufacturing + a little extra for the shipping and shelf time. If the warranty was not properly reflected when it was registered, it may have come from a different distributor/stock.*_

Hope I was able to answer your questions!
I'm sorry to see you, @newtekie1, so disappointed. But as I already mentioned, we haven't changed our policy. My guess is you were just 'lucky' enough to get a drive that has most probably been bought from another distributor which would explain why our online RMA system couldn't approve your RMA request. 

_*SuperSoph_WD*_


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Mar 25, 2015)

So it sounds like Newegg dealt with a shady distributor.  Wouldn't be the first time.  I bet Newegg bought surplus drives from an OEM not realizing there is no warranty on them.

Is there a way to verify the warranty with Western Digital so we can tell if we got an OEM drive sold as bare when we receive it?  If we can tell the drive was OEM, we could return it to Newegg right away and then they can presumably fix the problem with their distributor instead of us getting left out to dry 30+ days later.


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## Ahhzz (Mar 25, 2015)

Exactly. As a small VAR, we have an urgent requirement to obtain the best pricing for our clients, while not eliminating their ability to get proper warranty coverage, and NewEgg, Amazon, TechData, Provantage, etc are valuable resources for us. We have to be able to buy with confidence for our clients, knowing that I'm not leaving them hanging in the wind on a device that I've recommended. How can we ensure that the device we're purchasing is a BareBone drive, and not OEM that got stuck in the wrong slot?


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## Aquinus (Mar 25, 2015)

FordGT90Concept said:


> So it sounds like Newegg dealt with a shady distributor.  Wouldn't be the first time.  I bet Newegg bought surplus drives from an OEM not realizing there is no warranty on them.
> 
> Is there a way to verify the warranty with Western Digital so we can tell if we got an OEM drive sold as bare when we receive it?  If we can tell the drive was OEM, we could return it to Newegg right away and then they can presumably fix the problem with their distributor instead of us getting left out to dry 30+ days later.





Ahhzz said:


> Exactly. As a small VAR, we have an urgent requirement to obtain the best pricing for our clients, while not eliminating their ability to get proper warranty coverage, and NewEgg, Amazon, TechData, Provantage, etc are valuable resources for us. We have to be able to buy with confidence for our clients, knowing that I'm not leaving them hanging in the wind on a device that I've recommended. How can we ensure that the device we're purchasing is a BareBone drive, and not OEM that got stuck in the wrong slot?


I suspect that loading it into WD's website will give you an error when you go to register the drive and check the warranty status. This is feeling more and more like a NewEgg foul up, not WD.


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## rtwjunkie (Mar 25, 2015)

Thanlks @SuperSoph_WD for looking into the issue and for such a detailed answer!  It appears from what happened that Newegg probably got a batch of true OEM drives without realizing the difference.  I for one, am glad that the bare drives are still covered!


----------



## SuperSoph_WD (Mar 25, 2015)

FordGT90Concept said:


> So it sounds like Newegg dealt with a shady distributor.  Wouldn't be the first time.  I bet Newegg bought surplus drives from an OEM not realizing there is no warranty on them.
> 
> Is there a way to verify the warranty with Western Digital so we can tell if we got an OEM drive sold as bare when we receive it?  If we can tell the drive was OEM, we could return it to Newegg right away and then they can presumably fix the problem with their distributor instead of us getting left out to dry 30+ days later.



Unfortunately, you'd have to get the drive registered with the serial number on our website in order to be able to determine this.  So I'm afraid there is no quicker way to avoid that one.
Honestly, I just hope that this was a one-time controversy, really!

I'd advise all of you to turn to our* technical support* for any questions you may have concerning your WD drives. You can contact them either by phone or e-mail. (The average e-mail response time is within 1 business day.) http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=Y0OPY3

I hope everything works out for @newtekie1 
I'd also like to thank all of you for your patience! 
SuperSoph_WD


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## newtekie1 (Apr 4, 2015)

R-T-B said:


> Seagate's warranty isn't much better. I mean yeah, they process it, but it stinks to high heavens how they treat you during it (badging your drive "refurb" and subtracting from your warranty period, etc).



Just FYI, the drive a receive as a replacement from WD was label a refub.  It isn't even properly labeled as a WD Blue drive anymore, just a generic white sticker.



FordGT90Concept said:


> So it sounds like Newegg dealt with a shady distributor.  Wouldn't be the first time.  I bet Newegg bought surplus drives from an OEM not realizing there is no warranty on them.
> 
> Is there a way to verify the warranty with Western Digital so we can tell if we got an OEM drive sold as bare when we receive it?  If we can tell the drive was OEM, we could return it to Newegg right away and then they can presumably fix the problem with their distributor instead of us getting left out to dry 30+ days later.





Aquinus said:


> I suspect that loading it into WD's website will give you an error when you go to register the drive and check the warranty status. This is feeling more and more like a NewEgg foul up, not WD.



The think is, like I said, the drive registered on WD's site just fine.  And WD's site claimed it had a 2 year warranty.

Here's a screen shot of it registered:






It is only when I tried to actually create an RMA that I ran into issues, the website gave me an error on the last step, and tech support claimed they don't RMA non-retail drives.

This definitely isn't a newegg screw up, it definitely IS a WD screw up. It might be a one time screw up, it might really be their new policy, either way I'm likely not going to buy from WD again because this scares the crap out of me.

The final thing I'll say, then I'll let the thread die or whatever is SuperSoph_WD did contact me, and was genuinely helpful.  But I had resolved the issue though higher ups at tech support already.


----------



## dorsetknob (Apr 4, 2015)

@SuperSoph_WD
Location:
Wherever help is needed!


There will be many in this thread ( and on the Site )that are going to be interested in your analysis and reply.

Thanks for the update
*newtekie1*


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## Tsukiyomi91 (Apr 11, 2015)

What a surprise... my WD 1TB that I've purchased few months ago died on me with well over 50 games in it... I assume that the head has failed to read the data or is it just most WD Blue 1TB models have a bad reputation, especially the newer ones. My 500GB WD Blue also started to show signs of weird activity despite being barely 1 year old... seems that I have to resort into getting either Seagate or Toshiba if I have to.


