Seagate Downgrading Warranty Again

PohTayToez

PohTayToez

Active Member
Anyone else just get this BS in their inbox?
Update to Seagate Bare Drive Product Warranty Periods
Dear ******,

At Seagate, we are standardizing warranty terms to be more consistent with those commonly applied throughout the consumer electronics and technology industries. By aligning to current industry standards, Seagate can continue to focus its investments on technology innovation and unique product features that drive value for our customers rather than holding long-term reserves for warranty returns.

Therefore, effective December 31, 2011, Seagate will be changing its warranty policy from 5 years to 3 years for nearline drives, 2 years to 1 year for certain desktop and notebook bare drives (5 years to 3 years on Barracuda® XT and Momentus® XT), and from as much as 5 years to 2 years on Consumer Electronics (see table below.)
Product Line Limited Warranty Period
(as of December 31, 2011)
Constellation®.2 and Constellation ES.2 3 years
Barracuda® and Barracuda Green 3.5" Drives 1 year
Barracuda XT 3 years
Momentus® 2.5" Drives (5400 RPM & 7200 RPM) 1 year
Momentus XT 3 years
SV35 Series™ – Video Surveilance 2 years
Pipeline HD® Mini, Pipeline HD 2 years
Products not impacted by this change include: mission critical and retail products.
The new warranty periods will apply to all shipments of applicable products, as of December 31, 2011. Former warranty periods will be honored for all existing channel inventory shipped to you before the effective date. To check the warranty status of a single or multiple drives, you may visit http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/warranty_&_returns_assistance.

Seagate will update its Global Limited Warranty Overview Policy as of December 31, 2011 specifically documenting these changes. The limited warranty included in your agreement with Seagate will continue to apply to these products under the new warranty periods.

Please share the warranty change information with your end customers as you sell your inventory. If you mention warranties online or in printed material, don't forget to update that as well.

As always, we believe in strong communication with our channel partners and appreciate your support and loyalty. Please do not hesitate to contact us via [email protected] if you have any questions, comments, or need any other type of assistance or information regarding the Seagate Partner Program.
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I'd like to make note of this portion:
At Seagate, we are standardizing warranty terms to be more consistent with those commonly applied throughout the consumer electronics and technology industries.
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Sorry, what now? Last I checked Western Digital and most of the other minor players still had 3 and 5 year warranties on their drives. I don't think I've ever bought a new hard drive with only a one year warranty and I don't plan to.
 
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Just another way for them to save a buck. This new plan will basically only cover you from a DOA unit. They just got Samsungs HDD business too didn't they?
 
Products not impacted by this change include: mission critical and retail products.


I would say that this only applies to OEM drives. Companies are starting to do this with OEM. AMD dropped from 3 years to 30 days on OEM processors.
 
You will never see me buy a seagate drive again. I used to go back and forth between seagate and western digital. I may try Samsung as long as Seagate didn't take them over. I still have a Samsung drive going strong and its like 6 years old now.
 
johnb35 said:
You will never see me buy a seagate drive again. I used to go back and forth between seagate and western digital. I may try Samsung as long as Seagate didn't take them over. I still have a Samsung drive going strong and its like 6 years old now.
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The email made it seem like they took Samsung drives over. But AFAIK a lot of the Samsung drives have 3 Years.
 
It will be only matter of time for other manufactures follow suit.
Computer prices these days are a lot cheaper as what they use to be, so I do not think the average consumer will give a rats ass as most people update 2 to 3 years on average to keep pace of technology.;)
 
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How this warranty work? how it apply to the drives that bought a year or two ago? do those drive still have 3 or 5 years? or just expired now?
Thank you.
 
paulcheung said:
How this warranty work? how it apply to the drives that bought a year or two ago? do those drive still have 3 or 5 years? or just expired now?
Thank you.
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That warranty does not change. The new warranty only changes for products purchased after Dec. 31, 2011. You need to go to Seagate's website and plug in your model and serial number in order to find the expiration date of your warranty. If you have not done so, or if you have not yet registered a newly purchased hard drive, I suggest you do it right away, and then keep a copy of the page with the date that is shown, and print the page for proof and your own records.

And this is why I only buy full retail drives and CPUs. To me, a full warranty is worth a couple of bucks more.
 
here's to hoping they lift their game and start making higher quality drives. I won't be buying a new mechanical drive until well after the Thailand flood defecit is over.
 
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