We're sorry for the experience you had, mediacomposer. We did try reaching out to you directly via phone and email, but our contacts went unanswered.
On 10/10, we did issue a credit for the remaining balance and thus you have received back 100% of your purchase and shipping expenditure.
We didn't post the review as we often find that once we begin direct dialogue with a customer, things are resolved and that then adds more factual information to the entire review/reply thread. Another aspect is that we were concerned posting the review might encourage another reader to modify the inside of their MBA such as you did.
The non-fit aspect of the Aura Pro in your 2012 MBA was an isolated experience...we honestly have not had other reports of such.
Lastly, on the performance aspect, we can only point to what others like The SSD Review have found in that the Aura Pro is the fastest SSD available for this machine. As much as we can claim such, we suggest the independent reviewers' unbiased take on our products have the most weight.
Hope this reply restores everyone's faith and trust in OWC. We've been serving your needs since 1988 and plan on doing so for many more years to come.
I think its important to clarify not fitting versus tight fit. Since some time has lapsed since first replying to this thread, only 10 modules have been returned to us as not being able to fit. Of those, upon investigation, only 2 were deemed to be too thick to fit regardless of pressure used to install. Hope you can appreciate can't divulge the number sold for business reasons...but just two is an incredibly low number to be deemed truly defective based on physical characteristics.
With any custom designed module, there is going to be +/- variances. This is not a matter of deficient QC...this a matter of expectations for a fit that perhaps are unfounded.
Regarding the worry about damaging machine by applying too much pressure during module install...can only share what we know...in that we have not done such ourselves nor been informed of such out in the field.
Come on guys....from day one nearly 25 years ago, OWC has been about honesty, integrity, transparency. Not likely at this stage we're going to offer a product that will damage your machine.
Can I say 100% of all Auras will fit? Can't based on production variances. But can say for certain that we're QCing these even more so to prevent even those two referenced above from getting into a customer's hands.
Hope those with an MBA will have have some faith and try an Aura. It IS after all, the ONLY internal upgrade you can make! For whatever reason, the various media reviewers (which we DON'T advertise with) have had no trouble or concerns fitting the Aura module in. Some have stated it's a tight fit...but moved on from such and successfully tested and compared to the factory flash module.
Dunno what more I can say to assuage your concerns. Hope this resolves the issue.
Thanks!
Poor production tolerances and poor QC if you ask me. You can blow smoke all you want. This is definitely an issue. Once you heard about the issue, you should have checked each module on the production line for fit before packaging and selling. Not leaving it to your customer to tell you about the issue. Bush league quality there.
Btw the Aura is NOT the only internal upgrade you can make. There is such a thing as OEM Toshiba and Samsung SSD drives a customer could use rather than a OWC drive that won't fit or require "just push harder" comments from staff at OWC.
It is interesting because my experience with OWC was excellent, including customer service. I wonder if there is possibly a bit of an over reaction here. I will say that the most successful companies that run into this sort of thing handle the situation better than OWC has in this thread. I wonder if the person responding is a a sales/marketing person because this is NOT the way a sales person would respond. The best response is to take the hit, apologize profusely and promise to do better. Send the customer a perfectly fitting replacement part free of charge. If the numbers are as low as OWC professes this would cost them almost nothing and it would be the best possible marketing they could do. They would have a customer singing their praises and sending all their friends to OWC. Instead they respond in a defensive way minimizing the issue and making their customers distrust them. Rule number 1 - the customer is always right. This terrible response is enough to make me stay away and look for alternatives - and their are alternatives.
Well said. I dont think this is as isolated as Grant wants us to believe:
Mediacomposer
aleni
mikeruoc
drinkjetfuel
mordichka
Have all had problems. That is 5 and I bet there are more out there that have not posted to the thread.
Rather than make excuses OWC Grant needs to admit there is a problem (there clearly is) and how OWC is working to rectify the issue. Otherwise there is no reason to deal with them. Grant has left me less than impressed with the way OWC deals with customers. Rather than blame the customer for not pushing hard enough, maybe they should admit production drives aren't up to par and they will be working with manufacturing to rectify the issue ASAP and let customers know when the issue is resolved. That would be great customer service. Instead of stating customers aren't using enough pressure and blaming them.
