Setting the record straight about my earlier OWC complaints

[Moof1904]

Twice I have posted on Mac Rumors in response to folks asking for feedback about their experience with Other World Computing. In those two postings I related the experience of a close friend of mine who received a drive from OWC and when my friend tried to obtain warranty service on the drive from Toshiba, Toshiba informed my friend that OWC had sold him a drive that was three years old.

After very thorough and professional follow-up from OWC Larry in response to my postings, it appears that Toshiba was either confused or intentionally misleading my friend. Larry provided documentation on the release of this model as compared to the date on my friend's invoice and the records clearly show that OWC shipped my friend a drive that was a current model and had not been stagnating on a shelf, as Toshiba had claimed.

The other two issues I complained about were products that were shipped to addresses that were one to two years out of date. Larry was very apologetic for those issues and said that their order fulfillment system has since been replaced with one that makes such errors virtually impossible.

I thank OWC Larry for his very thorough follow-up, his professionalism, and his concern about customer care.

I criticized OWC publicly in the past and now that they have provided this response, I would like to be equally public in setting the record straight.

 

[jemeinc]

First class Moof, first class all the way.. I'm sure OWC appreciates you showing such class..

 

[OWC Larry]

Thanks and really wasn't necessary - really appreciate the opportunity to address and resolve where any issue arose.

FWIW, we have not had any negative issues with Toshiba, but like all of us, they are human too. Annoying that their reps bad day painted us wrong, but hey - glad to have a chance to check things out. I had to chuckle when I saw the drive they said we'd sold after letting it sit for 3yrs was a new model that had only just been introduced about a year before the actual sale date.

As a like story... a year ago when we were running the special on the 500GB Maxtor 7H500F0 drives with the 5yr warranty, Seagate had a glitch in their database import with their take over of Maxtor where their online warranty system was reporting these drives with only 3yrs instead of 5yrs of warranty. We actually got slammed pretty hard in a couple places and the worst was from some of the customers we did explain the situation to which was backed up by a letter from Seagate (although the majority accepted our explanation). Still - the complaints stung and the day Seagate got their database corrected couldn't have come soon enough. It took about 5 months, but the records were corrected as promised and everyone could confirm the 5yr warranty with Seagate's online warranty checker was there as promised.

thanks again for the opportunity to review these matters - the team and I sincerely appreciate it.

 

[stevendom]

OWC Complaint

OWC is not a good company. I paid top dollar for a new product. They sent me an open box product missing a bunch of stuff. They made ME pay to ship it back to them for credit ($21 it cost!), even thought they did not send me what I ordered and it was totally their error/unethical practice. This is NOT a good company.

 

[Tallest Skil]

OWC is not a good company. I paid top dollar for a new product. They sent me an open box product missing a bunch of stuff. They made ME pay to ship it back to them for credit ($21 it cost!), even thought they did not send me what I ordered and it was totally their error/unethical practice. This is NOT a good company.

Thanks for reviving a thread for no point other than to complain about a localized issue.

 

[Pete007s]

Very Poor Customer Service At OWC

After purchasing a brand new hard drive for my G5 to install after returning from a summer vacation with my family, I returned home to find the hard drive was there, then realized I had ordered the wrong part - my bad completely. I tried to send it back for a refund, or even a credit on the web site, and they told me it was over 30 days since purchase (by a matter of days) and they could not and would not help me. Really? A new part, not used? I wrote a letter explaining the situation and paid another $8 to send back the hard drive I had no use for, then received an e-mail telling me they could not help me, but they'd be happy to "recycle the returned hard drive" (right, they'll sell it to someone else for sure). I am very unhappy with this company and their customer service, and beware to others as they will happily sell you a part but not follow-up in an honorable way whatsoever. It was less than 2 weeks past their "30 day policy" (try to find it BTW - not anywhere on my order or shipping list), and not even a credit for an item returned in perfect condition?? Poor company to deal with and even worse customer service. I found the right hard drive at Amazon.com for half the cost and they're a delight to deal with. Avoid OWC b all means.

 

[dasmb]

TL;DR: I don't like companies that have policies and follow them.

45 days ain't 30 days. Don't bad mouth a company just because you failed to cheat them.

Also? Know what you need before you buy it, especially if you're having it shipped, especially if you're just going to sit on it for six weeks.

Also? Upgrade your ****, jesus. They haven't made the G5 chip in SIX GOD DAMN YEARS.

 

[MovieCutter]

After purchasing a brand new hard drive for my G5 to install after returning from a summer vacation with my family, I returned home to find the hard drive was there, then realized I had ordered the wrong part - my bad completely. I tried to send it back for a refund, or even a credit on the web site, and they told me it was over 30 days since purchase (by a matter of days) and they could not and would not help me. Really? A new part, not used? I wrote a letter explaining the situation and paid another $8 to send back the hard drive I had no use for, then received an e-mail telling me they could not help me, but they'd be happy to "recycle the returned hard drive" (right, they'll sell it to someone else for sure). I am very unhappy with this company and their customer service, and beware to others as they will happily sell you a part but not follow-up in an honorable way whatsoever. It was less than 2 weeks past their "30 day policy" (try to find it BTW - not anywhere on my order or shipping list), and not even a credit for an item returned in perfect condition?? Poor company to deal with and even worse customer service. I found the right hard drive at Amazon.com for half the cost and they're a delight to deal with. Avoid OWC b all means.

This is why you're a newbie....normal people understand and follow policies set forth by companies. You are not special, and therefore no exception should be made for your ignorance...

I for one have been dealing with OWC for over 5 years and have never had a single problem with any of their products or customer service.

 

[AdrianK]

This is why you're a newbie....normal people understand and follow policies set forth by companies. You are not special, and therefore no exception should be made for your ignorance...

Agreed. Complaining about T&Cs you've already agreed to is ridiculous.