OWC Nightmare! Beware!

[Forata]

Let me start by saying that, in the past, I've had a good experiences with OWC and am incredibly bummed by latest experience!

I recently ordered the Aura Pro SSD Kit (Envoy + Tools) for my MacBook Air as my original one died. When I received it all seemed to work fine but then within a day or two it was locking up within 10 minutes of startup. I requested an advanced replacement for just the SSD which they kindly helped me out with.

Now here's where things get a little fishy. I was then sent the regular Aura (not the Pro), as a replacement. I contacted customer service to figure out why this happened. The customer rep told me that I ordered the Pro kit, but that on the original order, the part number (each part in the kit has their own part number) for the SSD was the regular Aura (not the Pro)! And that is why the regular Aura was sent as a replacement!

I was very concerned at this point as they now gave me the impression they were scamming me by sending me the regular Aura in the original order rather than the Pro even though I had paid for the Pro!

I called them up and they were unable/unwilling to explain and were only willing to give me free shipping on my next order. Feeling that I was being scammed, I cancelled my order completely and am no longer their customer.

I'm not sure if this is their common practice as I never doubled checked my orders in the past. I wanted to post here to inform any of those that have shopped with them in the past or will be shopping with them in the future. Just make sure you double check everything you get from them to confirm you are getting what you paid for! This may definitely have been just a one time thing but they were unwilling to make it right to the customer in this case.

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Question: Has anyone else ever had experiences like this with OWC?

 

[phrehdd]

You should write them a letter similar to your post. While the phone support person may be bound to what he/she sees in the order (sounds like a mishap), the letter might be advanced to someone higher up in the company. -If not for your sake, then for others who might have this issue.

 

[Forata]

I shall consider that. Do you recommend a physical letter or an email? I just want to make sure my correspondence gets to the right person and I'm not wasting my time with them.

 

[iSee]

I've only had a good experience with them. But they definitely should have offered to send you the "pro" version and apologized for their mistake. Mistakes happen, but they should try to make it right. (That's not really a nightmare, though, since you're able to simply cancel the whole thing for a refund.)

 

[devinci99]

I don't think I've been scammed like that; but I have not been impressed with their current customer service.

I ordered the Data Doubler for Mac Mini from them; When I got it, and read the instructions; the steps told me that there could be 2 version of the last gen Mac Mini and that if I have the one where my internal drive is on the top bay, I would need additional hardware.

Gosh, this little piece of information wasn't very obvious when I was looking at their store product details.

No big deal, I went forward and discover that my mac mini was in fact the one that needed the additional hardware (basically I need 2 drive rail screws to a second drive to the bottom bay).

So I couldn't add a second drive. I did went forward and replaced the internal drive on the top with SSD instead. I follow the instructions and contacted them, and thats when things were not impressive.

A) They said they cannot just sell me the 2 screws I need.

B) I have to RMA the entire data doubler kit and mail it back to them at my expense

C) I have to order another kit with a different sku that does have the screws I need; no free shipping.

what pissed me off is that I have to pay for shipping twice adding up to at least $16 (via USPS or UPS Ground) for a $29.99 kit. It made me wished that I bought it from iFixit.

D) they gave me an RMA number and didn't even bothered to help "make it right" somehow for understand that I would have to pay additional money to ship it... didn't offer a coupon code, free shipping code, etc.

I thank the rep... and just ignored them. I went to amazon, and found the screws I need for $1.50 with free shipping. Cheaper than my cost to ship the kit back.

It's not like I don't want to buy from them anymore in the future, or I am boycotting them. They still makes some really good hardware specifically for Mac. But unless I really really need something they are buying I am avoiding them every possible (if I can buy it from amazon, I will).

What I do like about them is they have great instructional videos with their kits that walks you through step by step with the tools they provided. This makes gives them points in why I would buy anything from them in the future... like future upgrade kits that requires special tools and steps to carefully take apart the mac mini, or imac, and other mac DIY things.

I used to love their Pro/Enterprise SSDs too in the beginning. But now I avoid them as well. I have 2 OWC Mercury Extreme Pro where the controller just died on me. I had backups, but it was very annoying. I shipped it back at my expense, got it replace (no issues with sending downgraded parts) and it died again after 1 year. My third replacement has not died yet; but I am being honest, I move all of my critical apps and data away from it, and it's being used only in my R&D, labs, and test... no data that I am risking to lose on it anymore.

Come on?! I bought the enterprise/pro line for a reason... RELIABILITY. I want to run my business on it, but now I'm too scared and worried of it dying to do so.