On Tue, Jun 18, 2013 at 7:43 AM, Edward Ned Harvey (lopser) < [email protected]> wrote:
> I've heard numerous complaints from people about newegg hard drive > packing practice. People complain about bubble wrap instead of official > hard drive packing materials, but I don't have any philosophical objections > to bubble wrap as long as the bubble wrap is thick and well secured, etc. > Recently, I ordered 3 drives. They arrived with a single layer of bubble > wrap (not taped or anything). Some of the bubbles were popped. One drive > works, and the other 2 were DOA. > Others have chimed in with their experience, so I'll add mine. I've used Newegg extensively on behalf of my employer, for about 10 years and have often had disks arrived packaged in bubble wrap, but as far as I can recall, they were always in at least one layer of "big bubble" or two of "small bubble" wrap and always taped very thoroughly. I've never had a disk arrive DOA. > I called newegg, requested replacements. They shipped me 2 drives, > billing $0, and gave me a prepaid shipping label. Said I would only be > charged if I fail to return the faulty drives. So I returned them, no > problem. But then their RMA dept identified physical damage to the drives, > shipped them back to me, and charged me for them. > Since I've never had this problem, I can't speak to it, however I rarely use Newegg for replacements even for stuff which falls within their warranty period. Particularly disks - in a work context we have a system whereby they get queued for manufacturer warranty RMA, with which we've never had a problem. We use non-IT admin staff labor to handle the actual RMA transactions as the whole thing is simple quick to explain. And we batch, which ends up being much more efficient than dealing with only a few disks at a time. In this case what we would have done is simply order more disks from Newegg and the float on our Net terms (or the corporate credit card, which we pay in full) from NeweggBusiness means we probably wouldn't be out any additional cash before the whole thing is resolved. The broken disks would have gone into the RMA pile and been RMAed with the next batch. I realize that doesn't fit for everyone. You either need to cycle through enough hard drives (ie: have a significant number in your install) to benefit from scale OR be insensitive to potentially losing some money to "float." Or both in our case. I've been round and round with them, but the most recent email says "We > received one hard drive with dents and one with SATA-damaged. Any physical > damages will void the Newegg warranty. Our RMA team cannot further process > the RMA. Please take advantage of your end-user warranty and contact the > manufacturer at 1-800-SEAGATE" > I guess I'm technically suggesting you take this approach as well - not just with Newegg, but with any vendor. Specifically for hard drives - not necessarily other equipment! Hard drives are such a fast-cycle commodity item that the manufacturers have very automated RMA systems set up. Admittedly, their web interfaces for processing the RMAs are kinda lousy, but no worse than any other arbitrary RMA website..such as Newegg's for example. The nice thing is - hdd manufacturers are set up to handle batches of hard drives! > ** > > I have to say, I'm converted. No more newegg.**** > > > I'm sure your story will convince others as well. This is completely unrelated, but personally I intend to send Newegg every dollar I can because of this: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130128/10521621810/neweggs-screw-patent-trolls-strategy-leads-to-victory.shtml Fighting patent trolls is very expensive, and there isn't much directly in it for Newegg. They are effectively paying to assist their competitors who are also being trolled. But it is currently the only way to defeat them, and the only approach that doesn't end up making them stronger (ie: settling for cash).
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