Dear Community

I purchased 5 x Western Digital (WD) hard drives, and I assumed that the manufacturers guarantee/warranty applied (the retailer, before purchase they never made me aware that there were support differences or exclusions when buying the product.)

One hard drive failed after being installed for 10 months, I unpacked 2 unused backup hard drives bought in the same batch and tried to replace the faulty hard drive only to find that they were both faulty.

I then Identified that WD had a batch of faulty drives which were manufactured in the same period as my drives.

I contacted the retailers support immediately and just before 1 year had expired, they agreed to replace the hard drives in a 2 stage operation to avoid data loss.

After sending 2 x drives the retailer wrote to me explaining to me that they could only refund me part of the cost of the drives. I then complained in writing. They say that 6 months has passed.

Recap: One drive failed at the 10 month point, the drive is innactive much of the time because of power saving function.

Two Drives never functioned without error, I do not have extra equipment to test them, and they were bought as back up drives.

Could you please advise me regards to this situation, it seems as though the retailers terms and conditions are heavily in favour of the retailer. I found out later that hard drives with and without manufacturers support are sold and described equally. The retailers support firstly asked me to contact Western Digital RMA to resolve the issue, WD offered no support, it seems as though the retailer do not hold accessible records with regards to who is responsible for support, they find out when WD offer no support.

This seems crazy, how can a consumer be expected to guess what type of support is available before purchase?

Thanks Illy

Hi Illy

Welcome to CAG

Have a read of 10, 12 and 13 in my signature.

RE: reversed burden of proof

I have sent the retailer links from the Western Digital forum and others, identifying the problem with this hard drive which coincides with the manufacture date. This should be proof that there was a problem when I received the drives.

I could not test the hard drives until now though, I had no hard drive slots available.

Hi

If you had checked the drives within the first 6 months then you would have more rights than you do now. After 6 months, it is down to the buyer to ascertain they are faulty through manufacture. The fact that you didn't unpack them until after the 6 month mark is not the sellers fault and as such, they can offer a partial refund because even though you haven't used them, you have had them for this amount of time and if this went to court or you asked Trading standards, they will say that you have had 'enjoyment' of the product.

Just my opinion of course

if its a known and manufacturer acknowledged fault at birth

they should be replaced with new

it this instance, having done it myself with drives in my 'my webbook ' device too

just contact WD with the series numbers

they will post out new drives FOC.

see their website or the alert emails they put out.

dx

dx

Thank you everyone.

WD normally offers 3 years warranty on their hard drives.

With this purchase, I have only just found out that the Western Digital site reports that I have : "No Limited Warranty - Product was originally sold to a system manufacturer. Please contact the system manufacturer or the place of purchase for warranty service."

I was unaware of this at the time of purchase.

the retailers terms and conditions state:

Where we are not the manufacturer of the Products, we will endeavour to transfer to you the benefit of any warranty or guarantee given to us in relation to the Products.

How can a company expect me to enter a warranty lottery, the customer is not to know if or if not a manufacturers warranty exists until the products have been purchased. This can surely not be correct, they must have an obligation to tell a customer if the warranty differs from the manufacturer before purchase, or not?

ok then back to SOGA then

its a acked manu fault

it should be replaced FOC by the retailer

they then seek refund from WD.

dx

Hi Illy

Your first port of call is the retailer, who did you pay your monies to?

• It is the seller, not the manufacturer, who is responsible if goods do not conform to contract.

Provide the proof to the Retailer.

Thank you everyone for their help,

I feel so empowered understanding that I do indeed have manufacturers warranty, it is simply up to Ebuyer to stop messing me around.

I am also a little less confused about how the law sees this transaction and resulting problems.

Once again,

Thank you all

DSR plays a part here to

but you might be out of time on that now?

dx

I have made some sort of headway.

Ebuyer ignored my prompt rejection of a partial refund as a solution.

I requested that they return the hard drives to my possession.. I then received a prompt mail stating that they will endeavour to locate the hard drives, but the hard drives may no longer be in their possession.

On the other hand, I contacted Western Digital support by telephone this time and I was pleasantly surprised. They were aware of problems with Ebuyer support, and they offered me replacement refurbished hard drives because they had 2 years warranty.

All I need to do is wait for Ebuyer to return my hardware, then I can return them through their RMA process and receive working drives.

I really would not have gotten this far without all your help!

Make up your own mind about the support I received from this retailer!

glad to point you in the right direct

dx

Bad news Guys

Ebuyer cannot return my hard drives; they have sent them to another company.