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## Ahhzz (Apr 11, 2015)

I don't know about the blues: I tended to stick to the blacks (5 yr warranty) and reds (3 year for NAS) before this.


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## Tsukiyomi91 (Apr 11, 2015)

for now, I think I'll gonna turn to Seagate's SSHD offerings once I do a backup on both WD Blue 500GB & 1TB drives before my data is gone forever. =w=


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## newtekie1 (Apr 11, 2015)

Tsukiyomi91 said:


> What a surprise... my WD 1TB that I've purchased few months ago died on me with well over 50 games in it... I assume that the head has failed to read the data or is it just most WD Blue 1TB models have a bad reputation, especially the newer ones. My 500GB WD Blue also started to show signs of weird activity despite being barely 1 year old... seems that I have to resort into getting either Seagate or Toshiba if I have to.



I'd come to the conclusion that the blue drives are total garbage.  You'll notice in my screen shot that I've got several Blue drives registered, they are registered because they've all failed and needed RMA.  I've had more issues with Green drives as well.  Though I've had great success with their Red and Black drives, I haven't had a single one fail on me in the last few years. *knock on wood*

So I wouldn't totally avoid WD, well I will be now due to the warranty support issue, but if it wasn't for that I'd have no problem buying the Black or Red drives.


----------



## Tsukiyomi91 (Apr 12, 2015)

for me, instead of buying the same Blue drives, I think of giving a shot of using Seagate's SSHD offerings on my Air 240 casing & see if there's no problem with it. For WD Black drives, I might consider it if I'm going to rebuild my rig or just take it as an upgrade for my gaming needs.


----------



## newtekie1 (Apr 12, 2015)

I've got two of the Seagate SSHD drives and am very happy with them.


----------



## Tsukiyomi91 (Apr 12, 2015)

anyways, just want to double, triple-confirm about something: if mounting the drives horizontally, will it affect the head track or will it not?


----------



## Jetster (Apr 12, 2015)

Tsukiyomi91 said:


> anyways, just want to double, triple-confirm about something: if mounting the drives horizontally, will it affect the head track or will it not?



No, but moving them when they are spinning will


----------



## Tsukiyomi91 (Apr 12, 2015)

Ok. Noted. Thanks =)


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## xkm1948 (Apr 17, 2015)

WD, they used to honor all drivers, be it retail or OEM. However they would simply write 0 to the RMAed drives they receive and send them out to another customer for replacement. Really bad practice. I went through loads of bullshit to get my problem fixed. I never purchased anything WD ever since.

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/raw-read-errors-help.177976/


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## Ahhzz (Apr 17, 2015)

xkm1948 said:


> WD, they used to honor all drivers, be it retail or OEM. However they would simply write 0 to the RMAed drives they receive and send them out to another customer for replacement. Really bad practice. I went through loads of bullshit to get my problem fixed. I never purchased anything WD ever since.
> 
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/raw-read-errors-help.177976/


Sounds like they definitely did what they should to make it right, finally, but that's a little disconcerting about their normal RMA process....


----------



## Tsunamijhoe (Jun 5, 2015)

Hello
I just found this thread and forum while doing a search on why i couldn't register my new WD40EFRX drives on WD website. Turns out, there is no longer warranty on ANY WD drives not sold as specific retail in a box.
I have contacted a consumer fraud attorney in Irvine California, as this is downright fraud. My new drives was ADVERTISED with a 3 year warranty, but WD refuse to acknowledge this.
The drives i have bought are the EXACT same as my previous 16 WD reds,packaged the same way, bought in the same shop but unlike my previous drives, the 3 new ones has no warranty, but you can't know this before hand,as it is the serial numbrer that defines whether a drive is OEM or RTL (retail).

Also, WD doesn't seem to know what is what,as the drives are clearly marked as having a 3 year warranty in Europe based on EFRX models as seen here http://support.wdc.com/warranty/policy.asp

If this isn't considered fraud, i don't know what is..

anyways, just wanted to let you know that this is the new policy from WD, so buyers beware


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## dorsetknob (Jun 5, 2015)

European law gives you more rights than State law in the USA
you cannot draw conclusions on USA Law based on EU Consumer law

Pm the WD rep on Site


dorsetknob said:


> @SuperSoph_WD
> Location:
> Wherever help is needed!


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## Tsunamijhoe (Jun 5, 2015)

dorsetknob said:


> European law gives you more rights than State law in the USA
> you cannot draw conclusions on USA Law based on EU Consumer law
> 
> Pm the WD rep on Site


I do not draw ANY conclusions. WD does that for me.. I am in contact with their "service" department. Second, the drives was bought with and ADVERTISED 3 year warranty, which WD REFUSE to acknowledge..I have 18 of the red drives now,and ALL the drives i bought in SAME packaing,SAME model number,in SAME Store registered fine,so why does the last 3 drives fail to register?
Now they claim the retailer is at fault,and sold me OEM drives,but i asure you, my retailer had NO clue, as they do not check every serial number before shipping,as you need to unpack the drives to see that on some packages. And WD has NEVER made the retailer aware of this policy change.
This is a fraudulent attempt to circumvent their own warranty to save a few bucks.

Funny WD offers to replace the drives to "retail" ones once i threatened legal action, this is BS, as the drives are EXACTLY the same


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## Ahhzz (Jun 5, 2015)

Tsunamijhoe said:


> ...
> Now they claim the retailer is at fault,and sold me OEM drives,but i asure you, my retailer had NO clue, as they do not check every serial number before shipping,as you need to unpack the drives to see that on some packages. And WD has NEVER made the retailer aware of this policy change.
> This is a fraudulent attempt to circumvent their own warranty to save a few bucks.
> 
> Funny _WD offers to replace the drives to "retail" ones _once i threatened legal action, this is BS, as the drives are EXACTLY the same



So... WD is offering to replace the drives with ones that have a three year warranty? I'm not sure what better response you are asking for.....


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## Tsunamijhoe (Jun 5, 2015)

Ahhzz said:


> So... WD is offering to replace the drives with ones that have a three year warranty? I'm not sure what better response you are asking for.....


