Warranty Practices

Bought a coupla Seagate Drives (7200.8 400gig IDE). Seems both have died cause unkown. So I figure no biggie I'll see if they still have warranty and RMA them. Go to Seagate site enter drive and serial numbers. Site says drives unknown, so I call give the info to a customer rep. I'm informed to send a scan of the labels on the drives, which I did. They then send me a response that now I must send my proof of purchase which I did not keep. I have three different computers and am constantly upgrading with different components. I seem to remember purchasing these particular drives from CompUSA store here but am unsure. Anyway I was under the impression that the warranty followed the drive i.e. I sell you a drive and it has warranty left, if that drive fails you can RMA it. Other than drive being out of warranty I thought this was o.k. AM I wrong do you have to be original owner to use the warranty. By the way they are not saying the drives have no warranty just that I need to furnish a recipt for the drives. What gives????

I think you have to be the original owner in most cases. Even then you DO need to provide your purchasing invoice to show that you're within the warranty period. If you can't provide that information then the manufacturer can't determine when you bought it(since the warranty is usually covered from the original purchase date).

Generally, the serial number of the drive should tell when it was manufactured. Seagate should be able to bring up the serial number and know if it was made this year or that.

I have never been asked for proof of purchase for an RMA item.

CGR said:

Generally, the serial number of the drive should tell when it was manufactured. Seagate should be able to bring up the serial number and know if it was made this year or that.

I have never been asked for proof of purchase for an RMA item.

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Hehe it's actually the opposite for me. I guess it depends on the item or the company's warranty procedures. I've RMA'd a video card(ATI), motherboard(EVGA), and a PSU(*cough* Apevia...) and the manufacturer has always requested an invoice. Although the EVGA registration did require me to input the serial number as well I think.

A while back at my old job, had something simular happen with some Maxtor drives. They did not recognize the SN, emailed them a copy of the drive's label... They were counterfit Maxtors. Boss could not remember where he got them from (he shops with pricewatch, I use places I am familiar with).

Seagate also makes drives for Dell, and the numbers don't match up with known Seagate drives, even thought the label says Seagate. The warranty has always followed the driv in my experience.

Good luck with your drives!

E

I could understand if they said that the drives were no longer eligible for whatever reason. But who saves recipts from components months old, obviously not me and I suspect most don't (too many upgrades). Probably only buy from Newegg or some place that keeps records for awhile.