Seagate can no longer make quality drives

Dear Seagate Warranty Representative:

Three in-warranty drives have failed in my system, two of which were replacements for previous failures. These are the fourth, fifth, and sixth drives to have failed for me out of a five drive order. That's right, I have had more drives fail on me than I have bought. This is beyond unacceptable to me, and I am at the point where I believe any further drives you send will also be faulty. Aside from the loss of my RAID array and its data, I have lost faith in your company's ability to meet its own quality standards.

The drives that have failed are:

9QG5W15M (In Warranty Expiration 17-Jun-2012) (Previous RMA 1000499189)
9QG21T6X (In Warranty Expiration 01-Jun-2012)
9QG165FJ (In Warranty Expiration 12-Jun-2012) (Replacement provided by reseller)

I have determined these drives have failed through the use of SeaTools for DOS (v1.09PH). When performing the LONG test, each drive began clicking and hung the SeaTools session. In addition, my Linux kernel generates errors similar to the following:

ata4.00: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x1950000 action 0x2 frozen
ata4.00: cmd c8/00:01:01:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 cdb 0x0 data 512 in
res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x14 (ATA bus error)
ata4: hard resetting port

I am beyond disbelief at the abysmal product you have given me and past the point where I can be appeased by a pre-paid shipping label. If you want to keep me as a good faith customer, you will replace each of the above drives through your advanced replacement program free of cost. You can ship the replacement drives to:

<Censored/>

This is how Seagate treats its faithful

Keep this in mind when you pickup your next hard drive.

Original Complaint:


Dear Seagate

I would like to first state that I have been a faithful end user of Seagate products since the days of your 30MB MFM models. I have not only used Seagate exclusively, but recommended them to others. It is this fact that makes this latest problem I have encounted that much more frustrating. It is because of this frustration that I am writing to you instead of talking with one of your customer support representatives on the phone.

Back in July of this year, I purchased five ST3500630AS drives for a new machine that I was building. The drives would be operating in a RAID5 configuration for integrity purposes (I would also like to point out this form of operation is one of the ones listed for these drives on your website). However, one of the drives was DOA and replaced. Back in September (14th), a second drive in this set failed and was replaced by me. Today, a third drive in this set (9QG21D69) has failed. I base this on the fact that when I run your SeagateTools program, the program hangs during the long test and the drive begins clicking. Also, my Linux kernel has been reporting errors when attempting to read information.

What is more troublesome is the fact that when it failed, my RAID5 array failed with it. This is because another one of the drives (9QG21T6X) also dropped out of the array simultaneously and I did not have the foresight to prepare any hot spares. While I do not think this drive currently has a physical failure, I am now at a point where I fear one is forthcoming.

Because I NEVER expected a 60%, or even a 20%, failure rate, there were no other backup locations for the data on this array. Therefore, I have lost all the digital contents I have accumulated since the 30MB drive listed above. Documents (work and personal), programs, code, media, pictures/videos of my family, EVERYTHING is now gone.

I do realize that Seagate is not responsible for data loss, and I am not expecting your company to help me recover anything. However, I have to question whether I would be in this current situation had I gone with another vendor. Why I am writing because I want to replace this drive (for obvious reasons). The last time that I replaced a Seagate drive (9/14), I had to pay a ~$20 fee for the "Advanced Replacement" option. Given my history of Seagate purchases and the recent experience I have encountered, I feel the *least* Seagate could do is provide this option to me without charge. I would appreciate someone in a position to do so looking into this matter from start to finish, and responding with a solution that fits this extremely unsatisfactory situation.

Thanks,


First response:


Discussion Thread
Response (Babli TS198) 11/28/2007 03:27
Dear Adrian,

We apologize for the inconvenience caused.

With regards to your request, we are sorry to inform you that we will not be able to process advance replacement without the charge. However, as one time exception we will be able to notify the relevant team to send you the pre paid return label to avoid the shipping cost.

If you want to opt for this option, kindly email us back with your complete shipping address to process the Order number to replace the drive with the serial# 9QG21T6X.

For further queries you could always e-mail us or call us at 1-800-468-3472. We would be happy to assist you.

Regards,
Shannon
Seagate Warranty Support.


First thing I note is the "(Babli TS198)." I wonder if this is our recipient and internal transaction number. What do you remember about the stated serial number?

1st Reply:


My physical address is:

<YeahRight/>

As previously stated, the serial number you replied back with (9QG21T6X) is the disc that cannot reproduce a physical failure. It is drive 9QG21D69 that has truly failed. Based on your level of response, I would like to request a "pre paid return label" for *both*. I'm really surprised my loyalty is only worth this much. This truly has been an experience.


UPDATE (2007-12-05): I tried several times to just reply to the e-mail, but their system always rejected it. This occurred even when I replied the way they said (between the stupid "REPLY BETWEEN THESE LINES"). So, I call up and talk to an off-shore phone operator name "Michelle" (I think). It was your typical phone operator complaint call. First, she thought the drive was the DOA one. Then, she informed me that Seagate wouldn't send a prepaid label because the drive isn't DOA. It took a good long while to clarify the difference between 9QG21T6X and 9QG21D69. I would like to point out that while I was irritated, I didn't raise my voice, nor use any words your grandmother would be ashamed of.

There's now a return order placed, with no prepaid card. It's really sad that this is the way faithfulness is rewarded.

UPDATE (2007-12-06): Looks like I did get a prepaid label after all...yay!