The problem is, ALL the other buyers who are unaware of this policy change.. And since retailers haven't been told about this, it stinks to high heaven..

I want WD to CLEARLY mark the drives as OEM and RETAIL,because now,noone knows which is which short of checking the serial number before purchase, and this is BS


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## dorsetknob (Jun 5, 2015)

we feel for you 
here in Europe they cannot get away with this bullshit
OEM or Retail they HAVE TO BE WARRANTED  FOR 2 YEARS MINIMUM (EU law)


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## Tsunamijhoe (Jun 5, 2015)

dorsetknob said:


> we feel for you
> here in Europe they cannot get away with this bullshit
> OEM or Retail they HAVE TO BE WARRANTED  FOR 2 YEARS MINIMUM (EU law)



I am European, but EU law does not promise 2 year warranty, they promise 2 year right to complain.. The first 6 months is a true guarentee,the last 18 months, YOU have to prove the device was faulty at purchase as explained here http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/shopping/shopping-abroad/guarantees/index_en.htm ..Which is why so many problems exist with repairing/replacing your phones due to "water damage" or whatever excuse they can find to stiff you.

Regardles, what about WD red and black drive? Which are ADVERTISED and SOLD with a 3 year and 5 year warranty? You pay for something you do not get, which is where the fraud part comes in,as WD has completely neglected to inform retailers of this change in policy.


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## newtekie1 (Jun 5, 2015)

Ahhzz said:


> So... WD is offering to replace the drives with ones that have a three year warranty? I'm not sure what better response you are asking for.....



Not denying the warranty in the first place would be the better response I'm asking for...


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## Ahhzz (Jun 5, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> Not denying the warranty in the first place would be the better response I'm asking for...


Can't argue with that. I guess I'm giving benefit of the doubt regarding OEM hard drives (and WD is not the only cat in the bag on this: all the other HD manufacturers say that the warranty is specific to the device it is installed in), in that they may have been delivered to the vendor mislabeled or otherwise. 
OEM drives are not covered under their retail warranty. This is a known policy. The only fault I see is that he purchased drives from a vendor advertised as retail, and were in fact OEM. At this point, WD providing retail replacement would be completely reasonable in my mind.


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## newtekie1 (Jun 5, 2015)

Ahhzz said:


> OEM drives are not covered under their retail warranty. This is a known policy. The only fault I see is that he purchased drives from a vendor advertised as retail, and were in fact OEM. At this point, WD providing retail replacement would be completely reasonable in my mind.



Except that has not been the policy.  OEM drives sold directly to the customer have always been covered by warranty by WD.  The only drives that aren't covered are OEM drives that come in a system, in that case the system builder is responsible for the warranty.

WD has been selling OEM drives directly to consumers, labelled as OEM, and providing warranty for those drives for as long as I can remember.

No other manufacturer denies warranties on OEM drives sold directly to the consumer.


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## Tsunamijhoe (Jun 5, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> Except that has not been the policy.  OEM drives sold directly to the customer have always been covered by warranty by WD.  The only drives that aren't covered are OEM drives that come in a system, in that case the system builder is responsible for the warranty.
> 
> WD has been selling OEM drives directly to consumers, labelled as OEM, and providing warranty for those drives for as long as I can remember.
> 
> No other manufacturer denies warranties on OEM drives sold directly to the consumer.



This is exactly my point. No other drive bought the EXACT same place,packaging,looks and everything has failed to register correctly and warranty issued, these drives were NOT labelled neither OEM, nor Retail from my retailer. The retailers simply do not know there is a difference, because WD doesnt tell the suppliers which drives they buy in bulk.

this is very problematic and a disregard for customers because how was i supposed to know these drives were OEM,when neither my retailer nor WD labels them properly? I bought the drives SPECIFICALLY for the 3 year warranty as advertised in WD's OWN webpages and customer service,as well as stated on my retailrs webpage..


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## Athlonite (Jun 6, 2015)

*Difference between WD OEM vs. Retail (RTL) drives*
Answer ID 1352 |  Last Updated 04/28/2015
Online Store sells both Retail and OEM packaged hard drives.

There are no physical or developmental differences between our *Retail* and *OEM* hard drives

*Retail* hard drives (Example: WD1200JBRTL) are sold in a retail package and may include the accessories below:


Quick Installation Guide

Acronis Installation Software (must be downloaded)
*OEM* or *Original Equipment Manufacturer* hard drives (Example: WD1200JB) are sold to OEM Computer manufacturers or Distributors in bulk packaging (bare drive only). 


OEM drives are sold without accessories or installation software.

OEM drives may not contain a warranty from Western Digital. When Western Digital sells hard drives to OEM computer manufacturers such as Dell, Compaq, Apple, etc, we sell these drives without warranty. The OEM computer manufacturer would include the hard drive under the warranty of the computer system that the hard drive was installed into. For more information about hard drive warranties, please see our Warranty Policy.

If this is the case then OEM HDD's must be sold only to OEM's anything else must be sold as a retail HDD retail stores should be prohibited from purchasing in bulk those HDD's destined for OEM's and only be allowed to purchase and sell retail HDD's any supplier caught selling OEM HDD's to retail stores should be made to honor any warranty which WD themselves would be legally bound to honor on a same type retail HDD


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## newtekie1 (Jun 6, 2015)

Here is the thing, by WD's wording, OEM drives may be warrantied through WD.



> OEM drives *may* not contain a warranty from Western Digital. When Western Digital sells hard drives to OEM computer manufacturers such as Dell, Compaq, Apple, etc, we sell these drives without warranty.



It *may* not contain a warranty, that means it also may contain a warranty from WD.  The second sentence qualifies when the drive wouldn't contain a warranty.  So when an OEM drive is sold to an OEM computer manufacturer, the drive doesn't contain a warranty.  So all other times, such as when an end user buys and OEM drive or in their own words when the drive is sold in bulk to a distributor, the drive does contain a warranty.