Having just read this entire thread, I think you're just looking to get your jollies by constantly picking a fight with OWC Grant.
I think it's hilarious that you're using MR as some sort of basis for extrapolating the defect ratio of a product. I thought that it was sort of 'Forums 101' that only the people with problems will seek out a medium through which to vent and voice their concerns and seek a solution. For the five users here with problems, I'd bet there are hundreds that received and installed the product with zero issues. Users with positive outcomes usually don't seek a medium through which to sing their praises. That's what the review section on the product page at OWC is for.
OWC Grant has already pointed out, that with any highly specialized manufacturing of a product, the QC will inevitably vary. Is this an ideal situation? No. However, it's a simple fact of life and it's nothing to get ones panties in a bunch over.
If you think you can do it better, I bet OWC would love to hear from you.
Having just read this entire thread, I think you're just looking to get your jollies by constantly picking a fight with OWC Grant.
I think it's hilarious that you're using MR as some sort of basis for extrapolating the defect ratio of a product. I thought that it was sort of 'Forums 101' that only the people with problems will seek out a medium through which to vent and voice their concerns and seek a solution. For the five users here with problems, I'd bet there are hundreds that received and installed the product with zero issues. Users with positive outcomes usually don't seek a medium through which to sing their praises. That's what the review section on the product page at OWC is for.
OWC Grant has already pointed out, that with any highly specialized manufacturing of a product, the QC will inevitably vary. Is this an ideal situation? No. However, it's a simple fact of life and it's nothing to get ones panties in a bunch over.
If you think you can do it better, I bet OWC would love to hear from you.
Having just read this entire thread, I think you're just looking to get your jollies by constantly picking a fight with OWC Grant.
I think it's hilarious that you're using MR as some sort of basis for extrapolating the defect ratio of a product. I thought that it was sort of 'Forums 101' that only the people with problems will seek out a medium through which to vent and voice their concerns and seek a solution. For the five users here with problems, I'd bet there are hundreds that received and installed the product with zero issues. Users with positive outcomes usually don't seek a medium through which to sing their praises. That's what the review section on the product page at OWC is for.
OWC Grant has already pointed out, that with any highly specialized manufacturing of a product, the QC will inevitably vary. Is this an ideal situation? No. However, it's a simple fact of life and it's nothing to get ones panties in a bunch over.
If you think you can do it better, I bet OWC would love to hear from you.
I don't think its the QC that is as much of an issue, I think most sensible people accept that there will always be things that slip that net, including Apple products.
I think the issue that concerns me the most here, and one which would stop me buying from OWC again is the way they've dealt with the problem. I want absolute comfort when I spend my money with retailers that if there is a problem it will be dealt with fairly and efficiently. Thats why many of us buy Apple products, because they've pretty much nailed that compared with much of the rest of the market in my opinion.
Whats makes this all the worst, is that good customer service costs nothing, there is no excuse for not providing it. It benefits the consumer and the retailer...it hasn't hurt Apple after all.
I haven't seen one instance in this thread where a customer was dealt with 'unfairly and inefficiently'. In fact, it appears that even after damaging a product to get it to fit, instead of asking for a replacement, a user received a full refund. IMO, that's more than fair.
In fact, it appears that even after damaging a product to get it to fit, instead of asking for a replacement, a user received a full refund. IMO, that's more than fair.
I haven't seen one instance in this thread where a customer was dealt with 'unfairly and inefficiently'. In fact, it appears that even after damaging a product to get it to fit, instead of asking for a replacement, a user received a full refund. IMO, that's more than fair.
I removed OWC's and reinstalled the factory drive no harm no foul except for the installation scar. I RMA'ed the drive to OWC and they only refunded $130 of the $170 cost and I also paid shipping for the return (which I wouldn't have minded if I got all $170 back.)
I have to say the worst part of this is that I wrote all this in a review under the drive's OWC product page and it was never posted. As of right now it has a perfect 5 star review when I posted mine roughly 3 weeks ago. This blatant screening of reviews is why I write this today... so people know, buyer beware.
