Warranty problem Rectron - any one else had problems

[grantza]

I have an ext hard drive that went belly up.
CSSI, who are a Western Digital accredited recovery lab opened the plastic case to check details on the HD label.
They did not open or break any seal on the HD itself.

Now because there is a mark on the ext plastic case, Rectron are trying to claim that the unit has been tampered with & will not replace under warranty.
My response to that was that they simply replace the defective hard drive within the plastic case (which has no taper seals to begin with) & I am quite happy to keep the "tampered with" plastic case - which "works" perfectly anyway.

Any ideas how to best deal with this?

[ponder]

Your warranty is voided.

When you open up the casing of an external drive it's bye bye warranty. The warranty is on the entire unit and there's no separate warranty for the drive itself.

Even if a internal drive goes for data recovery and the drive is opened up or the logic board worked on the warranty is voided.

It's a nasty between a rock & a hard place situation. You can have either your data back or the drive replaced but not both.

Simple way to verify the above is to take the serial# of the actual drive and look it up on the WD warranty site. It will come up blank, the serial# on the casing will however yield a result with warranty info.

Why did CSSI open the casing though? A lot of the details on the label though could be retrieved from the drive assuming it still has 'some' life to it.

[grantza]

the drive was not mounting, in fact there was zero communication from the drive itself.
The case was opened to see if there was something obvious - like a burn component etc.
Also, the serial number on the drive itself (not the case) was used to check warranty status on the WD website & shown to be under warranty until April 2013

[killadoob]

Dude the guidelines are pretty clear, open it your warranty is gone.

You don't have a leg to stand on here. You should have gone to rectron, got them to verify the drive is indeed dead and then told them you need the data recovered. No idea if that would have led to a replacement in all honesty.

[ponder]

In that case you could always try just taking the drive in and see what they say. Else try the drive with Pinnacle Micro or Drive Control Corporation, you never know.

Alternatively ship it off to WD.

[grantza]

What happened is that the drive was given to me by a friend who is now dead, as a result I was unable to establish where it came from.
I called drive control, pinnacle, frontosa, rectron & cssi to check the serial number - it was not a match to any of them.
CSSI suggested I bring it in to them to check out the drive itself.
Given the history of the serial number not matching any distributer they thought best to check the serial number on the drive label itself (this matched the number on the drive's external case.
I was then advised to take it to rectron - I explained the above to them, but they are rejecting the claim as it has been tampered with.
The reason I did not take it to them to begin with, was that when i checked the drive serial number with them it did not match anything on their system, hence me trying elsewhere.

[gregmcc]

Well it's been tampered with so you warranty is void.

Toss it and get a new one and next time check first.

[grantza]

i guess best toss the thing. it kills me to toss a 1TB 2.5" drive that has had less than a years use.
This is in fact the 2nd WD drive of this type i have had that has packed up within 25 months.
So no more WD for me from now on, rather stick to toshiba - never had an issue with them (yet).

[ponder]

What's wrong with the actual drive (details)?

[grantza]

it's not mounting on either windows or mac & has the dreaded continual clicking sound ..

[ChilliGirl]

If you wanted the drive to still be covered after being opened by an agent for recovery you should have gotten the agents to contact rectron before they opened it. That would have been the only way rectron would be able to know how/who/why drive was opened. Rectron then gives permission and all your data can be recovered prior to taking the drive to them.

[flashsa]

If you wanted the drive to still be covered after being opened by an agent for recovery you should have gotten the agents to contact rectron before they opened it. That would have been the only way rectron would be able to know how/who/why drive was opened. Rectron then gives permission and all your data can be recovered prior to taking the drive to them.

Agents only told him to go to Rectron AFTER checking serial number inside, post opening the enclosure up.

Warranty is voided though I'm afraid.

[ChilliGirl]

Agents only told him to go to Rectron AFTER checking serial number inside, post opening the enclosure up.

Warranty is voided though I'm afraid.

Yip, sadly....

[grantza]

update.

WD sent me an email confirming the warranty had not been voided by the case being opened by cssi (who are approved by wd to do so) with a link for rectron to take a look at should they persist in trying to reject the warranty claim.
the drive was replaced in terms of wd's warranty policy

[froot]

Cool. Glad you're sorted.