It is obvious to me that, at the very least, WD is failing to properly track what drives are being sold to OEM Computer Manufacturers and which drives(and don't have a warranty) are being sold in bulk packaging to distributors(and do have a warranty).  That is best case here, worst case is they actually are just outright denying warranties on drives that should have warranties and they are falsely advertising as having warranties.  Either way, it is bad for the customer.


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## Ahhzz (Jun 6, 2015)

terroralpha said:


> there is a lot of clueless idiots here. ....



Way to both win friends, and display your intelligence in the same sentence.....


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## R-T-B (Jun 6, 2015)

Tsunamijhoe said:


> I bow in awe of the all knowing oracle that wrote before me!



Let's not continue the hostility.  The fact that this thread exists implies we are aware there is something odd going on at WD.  Some of us may not have very good reading comprehension about how this tends to go down (seems to be when purchasing OEM / "bare" drives from reputable places from what I can tell), but I'd like to think the majority of us are with you that something is very very odd here, to say the least.


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## Tsunamijhoe (Jun 6, 2015)

R-T-B said:


> Let's not continue the hostility.  The fact that this thread exists implies we are aware there is something odd going on at WD.  Some of us may not have very good reading comprehension about how this tends to go down (seems to be when purchasing OEM / "bare" drives from reputable places from what I can tell), but I'd like to think the majority of us are with you that something is very very odd here, to say the least.



I agree,but being called " a clueless idiot" deserves a special answer..

Anyways, i will wait and see what WD and my attorney will come up with. At the very least WD needs to make good on their promise on 3 year warranty,and looking forward,they need to make the drives and label very distinctive so consumers can see which model they actually buy.


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## Tsukiyomi91 (Jun 6, 2015)

after what happened to both my Blue 500GB & 1TB disks giving me sluggish performance despite SMART says it's in the green, while not even more than a year of use (warranty says 3 years) & found this thread stated that WD no longer honor warranty on most models, I already feared of buying the same one for replacement & get into the same shit like the said drives. So, my word of advice to anyone who watches this thread, please do make a backup before it happens to you.
P.S: WD Black Dual Drive does not get affected by this... which is weird.


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## rtwjunkie (Jun 6, 2015)

As @SuperSoph_WD already explained there are "bare" drives sold to retailers, which are generally considered OEM, and actual "oem".  It is seeming more and more like retailers sometimes might buy through other channels so that they can increase their profit, buying true OEM drives, without the consumers knowledge.  According to him, bare drives are actually covered by warranty.


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## Tatty_One (Jun 6, 2015)

Tsunamijhoe said:


> I agree,but *being called " a clueless idiot" deserves a special answer..*
> 
> Anyways, i will wait and see what WD and my attorney will come up with. At the very least WD needs to make good on their promise on 3 year warranty,and looking forward,they need to make the drives and label very distinctive so consumers can see which model they actually buy.


Agreed and it's gone.


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## Tsunamijhoe (Jun 6, 2015)

rtwjunkie said:


> As @SuperSoph_WD already explained there are "bare" drives sold to retailers, which are generally considered OEM, and actual "oem". It is seeming more and more like retailers sometimes might buy through other channels so that they can increase their profit, buying true OEM drives, without the consumers knowledge. According to him, bare drives are actually covered by warranty.



That might very well be, but there is no way of telling which drives are what,short of manually checking the serial number,and a retailer that sells thousands of these drives simply do not have the manpower or time to do this.. WD needs to CLEARLY state which drives are which


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## rtwjunkie (Jun 6, 2015)

I bet WD does, and that the problem is greedy retailers who know exactly what they are buying.


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## Tsunamijhoe (Jun 6, 2015)

Not likely, as that would mean ALL the 6 retailers i contacted yesterday was defrauding customers, as not ONE of them had a clue of the change in policy from WD..


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## rtwjunkie (Jun 6, 2015)

What change in policy? WD has been warranting only Retail and bare drives for years, as SuperSop said, and they still do. If you got yourself an actual OEM drive, then it is on the retailers, as they either a)didn't pay attention to what they were buying or b)knew what they were buying and figured no one would notice as they maximized their profits.


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## Tsunamijhoe (Jun 6, 2015)

rtwjunkie said:


> What change in policy? WD has been warranting only Retail and bare drives for years, as SuperSop said, and they still do. If you got yourself an actual OEM drive, then it is on the retailers, as they either a)didn't pay attention to what they were buying or b)knew what they were buying and figured no one would notice as they maximized their profits.


You apparently has completely missed the point. These drives are MARKETED and SOLD as 3 year warranty drives.. This is on WD,not the retailers,as they have NO way of knowing,short of checking EVERY serial number in their iinventory. WD has NOT informed them that their stock of bulk drives are suddenly without warranty.

Anyways, i have said my piece, and anyone reading this should be aware of this.. I for one have bought my last WD Drive ever.


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## 95Viper (Jun 7, 2015)

Tsunamijhoe said:


> This is on WD,not the retailers,as they have NO way of knowing,short of checking EVERY serial number in their iinventory.



Not on WD... Sounds as if there is a wholesaler or two that might be dumping OEM drives on the retailers (since the retailers are claiming no knowledge of the situation).
Retailers need to check their sources.

It is all supposition; and, until somebody, or group, at WD, the retailer's, or ???? figures it out... the consumer needs to be wary.
Whoever you purchased the item from is who the buyer (consumer) needs to contact and be remedied by.

And, yes, you may need to check the serial number, and drive, when you receive them... and demand a return or refund if it is not the correct item.


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## newtekie1 (Jun 7, 2015)

95Viper said:


> Not on WD...



I'd say it is on WD.

They shouldn't be selling the same model number drives for distributors and computer manufacturers.  Just changing the model number by one digit would be enough to prevent all of this.  WD10EZEX = For Distribution and WD10EZEO = For OEMs.  See, isn't that easy?

Alternatively they could do what other manufacturers in the industry have started doing and actually put different labels on drives sold to computer manufacturers.  I just pulled a Seagate out of an HP and the label clearly said the drive was from an OEM system and receives no support from Seagate.

Both option can only be done by WD though.

