Hitachi warranty nightmare.. a story to share

Hi. I'd like for potential hard drive buyers to know what SHODDY warranty policies Hitachi has put in place - this appears to me to be a definite buyer beware! I will also be writing a formal letter of complaint and sending that as far as my outreaches can take me, but to start, let me share my story.

In the middle of February of this year, my Hitachi 7k200 notebook drive complained about an error. I ran the drive-fitness test and retrieved the error code and applied for an RMA # (the drive was stated to be under warranty). I subsequently ran a low-level format test which seemingly corrected the error, but opted to send my drive back to Hitachi anyway as I had already been approved for an RMA.

A month went by with no response, and the hitachi website indicated my drive was not received, even though I had a signature of delivery confirmation. So I questioned them. After several weeks they finally told me that my drive was not under warranty because I had tampered with it, specifically the drive being removed from an external case. Now, I purchased this drive as an OEM from ebay so while I myself did not remove it from a case, I could not with 100% certainty claim this was not true. In any case, Hitachi informed me they would be sending my drive back. At this point I argued somewhat with them saying that voiding my warranty seemed unreasonable to me as removal from the case shouldn't cause damage, but as that is their statement I accepted that, and would have been okay using my drive if it was returned to me as it had no longer reported errors.

Well, a time went by and I didn't receive my drive back, so I questioned them again and they reported to me they LOST MY DRIVE! They then informed me they would send me a replacement as they lost it. Sounds fine, but alas that was not to be. They sent me a 5400rpm drive in usb 2.0 case back. I questioned them about this, and their response is what really gets me. They simply told me they have no 7200rpm drives in stock, and that even if I had a valid warranty I would have received a 5400rpm drive back. I was not aware Hitachi's policy was to rip customers off! In any case, I told them I had explicitly paid more $ for the 7200rpm drive, and they are trying to now tell me that I might either way > 6months for a 7200rpm drive in case, or send the 5400rpm drive back at MY cost (when THEY screwed up), and they will see if they can find me an OEM 7200rpm drive to send back to me.

It has now been almost 2.5 months and the situation remains unresolved. I personally find this unacceptable and absolutely appalling that a Hitachi as a corporation would make this stance. I urge potential customers to avoid Hitachi products. Go with a company that will honour their warranties appropriately. I start my crusade for what I feel will be more justified with this post, to whoever will listen.

 

next time, buy a WD

 

My brother had a hitachi deskstar die on him about two years ago. He sent hitachi an email, and then he shipped the drive to them. The drive which died happend to be a refurbished drive which came with my brothers desktop, which he bought at a state fair. Hitachi gave my brother a brand new drive, and it performed better, and worked great. From the date he shipped the drive, it took about two weeks, and he had a brand new drive.
In my opinion, the hitachi service was excellent.
I email hitachi regularly about harddrive mechanical questions, for optimization and know-how, and then I give them suggestions for new drives.

Plus, the situation is actually mostly your fault. All hitachi drives have a three year warranty as stated on the sticker. If your drive came from an external than your drive only has a 1 year warranty, cause an external is more subsequent to being dropped. Anyways it does not matter, you removed the harddrive from the external, and thus voided your warranty.
The confusion at hitachi, is most likely becuase the guy you bought the drive from registered his/her serial number with hitachi, so that you cannot use the warranty if your drive was to break.
The whole problem is that your drive was bought from a different user, which I can guarantee registered the drive, so that you cannot use the warranty. Then you voided your warranty putting it into your laptop. Then you stated that your laptop drive died, and so forth. I bet that once your drive was received by Hitachi, it was thrown into their recycling system, and then they went to look on their system for your name, and guess what no match. The original owner, must have registered the drive, so your name is going to overrided in the system. SInce the drive is registered, the warranty is only in the original owners name, so guess what you got screwed.
This is why you do not buy used harddrives.
Hitachi did nothing wrong,
sorry for your inconvience

K-TRON

 

It's always better to solve warranty issues through the place of purchase.

 

Sorry to hear this.

 

How can you "guarantee" the drive was registered by the other user? I'm also a little taken aback that you think this is "my fault". I must reiterate I bought the drive as a NEW OEM drive. I will grant that obviously at this point "I'm screwed" but still refuse to believe this is in any way fault of my own.

I am still of the opinion that their statement of not having stock and "even if the drive had valid warranty, the customer would receive a lower model drive" is wrong. Perhaps that is just me. Not to mention the amount of time it took them to respond the first time, or the fact that they lost my drive?

In any case I am not posting to garner sympathy or to state who is wrong or right. I am posting so that others can avoid the situation I've inadvertently found myself in. (Although I must admit my level of frustration is heightened at this particular point in time).

I was all gung-ho to fight this because of what I felt was right. However your reply and stance has simply sapped my energy.

 

Anything not in original shrinkwrapped packaging from ebay is buyer beware (and even original shinkwrapped is not 100% safe). If you want safety, you have to buy things from places that stand behind their merchandise. Part of what makes ebay cheaper is that it is higher risk. Your support story does suck, and the fact that they fumbled and lost your drive, then gave you something that was not functionally equivalent is quite bad, however, your expectations of support were inflated.

 

right a complaint put it as simple as you've stated in this post. They'll send you a nice 1TB drive for your time if your lucky. Tell them you love thier products and have had drives fail on you before with them but have never had this issue.

Mention your thinking of switching to segate for all your new systems that you support (all 500 of them)

another words, milk it

 

imo hitachi is not what they were a few years ago.. still a good company but not as good as they used to be. i still like their drives but i have also had some cs support issues with a drive i bought from newegg directly.. they did end up resolving it after some time went by but it took a lot of effort on my part. i usually by wd or seagate.. never had a single cs issue with either of them

 

Yeah - Seagate all the way.

I was an early adopter of the first 60gb 7200 RPM notebook drives (made by Hitachi). Anyway, I have had it replaced three times already through Dell. The last replacement that was sent to me was a 100 gb Seagate. Granted notebooks do get a lot of wear and tear, but three replacements within two years was ridiculous. Anyways, Seagate has always been cool to me, and have upgraded my replacements many times.

 

I can't hold the OP accountable. Hitachi lost his drive. They owe him an equivalent replacement, or a check for the retail cost of a new replacement. Period. You don't lose your customer's property then throw up your hands and say "oops!"

 

Yup, that part is unforgivable. He probably shouldn't have expected service in the first place, but when they bumbled, it became thier problem, and they didn't fix it.

 

Ever since I found out that Hitachi 7k200 drives aren't compatible with HP DV6000 series notebooks (aka: some of the most popular notebooks today) I gave up on them forever. Seagate and Maxtor have never given me any problems - ever.

 

Funny I should see this thread right when I decided to get the Hitachi 3200 7200 rpm hdd...
I`ll have to wait till June and hope somebody will give a green light

 

If you haven't already, you need to file a complaint with BBB and submit all your records, evidence etc. I have had a few problems with companies in the past (reputable ones), and reported them to BBB. ALL OF THEM fixed the problem fairly quickly. The BBB will give you some leverage and may help you out. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesnt, I think I just got lucky because a company really doesn't have to oblige to the BBB request at all.

 

Man, that sucks. Good Luck.