Greetings,
I purchased a 6TB My Book on 12/05/2016 at Best Buy (new in box) to compliment a new laptop I was getting for Christmas. I didn’t get around to needing it until a few weeks ago as I still had a 1TB My Book that was working fine. I decided to open it on 6/24/2017 (it was still in original shrink wrap - more on this later) and after plugging it it, found out it was defective. I installed WD Drive Utilities and ran diagnostics to find that the SMART status had failed (note that WD Drive Utilities recognized this as a Western Digital drive). I submitted an RMA, placed the hard drive back in its original packaging, placed it in a box with bubble wrap, and shipped it back to WD (at my expense), being careful to follow the RMA instructions provided when sending it back for a standard RMA.
I didn’t receive a response until about a week after the drive was delivered to WD (based on the USPS tracking number), in which they proceeded to tell me:
Dear lorneking,
Thank you for contacting Western Digital. Upon inspection of your returned product [serial number omitted] (WDBBGB0060HBK-NESN) it was determined that the product may have been altered and is not eligible for replacement under Western Digital’s limited warranty policy.
Per our warranty policy: “If upon inspection of your returned Product WD suspects fraud or deems such Product to be counterfeit, WD may, in its sole discretion, confiscate such Product or take such other actions as it deems necessary.”
Due to our warranty policy we cannot return this product to you. There is no warranty associated to this product and service will not be rendered. We recommend you contact your place of purchase for compensation. You may use this email letter to demonstrate Western Digital’s official view of the product you purchased from your vendor.
You may view our warranty policy at: http://support.wdc.com/warranty/policy.asp?custtype=end&lang=en
Sincerely,
Western Digital Service and Support
http://support.wdc.com/
Not only did I not tamper with the product after removing the factory shrink wrap myself (I work for the retailer I purchased it from - I know this was not re-shrinkwrapped by the store), it sounds like they are accusing me of “fraud or counterfeiting” and as such are also refusing to return the product.
They suggest that I contact the retailer with their response to resolve the issue, but how am I supposed to do so if they refuse to return the product? I need help either escalating this to someone at Western Digital or getting them to send the faulty hard drive back so I can take it back to the store.
Does anyone know why they would have classified the hard drive this way, and any resources I’d have to get the hard drive replaced/repaired/returned?
Thank you for anyone that can assist.