Finally, I think we are still confused here.  My drive was not a drive intended for computer manufacturers, WD confirmed that.  If my drive was intended for OEM computer builders there would be no warranty at all on it.  However, WD confirmed there was a warranty, their website showed it had a warranty and the tech I talked to confirmed this. I've done a warranty check on drives from OEM systems, WD's website tells you right away they are from an OEM system and that there is no warranty.  We are making up scenarios about shady gray market bought drives that do not fit the facts one bit.  These aren't drives bought from a shady wholesaler that sold Newegg drives intended for system builders.  These are drives that were intended for distribution, that should have warranties from WD. However, their claim was that they only handled warranties on retail packaged drives.  That was exactly what I was told.  Even though my drive had a warranty, WD would not handle it.


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## 95Viper (Jun 7, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> I'd say it is on WD.
> 
> They shouldn't be selling the same model number drives for distributors and computer manufacturers.  Just changing the model number by one digit would be enough to prevent all of this.  WD10EZEX = For Distribution and WD10EZEO = For OEMs.  See, isn't that easy?
> 
> ...



Hey, I agree that WD could do a better job, as most companies, probably, could.
But the wholesellers (middlemen), retailers and others need to get their act together, too.

Heck, you can go on Newegg (not just picking on them, have not check others) and they have the same drive models listed as OEM, Bare, OEM/Bare, or retail... and list warranty info for them all, in one place or other on the web pages.
Even the refurbished drives show a 2 year warranty on the specs; however, when you click on the "refurbished?" you will see, quoted here :
""Refurbished" products have been tested to ensure compliance with original manufacturer specifications, and MAY include a limited manufacturer warranty - see the item's product page for details."



newtekie1 said:


> Finally, I think we are still confused here.  My drive was not a drive intended for computer manufacturers, WD confirmed that.  If my drive was intended for OEM computer builders there would be no warranty at all on it.  However, WD confirmed there was a warranty, their website showed it had a warranty and the tech I talked to confirmed this. I've done a warranty check on drives from OEM systems, WD's website tells you right away they are from an OEM system and that there is no warranty.  We are making up scenarios about shady gray market bought drives that do not fit the facts one bit.  These aren't drives bought from a shady wholesaler that sold Newegg drives intended for system builders.  These are drives that were intended for distribution, that should have warranties from WD. However, their claim was that they only handled warranties on retail packaged drives.  That was exactly what I was told.  Even though my drive had a warranty, WD would not handle it.



Yep, your problem was of a different nature... human fallibilities & misconceptions.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

But, it is still in the hands of the consumer to be sure they get what they spent their money on; and, if, they do not that, then deal with who sold the device to them... Joe Store Front, not the manufacturer.
You might wanna report it to the manufacturer, that this was done.

What I am trying to get at, is... If you bought a knock off dyson (bare drive) and it dies.
You call dyson for service and they say it is not under warranty with us, it is a fake (OEM).
Don't expect dyson to make you whole (nice of them if they do).
Find the one who sold it to you in the first place... they should remedy you.

Then, they(the one who sold to you) needs to go after the one who sold them the fake (OEM) and get reparations from that party, and so on down the line.

It is a world of consumer be aware, check that you got what you purchased at the time of receipt(purchase) and keep the documentation(or have access to it).  If you did not what you purchased(or was described), get immediate remedy from the seller.

Just my opinion and 2 cents worth of common sense.
Don't wait until later; and, then you have to fight and claw your way to resolution.


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## OneMoar (Jun 7, 2015)

tl;dr

if the product name contains "oem" no warranty,lower price
if product name doesn't contain "oem" full warranty higher price
while I agree its pretty dam shady of WD todo this considering they are the same fucking drive 
its completely on the retailer to insure they aren't marketing 'OEM' parts as retail 
now can we lock this thread pls


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## newtekie1 (Jun 7, 2015)

OneMoar said:


> tl;dr
> 
> if the product name contains "oem" no warranty,lower price
> if product name doesn't contain "oem" full warranty higher price
> ...



Except that information is incorrect.

Drives marked as OEM *DO* have a warranty when they are sold by WD for distribution.


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## OneMoar (Jun 7, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> Except that information is incorrect.
> 
> Drives marked as OEM *DO* have a warranty when they are sold by WD for distribution.


not to the end-user


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## newtekie1 (Jun 7, 2015)

OneMoar said:


> not to the end-user


Yes, to the end user. Go back and re-read the information that has been posted in the thread.


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## dorsetknob (Jun 7, 2015)




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## taz420nj (Jul 21, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> Yes, to the end user. Go back and re-read the information that has been posted in the thread.



No, NOT to the end user.  I've been buying WD drives for 20+ years (been buying them for resale/business over the past 5 years as I now own a computer repair business), and they have NEVER warrantied or offered RMA to the end user on any drives other than those which come in retail boxes.  "Bare drive" and OEM are the same thing.  They are meant to be sold to system builders, and the system builder is expected to provide warranty service.    The retailer/OEM has their own channel for returning defective drives within the stated warranty period.

It's no different than OEM versions of Windows - Microsoft will not, under ANY circumstances, provide support for OEM versions of Windows, because part of the OEM partner agreement that the OEM/System Builder signs is that THEY provide a tech support channel.

The reason it is more prominent now is that you can pick up bare/OEM drives just about anywhere, including major retailers (such as Newegg, TigerDirect, and brick-and-mortars like MicroCenter), whereas you used to only find them at computer shows (once the hidden treasure of the computer building world, now largely extinct).  It doesn't change the fact that the retailer who sold you the drive is expected to honor the warranty.  I had to laugh at the guy who claims to be suing WD.  It's a waste of money because he is going to lose.  If a warranty has been advertised, it is the sole responsibility of the retailer, NOT WD.


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## R-T-B (Jul 21, 2015)

There is terminology difference between a "bare drive" (which may/may not also be retail) and a "OEM drive"

Unfortunately, the lines here seem to be blurring.


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## taz420nj (Jul 21, 2015)

R-T-B said:


> There is terminology difference between a "bare drive" (which may/may not also be retail) and a "OEM drive"
> 
> Unfortunately, the lines here seem to be blurring.



