Sorry to hear these drives are still lurking out there…
I had no trouble exchanging the drive at Best Buy during the refund period. Didn’t make a big deal about it, just told them about the SMART issues and mentioned the sticker (which the guy at the desk admitted was weird). I opened the replacement drive box right at the customer service desk and verified it was a -00XXXX drive and didn’t have the white sticker.
Don’t know if it is significant but the replacement drive packaging had three OS emblems on the top flap: OSX, Vista, and Window 7. The “OEM” drive box only had OSX and Vista. Interestingly the manufacture date for the replacement drive was earlier (Oct 2009) than the “OEM” one, even though the packaging appeared to be newer. Could be totally random, but figured I’d mention it just in case it’s a way to avoid buying any remaining -40U9B0 drives out there on shelves.
