Seagate, warranty period, unknown.

[Zyko]

I thought they were kidding. But, apparently, Seagate doesn't know what warranty period they have on their ****.

I'll get a bit over elaborate, but the back story is as follows:
I bought a second & third NAS, a ReadyNAS1100 & a ReadyNAS NV+, both SPARC based, both stone-age tech, reliable, and, cheap. Sadly, since they are dated, there is not much actual development going on for em. There is a few bugfixes, but thats about it. As a result, the Linux that these things run on haven't been updated to support 2TB+ drives, and that meant i was of looking for a good cheap drive with low powerdraw (heat-management) with good reliability. The NV+ i already got is stocked with 2TB Seagate drives SV35.5, with 5 year warranty, but since then there has been a few new drives released to the market, some better, some worse. So i started snooping about. Turns out the Pipeline series from Seagate could suit my needs fairly well, but when i went to check retailers i got confusing information about the warranty period, so i went to Seagate. You'd think it's a fairly straight forward question.

"Hi. I was wondering, what is the warranty period for a retail Seagate Pipeline ST2000VM003. I'd like to know before i buy one."
I couldn't even guess at the response i got.

Thank you for contacting Seagate.

Regarding your email concerning your question. We need the device serial number to determine the warranty status of the device.

If you have additional questions please let us know.

I'm sorry, come again. Serial of a not yet bought drive? How do you get that?
Anyway, so, i expected them to have misunderstood my question, and so asked them again, with the same response in return. So now i'm starting to get a bit pissed of, and send a final message asking them if they are really sure about this pre-sales support, promising that i'd tell everyone i meet, and post on every PC related forum i frequent, about their stupid handling and providing a final chance of providing a answer.

This is what i get in return:

Thank you for contacting Seagate Technical Support.

Unfortunately without a serial number we can not determine the warranty on any specific drive. The normal range is between 2 and 3 years.

I checked the data sheet just to ensure and under 2.13 Warranty it states that we do need a serial number:

http://www.seagate.com/files/staticf...100633414f.pdf

We always suggest to purchase a drive with a retailer to ensure a better warranty period.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact Seagate Technical Support.

Best regards

Kerstin

Are they for real? Of course i'm going to buy a retail drive from a retailer, what else, travel to a local (in sweden?) factory outlet, and buy a rejected 'retail' (as if) drive of the guy in the garbage room? How about they specify the warranty period one of these drives come with when they are sold as new... I've pretty much given up on Seagate at this point. Is there anyone else that can help Seagate with the warranty period for a retail pipeline drive sold in the EU? 1, 2, 3, 5 years? Oh, and feel free to spread the word, the support isn't able to provide any pre-sales support, what so ever. Unless you include the "If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact Seagate Technical Support." bit that isn't really that helpful...
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[Steve R Jones]

According to this page: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822178271


Limited Warranty period (parts): 3 years
Limited Warranty period (labor): 3 years


Course you know the part about warranties aren't much more than a marketing tools. It looks good on paper that a part has a long warranty period. Makes use consumers think that if they stand behind a product for a long time then it must be good

[Zyko]

I'm located in Sweden, and my more local online retailers has warranty period specified as 2, 3 or "?" years. Hence i asked Seagate the question, to me it's basic math. Longer warranty means it's worth a few extra coins as i can get it replaced for that much longer. It's not much about the quality of the product, but more about luck of the draw. After 5 years, it's more likely not to be a bad drive, and will break down first as it wears out, after a 2 year warranty your only still breaking it in, and cant even start to guess if it's going to die soon or not... Well, sort of. When i can, i pay a little extra for the longer warranty. Right now it looks like my build gets WD's red drives.
B!