No there isn't, and there has never been. They mean the same thing:  A cheaper drive with no retail packaging, no software or accessories, designed to be installed in a preconfigured system with no end-user warranty from the manufacturer. Like I said, I've dealt with WD for over 20 years, and their policy has always been crystal clear - it it doesn't come in a full retail box, it doesn't have a warranty from them.

The only thing that's blurry is some people's understanding of how warranties work.


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## Jetster (Jul 21, 2015)

taz420nj said:


> No there isn't, and there has never been. They mean the same thing:  A cheaper drive with no retail packaging, no software or accessories, designed to be installed in a preconfigured system with no end-user warranty from the manufacturer. Like I said, I've dealt with WD for over 20 years, and their policy has always been crystal clear - it it doesn't come in a full retail box, it doesn't have a warranty from them.
> 
> The only thing that's blurry is some people's understanding of how warranties work.



Bare drives are OEM drives that are sold per a retailer by themselves in an anti static bag. The warranty is covered by the manufacture of the drive. An OEM drive comes installed with a PC and the warranty is covered by the manufacture of the PC not the Drives manufacture. SO There IS a difference.  If its build by a small custom PC builder it may be covered by both.

See when a Manufascture like Dell buys bulk drives they are not added to any warranty program. So will not come up on the warranty lists with the manufacture if you try to RMA the drive. However most companies will warranty them anyway


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## R-T-B (Jul 21, 2015)

taz420nj said:


> No there isn't, and there has never been. They mean the same thing:  A cheaper drive with no retail packaging, no software or accessories, designed to be installed in a preconfigured system with no end-user warranty from the manufacturer. Like I said, I've dealt with WD for over 20 years, and their policy has always been crystal clear - it it doesn't come in a full retail box, it doesn't have a warranty from them.
> 
> The only thing that's blurry is some people's understanding of how warranties work.



You are clearly wrong as evidenced by other manufacturers policies.  I regulary buy both bare and OEM Hitachi Ultrastars and on the OEM ones there is no warranty except from my distributor.  The packaging looks identical except for a "OEM" stamp on the drive.  HGST honors the warranties on their bare Ultrastars, and always has.  You are basically just proving WD is the exception to the rule if that's their policy to lump the two together.


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## taz420nj (Jul 21, 2015)

R-T-B said:


> The packaging looks identical except for a "OEM" stamp on the drive.



That's pretty funny, since every single one of these are OEM.  They came out of (mostly Dell and HP) laptops.  Not a single one mentions "OEM" anywhere on it.








Same with these.  All were in OEM systems.


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## R-T-B (Jul 21, 2015)

The OEM stamp may be applied by the distributor to indicate their warranty practice, unsure.  I'm certainly not trying to be deceitful.

And I have a feeling a lot of those above may be bare drives rather than explicit OEMs, as you include other manufacturers.  Did you buy them off newegg?  Or a respectable distributor?  Besides the confusion over WD, most normal distributors do not sell actual OEM drives.

EDIT:  Yep, the Seagates are at least *end user *(Seagates term for retail) bare drives, as shown here:
*




*
Check your own serial numbers man.

*IMPORTANT EDIT*:  Oh wow, I need to learn to read.  Those were pulled from working systems?  No one else worked on them?  Wow.  This just muddies things up more tbh.  It means we can't rely on serial checks.


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## taz420nj (Jul 21, 2015)

R-T-B said:


> The OEM stamp may be applied by the distributor to indicate their warranty practice, unsure.  I'm certainly not trying to be deceitful.
> 
> And I have a feeling a lot of those above may be bare drives rather than explicit OEMs, as you include other manufacturers.  Did you buy them off newegg?  Or a respectable distributor?  Besides the confusion over WD, most normal distributors do not sell actual OEM drives.
> 
> ...




I didn't buy them from anywhere.  I own a computer repair business and they are all failed out of customers' systems.  The majority are out of HP and Dell laptops.  That's about a month's worth right there.


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## Ahhzz (Jul 21, 2015)

It was my understanding, and maybe our rep can jump in here, that when a company such as WD sold drives to a manufacturer, they sold them a "bank" of serial numbers, and these drives, no matter the quality (blue vs black etc), are covered by the OEM partner. 

For example, the WD black that I just had replaced on a laptop yesterday is only covered by the 3 year Dell warranty, not the 5 that a WD Black normally warrants. You can purchase "bare" drives from resellers such as Newegg (like the WD Black 2TB I bought last week which came in an anti-stat bag, in a brown cardboard box), and those are covered by the manufacturer (WD in this case). I can verifiy this by the fact that with all this noise, I went to verify my warranty, and discovered that I was missing out on 3 months coverage, contacted WD and had them bump the warranty up by three months with my proof of purchase. 

There is a difference, at least specifically for WD, in "OEM" and "Bare Drive". OEM are drives provided to manufacturing businesses, and are (usually in my experience) covered by the OEM provider (Dell, HP, etc). Bare drives can be purchased online from companies like Amazon and Newegg, and are covered by the full manufacturer's warranty (WD). Retail can be purchased online (Amazon) and in B&M stores (Best Buy, Office Staples Max), and are also covered by the full Manufacturer warranty. 


The lesson to be learned, without all the epeen going on, is check your warranty upon purchase of a drive from any reseller. In a computer, expect the drive to only be covered by the PC warranty. If there's a discrepancy, contact the HD company, and request resolution.


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## jboydgolfer (Jul 21, 2015)

taz420nj said:


> I didn't buy them from anywhere.  I own a computer repair business and they are all failed out of customers' systems.  The majority are out of HP and Dell laptops.  That's about a month's worth right there.



You have THAT many failing drives /Month ?!


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## Aquinus (Jul 21, 2015)

jboydgolfer said:


> You have THAT many failing drives /Month ?!


People aren't going to bring their computer to a repair shop unless there is something wrong with it. I think the chance of getting people coming in with dead drives would probably rather high compared to all other issues. It's #1 high failure prone component from my experience. I've lost more HDDs than any other piece of hardware, however it seems that DRAM is pretty high up there as well, be it in the form of DIMMs or VRAM.


