Pathetic Seagate RMA ! - Solved for now

Ok, Long story short : I had* a seagate 500B 7200.11 [ notorious ] HDD which I had to submit for RMA two times before to Accel Frontline - so far my exp. is good with them regarding Seagate HDD RMA and they do replace the drive within 7 days. So submitted the HDD [ S/N : ****C5JM ] on 16th Sept. at Accel Frontline and got Call ID : SGTKOL130014637DW

But as the replacement [ Recertified ] HDDs has gone bad two times before in just 6 months I thought of why not escalate the issue with seagate. Our forum member Phenomenal had somewhat similar exp. so he posted about this on Seagate forum and got good result. So I thought why not ride the same bus. So posted my wos on seagate global forum [ userid : some_one ]. The forum mods MrMatthew and AskTheLeaf helped in escalating the issue but surprisingly I had to re-register there after this with different id [ userid : top_gear ]. I thought this as a minor glitch so did not pay much attention but informed the forum mods anyway.

23rd Sept : Accel informed me about a replacement hdd [ S/N : ****00QB ] but as it has the same part number [ 7200.11 ] as the previous replacements I did not picked up the HDD from Accel and the issue has been already escalated.

On the same day got a mail from Seagate Support Rafidah R asking for more info. So sent all the details - even informed about the replacement HDD [ S/N : ****00QB ] which I won't accept as it's the same old part and probably another recertified crap.

26th Sept : got a mail from Seagate support Jazli Jonet informing me about a new build hdd has been approved.

27 Th Sept : Got another mail from Jazli Jonet informing me that the new HDD is a Generation 12 [ 7200.14 ] HDD. On the mail I was told to return the HDD. I thought is this is a joke or what ?

As I had already returned the HDD [ S/N : ****C5JM ] on 16th Sept. based on which I got Call ID : SGTKOL130014637DW - how can I do that again ? So informed about all these again and told Jazli to collect the HDD [ S/N : ****00QB ] from Accel.

1 hour later I got a mail from Seagate Support Aysha that once they will get the HDD [ S/N : ****00QB ] they will send the new one.

Got a mail From Accel Frontline [ 5:05 PM ] on the same day about a new Call Id : SGTKOL130015353DW . The previous Call ID : SGTKOL130014637DW was closed without even informing me - Strange !

1st Oct : When I checked about the status of Call id : SGTKOL130015353DW I was surprised to see a Replacement HDD has been assigned [ S/N : ****LPHH ] but the funny thing is it has the same part no. and from Gen 10. 7200.11 series. Where is the new HDD from Gen 12 [ mail from Jazli on 26th and 27th Sept. ?????

Now a little about the Accel and Seagate's RMA process in India :

To receive a replacement HDD from Accel you need to have a Warranty Service Request / Acknowledge Form Receipt Paper. You get this Receipt when you physically submit seagate HDD to Accel for RMA and they will give you the Receipt paper with Call id no.

On the time of receiving the replacement HDD you need to give Accel the Receipt Paper [ and Accel will keep it ] without which Accel won't provide you the replacement hdd.

Now as the HDD [ S/N : ****00QB ] is called back by Seagate itself [ as per my e-mail request to Seagate Support personnel Aysha ] I don't have the receipt paper of the Call ID : SGTKOL130015353DW but I do have the Receipt paper of Call ID : SGTKOL130014637DW.

So how am I suppose to get back the replacement HDD of Call ID : SGTKOL130015353DW without the Warranty Service Request / Acknowledge Form Receipt Paper ?

======= ==== SEAGATE GLOBAL SUPPORT JUST MESSED EVERYTHING UP ==== =====

Note : It's not that I'm super duper excited about getting the HDD [ S/N : ****LPHH ] as replacement as this would be another crap but how come Seagate Support reps. played such dirty game is beyond my imagination and wasted my time ? They could have just simply deny giving a new HDD as replacement for some blah blah reason like company policy but instead they deceived me .

I've been using Seagate HDD 12 years for now but I've learnt my lesson. So anyone thinking about buying a Seagate HDD just think again.

Heher's some pics :

*i.imgur.com/01CA1xN.png

*i.imgur.com/K5KaRJN.png

*i.imgur.com/PDDXaty.png

*i.imgur.com/gevnexW.png

Now check below .. and you will say WTF !!!!

Notice the date, S/N and Part No. [ I'm still masking them as it's as against seagate's support forum ]

*i.imgur.com/1ZFriYs.png

*i.imgur.com/jcksgJZ.png

Thanks for the share. I am currently using 4 HDDs and all of them are WD. I have seen the case with tkin as well so when I was about to buy a new HDD simply skipped the Segate for good.

