WD warranty policy - is this for real?

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud
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Purchased a brand new (still in the shrink wrap) WD My Cloud from Office Depot in Lapeer, Michigan on January 29, 2018. Got it home, set it up, mapped a drive letter to the public share and backed up my failing drive. All working well, so far no issues and very happy with performance.

On Saturday Feb 3rd I registered the product on the WD website, and it says my warranty expiration date is 7/22/2018 (despite the fact that the retail box says it has a two-year warranty). Called and spoke with the support help desk, and they told me I needed to provide proof of purchase before the warranty would be “updated”. Uploaded the receipt the same day, and I get the following email this morning:

From: Western Digital support [mailto:wdsupport@wdc.com]
Sent: Monday, February 05, 2018 6:54 AM
To: Todd xxxxxxxx
Subject: Warranty update request for [Removed due to privacy policy] [ ref:_00DU0Jpn7._5000PfS88e:ref ]

Dear TODD,

Thank you for contacting Western Digital. We apologize for the inconvenience but based on the serial number you provided, our records indicate the Build Date of your drive was [22-JUN-2016] and your Purchase Date was [29-JAN-2018]. Due to the large gap in time, additional verification (e.g., written confirmation from your place of purchase that the product was sold to you as new) is needed to validate your warranty service request.

SERIAL NUMBER: [Removed due to privacy policy]

Please note, pursuant to Western Digital’s Limited Warranty Policy (Warranty Policy | WD Support), Western Digital has no liability with respect to products that are not sold to you as new.

If Western Digital cannot verify that the drive was sold to you as new (based on the additional documentation you provide), we will recommend that you contact your place of purchase for warranty service.

We apologize for the inconvenience. If you have any further questions, please let us know and we will be happy to assist you further.

Sincerely,

Western Digital Service and Support

I will attempt to get the “proof” WD is looking for, but I honestly doubt that anyone at Office Depot will be willing or able to provide written verification that the product was sold to me as new. I paid full retail price for this product ($179.99 plus tax), and I expect the warranty I paid for to be honored by the manufacturer. I’m obviously not going to spend a bunch of time or energy on this, but all I can say to WD is, you’re only going to get away with this once. If a company doesn’t stand behind their product, I don’t buy their product in the future. In fact, if Office Depot doesn’t want to provide the “proof” you are requesting (which I doubt they will), I am going to return the product to them and purchase a backup drive from a company that values my business.

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Please note that this is mostly a user to user support forum. Very few WD personnel reply to users in these subforums.

Others have previously commented on the need to show proof of purchase to WD support when making warranty claims. Yes its frustrating and may even be stupid to force the customer to prove date of purchase, but companies occasionally do so to weed out those trying to milk/bilk/scam the warranty system. It is also possible that Office Depot sold a used or returned product as “new”.

You may, if you haven’t done so already want to contact WD by phone and see if they can escalate your question, problem or issue above the first tier/front line support personal who typically are just reading from a prepared script.

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Bennor,

I can assure you this product was brand new, it still had the sealed shrink-wrap (plastic) around the box with WD’s label on the shrink wrap. Additionally, I did provide the register receipt to WD on Saturday Feb 3rd - but apparently that wasn’t good enough for them. Give me a break, do you really want to defend something like this? How would you feel if you were in my shoes?

I posted this to let others know about my experience, not really hoping for or expecting a response from WD personnel (but if it catches somebody’s attention who can actually help, that would be a bonus).

I’ve contacted the store manager at Office Depot and she is going to check with the “home office” to determine if she can give me the written verification WD is asking for. However, I highly doubt that any large company would allow a local store manager to do so. She has promised me that if she cannot give me written verification, she will allow me to return the product for a full refund (even if it goes past their 14-day return policy). Much better customer service than WD has provided thus far!

By the way, I did call and got a gentlemen (I believe) from an overseas call center. He listened to what I had to say and responded by reading from his script, but ultimately wasn’t able to help me.

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I would have thought that a store needs to know whether you have been sold a new, unused product, or a customer return, for their sales records. If they don’t know what they’re selling, there’s something wrong. Customer returns should be clearly identified as such, with a suitable discount over RRP. I’d be very unhappy if I bought a product sold as new, and found out it was a customer return.

WD’s attitude is poor, I’ll grant you, especially when the vendor is someone like Office Depot; hardly some fly-by-night corner shop.

Given how keen WD are for products to be registered, they are likely to have records of any previous registration or use of the device, assuming it was connected to an internet-enabled router. I confess that it took a while between my first use, and connecting to the internet/registration, as I bought it before I had an internet connection, and used it purely as a local NAS.

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@housekees Have you checked out the warranty here.

https://support.wdc.com/warranty/warrantystatus.aspx

My suggestion, print out the results if it shows the same as what WD said it is and along with the receipt take it back to the Office Depot where you bought it and ask them what they are going to do about the warranty.

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I’m not sure why you responded the way you did, this is a Western Digital problem, NOT an Office Depot problem. As I’ve said numerous times, this product was packaged in a retail box and was shrink wrapped (in plastic). Office Depot has already offered to refund my money in full IF I cannot come to resolution with Western Digital. Additionally, the store manager told me that any open box sales (i.e. returns or “not new” for whatever reason) would be noted on the register receipt and I would have received a substantial discount. The price I paid ($179.99) is Office Depot’s FULL RETAIL PRICE.

The problem is that WD is asking me to provide proof, in writing, that the product was sold as new. The store doesn’t have the authority to provide this to me, and referred me to their 800 number to request it. Still, I HIGHLY DOUBT I’m going to get any written proof OTHER THAN MY DATED REGISTER RECEIPT! A register receipt is all I’ve ever needed to provide to get my full warranty coverage. Their policy makes ZERO sense, unless of course WD is trying to dodge their warranty responsibility.

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If you don’t won’t any suggestions or help from other users, then don’t post here.

The link to check the Warranty Status is so you can check for yourself, if you want to, in case WD made a mistake.

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Not sure why you assume or think anyone is defending WD in this case. We are NOT! In my case I was simply pointing out why some companies will demand the customer prove data of purchase. That is not defending, rather just pointing out the reality of the situation at some companies.

And while you may very well have purchased a “new” product complete with shrink wrap. It should be noted that some times returned items are sent back by the seller store to the manufacturer (or even a third party company) to be re-boxed and reissued as new into the product distribution chain.

Best you can do is check the warranty page another user provided above to see what their online system says. Then armed with that information push up the WD food chain either by phone or by email/WD trouble ticket system. Sadly you’ll have to be persistent and demand to speak to the next person up the food chain until they acknowledged the product status on an item you can prove you purchased through a store…

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Hello @housekees

I have escalated your support request to WD support management. Someone should be in contact with you soon.

Regards

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@WD_MCH, thank you for your help! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that someone will be able to help, because I doubt that Office Depot will be able to provide the documentation WD is asking for. I got an email from James @ WD this afternoon, asking me to provide the register receipt AGAIN. We’ll see how that goes.

For the others who suggested I check the warranty expiration on WD’s website, that was actually one of the first things I did. Also, the expiration date in WD’s system is displayed when you register the product with the serial number (which was the FIRST thing I did). Thanks for the suggestions but been there, done that.

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Received an email from WD support on Wednesday Feb 7th stating that the warranty had been adjusted to reflect the actual date of purchase. Hats off to @WD_MCH for stepping up and helping me out with this, very much appreciated! My faith in WD has been restored!

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