Manufacture date, 18 TB gold HDD on Amazon or WD

[jelecroy]

@Remarkably poor Western Digital support

bought a new 18 TB WD Gold drive direct from the Western Digital website. The drive was shipped UPS Ground in a typical retail delivery box, no over-box or added cushioning. It was DOA. Then the fun began. For FIVE WEEKS now WD has not been able to create any RMAs. The service request got me this email: " Please be informed that due to system maintenance, we are unable to process the RMA. Unfortunately, we cannot process your request at this time but will follow up with you once…

Update 5/15/2023 WD continues to be amazingly bad. The support website is back up, and I attempted to sign up for a return (under the 30 day return policy). The website informed me that my product is beyond the 30 day window for free returns. This is true, but only because the WD support website was down for a month. I went to plan B - process an RMA. Registered the drive, filled out RMA forms, including authorizing a charge to my credit card to cover return shipping. Looked good until the very last SUBMIT, when I got a response “Error processing ROM - stat code 355”. And now the WD RMA process will no longer accept my drive serial number. TOTAL FAIL three ways for Western Digital.