What's going on with warranty replacement drives

WD Internal Drives Internal Drives
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WD has had my (new) defective HDD since mid-August. The last I heard from customer support was “We are not shipping any drives until further notice”. That was 2 weeks ago.
WHERE IS MY DRIVE THAT I PAID FOR? There is a large hole in my NAS.

Does anyone have any insight into what is going on?

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I have spoken with customer support 2 or 3 times, I have chatted with customer support 2 or 3 more times. It’s been more than 2 months since my new WD Red Plus failed and I returned it for repair or replacement. Either no one at customer support knows why WD is not shipping drives or they will not say. What will it take to get an honest answer from WD? Are you going broke? Is the WD Red Plus being replaced much like the original WD Red after a class action suit? What the heck is going on? I need my hard drive, and if I just buy a new one, do I buy another unreliable, non-supported WD drive or switch brands, which means I have to switch out all of the drives in my NAS?

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I’m just bumping this up he queue. It’s the end of October, so about 11 weeks since WD actually received my defective HDD, and promised a 5 to 7 day turnaround.
Their Customer Service told me “WD is not shipping any HDD until further notice” about 7 weeks ago, so I guess it’s still not 'further notice" yet.
I have since replaced every WD drive (all about 5 months old now) in my NAS with Seagate, so my interest at this point is really academic, although I am out the purchase price for new WD Red Plus drives in February, which are now sitting in a heap in my office.
But in case someone is reading this because you have a warranty issue, this is my experience. Be warned…

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I ordered 4 6TB Red Pro drives on 8/11/21. I received the drives on 08/20/21. One of the drives was damaged on arrival and since the shipping box was not damaged, it must have been put in the box in the damaged condition. I sent it back within a week with RMA # 0065022645. They received the drive on 9/08/21. I have chatted with at least 3 people at WD. Each assured that a replacement drive was on its way. The last one even upgraded my drive to an 8TB for my troubles. As of 11/01/21, still no drive. Someone, please shoot me if I ever buy another product made by WD.

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Hi, have you checked the warranty time on your WD Red Pros? I bought 4 last month and all of them show 3 years instead of 5 years.

I chatted with customer support 4 times and it’s been 2 weeks, still no updates from them, nothing…

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Ditto what the rest of you are saying. Drive stopped working - still well under warranty - they took a few weeks to finally say they received it (I have a UPS proof of delivery with the real date) - they finally admitted they had the drive and said that a replacement was going to be sent out shortly and that I would have an email confirmation in 2-3 business days and they would even upgrade my WD Blue 4TB internal drive for the inconvenience - a week goes past, no email confirmation - I contact them again - they say that a new drive will be sent out shortly and I’ll receive an email confirmation in 2-3 business days - repeat the last two steps two more times. I tried contacting them via online chat and received a message that they’re only available during business hours - it was 11am on a Friday - should be within business hours, right?
I’ve never favored one hard drive brand over another - this poor customer service has changed that.

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Just thought I’d post a monthly update. My defective drive has been at WD since mid-August. Although WD claimed my replacement drive would be shipped to me “in 5 to 7 business days”, I am now 77 days from when WD received and processed the nearly new defective HDD. The drive actually failed in late July, but it took nearly 2 weeks to get WD to issue an RMA. I have long since junked the other new WD HDD and replaced all drives in my NAS with Seagate. But I still am entitled to a replacement. Consider this before buying a WD product…

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I am in the same boat. WD has had my drive since 9/23. WD states 9/28 but, like you, I have proof of delivery that says different. The replacement has been approved. For a month I have been told you will have an update in 1 to 3 days, 2 to 3 business days, your issue has been escalated, I talked to my supervisor, my supervisor says, I assure you, blah, blah.

NOTHING.

I have been a fan of WD for a long time, but this is turning me sour. How hard it is to put a hard drive in the mail. Seriously. Flashlight, I am with you - if they cannot get it figured out quickly. Might be time to jump ship.

I am very tempted to just buy one off the WD store and then dispute the charges with the credit card company.

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And here is my update (good idea, btw, flashlight):
I submitted another incident report basically saying what I’ve already said - it’s taken way too long - why is Western Digital lying to us - etc. They responded, saying:

“Please be informed that the status of your standard RMA has its status as “Received / Processing”.
If you have shipped your product I would request you to keep a check on the status of your RMA on the link pasted below as it will be updated whenever an action on the RMA has taken place.
Please follow the link for “RMA STATUS / INSTRUCTIONS”:-
https://support-en.wd.com/app/rmastatus/[DELETED]
Please be informed that when a drive is received at our facility, it is put through a rigorous testing process for analysis. Once done, the RMA status is updated on the website and the replacement drive is shipped to you.
Therefore, I would request that you wait for a few more days and let the RMA Turnaround Time (TAT) complete to provide you updates for RMA. We apologize for any inconvenience this interruption may have caused.”

