Seagate Lowers Warranty Period from 5 to 3 Years

Seagate, the biggest hard drive manufacturer, has announced today that effective January 3, 2009, the company will be making some important changes to its limited warranty terms for selected drives. The warranty period for consumer electronics (Seagate Barracuda 7200 included), notebook (Momentus 7200 and Momentus 5400 included) and personal storage bare drives sold to Seagate Authorized Distributors will be changed from 5 years to 3 years. Seagate believes that the new warranty period and terms better reflect current industry standards. Seagate enterprise class drives and Seagate and Maxtor external retail products that have 5-year warranty periods will not be affected by this change. Please take a look at the Seagate Warranty Matrix for more information.

Source : *www.techpowerup.com/78659/Seagate_...5_to_3_Years_on_Some_Desktop_Hard_Drives.html

Read More @ here : *www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/warranty_&_returns_assistance/product_warranty_matrix/

But hold still before flaming seagate - Western Digital Also provides 3 years of warranty :
*support.wdc.com/warranty/policy.asp?custtype=end&lang=en

A

Seagate Enterprise class is not affected by the change but what about the customers who have purchased it in Dec 2008 and given seagate drive preference over Western Digital drives just because of the warranty.

Lol I have all seagate drives except one WD.

aura said:
Seagate Enterprise class is not affected by the change but what about the customers who have purchased it in Dec 2008 and given seagate drive preference over Western Digital drives just because of the warranty.

ichi said:
Lol I have all seagate drives except one WD.

You guys don't need to worry if you have purchased those disks prior to 3rd Jan 2009.

Q. What about products purchased before Jan. 3, 2009? Will Seagate still honor the warranty offered at time of time of original purchase?

A. Yes, any Seagate customers who purchase(d) products prior to Jan. 3 will be covered by the warranty in place at the time of purchase.

Q. What will happen to the inventory authorized distributors currently have?

A.On-hand inventory of Seagate customers will maintain the warranty in place at the time of original purchase. The 3-year warranty will apply to products shipped starting Jan 3 rd, 2009.

oh god thnaks for news i m planning to buy 1TB seagate this time now stick with WD

^^ But WD is also offering only 3 years of warranty - though it's your personal choice.

3 year warranty on WD external HD

No wd were offering 5yr warranty,wen did they reduce it?

^^ No mate. Read this though I've put the link on 1st post I'm posting it again
*support.wdc.com/warranty/policy.asp?custtype=end&lang=en

Asia Pacific, India and Thailand:

Desktop Drives:

Bulk & Retail* : ( 3 year warranty )
WD Caviar Blue (WD Caviar, WD Caviar SE, WD Caviar SE16)
WD Caviar Green (WD Caviar GP)

* Effective for products purchased since August 1st, 2007. Drives purchased previously have 1 year warranty.

A bad step by seagate. Anyways, i never trusted seagate & never used it till now. My hard disk brand is Hitachi.

lets see all other manufacture policy.I am plaining to buy 1TB HD and transcend Esata External Case i also talk to customer care of WD and seagate they r providing international warranty.Now again find another manufacture who provide a 5 yr international warranty

topgear said:
^^ No mate. Read this though I've put the link on 1st post I'm posting it again
*support.wdc.com/warranty/policy.asp?custtype=end&lang=en

Asia Pacific, India and Thailand:

Desktop Drives:

Bulk & Retail* : ( 3 year warranty )
WD Caviar Blue (WD Caviar, WD Caviar SE, WD Caviar SE16)
WD Caviar Green (WD Caviar GP)

* Effective for products purchased since August 1st, 2007. Drives purchased previously have 1 year warranty.

But i think earlier it was 5yrs.I have wd 320gb bought on nov 2007
here is the warranty chk for my drive *img8.imageshack.us/img8/7372/84204387ad6.th.jpg

So which one is correct??

i have purchase 250GB WD HD Aug 2008 nd got 5 yr warranty

*img25.imageshack.us/img25/3218/20090220235425zz8.th.png

They must be going in loss or something I guess or their way of showing 'recession' lol. When it was 5 years a lot of people must be exchanging it under warranty and in this way they must have given away too many HDD to customers.

W

topgear said:
reflect current industry standards

The Standards have fallen! Is it the cheap manf. process decision by Industry Leders thats making all this accomplishments..

@ zyberboy & NIGHTMARE - Look @ this icon † at the right most corener of the expiary date of your images - that means :

† Warranties may vary in regions that belong to the European Union

you guys are getting 5 yeras of warranty - haven't you guys purchased it from here ?

*www.harepix.com/images/1159673708.png

Check other countries warranty period too.

*www.harepix.com/images/377723177.png

Also

In the United States, some states do not allow limitations on how long implied warranties last, so the above limitation may not apply to you.

topgear said:
you guys are getting 5 years of warranty - haven't you guys purchased it from here ?

From here(kerala).

Do anyone hav western digital hdd bought in 2009? pls chk ur warranty status....

W

After dis warranty period reduction and recent exposer 2 failure of seagate HD due to firmware issue I wonder if some one is still mad enough 2 go for Seagate. Go WD for HD hurry!!

I bid adieu to Seagate long time ago. WD better for me