Western Digital RMA Service

April 14th I sent my 250GB 16MB SATA drive in.

Up until this past weekend, the status was showing up as "received". Hell they took over a week to even put "received" even though my tracking showed that they got it April 16th.

Today is May 4th, they finally updated the status to something else: "delayed"
Supposedly "delayed" means they don't have a replacement drive in stock.

Now let's compare this to the several RMAs I've done with Seagate. Seagates turn-around time has NEVER passed 2 weeks from the day I send in to the day I receive. I remember one time I sent in a 320gb Maxtor drive and received a 750GB Seagate drive. Now that's service... if they don't have the drive, they'll give you something better.

Knowing the awesome service Seagate has provided, I hate to say it but WD is WAYYYYYYYY slacking. As my first experience with them, I'll know to make sure I have another drive to hold myself off when I send an RMA to WD.

I even emailed their customer service and it was slow.

RMA service is not just valued on IF they replace your product. I think speed is very important, especially for those that don't carry SPARE parts to hold themselves off during an RMA.

I'll update here as soon (or should I say as late) as I receive a replacement drive. A 1-month turn-around time (which it's looking so far) is unexceptable in my opinion.

I've always used advanced RMA and they use 2nd day air, usually a turn around time of 5 days in total.

I've done 4 RMAs with them in the past 2 months and they all went flawlessly.

However I have only done advanced to speed up the process, they just place a hold on your credit card and remove it once they receive the drive.



Also call their support number instead of looking at there website which is slow to update, they actually have real people to help.

updawg said:

I've always used advanced RMA and they use 2nd day air, usually a turn around time of 5 days in total.

I've done 4 RMAs with them in the past 2 months and they all went flawlessly.

However I have only done advanced to speed up the process, they just place a hold on your credit card and remove it once they receive the drive.

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They don't CHARGE for the advanced RMA?

For example, I remember Abit would do a $157 charge and then refund back $150, so in the end it COSTS $7 to use that service.

There's no COST?

Also, that's not fair to make the basic service so damn slow, though... like I said, I don't have to do advanced RMA with Seagate. The last RMA I did with them took about 1 week turn-around.

They don't charge for the service but you end up paying for one of the shipping labels out of pocket. People over at support explained to me if I went non advanced it takes in total the time of shipping, plus 3 days for them to enter it in there system, plus 2 more for them to ship the product back out.

However yours got delayed because they don't have that exact drive in stock, I'd be willing to bet that they would upgrade it to a newer model if you called in and complained. If you used advanced they would upgrade it regardless of the phone call.

updawg said:

They don't charge for the service but you end up paying for one of the shipping labels out of pocket. People over at support explained to me if I went non advanced it takes in total the time of shipping, plus 3 days for them to enter it in there system, plus 2 more for them to ship the product back out.

However yours got delayed because they don't have that exact drive in stock, I'd be willing to bet that they would upgrade it to a newer model if you called in and complained. If you used advanced they would upgrade it regardless of the phone call.

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I emailed them again, telling them how upset I am with the slow service.

Some companies just don't give express service until you ***** at them. Then some others (like Seagate) are badass and they'll send you an upgraded drive no questions asked, all within a very respectable time-frame.

I told them exactly that... rubbing in how much better Seagate RMAs were for me.

Because of the extremely slow service by WD, I had to go out and buy another hard drive for the system this dead one was in. Yes, I could have paid for advanced RMA, but I had a 3 week time-period that I thought was plenty...

I would have called, but I hate being on hold, so that's why I usually go for the email service. Let's see what they say...

always do advanced rma with HDD companies, turnaround time is a couple days with WD or seagate.
when I deal with RMA its on the phone or its not at all, always get the result needed this way.

Have to second (third?) the advanced RMA. I've had to RMA 2 of my own drives and several for customers, turn around is usually within a week or less no matter the company. I understand being frustrated, but why would you expect a free upgrade just because they are out of the one you RMA'd?

MechaWyvern said:

Have to second (third?) the advanced RMA. I've had to RMA 2 of my own drives and several for customers, turn around is usually within a week or less no matter the company. I understand being frustrated, but why would you expect a free upgrade just because they are out of the one you RMA'd?

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Because Seagate does it, and it's nearing a month. No RMA should take a month+ if you ask me. Yes, they can get away with it, but that's BAD customer service if you ask me. It's their problem if they don't stock replacement drives, not mine.

Alright, so earlier today (Tues, still have to go to bed) it was showing as delayed still. I just checked now and they're showing tracking.

