Ok, so today I received the RMA instructions to replace my MBLD liable to be hacked/deleted. What a surprise (or not really) they expect us to back-up our drives, put them in an ESD bag (haha it must be a joke) and return them, having to pay for the shipping fees… and once they receive it, they will send the discount code to purchase a new one with 40% discount of their store price (which is hardly a good price considering it’s listed more expensive than any other store I’ve seen). After this bullsh*t I think it’s time to say goodbye to WD for good. Anyone with experience, please send info of similar good alternative NAS from other manufacturers. Thanks…
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Thank you!!
What type of drives are required and/or suggested for these enclosures. I am feeling a bit burned by the utility of RAID configurations as RAID seems to introduce more problems than it solves when compared to automatic backup of backup data. It seems like MBLD requires RED drives, but I never got a response when I asked that question.
<Soapbox Mode ON> WD, people that buy RAID devices do so because they have higher expectations. Placing MBLD on the EOL shelf in 2015 with a bogus release may have been a simple business decision at the time, but when people buy a product for FAULT TOLERANCE, they expect that product to have long term support. I do wonder when the replacement products, that are offered at a discount to current users, will go EOL. Will the security and a flaw support end at that point? MSFT is continuing to make security fixes to Win7 despite EOL. </Soapbox Mode>
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The notice that was sent out specifically stated that the discount code would be issued with the case number when the Model and Serial number were provided. When you get your case number you have 30-days to return your drive. That process seems do-able if the replacement unit is delivered in a timely manner and is not on backorder.
If they are telling you otherwise, I would push back.
The problem is they are just using their standard Trade-in RMA system to solve this issue. Under normal circumstances if they offer a customer a trade-in to upgrade a product, I can understand they want to receive the product before they offer the new one… the customer want’s it, will be happy with the discount, and has a choice to accept their conditions. But we have no choice, the product is now useless and ready to throw away, we are not looking for an upgrade, they are supposed to be replacing our devices so to start with it should be cost free, and not only it’s not exactly a cheap replacement, but they decided to use a system that hasn’t been designed for this purpose. I don’t know who had the brilliant idea of proposing this a solution in WD, but for sure they’re going to lose a few customers, starting with me. Explaining this to the customer service agents up to know has been a total waste of time, they don’t seem to have been chosen for their intelligence to do their jobs, just follow instructions…
Yeah, I full expect that this should be out of the ordinary. Given the wording of the offer, they realize that they F’d up. Getting the “system” to be responsive is the issue.
Have you found an actual phone number for Support? All I find is a chat with 60 people ahead of me and a question submission form that I have been waiting two days for an answer.
BTW at 40% discount on a My Cloud Expert Series EX2 Ultra 8TB seems pretty good, but I am not convinced on the ratings. Also it seems to be the unit that replaced the MBLD so I expect it will get terminated from support about the time I get it unpacked. (Losing trust… a bit)
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No, I can only see the chat system to contact them, no phones or email. Could be I’ve been lucky because I’m using the Spanish customer service and it might be less crowded. Maybe you can access the product support area in their website, but don’t be surprised if you can’t, they had to reset my account to start being able to use it again, so I had to contact them through the chat first anyway…
You have to consider you’ll have to add paying for sending yours to them… That’s the one I was looking to get too, and yes, it is still cheaper than getting it elsewhere but not so much. I also thought about when they will get it terminated, because it’s not exactly a new model, and who knows maybe in a few years they will find another day 1 problem…
I am assuming shipping will be about $20, but yes. I see the price at $389 for the 8GB model. Seems consistent. But I also don’t know if that is the MSRP. They did state it was discounted off the price it was listed for sale, I thought, but…
Personally I was planning to change my MBLD drives (I have 2) anyway… It’s something I had in mind a very long time ago and had let what I considered good deals go by, now I was just waiting to find another one to change them. Usually if I’m planning to change this kind of item, unless it’s an emergency, I will plan with time to get a decent deal. Now it’s an emergency and have no choice to replace them because of a product flaw, and they say “they are here to help” and make a proposal that even with the 40% discount doesn’t improve some of the prices I’ve seen in the past… So the only thing I see for sure is they will make a profit out of all this…
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Having to send back the old unit before getting the new one is totally unacceptable. If I need to copy everything off the drive before getting the new one, I might as well buy a quality replacement instead of more of this WD garbage.
