neilt0 Posted December 15, 2011 Posted December 15, 2011 Who needs competition? http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/15/wd_warranty_period_cuts/ "But you'll be able to buy it back, maybe! By Chris Mellor Posted in Storage, 15th December 2011 08:33 GMT Western Digital is cutting the distribution warranty period for Caviar Blue, Caviar Green and Scorpio Blue drives from three to two years. Channel partners have been sent a letter from SelectWD explaining this, which says Caviar Black and Scorpio Black drives will continue to enjoy a five-year warranty. We understand WD's AV drives and its external drives have unchanged warranty periods. The SelectWD letter says: This new warranty policy will be effective for drives shipped from January 2nd, 2012. It is important that you take a moment to update your website(s) and collateral to reflect this change for effected drives shipped after January 1st, 2012. All drives shipped to distributors prior to Jan. 2nd 2012 will retain the current warranty terms. Because of existing inventory in the distribution channel there will be a short period of time when some drives with a 3-year warranty will be sold at the same time as drives with a 2-year warranty. If you have any doubt about the warranty of a drive you purchased, you can go to support.wdc.com, select Warranty and RMA Services and proceed to the Warranty Check page. The letter goes on to say: "In the near future we will be unveiling an extended warranty offering with special pricing." We have asked WD for comment but the company wasn't able to immediately respond. ®"
queeg Posted December 15, 2011 Posted December 15, 2011 Who needs competition? http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/15/wd_warranty_period_cuts/ "But you'll be able to buy it back, maybe! By Chris Mellor Posted in Storage, 15th December 2011 08:33 GMT Western Digital is cutting the distribution warranty period for Caviar Blue, Caviar Green and Scorpio Blue drives from three to two years. Channel partners have been sent a letter from SelectWD explaining this, which says Caviar Black and Scorpio Black drives will continue to enjoy a five-year warranty. We understand WD's AV drives and its external drives have unchanged warranty periods. The SelectWD letter says: This new warranty policy will be effective for drives shipped from January 2nd, 2012. It is important that you take a moment to update your website(s) and collateral to reflect this change for effected drives shipped after January 1st, 2012. All drives shipped to distributors prior to Jan. 2nd 2012 will retain the current warranty terms. Because of existing inventory in the distribution channel there will be a short period of time when some drives with a 3-year warranty will be sold at the same time as drives with a 2-year warranty. If you have any doubt about the warranty of a drive you purchased, you can go to support.wdc.com, select Warranty and RMA Services and proceed to the Warranty Check page. The letter goes on to say: "In the near future we will be unveiling an extended warranty offering with special pricing." We have asked WD for comment but the company wasn't able to immediately respond. ®" I guess they have questions about the *post-flood* manufacturing and want to cut the warranty back so they limit the downside when all the drives start failing early.
WeeboTech Posted December 15, 2011 Posted December 15, 2011 Maybe this could lead to lower prices on hard drives. Those who want a longer warranty will purchase the extension.
neilt0 Posted December 15, 2011 Author Posted December 15, 2011 I guess they have questions about the *post-flood* manufacturing and want to cut the warranty back so they limit the downside when all the drives start failing early. I'm sure it's more about the reduced level of competition with the acquisitions of Hitachi and Samsung drive operations.
PeterB Posted December 16, 2011 Posted December 16, 2011 The SelectWD letter says: ... It is important that you take a moment to update your website(s) and collateral to reflect this change for effected drives shipped after January 1st, 2012. It would be good if the staff preparing press releases knew some English grammar!
srogala Posted December 19, 2011 Posted December 19, 2011 Seagate even managed to one-up them http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/western_digital_cuts_hard_drive_warranties_%E2%80%93_seagate_follows_suit
neilt0 Posted December 19, 2011 Author Posted December 19, 2011 WD should two up SG and drop the warranty to 6 months. SG then go to 3 months, WD to 30 days and then there's no bloody warranty. DOA? Tough. Interestingly in the UK, time limited manufacturer warranties are (in theory) irrelevant. If you buy a (say) washing machine with a 1 year warranty and it dies after 3 years, you still have a right to claim (via the retailer) that it died prematurely and that it is repaired or replaced. UK law states that you can claim up to six years after purchase, but it's based on how long something should "reasonably expect to last". That's vague and after 6 months, the onus is on the purchaser to prove. Virtually no-one knows about this law, but it could be useful. EU law is better -- it's two years, no matter what the mfr says: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-1677034/Two-year-warranty-EU-law.html
WeeboTech Posted December 19, 2011 Posted December 19, 2011 If this pushes the drive prices down even further, I don't see this as being so bad. Within a year or so, technology gets better. By the time you invest the $10-$20 in packing/shipping, you could invest that into a new hard drive. Where it could really harm us all is in the amount of hardware that ends up in the dumps, rather then recycled by the manufacture.
