Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Seagate 7200.11 warranty....OEM vs. Retail

J

jconly

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 12, 2007
61
0
New York, NY
I know this has been discussed briefly before, but never fully concluded.
I tried to find that thread, but couldn't...so here we go.

I've been debating whether or not to buy an OEM or Retail drive.
I was under the impression that only the Retail versions include Seagate's excellent 5 year warranty and data recovery. (And also are the only ones guaranteed to come with non-modified firmware.)
However, in another thread, someone had mentioned that they had called and talked with Seagate about this, to find out that this is not the case. Apparently, both OEM and Retail drives have the same warranty.

However, I had mentioned that before I made my purchase of the OEM drives to save some $$, I was going to call Seagate to confirm this.

Well I called today, and found out otherwise. I was told that only with the Retail drives am I guaranteed a full 5 year warranty, and that only with the Retail drives do I contact Seagate directly for warranty service.

I was told that with the OEM drive, I contact the retailer, and all is dealt with through them.



So what's the truth. Was I given improper information from a low level tech?
 
Call them to check, but I suspect the OEMs have the warranty too, I don't see why they shouldnt. I would like to know though as I have just ordered one.
 
I just ordered two Seagate 7200 drives from NewEgg, and the invoice says that if I have problems I need to contact Seagate. NewEgg even provided the phone number. They're both OEM drives. Hope this helps.
 
I did call Seagate, that why I asked.
The info I received from their low-level contradicted what I'd previously heard.

It does make me feel better though to hear Newegg instructs its customers to contact Seagate. This is where I was going to get my drives from as well.
 
jconly said:
I did call Seagate, that why I asked.
The info I received from their low-level contradicted what I'd previously heard.

It does make me feel better though to hear Newegg instructs its customers to contact Seagate. This is where I was going to get my drives from as well.
Click to expand...

I believe I was the one who originally called Seagate in that thread. I spoke with a very knowledgeable person in customer service who said OEM is the exact same drive, warranty and all, except for a box and hardware.
I also called OWC today who sells the same Seagate OEM drives. He confirmed what their website states - 5 year warranty. He also said that Newegg uses bare hard drives as loss leaders and sells them near or below their cost. He also said that OWC sells them at about 20% profit; they have to because of their live sales force and customer service. Newegg's model is web based only - no telephone support, etc. It's Seagate's warranty though so unless you get a DOA drive, both retailers are going to refer you to Seagate for warranty coverage.
 
snagitseven said:
I believe I was the one who originally called Seagate in that thread. I spoke with a very knowledgeable person in customer service who said OEM is the exact same drive, warranty and all, except for a box and hardware.
I also called OWC today who sells the same Seagate OEM drives. He confirmed what their website states - 5 year warranty. He also said that Newegg uses bare hard drives as loss leaders and sells them near or below their cost. He also said that OWC sells them at about 20% profit; they have to because of their live sales force and customer service. Newegg's model is web based only - no telephone support, etc. It's Seagate's warranty though so unless you get a DOA drive, both retailers are going to refer you to Seagate for warranty coverage.
Click to expand...

Sorry, what do you mean by "loss leaders."
At any rate, from what you're saying, I think I'll be purchasing my OEM drives from Newegg when I get home tonight.
 
snagitseven said:
I believe I was the one who originally called Seagate in that thread. I spoke with a very knowledgeable person in customer service who said OEM is the exact same drive, warranty and all, except for a box and hardware.
Click to expand...

