Takealot refuses to swap out my faulty NVMe Drive

In the end, as much as it sucks, best is to take the refund, move on, buy elsewhere.

They can string you along more than you can afford to complain, and they also do not care about your complaints.
 
Adenoid Hynkel said:
Besides, the supplier isn't necessarily taking the full knock anyway. They can send the failed drive back through WD's warranty/RMA process and get a replacement or credit from WD. That's literally what the warranty chain is there for.
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The RMA channel generally works one of two ways:
  1. Most common: Stock gets returned as it fails and credited at the original purchase price
  2. Quite uncommon: Buffer stock gets included in the original purchase price - eg, for every 100 purchased, you pay for 95 and the 5 "free" units are to be used for warranty replacements
#2 is and generally reserved for small orders where there just won't be enough faulty units to warrant return shipping, such as a distributor placing an MOQ order for a new brand of keyboard where there might not be a second order, or a retailer beginning to introduce a new product via direct import.

Warranty outcomes are not "the customer gets whatever today's equivalent product costs." They are "the customer gets the value of the failed product back through the warranty chain." Takealot credits the customer the price at the time of purchase, Pinnacle credits Takealot the price at the time of purchase, WD credits Pinnacle at the price at the time of purchase. That's the beginning and end of the warranty transaction between each pair of parties. Nobody in that chain is handing anyone a magic R 3k because the price of NAND happened to explode in the interim.

A warranty is not price insurance. You're not asking for a warranty, you're asking for a guarantee of price protection for the lifetime of the warranty.
 
WoodWhisperer said:
In the end, as much as it sucks, best is to take the refund, move on, buy elsewhere.

They can string you along more than you can afford to complain, and they also do not care about your complaints.
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Buying elsewhere wont solve this issue

Take it up with Jensen
 
if I am not mistaken WD comes from DCC.

However you can take it to Pinnacle yourself and see what they say.

Anyway the price is inflated due to Western Digital, Samsung, Hynix etc once again inflating prices for extra profit. They have been fined before.
 
Adenoid Hynkel said:
So much waffle.. You're conflating the value of the product with the product that was warranted.

OP didn't cause the AI bubble or the price increase. He bought a 2TB drive with a X warranty. How much it costs to honour that warranty years later isn't his problem.
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Maybe go read the warranty terms you're pushing so hard for because you seem to be mistaken: https://www.westerndigital.com/support/store/warranty-policy/wd

WD'S ENTIRE LIABILITY FOR ANY DEFECTIVE PRODUCT SHALL IN NO EVENT EXCEED THE PURCHASE PRICE FOR THE DEFECTIVE PRODUCT. THIS LIMITATION APPLIES EVEN IF WD CANNOT OR DOES NOT REPAIR OR REPLACE ANY DEFECTIVE PRODUCT AND YOUR EXCLUSIVE REMEDY FAILS OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE.
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I had almost exactly the same fight with Takealot earlier this year and eventually won after 4 months.

In my case the supplier had no stock and Takealot tried to give me the original purchase price as credit, even though I had specifically chosen replacement and the supplier had already agreed in writing to replace it once stock returned.

By the time stock came back, the same SSD was about R1,800 more expensive. They still eventually replaced it.

I don’t think stock shortages, price increases or whatever arrangement the distributor has with the manufacturer should become the customer’s problem. That’s part of the commercial risk of selling hardware with multi-year warranties. Distributors normally have RMAs, supplier credits or some form of recourse upstream anyway.
 
Progenix Oj101 said:
The RMA channel generally works one of two ways:
  1. Most common: Stock gets returned as it fails and credited at the original purchase price
  2. Quite uncommon: Buffer stock gets included in the original purchase price - eg, for every 100 purchased, you pay for 95 and the 5 "free" units are to be used for warranty replacements
#2 is and generally reserved for small orders where there just won't be enough faulty units to warrant return shipping, such as a distributor placing an MOQ order for a new brand of keyboard where there might not be a second order, or a retailer beginning to introduce a new product via direct import.