Why do you always seem to end up in trouble with rma lol...rotten luck

blame it on the rotten people buddy

and accepting / keeping a refurbished crap HDD is a lot more PITA than to just getting denied / cheated by the Manufacturer in case of a rMA like this. But surprisingly Accel this time proved to be better than Seagate as they just procure a replacement within 7 days but it's Seagate which failed to act properly but I'll mail this issue to some other seagate higher management for sure. Already this is running and up on forur forums including seagate's own community forum.

good luck for you.

sent a mail and just got the reply a few minutes ago .. let's see

R

Its not just you, even I had worst nightmares with Seagate RMA.

topgear said:
sent a mail and just got the reply a few minutes ago .. let's see

Sorry for the state of affairs and mental agony you had undergone topgear, my friend.

A good eye opener and awareness for all us ,Thanks topgear for sharing the facts in-depth.

I thus purchased the WD 1TB Caviar Blue HDD,which I had commented and shared with you on the other thread relating to Storage.

BUT I HAVE 3 SEAGATE HDD's still ON MY MACHINE :shock:

(Let GOD save me!!!)

A

seagate is very famous for these kind of habbits.RMA iust worse for seagate.They will usually be sending a refurb drive which dies again and again.Seagate ki new drive tab tak theek h jab tak usme jaan h.Ek baar gai to samjo paise bhi gae.

Its not just seagate, anything accel deals in.. their RMA is crap

ankitjain1116 said:
seagate is very famous for these kind of habbits.RMA iust worse for seagate.They will usually be sending a refurb drive which dies again and again.Seagate ki new drive tab tak theek h jab tak usme jaan h.Ek baar gai to samjo paise bhi gae.

my friend's seagate external with 5 years of warranty has gone kaput for 3 times. He lost all his favourite movies collection all the time. now just one year warranty left. he may be in trouble after that.

neverthless, he got a brand new drive third time.

Nerevarine said:
Its not just seagate, anything accel deals in.. their RMA is crap

+1 for your comments.
I myself got 3 TIMES REFURBISHED HDD's (one of the 500GB HDD) whose warranty(5yrs.) will expire in June 2014(4 years ago I purchased it).

What's the use of refurbished disc if they even can't work properly ? I know it can be guaranteed but still whene refurbished prody=ucts jusy go bad everytime it clearly shows the manufacturer has some serious quality issue so even the new HDD from such manufacturer can't be trusted - seagate and every other HDD manufacturer hiked price, reduced warranty for and still they are holding onto the same path but it's only seagate which HDD is showing some serious quality issue. The good old days when you can rely on a seagate HDD does not exists anymore. May be it's a little differnt on developwed countries and where they have strong laws like Aussies ACL but here who gives a damn about quality or ASS anyway on the behalf of customers/consumers.

And about Accel well you know all - I don't think I need to say a single word

^topgear,did you get the NEW Seagate HDD as claimed by them?

topgear said:
What's the use of refurbished disc if they even can't work properly ? I know it can be guaranteed but still whene refurbished prody=ucts jusy go bad everytime it clearly shows the manufacturer has some serious quality issue so even the new HDD from such manufacturer can't be trusted - seagate and every other HDD manufacturer hiked price, reduced warranty for and still they are holding onto the same path but it's only seagate which HDD is showing some serious quality issue. The good old days when you can rely on a seagate HDD does not exists anymore. May be it's a little differnt on developwed countries and where they have strong laws like Aussies ACL but here who gives a damn about quality or ASS anyway on the behalf of customers/consumers.

And about Accel well you know all - I don't think I need to say a single word

Absolutely correct,topgear.Everybody should admit this.

toady I'll try to figure everything out .. damn ! I've no clue on how to convince those stone head service center people as I don't have the receipt of SGTKOL130015353DW .. lst time I tried talking with them that I have the e-mail of the same they simply told me to talk with their boss, when I asked for boss man ph. no. they told me to dial 52 and disconnected. Now what is a 52 anyway ! even Seagate support is not of much use on this.

Like I suspected SEAGATE APAC proved to be some cheap cheats ... they could have just denied giving a new HDD but why did they lied is beyond all of my understanding.

