A Drive was rejected with following statement - generic statement . They do not mention what is the alteration etc done on the drive.
Upon inspection of the drives returned under RMA xxxxxxx, it was determined that the drives may have been altered and is not eligible for replacement under WD’s limited warranty policy
After performing several quality checks, we have determined that your drive is not eligible for replacement.
I mean, are they running some sort of mafia ? Omerta ? Code of Silence.
I received the RMA rejection for drive xxxxxxx, which states that it “may have been altered” and is not eligible for replacement under WD’s limited warranty. The statement does not specify what alteration or issue was found. Please provide details on the specific problem, any test results supporting this conclusion, and whether the decision can be reconsidered or appealed. This information is needed to understand the situation and decide on next steps.
This was the email received . Nothing else was added. And today, they have sent and email and also called me over phone stating that drive has been ACCEPTED for RMA and i would receive replacement in 7-10 working days.
This usually happens because WD’s RMA center runs an automated intake inspection first and if anything about the drive doesn’t match their records it gets flagged with that generic “may have been altered” message. In many cases it is not an actual modification. It can be something simple like a worn or partially unreadable serial label, residue from removing the drive from an enclosure, mismatched firmware ID, or physical marks that suggest the casing was opened. Their system often sends the rejection without details unless a manual review is requested. The practical step in situations like this is to reply to support and ask for a manual verification against the serial number and warranty database because automated checks do produce false positives as your follow-up update already showed when they later approved the replacement.