kizer Posted December 19, 2011 Posted December 19, 2011 I think this is WD's way of saying we've lost our @$$ in the flood and we need to find ways to recover our future losses. Oh instead of shipping out free drives we can just force others to buy warranties they probably wont need anyways and we can make some extra cash. Kinda reminds of me the Brick and Motar stores that try to see you the extended warranties on stuff they sell when you know things are typically going to die within 6months or go years without failure. As for the thought that drives can be had at a cheaper price. I wouldn't count on it helping. LOL
Johnm Posted December 19, 2011 Posted December 19, 2011 I am sure this is a sign of things to come now that the drive companies went from 5 to 3 and the big competition vanishes. This is why they try to stop monopolies...
jumperalex Posted December 19, 2011 Posted December 19, 2011 Hate to say it but anyone who thinks prices will go down as a result are simply living in LaLa land. It just means prices for the "enterprise" versions with longer warranties will go up, while all others stay the same. If prices go down at this point it will only be because supply picks up again as plants come back on line. It sure as heck won't be from the reduce warranty costs.
Johnm Posted December 19, 2011 Posted December 19, 2011 Hate to say it but anyone who thinks prices will go down as a result are simply living in LaLa land. It just means prices for the "enterprise" versions with longer warranties will go up, while all others stay the same. If prices go down at this point it will only be because supply picks up again as plants come back on line. It sure as heck won't be from the reduce warranty costs. I tend to agree. Now that there are only 2 big players in the hard drive world (and Toshiba), the drive price wars are over. I don't think we will see ultra low price undercutting again.. or not for a long time... The flooding even compounded the issue more.
WeeboTech Posted December 19, 2011 Posted December 19, 2011 Hate to say it but anyone who thinks prices will go down as a result are simply living in LaLa land. It just means prices for the "enterprise" versions with longer warranties will go up, while all others stay the same. If prices go down at this point it will only be because supply picks up again as plants come back on line. It sure as heck won't be from the reduce warranty costs. I don't think prices will go down as a result of warranty change. Yet it will change how long manufactures support and keep specific parts or models around too. Eventually they will be producing more newer drives, rather then refurbishing older ones. As supply picks up and technology changes, who knows what we'll see in the future. At the current time if a 1TB drive dies, I weigh the cost of a new 2-3TB drive vs the shipping and RMA cost vs how much space I need. I have a few 1TB drives sitting around for RMA just because it was cost effective to go out and buy a new drive. What concerns me is the manufactures may not have confidence in their product's longevity since the flooding (and possibly ruined equipment).
kizer Posted December 20, 2011 Posted December 20, 2011 I'm so glad I kept my Colorado 120MB backup drive and tapes. LOL
WeeboTech Posted December 20, 2011 Posted December 20, 2011 I'm so glad I kept my Colorado 120MB backup drive and tapes. LOL I gots me a whole box of dem... In fact I have boxes of 8MM, 4MM, QIC-40,80 Travan-3.... Sheesh I gotta throw this stuff out now that I think of it. (and to think, My friend just gave be a box load of SCSI SCA drives and small Sata drives along with 6 DP 604pin XEON Servers). Time to start dismantling and recycling.
Johnm Posted December 20, 2011 Posted December 20, 2011 I'm so glad I kept my Colorado 120MB backup drive and tapes. LOL It might be time you traded that in for an LTO Ultrium 5 (or even a 4) SuperLoader/autoloader.... (I know, we can dream)
c3 Posted December 20, 2011 Posted December 20, 2011 The T10Kc is the tape drive to get, 10TB capacity, 30yr life (if you believe marketing briefs).
WeeboTech Posted December 20, 2011 Posted December 20, 2011 The T10Kc is the tape drive to get, 10TB capacity, 30yr life (if you believe marketing briefs). What's the cost of a tape?
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