So I sent in a WD2500KS-00MJB0 and receiving a WD2500AAKS-00L9A0.

Both drives are 250GB 16mb SATA... what's the diff between WD2500KS and WD2500AAKS? I know the AAKS is better, but what's the benefit... is it single platter or somethin?

I've RMA'd 3 or 4 Raptors w/o the advance replacement deal. I've had good/prompt service on all of them. Same goes for Seagate.

They are bound to screw up a here and there...

Eek... this thread scares me a little. Just today I RMA'd one of my Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS that was 'chittering' randomly. I pulled all my files off it and ran some tests and sure enough, it stopped working after running a few of them. :/ So I checked their site and since the drive was purchased less than 6 months ago, I sent it in.

After looking at the advanced and regular options, I went with regular since I read they hold over the drive cost until they get around to sending you a new one and then refunding it (potentially 30-days). I said LOL. Then said no thank you. I may not have this bank account in 30 days, I don't need that kind of banking headache too over a drive return.

2-Day express mail with tracking and insurance for $12 bucks sounded a lot better to me. I sincerely hope I don't run into a similar experience as Godman. I too had a Seagate RMA that went as smooth as silk and was hoping WD's would be as good if not better, but apparently that might not be the case.


- Blackstar

Well maybe Randyman is right and I just got unlucky with super slow service, but they did OVERNIGHT me the replacement hard drive. I never asked for overnight shipment. I just wanted them to ship a replacement out already...

Never had a problem with WD. In fact, once when i RMA'd a 120gb drive, they sent me 2 drives back. I was suprised when i saw the shipping detail online showing 2 drives shipped. Sure enough, 2 drives in the box.

Hopefully just an anomaly on your RMA.

Hmmm, I just noticed this on their status page:

"It may take up to 3 business days from the time we received your product until it is entered into our system and the information becomes available online."

Looks like it's going to be a while for me too. :/


- Blackstar

polarys425 said:

Never had a problem with WD. In fact, once when i RMA'd a 120gb drive, they sent me 2 drives back. I was suprised when i saw the shipping detail online showing 2 drives shipped. Sure enough, 2 drives in the box.

Hopefully just an anomaly on your RMA.

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Best thing I had happen was what I stated earlier: Maxtor 320GB RMA and got a Seagate 750GB!

g0dM@n said:

Alright, so earlier today (Tues, still have to go to bed) it was showing as delayed still. I just checked now and they're showing tracking.

So I sent in a WD2500KS-00MJB0 and receiving a WD2500AAKS-00L9A0.

Both drives are 250GB 16mb SATA... what's the diff between WD2500KS and WD2500AAKS? I know the AAKS is better, but what's the benefit... is it single platter or somethin?

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Im going to assume the difference is the "WD2500KS-00MJB0" is retail and is black as opposed to the AAKS which is OEM and silver?
I dont really think there is too much difference Ive had a pair of 5000KS and 5000AAKS drives appeared to similar in performance.

I havent had to use WD's RMA service in years thankfully,but i also can vouch for the Advanced RMA service got my replacement drives (2x250 IDE) in about 2 days and provided a label to send the others back, they matched the drives even so the process was pretty smooth.

Well I'll be...

they just sent another 250 to me... perhaps this was was in transit and then they overnighted the other one to satisfy me? the orders were filled on separate dates... well, I guess I can't complain anymore!!

Were your Seagate RMA experiences before or after the 7200.11 catastrophe?

I'd be tempted to ask they if they meant to sent you two drives. Yes, it would be junk if they were like "oops, no send the second one back". However, I think it would be great to know if it was an intentional gesture to make things better.

neonblingbling said:

Were your Seagate RMA experiences before or after the 7200.11 catastrophe?

I'd be tempted to ask they if they meant to sent you two drives. Yes, it would be junk if they were like "oops, no send the second one back". However, I think it would be great to know if it was an intentional gesture to make things better.

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My guess is they did it as a gesture b/c the order dates on the packing list were 2 or 3 days apart and had separate numbers on them. There's no way their system wouldn't mark it as already sent... I could see a mistake if the two packing lists were identical, but hey... ya never know...

g0dM@n said:

My guess is they did it as a gesture b/c the order dates on the packing list were 2 or 3 days apart and had separate numbers on them. There's no way their system wouldn't mark it as already sent... I could see a mistake if the two packing lists were identical, but hey... ya never know...

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Well as long as the new drive check out, I guess it's a plus. So, how long from the day you sent it in until the replacement actually arrived?


- Blackstar