Recovered Data BUT lost warranty

So here is my story, I’ll keep it short. My Book World (white light) NAS drive started giving me trouble after a firmware update, 1st signs were it would change it’s name on the network from My Book World to Twonky Server and then I would lose access to it through the network. When it would change back I had full access again, I should have stared removing data then but I didn’t. Got worse over time (few months) tried many suggestions from the WD community here trying to resolve the issues to no avail. Finally I lost access all together, white light would moved at times and could connect but would take 5-10 min just to open a folder but would lose connection while trying to move a file. I tried everything including ftp, putty, cooling fan and the list went on. Not even thinking about warranty I removed the 2TB drive from the case and plugged it into my computer. I could see the drive and partitions. After trying several recovery tools, linux viewers and more suggestions I found & booted to Puppy linux to get into the ext partiton. Everything was there so I went and bought a 3TB my book essentials and started the transfer proccess of my 950GB of important data. It took 45hrs to complete WOW. Next step was to use lifeguard to check the drive, I let that go for 24hrs and it estimated time was another 247hrs, I gave up. Deleted partitons and reformated to NTFS  with 2 partitions, thought maybe I could use it for internal storage, nope. Best transfer speed I could get was 1.5 mb/s. For some reason I checked warranty and found I still had warranty for another 6 months, surprise!  I started a support case explaining what I had done and didn’t expect warranty as I opened the case but thought I’d ask. 6days no reply so I sent another support case with referance to first case #. No reply so then I decided if their not going to reply I’ll start a RMA what the heck, today I called to ask if I should just sent back the drive or put it back in the case, went through everything again and got a deciceve answer  “No Warranty”  Oh well thats what I expexted but it would have been nice if WD support could have replied to at least one of my support cases. From what I’ve read support seems not to be one of WD’s strong suits, I will continue to use their products that I already own but I think I will branch out to others in the future.

Thanks to everyone that posts suggestions on this forum for people having problems, in the long run my data was worth alot more than the cost of the drive. 

Hello,

You are totally right… According to WD’s policy if you open the enclosure without previews authorization the warranty is voided.

That’s too bad my friend.

Well update today, last night I got a email from support finally responding to my 1st support case message, see below. We will see cost $36 to send drive in.

"

Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support. My name is Joel xxxxx.>> We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused. We have verified the drive has been replaced in RMA#xxxxx.>> Once we receive the faulty one, the replacement shall arrive within the next 5-7 business days plus customs inspections time.>> If you have any further questions, please reply to this email and we will be happy to assist you further.

Hi Joel, I called support today to inquire about the warranty on this drive since I opened the case so I could remove the drive and recover my data. I was told no warranty once the case has been opened. So before I spend money on shipping it back to you I would like to know if it's still covered or not and if it would be, should I just send the drive or install it back in the My Book( white light) case and send it all back.

Thank you for your reply. We apologize for the misunderstanding. Since the drive was taken out for data recovery it won't void the warranty on it. We know the drives have to be taken out for recovering the data. It has been authorized to receive the drive. Please go ahead and send the unit and we will send you the replacement once receiving it. If you have any further questions, please reply to this email and we will be happy to assist you further. So if all goes well I will give WD a thumbs up.