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## R-T-B (Jul 21, 2015)

taz420nj said:


> I didn't buy them from anywhere.  I own a computer repair business and they are all failed out of customers' systems.  The majority are out of HP and Dell laptops.  That's about a month's worth right there.



Then that does indeed seem to be odd that the serial number detection tools treat them like they would have honored the warranty...  weird.


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## jboydgolfer (Jul 21, 2015)

Aquinus said:


> People aren't going to bring their computer to a repair shop unless there is something wrong with it.



Yeah...thanks for clearing that up..O_O


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## R-T-B (Jul 21, 2015)

jboydgolfer said:


> Yeah...thanks for clearing that up..O_O



I know.  I thought people just brought them in to keep us employed...  my world view has been shattered.


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## jboydgolfer (Jul 21, 2015)

R-T-B said:


> I know.  I thought people just brought them in to keep us employed...  my world view has been shattered.



Dont feel bad.


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## Aquinus (Jul 21, 2015)

jboydgolfer said:


> Yeah...thanks for clearing that up..O_O





R-T-B said:


> I know.  I thought people just brought them in to keep us employed...  my world view has been shattered.


Well, you did say:


jboydgolfer said:


> *You *have THAT many failing drives /Month ?!


I read that as not noticing that they weren't his drives. 


taz420nj said:


> No there isn't, and there has never been. They mean the same thing:  A cheaper drive with no retail packaging, no software or accessories, designed to be installed in a preconfigured system with no end-user warranty from the manufacturer. Like I said, I've dealt with WD for over 20 years, and their policy has always been crystal clear - it it doesn't come in a full retail box, it doesn't have a warranty from them.
> 
> The only thing that's blurry is some people's understanding of how warranties work.


That's actually BS. I've bought all 4 WD 1TB from NewEgg as "bare drives." Two of them were DOA and they honored RMA on them. So no, box has nothing to do with it. If the drive was sold to a company that sells a computer with the drive inside of it, they don't honor warranty, you need to contact the vendor. That's really all I got out of this initial discussion.


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## Jetster (Jul 21, 2015)

Well my though is why would you hold on to the drives if they needed replacing and no longer work?


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## Aquinus (Jul 21, 2015)

Jetster said:


> Well my though is why would you hold on to the drives if they needed replacing and no longer work?


Maybe he just hasn't recycled them yet? I think there are probably better things for him to do than to make a trip to the transfer station every day instead of once a month or something like that.


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## R-T-B (Jul 21, 2015)

Jetster said:


> Well my though is why would you hold on to the drives if they needed replacing and no longer work?



Good question, actually.

He may just be a slob like me...  I have a few drives laying around too.


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## jboydgolfer (Jul 21, 2015)

Aquinus said:


> Well, you did say:
> I read that as not noticing that they weren't his drives.



No, i was just basically surprised @ the amount of drives he/she pulled in a month..thats all.I see 30 drives, and there may be more...Business is good.

i live in Western Massachusetts, and We have 5 Colleges in a 30 mile radius NOT including community colleges..... Here students tend to just toss the Whole PC/Laptop, and We end up with piles of them instead. oranges and apples.


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## taz420nj (Jul 21, 2015)

jboydgolfer said:


> You have THAT many failing drives /Month ?!



In all honesty this was a heavy month all around..  I usually get about half to 3/4 of that - but it's overwhelmingly laptop drives, because laptops get knocked around and G-forces kill read heads. We've had really bad thunderstorms nearly every night and I've seen a ton of lightning/surge related damage.  I've done about 15 insurance quotes in the past 3 weeks (by the way, I'm the only repair guy in town, LOL) for people whose power lines took direct strikes and killed everything in their houses.  Wanna see my boxes of dead motherboards and power supplies? 



R-T-B said:


> Then that does indeed seem to be odd that the serial number detection tools treat them like they would have honored the warranty...  weird.



They have changed the end-user tools since I last used them.  For example any of the WD drives wouldn't say a warranty status, they used to tell you that it is an OEM product and to seek support from the system builder.  Now the three I have just say "Out of warranty".  



R-T-B said:


> I know.  I thought people just brought them in to keep us employed...  my world view has been shattered.



Say it ain't so! 



Jetster said:


> Well my though is why would you hold on to the drives if they needed replacing and no longer work?





Aquinus said:


> Maybe he just hasn't recycled them yet? I think there are probably better things for him to do than to make a trip to the transfer station every day instead of once a month or something like that.





R-T-B said:


> Good question, actually.
> 
> He may just be a slob like me...  I have a few drives laying around too.




LOL the regular e-waste (motherboards, cards, power supplies) gets recycled.  I have a guy that comes by twice a month and takes everything.   Old hard drives pose a security problem, so I either take them out to the country to use as target practice, or else I have a friend with a 50 horsepower tree shredder..  Both ways are fun..


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## jboydgolfer (Jul 21, 2015)

taz420nj said:


> LOL the regular e-waste (motherboards, cards, power supplies) gets recycled. I have a guy that comes by twice a month and takes everything. Old hard drives pose a security problem, so I either take them out to the country to use as target practice, or else I have a friend with a 50 horsepower tree shredder.. Both ways are fun..




Yup...one of the best parts is REALLY breaking the Components......PULL!!!....


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## R-T-B (Jul 21, 2015)

jboydgolfer said:


> Yup...one of the best parts is REALLY breaking the Components......PULL!!!....



I kill my non-sensitive drives data with the following:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda

Of course, your way is both more fun, and more secure.


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## taz420nj (Jul 21, 2015)

jboydgolfer said:


> Yup...one of the best parts is REALLY breaking the Components......PULL!!!....



Haha no, I did trap shooting with them once..    Then I had to go find the ones I missed.  Then I had to go find them again..  It wasn't fun!  They're better fodder for my Savage 110 Bolt Action .338  



R-T-B said:


> I kill my non-sensitive drives data with the following:
> 
> dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda
> 
> Of course, your way is both more fun, and more secure.



Can't do that with failed drives..