Warranty outcomes are not "the customer gets whatever today's equivalent product costs." They are "the customer gets the value of the failed product back through the warranty chain." Takealot credits the customer the price at the time of purchase, Pinnacle credits Takealot the price at the time of purchase, WD credits Pinnacle at the price at the time of purchase. That's the beginning and end of the warranty transaction between each pair of parties. Nobody in that chain is handing anyone a magic R 3k because the price of NAND happened to explode in the interim.

A warranty is not price insurance. You're not asking for a warranty, you're asking for a guarantee of price protection for the lifetime of the warranty.
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Nobody said a warranty is price insurance. The point is that a 2TB NVMe was warranted, not its historical rand value.
OP didn't cause the AI bubble or NAND price increases. How the distributor and retailer settle things between themselves isn't the consumer's problem.

chickenbeef said:
Maybe go read the warranty terms you're pushing so hard for because you seem to be mistaken: https://www.westerndigital.com/support/store/warranty-policy/wd
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Sigh. Scroll down to Warranty Limitations - Limitation of Remedies. You're confusing a liability cap with a remedy.

YOUR EXCLUSIVE REMEDY FOR ANY DEFECTIVE PRODUCT IS LIMITED TO THE REPAIR OR REPLACEMENT OF THE DEFECTIVE PRODUCT.
Click to expand...
 
RedViking said:
Every single product I have bought has been replaced or fixed under warranty. Takealot is the only company who refunds and then say sorry no we won't replace. So from my own experience, you comment is completely false. Not gonna argue this further.

Takealot is pathetic. Used to be such a great company.
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I was referring to you wanting them to pay you interest for inflation, not the rest of it.

As for replacement or refunds I’ve had my fair mixture of both across different companies over the years.

Usually it’s me fighting to get my money back and NOT replace it because now I know it’s a **** product. Takealot is doing everyone a favour by giving their money back.
 
Adenoid Hynkel said:
You’ve got to be joking. He bought a 2TB PCI 4 nvme drive with a multi year warranty. If the supplier can't source the same drive, then replace it with a similarly specced 2TB nvme drive and take the facking knock.

Offering a 1TB PCI 3 drive, an external mechanical HDD or some generic 4TB portable SSD POS isn't honouring the spirit of that warranty. Those aren't equivalent products.

You can't advertise and sell products with warranties, take your markup on every sale, and then when one actually fails say - sorry, prices have gone up, here's what you paid a year ago. Warranty claims are part of the cost of doing business. Full stop.

And calling it renting for free for a year is ridiculous. He didn't rent anything. He bought a drive with a warranty and the drive failed.



Contact Pinnacle Micro directly with the serial no and see what they say.
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They fully refunded him and put him back exactly where he was at the time of purchase.

The rest was all because he wasn’t happy with that perfectly fair and reasonable arrangement.

Warranty doesn’t always state that you’ll get a repair/replacement, just that you’ll be put back in the same position you were and refunded accordingly.

And as we all know just because they have stock available of the same thing doesn’t mean anything as RMA processes are entirely different via different channels.

For all we know this a notoriously faulty product line and WD are the ones saying they won’t replace it.

It’s also not worth entering an argument with every user when a “near like” replacement is provided for items.
 
SauRoNZA said:
I was referring to you wanting them to pay you interest for inflation, not the rest of it.

As for replacement or refunds I’ve had my fair mixture of both across different companies over the years.

Usually it’s me fighting to get my money back and NOT replace it because now I know it’s a **** product. Takealot is doing everyone a favour by giving their money back.
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The fact that he got back the price he purchased it for is astounding, the last time I returned a product I got refunded the price of the product at the time and it had gone down. You know when prices of SSDs and RAM went down instead of up :-).
Luckily I could just buy a different model and accept the knock on the chin, but that's how it's always worked, Takealot generally give you the price you purchased it for, other places the price of what it is now when it has gone down, if the price has gone up, they'll refund you the price at purchase.
 
chickenbeef said:
That brah read it but still doesn't understand the "Limitation of Damages" clause serves as the contractual backstop when repair or replacement cannot be fulfilled.

I'm done.
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Oh dear. You're still confusing a limitation of liability/damages with the primary warranty remedy.

The warranty separately defines the remedy as repair or replacement. The damages clause caps WD's financial exposure. lost data, downtime, consequential damages on failed hardware..
 
SauRoNZA said:
You got your money back, they made good with you and there was no personal loss to you.

