RMA Hard drive - what would you package one in? :-)

[krusty the klown]

Dry roasted or ready salted?? Both are apparently not acceptable to IBM!! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif
http://www.storage.ibm.com/warranty/arma25.htm

[daveleau]

Peanuts are not a good way to ship delicate hardware. I agree.

I often use the plastic bags you get from the grocery store. I have a whole cabinet full of them. I pack them really tight into the box and then I put about 110% of what should fit into the box and then stuff it closed to make sure NOTHING moves and that it is molded to the item(s).

Dave

[hirschY]

Why not stick it in an old shoe, and then in an old shoe box?

It might be a little stinky, but I bet it would be safe http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[wyvrn]

Do not use bubble wrap, styrofoam peanuts, paper, or padded shipping envelopes.




Screw you IBM! What is wrong with bubble wrap? I think a HDD wrapped twice in large bubblewrap, in an oversize box filled with peanuts is perfectly acceptable. I am not going to buy expensive packing materials from an IBM "approved" store just to send back a dead fscking HDD! Hey, if you didn't make a lousy piece of **** in the first place, I would not have to ship it back to you, would I!



Seems like IBM has a stick up their **** on this one.

[This message has been edited by wyvrn (edited 08-21-2001).]

[bhess]

jad is right. Have them ship you the new one. You'll have to pay for it. Then send the bad one back in the box. You have a time limit to send it back before they charge you.
Just remember to keep the ups/fedex receipt.

[howste]

Yep, I just got a replacement hard drive in the mail the other day. I didn't have the right packaging stuff, so I chose their "advance RMA" option. I've got 30 days to return the old hard drive before they charge my CC.

BTW, I wonder if they'd accept packing your hard drive in marshmallows. There was a trader a while back that was doing that, but probably not with hard drives. And of course the bags were still sealed. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[nodnerb2]

Hi,
Did anyone follow that link on and see how much it costs to send one of these suckers back to them. I see that the cheapest option for us in the UK would be $149 with UPS. How much is the Drive worth anyway?

Nodnerb2

[jad1097]

I paid no shipping when I had to RMA my Maxtor drive.


If IBM makes anyone pay anything as outragous as $149 for shipping then I would never buy on of their drives. They should cover the entire cost AFAIC.

[wyvrn]

Yeah if it is a dead drive, they should pay for all shipping and packing materials. The consumer is the one paying for the inferior product in aggravation and time lost. We are not talking about hdd that people have drop kicked (or obviously IBM could reserve the right to charge for this type of damage upon receipt of the hdd).

[This message has been edited by wyvrn (edited 08-21-2001).]

[Voldar8u]

Heh, I still have the box IBM sent the HD to me in. It was a plain thin layer cardboard box with two pieces of T shaped styrofoam (one on each end of HD). No other insulation was used in it. I suggest you break your dad's favorite styrofoam fishing/bait/beer cooler and shape/glue it into T's with an indent to put each end of the HD in.
Morale of the story, if it's IBM, keep the box. My thoughts.

[BraytonAK]

As a person who does RMA mail-outs in a store daily, I can tell you that the companies sound pickier than they are. For example, I wouldn't exactly package a drive in styrofoam peanuts, simply because some of them can carry a static charge and they can actually move out of the way of the drive as the corner of it is being hurled to the side of the box by a sudden stopping force. But I have managed to get away with sending them (in their anti-static bags, of course) with foam pads and pieces from other packages. They never come back to me.

Styrofoam is bad because of the static electricity possiblities of some types, as well as the fact that peanuts simply don't protect a flat, narrow object very well, which can let the object work its way to an edge of the box.

Maxtor will actually mail you an empty hard drive box with the foam pads in it, if you don't have one to ship with. (Or even cross-ship the replacement, as was suggested above.)

[Cody]

Heh...

When was that stick, not there?

[jad1097]

Have them cross-ship and use the box they send you the new drive in to send the old one back in. You will need a credit or debit card for this.

[conjh13]

So far I've purchased WesternDigital and Maxtor HDD's. Maxtor will be the brand of choice for me in the future. I really liked the extra parts (mounting rails to install in 5" bay and IDE cable) they added and the packaging. The Maxtor also had better documentation.

P.S. Maybe WD has those extra parts now, I don't know, but they certainly were not included with the 10.2gig HDD I bought about a year ago.