Even after Segate reps. repeated e-mails of giving me a new Generation 12 HDD as replacement I've got another RECERTIFIED HDD as replacement .. I've expressed my concern on this before to Seagate reps. specially to Jazli J, Rafidah R mainly as the part no. of all the HDDs I've received is the same, model no. is also the same. They all belong to 7200.11 series. Shame shame on Seagate and it's APAC reps. ... I got cheated on the broad daylight.

these few screenshots should help :

Approval of new HDD :

*i.imgur.com/K5KaRJN.png

Expressed my concern about the Replacemenet HDD issued that it's going to be another Recertified HDD instead of a New Generation 12 HDD as promised :

*i.imgur.com/K6T3iXD.png

Got a assurance e-mail that it's going to be a New Generation 12 HDD for sure :

*i.imgur.com/SqkkpGb.png

I don't know about Segate's policy about India but why Seagate reps. deceived me and played such dirty game is beyond my understanding. They could have just deny a new HDD as replacement at first place by saying company policy and blah blah. But why promise me a new HDD then send me a RECERTIFIED one even after repeatedly updating them with all the infos.

Seagate Reps. have no idea about their own RMA system. I'm saying this coz the part no, model no. and series [ 7200.11 ] of all the replacement Recertified HDD matched and even the last instead of which I was promised a new HDD. So if the Part No : 9BX154-303 belongs to 7200.11 seris and model ST3500320AS belongs to Gen 10 then generation 12 HDDs must have different part / model no. Even though I've expressed my concern on this to seagate reps. were just plain ignorant on this and this is exactly why I've got another RECERTIFIED HDD.

But what hurt me most is how seagate APAC reps. specially Rafidah R, Jazli J has cheated me .. The way Seagate's APAC support wing handled the whole thing is simply unprofessional and very depressing for a customer. So much for Seagate's legendary support and it's self boasting liar APAC reps.

Denounce Seagate!!!

More Evidence :

Here is the proof that it's used and Recertified HDD

HDD Received by me at 5th Oct 2013 @ 11:36 AM

*i.imgur.com/pSucCZJ.jpg

Installed today 6th Oct 2013 @ 10 AM

*i.imgur.com/Pbdu5MS.png

The hdd has been used before for 32 hours before so it's clearly a Recertified HDD instead of a promised new HDD. I think this should be enough to prove how seagate reps. deceived me. Still my only point if they had to give a refurb drive why they wasted my time and said I'm going to get a new one ? SEGATE Reps. proved to be some lowlife cheaters.

read error rate is high. let us see how long it can work. however use wd here after . never gave me any problem so far. ;-)

topgear said:
The hdd has been used before for 32 hours before so it's clearly a Recertified HDD instead of a promised new HDD. I think this should be enough to prove how seagate reps. deceived me. Still my only point if they had to give a refurb drive why they wasted my time and said I'm going to get a new one ? SEGATE Reps. proved to be some lowlife cheaters.

even it is 0 hours, it can be a recertified hdd. it is because a reset pin is provided with every hdd with which it can be reset to 0 values,i think.

The previous Recertified HDDs I got had 0 hours count but you are right, I'm done with Seagate.

^topgear,what image upload software you are using with proper magnification(I mean readabilty). I have Imgur and Imageshack,both installed,but when I try to upload images on this forum,the images decrease in size.
Permission requested from Admins + Mods. about this above comment,as it is offtopic.
Just wanted to know.

I pay my empathy about your state of affairs regarding the Seagate HDD,the HDD's(Seagate)which are going towards the direction of a crapware.

use picpick.

^Thanks Friend...

hahaha...
i knew about Seagate pathetic RMA policy and had advised many times in TDF to not buy Seagate bcoz of this
i posted long back my RMA experience with seagate they took 1month to give me a replaced HDD and that too sticked with "Seagate Certified Repair" :-x

WD,Hitachi & Toshiba are way better than Seagate now

so how long that recertified hdd last ?

i too had faced a similar issue with the 500gb 7200.11...It took seagate almost 2 months to give me a replacement on my hard drive...planning to move as well..

topgear said:
so how long that recertified hdd last ?

by god's grace...working still but i don't trust it anymore..& won't be surprised either if it is crashed

^^ thanks for the info.

does the cystal disk info show data about bad sectors or any i/o error?

yes. if HDD SMART can record the error as all the infos CDI shows is based on the SMART.

this is the problem i have been using for a year...luckily got my backup this time..

*i.imgur.com/Qlhi4kP.jpg

Sry about the pic quality

S

Today i gave my hard drive for RMA to accel frontline.They say it will take 10 days for rma.
How long it may take guys??

sumit05 said:
Today i gave my hard drive for RMA to accel frontline.They say it will take 10 days for rma.
How long it may take guys??

just pray to God to get it soon :Fingerx:

sumit05 said:
Today i gave my hard drive for RMA to accel frontline.They say it will take 10 days for rma.
How long it may take guys??

Admitting with everybody,their views I must say that at least ACCEL Frontline here at Kolkata is a little better than other centres throughout India.
The send you sms updates on the status of your HDD,the time of delivery,etc.,even it might take a wholesome 2 weeks or more.

