Received a 'repaired' drive under RMA replacement. Is this OK?

Question

The replacement drive I received in lieu of the one submitted under RMA (returned because BIOS detected 500GB as either 4GB or 0MB) carries a 'Repaired' drive sticker.

I'm confused about the 'repaired' sticker. The warranty on the original drive applies to this replacement received - so perhaps I'm only being paranoid ... but I thought I'd ask.

Is it standard practice for a Barracuda drive under RMA to be replaced by a 'repaired' drive? Does it impact the resale value of the system?

Answer 1

It depends on the company and rules of the country you are in.

Typically, under a manufacturers warranty, they will hardly ever give you a new drive, they nearly always give you the next repaired drive of same specification, then put yours on the pile to be repaired next and someone else will get it.

You can be sure that a repaired drive will meet the companies specifications and the warranty will always be the same (or in some situations, extended) and there is little to worry about, other than the feeling that you got a repaired drive.

Personally, I have got through (probably) thousands of drives across the years and typically, when there is a issue with returned drives, I personally use these myself or explain the situation to the customer and offer a discount (I really would not like someone to open a machine and read "repaired"), but I can tell you that I have not noticed any problems such as breaking early - all hard drives are as bad as the next one, random problems can break any time from 1 week to 5 years! I have seen no "extra" errors with a refurbed drive.

Next, regarding the country you are in. I have no idea about India's laws, but I can guess it would be similar - the only difference is in England it is actually confirmed/set in stone. In England - the contract of sale is with the company you purchased from, not the manufacturer. You are entitled to goods that meet the purpose they were sold for. If the hard drive breaks within a reasonable amount of time (accepted at around 6 months), you can state that the goods were not fit for purpose and demand a repair/replacement. They only need to ensure you have a working like-for-like part.

Answer 2

If not a standard practise amongst most manufacturers it is at least not uncommon to be honest.

It seems to be that some manufacturers have a policy whereby if a unit fails in the first month then a new replacement is given and if it fails after that time but before warranty expires then they they will issue a refurbished or repaired unit instead.

This is my experience with Dell and a couple of others at least...

Answer 3

It is standard practice for a manufacturer to replace warranty products with either new or repaired/refurbished at their discretion. Usually there is little to no difference between a new or refurbished product. However, it also happens on occasion that refurbished hard drives have not been reformatted so you will hear stories from time to time of people finding someone else's data on their refurbed drive. So make sure your do a good format of it before you load anything.