RMAing a drive? They literally asked me nothing? Is this normal?

[Automatic]

So, I'm RMAing a SeaGate drive that I've had for about a year, I was going through the steps, first was "Input your serial number", then "Input your address", Then "Where do you want to ship to?" and finally "Submit order"?

 

I've yet to submit the order, but, aren't I meant to tell them what's wrong with my device? They seem to have asked me zero questions what-so-ever.

[StevenD]

Seagate usually asks for the SEATOOLS code.  But its not absolutely required.

[ZeroK]

I've sent 8 seagate drives back, 4 this year, 4 last year.  All 8 of them all I had to do was supply serial number, box it according to their guidelines and pay for shipping it.  About two-three weeks later you get a confirmation email that a drive is on it's way back to you depending on whether they covered the warranty or not.

 

I've had drives that had no problems with them just had a lot of bad sectors and they had no issues accepting them.  As long as it's under warranty and it was packaged good I don't see them having a problem with sending out a replacement drive to you.  Out of the 8 I've sent in, I've only had to send one of the replacements back within 60 days of receiving it because it completely died and it too was covered under warranty.

[mrow]

WD and Seagate will usually replace a drive, no questions asked, as long as it's under warranty. Keep in mind you're not always going to get a new drive back. RMA'd a Seagate recently and got a refurbished drive back. The refurb will still have a warranty of its own though.

[garycase]

As mrow noted, both WD and Seagate replaced failed drives with drives in their repaired inventory ... i.e. these are usually refurbished drives.    They do, however, inherit the warranty of the replaced drive.

 

So the replacement drive's warranty will expire on the same day your original drive's warranty did.

 

You can confirm that with a "warranty check" using the replacement drive's serial number.    Interestingly, if you do an "Advanced Replacement" with WD, when you get the new drive it will show a 30-day warranty if you do the check;  but if you check again when they receive your old drive back it will have been updated to the correct date.    Drives replaced in the normal "send it back; then they send you the replacement" method will simply show the correct warranty expiration date when you receive them.

 

[Radagast]

I've recently RMA'd a couple drives with Seagate that were not dead, but had a number of reallocated sectors.  I confirmed with a Seagate rep before RMAing that this was sufficient cause for it to be replaced under warranty.  As mentioned above, I've gotten the impression that while they reserve the right to return your fully functioning drive and charge you for all the shipping, in actuality they seem to take anything you send in.

 

Edit:  And I received two refurbished drives from Seagate for the two I RMA'd.  They definitely aren't new, but oh well, they are in better shape than my returned ones.