Yeah - have to wonder what happened to them so they have to treat their customers in this fashion.
H.

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And they have already replied. I guess I’ll go out and wait by my mailbox. . .

“Thank you for your continued response. I appreciate your time and patience.
We are experiencing delays in processing some RMA’s which we expect to be resolved shortly. I apologize for the inconvenience and have escalated your RMA to have processing expedited so your replacement can be delivered as soon as possible.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.”

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You are lucky you get responses. If I want information I have to reach out. Unfortunately I am not getting anywhere…

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Early on, the Customer Service English-as-a-second-language person - unfailingly polite but left without any cover by WD - told me their entire warranty system crashed and burned. He told me the company was telling CS that it was routine maintenance, but that he had heard it was a major collapse or hack. Several weeks later, another CS person told me “WD says they are not shipping HDD until further notice”, but he had no explanation. More than 6 weeks back, after numerous emails, chats and phone calls, CS told me “We have elevated your issue to the next level of CS”, but requests for a supervisor have been denied. When I checked again last month, CS told me “Your issue has been sent up the line for an expedited response. You will hear something in no more than 48 hours.” To date, I have received a single reply from WD, an email that says - in effect - thank you for your input. The original WD Red was the subject of a class action lawsuit which WD lost. Maybe something like that is happening again. Beats me.
I tried leaving a review with this on the WD site. Sorry, does not meet our requirements (Ha). BTW, for every contact ith WD actually completed, I probably made 4 or 5 attempts. I even sent a letter - mainly for my own enjoyment - to the WD CEO. No reply…at this point, it has become something of a game. But I will never buy WD again. But one has to wonder if WD is even going to exist, given this seeming collapse of their warranty and CS functions.

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Responses are getting weaker. It can’t be that hard to tell customers what is the issue instead of blaming a department that I am starting to believe does not exist. If it will take another two months, say so. Stop with the just a couple days more BS.

Now the conspiracies’ come into play. Is there a drive shortage and WD would rather sell the drives vs replace the ones under warranty? Is there a neophyte manger in the chain that thinks new sales are better that customer service? Was WD hacked? Did the warranty system crash? Why are they hiding it? Did someone find a flaw in the new drives being produced? Who knows…

Buying one off the WD store and then disputing the charges with the credit card company and telling WD to cancel the RMA is sounding more and more tempting.

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Update. Apparently my replacement drive has shipped. Finally. My RMA status indicated 11/10, I got an email from WD, that said 11/11, and finally a notification from UPS that said 11/12.

It is beyond me why is has taken this long and why I was provided so much BS in the mean time. If WD has just told me up front that replacement times are almost two months out, I could have planned for it better. But the issue that brought me here it the constant misinformation that I was continually fed. This still rubs me the wrong way.

I’ll be back if something else does not go well. I wish you all the best in getting your situations resolved.

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I guess I have an update. A WD Blue drive showed up today. It’s the same model that I sent in - I haven’t tried it yet, so who knows if it’ll actually work. I didn’t get an email that it was on its way - so, not surprised by their inconsistency. I’ll post again the next time I have an issue. Hopefully, those of you who are still waiting will get a functional replacement soon. GOOD LUCK!

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Glad you’re getting your replacement. I quit calling and emailing, etc, so I guess my replacement will not be shipped sooner, although truthfully, I couldn;t care less

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And an update. My drive quit working in late July when it was three months old. It took me a couple of weeks to get an RMA. WD got it on August 16. I just got an email from Customer Service: “We are out of your product so we are shipping you a prime drive (?). Sorry for the delay.”
No tracking number, no shipping date, etc, but at least they decided to send me a replacement after making me wait longer than the drive worked from new. If and when something arrives, I’ll post. I’m not sure what “prime drive” in this context means.

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And finally, a replacement HDD arrived on November 23. The email said WD didn’t have my drive in stock, so they were sending a “prime drive” (whatever that means). But when the replacement arrived, it was exactly the same model that was defective and that I returned. I assume this is usual practice but I didn’t get a new HDD. It was undoubtedly another defective unit, returned by someone else and “reconditioned”. Anyway, now I have WD Red Plus HDD’s to put on eBay or Craig’s list, something like that, since I certainly would not trust these WD drives for a backup NAS.

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RMA on dead out of the box 10TB Red WD back in late November. UPS receipt shows it was delivered to WD service center first week December. They claim it wasn’t received for review until the 15th, but assured me via an email that it would be evaluated by a “team” and I would receive a resolution within 2-3 days. That was two weeks ago. So, coming up on a month they’ve had it with no resolution, while I sit here with a big hole in my NAS unit needing that final drive. I can only hope a replacement comes soon, or it seriously looks like time to seek an alternative drive manufacturer.

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