Even if they suck in their services,regarding recertified HDD's(I got myself 3 times,for a 500GB HDD),still their communication with the customers here at Kolkata is a little bit of plus point when compared to the tons of negative they possess.

Update :

After some more e-mails back and forth with Seagate's CS dept. one of the Accel rep. called me and requested me to submit the HDD as he informed Seagate will give a new HDD as replacement for sure this time. So submitted the HDD on 7th Oct. and yesterday got a new Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 HDD.

Thank god ! this one is not a re-certified one but one mounting side has a little dent covered with color .. anyway, the HDD is working OK for now though it has increasing values of Raw Read Error rate, Seek Error Rate, Hardware ECC Recovered. Done a little re-search on these and seems like it's common with Seagate HDDs but before anyone gets panic here's two link worth mentioning

S.M.A.R.T. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Seagate SER, RRER & HEC

currently testing the HDD using Seatools for windows [ long test ] ......

Buddy you have some really rotten luck when it comes to RMAing stuff (No offence)!!
But then again A-S-S in India is pretty pathetic!

Wishing the RMA goes through well for you :thumbs:

Btw, I have a 1TB Seagate HDD and I'm a bit apprehensive about its longevity after going through this thread!
Would a surface test using HD Sentinel be enough to gauge its condition?

Hi. I live in Kota(Rajasthan). And there are no Seagate Service Centres here. How to get my hdd rma'ed?

topgear said:
Update :

After some more e-mails back and forth with Seagate's CS dept. one of the Accel rep. called me and requested me to submit the HDD as he informed Seagate will give a new HDD as replacement for sure this time. So submitted the HDD on 7th Oct. and yesterday got a new Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 HDD.

Thank god ! this one is not a re-certified one but one mounting side has a little dent covered with color .. anyway, the HDD is working OK for now though it has increasing values of Raw Read Error rate, Seek Error Rate, Hardware ECC Recovered. Done a little re-search on these and seems like it's common with Seagate HDDs but before anyone gets panic here's two link worth mentioning

S.M.A.R.T. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Seagate SER, RRER & HEC

currently testing the HDD using Seatools for windows [ long test ] ......

At least a sigh of relief ,friend.
Thanks for your diligent patience and hope...which won you.

^^ Thanks to you and all others for staying by my side

here's a screenshot for you guys :

*i.imgur.com/gP647Nw.png

Continuing.... Today i am on the same boat. After Four years my HDD has given up. Followed all the procedures regarding Accel and submitted the HDD. Got the RMA BILL. Very unfortunately lost the paper and when informed this to Accel they denied of giving me back the HDD. Told them that i have the SMS with me and a print out from their site itself. But they continue denyig. Now want to write mails to seagate India. Requesting topgear to PM me the mail ids.

You should be named as TDF's very own Bad luck Topgear.. Hopefully the HDD works good now and avoid Seagate at all costs next time
#UnhappySeagateOwnerHere

Strange thing is that SEAGATE itself is not very concerned regarding this at all.

Henceforth guys,move to WD, particularly for HDD's or even Hitachi.

P

Learn from our suffering people

It turned out fine for me,I was lucky.
But guys who love their data and collections (not pr0n but the real stuff like holiday pics,games,fun,studies,work) should be careful about this.
I switched to WD 1 year back and it's been great till now

[MENTION=8223]avi[/MENTION]chandana2000- did you try this :
Contacts | Seagate

will send you the contacts later.

UPDATE: fOUND THE PAPER at last. Now to take the refurbised maal from them.

How long will it last in your opinion?

This is why you should run your download machines on Raid1
If a HDD dies, replace it with another with zero downtime.

IMO the average lifespan of a heavily used HDD is 3years after that you should be prepared to replace it.

W

^^it takes days(that's right) to rebuild an array with 2tb hard disks while system is running with OS on it on some raid controllers.fastest way to rebuild an array is through bios but that would mean downtime so from an average user's viewpoint raid is not of much use not to mention raid setup is very sensitive to hdd behaviour.the initial WD green series failure in raid setup is well known & even now WD & users alike agree that WD Green is not suitable for raid & costlier Red series is recommended for raid setup.same is the case with seagate consumer drives which have a higher fail ratio in raid setups.outside of servers raid is pretty useless & one would be better off simply copy pasting or using some syncing software to backup data to other hard disks(internal & external).

R

Wanted seagate 1.5TB hard disk Required old hard disk as per this specification

Seagate ST31500341AS (1.5TB)
F/W: SD17
P/N: 9JU138-300
If anyone has this "exact" working disk & willing to sell
kindly message me or post here I would like to buy it.

My hdd head has crashed & the only way is to use similar hdd & transplant its head to recover data.