When will companies learn that if you treat people badly, it will appear all over the Internet? According to this chat transcript between a Seagate hard drive owner and an online tech, Seagate has an interesting warranty policy that states the advertised one-year warranty doesn’t start when the drive is purchased, rather when it left the factory. So if the drive sat on retailer’s shelves for four months, the purchaser would only have eight months left to claim the warranty.
- Brandon R.: You have a one year warranty for the time the retailer gets the drive. That is what is covered by our warranty policy. Any extended warranty from that point will be covered by the retailer
- Chad Miller: How can one possibly know when the retailer got the drive? Do you timestamp the box?
- Chad Miller: If i’m in a store and see a Maxtor/Seagate box, I have to find out when they shipped it to the store?
- Brandon R.: The warranty is tied with the serial number, so when we ship the drive out from the assembly plant it is entered into our system. It also makes a difference on who buys the drive, retailers. Different drives will have different warranties based on what Seagate and the retailer agree on.
- Chad Miller: Yeah. So, how can I know when I pick up a box whether the warranty expired yesterday?
Nice. Seagate’s Warranty Policy.
Official Seagate response after the break.
Hello Matt,
You got our attention. Thought, I’d drop you a note about our policy. for
posting to CrunchGear. I feel that we are not given a fair shake on this.
Seagate’s consumer warranty periods are 1 year, 2 years, 3 years or 5 years
from the documented date of purchase, depending on the type of product and
where it was purchased. Only consumers purchasing Seagate or Maxtor
products from authorized Seagate retailers or resellers may obtain coverage
under our limited warranties. Any and all warranty disputes are resolved by
a valid proof of purchase from an authorized reseller. If there are any
issues, please feel free to call Seagate at 1-800-Seagate for more
assistance. Seagate’s currently shipping FreeAgent product family and the
Central Axis NAS all carry an industry-leading five year warranty. The full
description of Seagate’s warranty policy can be viewed here:
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=46593ba94282b010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRDNathan
Apparently a fair shake doesn’t including linking to the official policy. My bad. Next time we’ll not report any thing negative about Seagate ’cause we wouldn’t want to shake ’em wrong. Might get the herp.