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## Tsunamijhoe (Jul 21, 2015)

To whom it may concern.

There has now been an udate regarding the OEM warranty

After a LOT of back and forth with WD,and lawsuit threats, they have suddenly agreed to accept the serials on the drives i bought,and thus honor the warranty that should have been there to begin with. They have not provided a full explanation as to how OEM drives ended up in the retail chain, but hinted at distributor problems. WD has said OEM drives should NOT be available for purchase at consumer level retailers.

This is the wording from the last e-mail i recieved from the WD representative:

I am glad to inform you that Western Digital head department had updated drives status and now those drives were added to your account and OEM mark was removed from those serial numbers.
Also we have received confirmation that those drives shouldn't be sold to a reseller in the first place. Unfortunately, it is not possible to follow their way into the shop.
For future references we strongly recommend to register the drives just after the purchase.
And if there will be any issues please contact us and we will be happy to assist you.

We will now go ahead and close your case. However, if you want us to reopen it or if you require further assistance, please reply.

>From my side, thank you for your time and all the best to you.

Thank you for using Western Digital products and services!


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## R-T-B (Jul 21, 2015)

taz420nj said:


> Can't do that with failed drives..



Good point.  I guess I don't worry much about those because most of them are in my closet still, lol.


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## taz420nj (Jul 21, 2015)

R-T-B said:


> Good point.  I guess I don't worry much about those because most of them are in my closet still, lol.



LOL!


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## rtwjunkie (Jul 21, 2015)

@taz420nj you insisted that there is no difference betwen bare drives and OEM drives, yet our WD rep, @SuperSoph_WD, as well as the WD letter to Tsunamijhoe above clearly show there is a difference.  The problem comes when etailers buy a bank of OEM drives and their associated serial numbers and sell them as bare.


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## Aquinus (Jul 21, 2015)

R-T-B said:


> dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda


I see someone knows the benefits of *d*isk *d*estroyer.


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## Ahhzz (Jul 21, 2015)

Aquinus said:


> Well, you did say:
> 
> I read that as not noticing that they weren't his drives.
> 
> That's actually BS. I've bought all 4 WD 1TB from NewEgg as "bare drives." Two of them were DOA and they honored RMA on them. So no, box has nothing to do with it. If the drive was sold to a company that sells a computer with the drive inside of it, they don't honor warranty, you need to contact the vendor. That's really all I got out of this initial discussion.



see post


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## newtekie1 (Jul 21, 2015)

taz420nj said:


> No, NOT to the end user.  I've been buying WD drives for 20+ years (been buying them for resale/business over the past 5 years as I now own a computer repair business), and they have NEVER warrantied or offered RMA to the end user on any drives other than those which come in retail boxes.  "Bare drive" and OEM are the same thing.  They are meant to be sold to system builders, and the system builder is expected to provide warranty service.    The retailer/OEM has their own channel for returning defective drives within the stated warranty period.
> 
> It's no different than OEM versions of Windows - Microsoft will not, under ANY circumstances, provide support for OEM versions of Windows, because part of the OEM partner agreement that the OEM/System Builder signs is that THEY provide a tech support channel.
> 
> The reason it is more prominent now is that you can pick up bare/OEM drives just about anywhere, including major retailers (such as Newegg, TigerDirect, and brick-and-mortars like MicroCenter), whereas you used to only find them at computer shows (once the hidden treasure of the computer building world, now largely extinct).  It doesn't change the fact that the retailer who sold you the drive is expected to honor the warranty.  I had to laugh at the guy who claims to be suing WD.  It's a waste of money because he is going to lose.  If a warranty has been advertised, it is the sole responsibility of the retailer, NOT WD.



http://support.wdc.com/warranty/policy.asp?wdc_lang=en&fid=wdsfDesktop_Blue

Component drives are covered under warranty when sold to the end user.  Period.  Even their warranty page says this.  The specific drives I'm talking about are the Blue EZEX drives.  When sold as a Component Drive they should have a 2-Year warranty.



Aquinus said:


> I see someone knows the benefits of *d*isk *d*estroyer.



Too much work.  I just use this.


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## Aquinus (Jul 21, 2015)

newtekie1 said:


> http://support.wdc.com/warranty/policy.asp?wdc_lang=en&fid=wdsfDesktop_Blue
> 
> Component drives are covered under warranty when sold to the end user.  Period.  Even their warranty page says this.  The specific drives I'm talking about are the Blue EZEX drives.  When sold as a Component Drive they should have a 2-Year warranty.
> 
> ...


You can't re-use or sell the drive for more than scrap if you use that method though. Plus, I would rather see what a 0.308 would do to it.


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## taz420nj (Jul 21, 2015)

Aquinus said:


> You can't re-use or sell the drive for more than scrap if you use that method though. Plus, I would rather see what a 0.308 would do to it.




Yeah I'll have to take some pictures next time I go..  There's not much left after a .338 Lapua Magnum rips through it from 800 yards..


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## SuperSoph_WD (Jul 27, 2015)

Hey there again, guys! 

I'm sorry for my late response!  I was on leave for some time, I just can't get enough of summer vacations.  
From the looks of it though, I'd say you did a pretty good job clearing up that 'OEM' & 'bare drive' confusion for me. It's been quite the discussion so far but with the risk of repeating some of the previous posts (including mine), I'd again like to point out our warranty policy & RMA services: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=T0fXpW
As well as the short description of the different manufactured HDDs: 
_*OEM = *Dell/HP/etc. The warranty is for the whole computer and individual components are not warranted beyond that.
*Bare Drive = *retailer to user (OEM is Western Digital itself). Only includes the drive. Check the warranty link above!
*Retail = *retailer to user (OEM is Western Digital itself). Includes fancy box with accessories (e.g. USB cable) and possibly some software_

*The most important thing to do when getting new HDDs, regardless of the reseller or manufacturer is to check their warranty immediately. I believe this way you'd have the time to react and replace them (if necessary), without actually resorting to any kind of weapons whatsoever.  *
_
SuperSoph_WD_


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## Jetster (Jul 27, 2015)

Lol perfect.*  SuperSoph_WD you rock! *


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