New WD 8tb black DOA

WD Internal Drives Desktop & Mobile Drives
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So, I just installed my brand new WD Performance Black 8TB internal drive in my new build and apparently it’s DOA. When I boot up, there’s a very loud and constant buzzing sound. I thought it may be my AIO until I tried to format my new HD. All diagnostic tools indicate a defective drive. Failed SMART tests. I also took it out of my PC and hooked it up to an external drive dock and the drive sounded like it was getting ready to take off :rofl: What I’m not happy about is WD made me pay to have it shipped back to them. So, they sent me a defective drive and I have to pay to ship a dead drive back to them. I’m also concerned that I’m going to wind up with a refurbished one. I’ve used WD products for almost 20 years now and have never had any issues. It seems unfortunately that the product quality and reliability has gone down. There’s not even a contact phone number on their support page. Only an email and chat option. May have to reconsider my options when it comes to purchasing my next hard drive.

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Hello,

We would recommend you return the drive to the place of purchase under the return window.

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I appreciate that but the place of purchase was from Western Digital store.

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I would like to know if they send you a new drive. I now wonder if Seagate or others manufacturers send refurbished and or pay for shipping back.

Thanks for posting this

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I’ll definitely post an update. I hope they do the right thing and send me a new drive rather than refurbished. But from what I read about the warranty, it may be a refurbished drive.

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Status update: So WD received the defective drive 2/12 according to the automated telephone RMA line. I was also informed that a replacement drive was shipped 2/15 but the tracking number is invalid. So, I try chat support. Dealing with chat support was an exercise in futility. According to them the replacement drive hasn’t even been shipped yet. Then I try phone support which was no better than chat support. Apparently the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. That, along with my experience with this brand new drive just solidified my decision to buy elsewhere the next time I need a new HD.

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Final update: So, after almost 2 weeks, I received my replacement drive. Manufacturing date states September 2020 so don’t think it’s a refurbished drive. The best news is that it works unlike the other one.

Some takeaways from this experience:

  1. Next time if I buy another WD product, I’m going to buy from Amazon or another retailer since returns are easier if it’s a DOA like the one I had.

  2. I appreciate that I didn’t receive a refurbished drive but it would’ve went a long way if WD had at least expedited shipping back to me. Instead, they chose UPS ground which took about a week to get to me.