If you ever find a 100% percent company/person whatever you should really take yourself off for a checkup.
Like unicorns - they do not exist!
If they put the effort into the things that matter thats pretty much all your going to get.
Personally I have sent back a couple of things to OWC without a problem and in one case particularly they went beyond the written contract and solved the problem with good manners and (dare I say) generosity of spirit. Not to be laughed at I find.
Living in the UK and dealing with OWC in the USA is not always smooth and that is probably the biggest problem I have with them. Otherwise pretty damned good and I will use them until I find otherwise.
Declaration:- neither an OWC employee or shareholder.
Btw, I don't believe OWC is a publically traded company so there aren't any shareholders that I know of.
psst...all companies private or public have shareholders..![]()
Hey Guys,
Long time lurker first time thread-starter, you guys have solved A LOT of problems of mine over the years and I thank you for that.
I wanted to let you know of a recent problem I had with the brand new 2012 third party solid-state drive upgrade for the Macbook Air. The new Macbook Air in 2012 has a new form-factor for the SSD "blade" and is touted to have a much faster read/write speed from the 2011 version. After a little delay, third-party Mac parts manufacturer "Other World Computing" came out with a compatible 2012 version of this SSD. I was excited to get this upgrade because while Apple tends to gloss over their "performance" improvements, I knew OWC was a solid SSD manufacturer for all Mac products. I have bought memory and SSDs from them in the past and found them to be reliable, fast, and a great value.
This time however was a completely different story. I bought the computer with the 128GB SSD option and looked to install the 120GB Aura Pro 6G SSD. For $170 I thought it was an applicable upgrade if it meant over 500 MB/s read/write speeds as advertised. As a video editor, I occasionally use the air to throw video together. The advantage of having the fastest SSD as my system drive becomes apparent with highly intensive program use. I did drive speed benchmarks on the factory SSD before installing OWC's version.
During installation I hit a major snag. The drive did not fit my machine! I have the 11" and I don't know if they only measured the 13" version but I had to shave off a corner of the plastic battery container with an X-acto knife to get the drive to lay flat (Inside red circle).
Now, admittedly, this alone would not have been a deal breaker for me. The drive did ultimately fit and I installed a fresh 10.8.2 OSX onto it. Upon setting that up, I ran my benchmarks again and found that the drive did not even come close to the factory drive. The factory drive ran a read/write speed consistently around 450MB/s and this drive could barely break 200MB/s using BlackMagic's Disk Speed Test. Very disappointed.
I removed OWC's and reinstalled the factory drive no harm no foul except for the installation scar. I RMA'ed the drive to OWC and they only refunded $130 of the $170 cost and I also paid shipping for the return (which I wouldn't have minded if I got all $170 back.)
I have to say the worst part of this is that I wrote all this in a review under the drive's OWC product page and it was never posted. As of right now it has a perfect 5 star review when I posted mine roughly 3 weeks ago. This blatant screening of reviews is why I write this today... so people know, buyer beware.
We're sorry for the experience you had, mediacomposer. We did try reaching out to you directly via phone and email, but our contacts went unanswered.
On 10/10, we did issue a credit for the remaining balance and thus you have received back 100% of your purchase and shipping expenditure.
We didn't post the review as we often find that once we begin direct dialogue with a customer, things are resolved and that then adds more factual information to the entire review/reply thread. Another aspect is that we were concerned posting the review might encourage another reader to modify the inside of their MBA such as you did.
The non-fit aspect of the Aura Pro in your 2012 MBA was an isolated experience...we honestly have not had other reports of such.
Lastly, on the performance aspect, we can only point to what others like The SSD Review have found in that the Aura Pro is the fastest SSD available for this machine. As much as we can claim such, we suggest the independent reviewers' unbiased take on our products have the most weight.
Hope this reply restores everyone's faith and trust in OWC. We've been serving your needs since 1988 and plan on doing so for many more years to come.
I don't think you've read this thread properly...
That doesn't sound to me like good customer service, does it??