I did refuse their offer of a partial refund, and told them I will be contacting Western Digital (the hard drive manufacturer about the problems).

Apparently I took too long to come back with Western Digital~s reply!

I have contacted the Western Digital support staff member again, the one who was going to replace my hard drives, and the one who knew about all the problems with the supplier.

Has anyone any more suggestions?

Thanks

Bad news Guys

 

Ebuyer cannot return my hard drives; they have sent them to another company.

 

I did refuse their offer of a partial refund, and told them I will be contacting Western Digital (the hard drive manufacturer about the problems).

Apparently I took too long to come back with Western Digital~s reply!

 

I have contacted the Western Digital support staff member again, the one who was going to replace my hard drives, and the one who knew about all the problems with the supplier.

 

Has anyone any more suggestions?

 

Thanks

eBuyer, in essence, have lost your property then (as you've declined a partial refund). Have they paid any monies to you?

1 . RMA correspondence

2. Telephone conversation to technical support, this is where we arranged to replace two drives first, then send the remaining drive once I received the two new ones.

3. Once they received my 2 drives I received this email

"Following extensive tests by our Returns staff, this item was found to be faulty. Therefore a refund will be issued once the RMA has been closed.

As per section 9.2 of our terms and conditions and in line with the Sale of Goods Act 1979, as this item is over 6 months old you will only qualify for a proportionate refund of the original purchase price. Therefore we are unable to issue a replacement as initially requested."

4. I replied to this email and sent an eNote (just in case )refusing to accept the refund, asking them to honour the manufacturers warranty.

5. I have not detected any refund on my personal account. I am not sure how I paid for the hard drives I could have used someone else's account.

They didn@t ask me for my bank account, so I just thought that Ebuyer were still processing my complaint and refusal to accept a partial refund.

I have just had an email back from Western Digital (WD) RE: the 2 x hard drive replacement for the drives lost at Ebuyer.

WD cannot give me new drives without the old drives.

My CAB is open in the morning, is it worth goint there for some face to face advice?

get the name of the other company then

or ask ebuyer to contact them and for them to contact WD

giving ref no. XXXXXXX

its only a case of X getting to speak to Y.

dx

Thank you

I wish I had been able to think outside the box,

I have asked them to action the above idea, fingers crossed and thank you for the suggestion.

I also notified the that if they transferred any money, then I have not received it or I have no access to it.

Ebuyer responded:

"I have spoke to the appropriate people and these drives have been sent to be destroyed to protect any data of yours that they may contain to be destroyed. This a is done in compliance with the data protection act. We are unable to disclose any information about this company.

In regards to the partial refund this was the best resolution we could provide in this situation."

It looks like I have 2 less hard drives now, by the looks of things, Ebuyer has transferred some money to the account used to buy the goods (not my account).

I will have to wait some months until the person comes back, they are not willing to take back the money which I have refused as a solution to the problem.

They just ain't bothered.

send that to wd

make it clear that you did not authorise the distruction nor the partial refund

but both of these were done without your knowledge or involvement.

as they have been distroyed beyond yourcontrol

where do you stand regarding the wd replacement warranty

i hope all this is in email and not via the phone.

there are still other routes of recourse

but lets see if sese prevails

dx

Thank you dx100uk,

I have just sent WD this information. Thank goodness only one person is responsible for dealing with the incident at WD.

The only thing I do not have in writing, is the support call to Ebuyer Tech Support regarding further processing of the RMA.

This is where the tech guy told me that the hard drives were confirmes as defective and to send the 2 drives to Ebuyer, wait for replacements and then send the remaining drive at my own cost when the replacements arrive.

I really appreciate this guys!

Without this help I would have certainly started to feel ill and helpless.

WD are currently processing my request.

I will update the thread when I have more news

Thank You

good news moving fwd then

dx

Just a little update.

Western Digital have agreed to replace 2 Hard Drives, I only have to send them one drive back.

I am still awaiting for the RMA to go through though.

With Regards to Ebuyer, I mailed them yesterday after not being able to identify any part-refund, I was just trying to find out which account money was paid to.

Ebuyer then told me that no refund had been issued, they then processed a refund, there and then.

This meant they destroyed my drives without compensation up to today.

They deducted approx £11.00 per drive which I can live with.

I guess I can reolace one drive with the refunded money, when WD actions the RMA on my side, I should have been able to replace all 3 drives with no significant loss to me.

hey at last

dx