Here's what I got from Seagate support chat:

Please wait while we find an agent to assist you...
All agents are currently busy. Please stand by.
Hello. How may I help you?
JD: I have a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drive that has failed.
Keith H.: To replace a drive that is bad and is in warranty please go to http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/warranty_&_returns_assistance/
JD: That link directs me to call the "OEM" distributor
Keith H.: is the serial number 5QF4****
JD: Yes
Keith H.: I checked the warranty status of this drive with the serial number 5QF4****. The drive is warranted with the original computer manufacturer (in this case DELL). The limited, non-transferable warranty on products sold through an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) is extended only to the OEM that purchases the products directly from Seagate. Therefore, owners of OEM manufactured equipment containing a Seagate product must contact the OEM or the place of purchase for warranty service.
JD: I have contacted Dell customer service. They directed me to call the manufacturer for warranty support.
Keith H.: the warranty falls on dell. if they are not replacing it because it is out of their warranty then the drive has no warranty per our warranty we do not replace OEM drives
JD: Please be aware that Dell is costing you customers, then. $100+ for a year's use of a hard drive is no bargain. I will not be purchasing Seagate products for my home office anymore.
Keith H.: Is there anything else I can help you with?
JD: No
Currently experiencing network delays, one moment please....
Network connection re-established.

...and then he never came back. Take from it what you will.
 
I've said this before, in another thread, but I would caution anybody buying hard drives that the warranty is irrelevant; don't buy a hard drive for the warranty. All it will entitle you to is money back or a replacement. Now, hard drives fail. It's a fact of life. Expect them to fail. Okay, now that they've failed, your warranty won't matter a whole lot, because unless you backed up, your data's gone. And maybe you did back up, saved all your data. Now, you're entitled to a replacement of the drive that didn't do so well the first time. One of the manufacturers has a 5 year warranty, but the rest top out at 3 years or one year. If it fails that soon, you may not really want to bother with their drives again.

(Old hands at hardware will recognize that this statement is essentially nonsense since drives just fail, but this is how a lot of people think).

It may make more sense to consider hard drives a sunk cost and buy them for one or more attributes - Price, performance, reliability. Warranty doesn't really factor into this, because it may not have been worth your time to obtain a replacement if a manufacturer with better drive technology makes a drive that is less likely to fail, say a drive with fewer platters like the Samsung design (again, all drives fail, so you can consider that statement nonsense as well). But again, the warranty on hard drives is kind of like life insurance that pays out $50. You hope you don't have to invoke it, and when you do, it's not going to be all that much.

OEM and retail drives should theoretically have identical warranties from the manufacturer - it's more with drives in an enclosure, such as OWC's, WD's, etc. that the warranty comes into play. But buying a drive on the retail policy seems to me to be the wrong thing to buy a drive on. You buy retail if you need the cables and software that comes with, OEM if like a mac pro owner, you don't.

What should you do? Buy what you need. Buy towards features (cables, if needed) if you want them, otherwise buy towards price or performance. But don't buy for a warranty. The realities of hard drives don't lean towards that being a great strategy.

(Yes, I've had OWC replace an early-fail external drive on me. Bought on price. I run high capacity low-spindle drives in my mac pro, and I'm looking to upgrade all of them; I clone my boot drive to an external backup and am thinking of running a RAID1 on the data/work drive later, backing up external in the present.)
 
Just thought i would leave some comments as i am in a dispute with Dell right now too.

on seagates website they clearly state that the oem warranty is either 3 or 5 years depending on the system.

my hard drive just died in my server so i called dell who tell me its out of warranty (they only provided a year) but i quoted that above from the website and now theyve opened a case to see if they will extend my warranty because techinically it is still under warranty with dell.

I will let you know how it goes.

Michael
 
Thanks - interesting thread...

I've just bought 2 of these drives, so would like to know the ins and outs of the warranty. Was slightly confused by reading the Seagate website, and am still slightly confused...

I guess if they fail, I'll just have to see what happens! lol
 
design-is said:
Thanks - interesting thread...

I've just bought 2 of these drives, so would like to know the ins and outs of the warranty. Was slightly confused by reading the Seagate website, and am still slightly confused...

I guess if they fail, I'll just have to see what happens! lol
Click to expand...

did you get them direct from seagate or through an OEM?
 
omega015 said:
did you get them direct from seagate or through an OEM?
Click to expand...

