I have been a customer of Western Digital for some years. Since 2017 I have used G-Tech storage for video and film post production, and film restoration. Not that it should matter but I own approximately 50K of storage devices by WD.
My complaint relates to the below parr standard of WD customer support. Recently I made an initial enquiry to WS by email, outlining concerns over G Speed shuttle XL storage, which I have had difficulty extracting data from. Additionally, I asked about G-Raid Shuttle 4 storage, as this product relates to Mac processors. Understandably I have concern over the security of my data, as this is impacted by built in redundancy of WD high end storage.
I am based in Australia and my experience of dealing with WS customer support via an 1800 number has been appalling. Customer support for WD customers in my part of the world is based in India. Yesterday I was expecting a call back to my mobile phone from a US based staffer that didn’t eventuate. I telephoned the 1800 number yesterday and the call back was rescheduled for today (Tuesday 20th February). Again, no call was made by a senior advisor from the US, India or anywhere.
An hour ago I just spoke with a senior engineer in India, who apologised for WD not calling me back over two scheduled days. Then, after I complained Australia is not a state of America, so Australian WD customers should not be inconvenienced by North American public holidays, he replied he is based in India. No one has the seniority to answer my questions, and they have no idea what holidays occur in America.
This raises a number of questions. Why is the flow of information and case notes among WD customer support staff sloppy? Why is customer support tardy, and follow through correspondence lacking in business etiquette? And why do WD not have senior customer support staff trained and made available to customers living outside of the US?
Hi @Pedro_Antipodean ,
Have you opened a Support Case? If not opened, for more information, please contact the WD Technical Support team for the best assistance and troubleshooting:
Wednesday 21st February 2024 I talked with a WD support engineer in their India based centre. I found dealing with the WD staff at this centre was quite pointless. Hence, I asked “Sean T.” to please put me in contact with WD customer support in Australia.
Sean T. said he would arrange for an Australian advisor to call my mobile phone Monday 26th February 2024 at 11am. Should I have a repeat of WD not calling back next Monday, then I will escalate this matter to a higher level.
Today, after nearly two weeks of dealing with a number of senior Western Digital support advisors in Delhi, at length I received a callback from a staffer in San Jose, California. It turns out only California technical staff are trained to advise on SanDisk G-Raid Shuttle products. Why this is so, given customers for these products are scattered all over the world is a mystery.
To make matters worse the time wasting experience of dealing with India based staff was repeated this morning when dealing with WD’s Californian technical support. This is a company that use Microsoft Teams Meeting app to screen share customer’s computers. My Mac Pro rejected this device as it isn’t made by Apple, and had not been installed on my computer.
Now, any sane person may think a hardware company that sell high end digital storage units primarily for Mac computers would stay clear of Microsoft products to enable their customers to screen share. But no. There are oddities in the way Western Digital run their business. And choosing not to provide well trained support in each of WD’s products, throughout each region of the world is frankly cheap.
I have outlaid tens of thousands of dollars to WD since 2017. Seven years ago I purchased two G-Speed Shuttle XL 64 TB units. One of these units has created on-going errors throughout this time, resulting in my Mac Pro being replaced twice; rewiring of electrical circuitry to my studio, lost work time and considerable stress. The bad news is this unit is not supported by Mac OS systems beyond Monterey. Demonstrating their cheerful lack of customer goodwill, Western Digital bluntly reminded me this morning my historically faulty Shuttle XL is out of warranty, so they will not replace it.