And don’t forget, these “new” NAS’s were introduced in 2016, so I’m sure they’re about to be put into the unsupported section next.
And BEWARE: As far as I can tell, WD is using really crappy SMR drives in their new NAS’s, which is a terrible solution. S**t on a shingle.
The response to this debacle really shows what WD is about. What they really should have done is release a patch for the problem before this happened even though these drives are EOL. MS does it whenever there is something critical that needs to be fixed but WD doesn’t care about the customers at all. Their solution: throw it away and buy more ■■■■ from us.
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Also BEWARE since they are using their RMA system they have a note saying: “Please note: The replacement product may not be a new product. It may be a re-certified product.” So they are free to send you an old used piece of sh*t.
The fact is I bought these devices to set them up in RAID 1 my main reason being in case one of drives breaks, I can substitute it and I won’t lose the data. It would be very unlikely if both disks broke at the same time… and I can live with that risk… But now, they suggest I backup my information… where? I don’t have backup RAID 1 drives… and I learnt the hard way, with computers Murphy’s law always applies… Even if I could use a single drive to backup my files it could break the following day and it’s a risk I’m just not willing to take.
It is interesting that the wording about the exchange program changed over the weekend to indicate that they want the bad drive returned before they will give the discount code. I had thought they were trying to do the right thing for the customers at first, but I guess that was short lived.
Unintentionally I opened two different incidents with the customer service for the same issue and are receiving replies from two different agents independently. One agent has explained to me I need to return both my MBLD before they will send me the discount cupon to purchase the new ones (as explained in their emails) the other agent has replied saying they will accept I will return my MBLD AFTER I purchase the new ones and have my backup in the new devices, and has already sent me the discount cupon. Honestly I’m confused and I don’t think they even know how to solve this. I can only imagine, since I pressed the “escalate” option in the incident after I explained I can’t make a backup without the new device, someone with more power of decision has intervened.
Raised my support ticket a week ago but still no response or acknowledgement…any idea how long it normally takes for someone to respond?
Communication with customer service for me has been good and fast, they’ve been replying within the same day or the following. I opened my incidents through the chat system and since each time you contact them they will give you a new reference, and I contacted them this way twice, they opened two different lines of communication. After each chat sesion, they sent me an email which I could reply to and I can see the whole message thread (including the initial chat conversations) on their support system.
So I used the chat window to try and get some help - given the info I provided the support specialist said I need to create an ‘Advanced RMA’ and provided instructions. I did this - and then went back to a new chat window to move it forward. The new specialist said that this was incorrect, I didnt need an advanced RMA, and that there would be contact soon regarding the 40% discount. So I’m pretty confused now regarding whats supposed to happen next, if the RMA I raised gets cancelled, etc etc. Such a farce considering its ultimately just to buy more hardware.
Have you accessed the support portal to check what status you’re in? The first time I contacted them I gave them the S/N’s, on the following day, my devices started to appear as registered and after a few days, they’ve disappeared but have received the reply with the cupons. My suggestion would be to open your case through the chat, and afterwards add any communication by replying to the email they send or directly in the portal. As it happened to me, if you contact them several times through the chat, each time you will get support from a different agent and they are certainly not coordinated and giving different information.
I didn’t open anything, the’ve opened the RMA and it’s taken a few days for them to process the whole thing. If I were you, I would wait and see if this agent replies, and if time goes by and you don’t get an answer, send this agent a message asking for a follow up through the portal using the case he opened when you contacted him.