That the prices went up is outside of their control and it's ridiculous to expect them to take the knock...they would go bankrupt if they did this.

You got to rent an NVME for free for almost a year, win win.

Potentially you could go directly to WD...but since they have basically zero support in SA you are likely to have an even worse time there.
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I'd like to start off by saying that this is an extremely well-balanced and rational take.

I'd like to follow up with: TAL are a bunch of *****.

I ordered a pair of shoes as a gift in early September for R389 on promotion. They were the wrong size, so I logged a return and specifically requested an exchange for a smaller size. TAL asked which size I wanted, I selected it, and it was in stock at the time.

They collected the shoes and, while the return was being processed, the promo ended and the price went back up to around R850.

Once TAL received the return, they simply refunded the R389 instead of sending the replacement size. No contact, no option given.

When I queried it, they said the size was out of stock... which is BS. The item is still available on the site right now. I even sent them a screenshot.

Their response was basically that online stock doesn't necessarily mean stock is available for exchanges, followed by:

If the size you want is available for purchase, you are welcome to place a new order directly.
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So now I'm expected to pay more than double for the same shoes.

The annoying part is that I only sent the original pair back because their return process explicitly offered a size exchange and asked me which size I wanted.

Had I known they'd just refund me and tell me to rebuy them at R850, I would have kept the original pair.
 
All that's happening is that corporations and businesses are trying to place the burden of market forces, and the honouring of warranties, onto the consumer. Why are so many here on the side of the businesses and against the small man winning?

Just crazy
 
Dylan_G said:
I'd like to start off by saying that this is an extremely well-balanced and rational take.

I'd like to follow up with: TAL are a bunch of *****.

I ordered a pair of shoes as a gift in early September for R389 on promotion. They were the wrong size, so I logged a return and specifically requested an exchange for a smaller size. TAL asked which size I wanted, I selected it, and it was in stock at the time.

They collected the shoes and, while the return was being processed, the promo ended and the price went back up to around R850.

Once TAL received the return, they simply refunded the R389 instead of sending the replacement size. No contact, no option given.

When I queried it, they said the size was out of stock... which is BS. The item is still available on the site right now. I even sent them a screenshot.

Their response was basically that online stock doesn't necessarily mean stock is available for exchanges, followed by:



So now I'm expected to pay more than double for the same shoes.

The annoying part is that I only sent the original pair back because their return process explicitly offered a size exchange and asked me which size I wanted.

Had I known they'd just refund me and tell me to rebuy them at R850, I would have kept the original pair.
Click to expand...
Their follow-up response:
I completely understand your frustration and disappointment with how your return and exchange request was handled, especially given the price difference and the fact that the size you wanted appears to be available online.

To clarify, when an exchange is requested, our system checks warehouse inventory at the time your return is processed—not just what is visible on the website.

Sometimes, due to allocation, processing delays, or third-party seller stock, the item may show as available online but is not accessible for immediate exchange through the returns process.

This can result in a refund being issued instead of an exchange, even if the item appears in stock to customers.

Once a refund is processed, we are unable to reverse it or send the original item back, as the return is finalized in our system.

I acknowledge that this process can feel unfair, especially when it leads to a higher repurchase price.

Your feedback is important, as we strive to improve transparency and customer experience in these situations.

If you would like assistance with placing a new order or have further questions about this process, please let us know.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and the impact this has had on your experience.
Click to expand...
 
You got your money back. Move on dear Lord.
longboy

Post in thread 'Takealot SSD replacement ended with a R279 credit to my account.'

Progenix Oj101 said:
It's a budget drive - and you'll find complaints about anything and everything, including your 990 Pro that could lose 10% health just by installing Windows on it. That thread has 94 comments, I alone have sold more drives that haven't been returned than that thread has comments. Return rates were acceptable - below 5% within warranty.


I'm not like that. If something is crap, I'll remove it from sale. You haven't been able to buy a Rogueware SSD from me for 3-4 years now. The reason I have happy, repeat customers is I don't sell stuff I wouldn't buy with my own money*. Garbage...
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you got your money back, and most likely due to Ai everything is incredibly expensive and always out of stock.
id just take the win and spend more trying to buy the one I want.
 
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