Ordered from Amazon... I wouldn't call them an original equipment manufacturer though.

Amazon say 5 years... Hopefully that will be enough to bind them...?
 

Attachments

  • Picture 3.png
    Picture 3.png
    212.1 KB · Views: 254
Any updates on this? I just purchased two 1.5TB Seagates through Amazon because I saw the 5 year warranty on Seagate's specs sheet. Now I'm not so sure.

And to top it off, I've been hearing nothing but terrible reports on these. I have a feeling as soon as I get the box from Amazon, I'm slapping a return label on it and sending them right back.
 
Personally, I would go with a Western Digital these days... With both retail and OEM, you deal with the drive manufacturer direct. The only time I ever bought retail is when I needed a drive quickly or something on sale at frys.


jconly said:
I know this has been discussed briefly before, but never fully concluded.
I tried to find that thread, but couldn't...so here we go.

I've been debating whether or not to buy an OEM or Retail drive.
I was under the impression that only the Retail versions include Seagate's excellent 5 year warranty and data recovery. (And also are the only ones guaranteed to come with non-modified firmware.)
However, in another thread, someone had mentioned that they had called and talked with Seagate about this, to find out that this is not the case. Apparently, both OEM and Retail drives have the same warranty.

However, I had mentioned that before I made my purchase of the OEM drives to save some $$, I was going to call Seagate to confirm this.

Well I called today, and found out otherwise. I was told that only with the Retail drives am I guaranteed a full 5 year warranty, and that only with the Retail drives do I contact Seagate directly for warranty service.

I was told that with the OEM drive, I contact the retailer, and all is dealt with through them.



So what's the truth. Was I given improper information from a low level tech?
Click to expand...
 
jconly said:
I know this has been discussed briefly before, but never fully concluded.
I tried to find that thread, but couldn't...so here we go.

I've been debating whether or not to buy an OEM or Retail drive.
I was under the impression that only the Retail versions include Seagate's excellent 5 year warranty and data recovery. (And also are the only ones guaranteed to come with non-modified firmware.)
However, in another thread, someone had mentioned that they had called and talked with Seagate about this, to find out that this is not the case. Apparently, both OEM and Retail drives have the same warranty.

However, I had mentioned that before I made my purchase of the OEM drives to save some $$, I was going to call Seagate to confirm this.

Well I called today, and found out otherwise. I was told that only with the Retail drives am I guaranteed a full 5 year warranty, and that only with the Retail drives do I contact Seagate directly for warranty service.

I was told that with the OEM drive, I contact the retailer, and all is dealt with through them.



So what's the truth. Was I given improper information from a low level tech?
Click to expand...

I think, as a retail product the manufacturer warranty is a contract between you (the customer) and the manufacturer, not the reseller.

On a OEM product, the manufacturer warranty still exist but it's not with the end user (they only get 12months), but the OEM retailer (full five years)...

However, if you buy a OEM drive from a reputable component dealer and later the drive fails, you'll have a to return it to the OEM re-distributor for any warranty claims (at least this is what my local retailer tells me...) and it's good cause in the past, when my drives fail, my re-distributor just replaces the drive with new ones; while they send the old one's back!! After they're repaired, the re-distributor sells them off as refurbs with a standard twelve months return-to-base warranty.

If you think this is weird, Apple does the same for it's of-the-shelf parts. Especially TFT panels from the likes of LG-Philips and Samsung, their hard-drives and various other components.

But in general I don't buy OEM products especially since I can find 'hassle free' retail parts at a trade discounted rate :D:D
 
Have bought hundreds of hard disks from NewEgg. All of them OEM. Have also bought many drives atretail. Failure rates have been model specific, nothing to do with oem vs retail. It's all about price and availability..

For ALL returns beyond the usual retail or online return policy - its a send off for a factory replacement direct with the manufacturer. Have done it many times.

The drives I use for performance applications usually aren't retail products. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back