Hitachi won't honour OEM warrenty

[Mercutio]

Just had this conversation with a Hitachi rep on the website tech chat thing:

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You are now chatting with 'Michael E.'
Michael E.: Thank you for using Hitachi GST's On-line Chat. How may I help you today?
Paul: hiya
Paul: have a tiachi 160GB deskstar
Michael E.: Hello Paul
Paul: hitachi*
Paul: now the sites giving me a response of "return to vendor" when I enter my serial
Paul: is this as it out of manufact warrenty?
Michael E.: What is the serial number of the drive?
Paul: CDEXXX5D
Michael E.: Thank you. One moment while I look that up.
Paul: to avoid other formalities its definitely the drive, have tried it on various cables in system and this one drive will usually not be detected by system, other drives on same cables (even other deskstars) are fine.
Paul: thanks for checking
Michael E.: Thank you for waiting, do you bougth the drive separete or in a system?
Paul: seperate - was purchased from a trade fair so going back to the "shop" is rather difficult
Michael E.: Do you have a proof of purchase for me?
Michael E.: and I need your name and adress to create a case for you.
Paul: hmmm... not sure on proof of purchase - if i dont have it will i definitely not be able to RMA?
Paul: As for name and address: Mr P Editted, Editted St, Editted, S2 Edit, UK
Michael E.: Where do you bought the drive?
Paul: It was from a trade fair - basically a hall where shops come and have a "market stall" in a sports hall etc. They are only there 1 weekend a month and not sure if the same shop would still have a stand there
Paul: was purchased new, sealed etc just not from a permanent shop
Michael E.: Your case number is 7xx-2xx-1-3xx-x
Paul: ok - what happens now?
Michael E.: You don't have a little bill, anything with a name from the reseller or with a prices?
Paul: I can look but dont think so, i HAD a recipt but over a year ago and likely lost
Michael E.: Sorry without a proof of purchaes we don't can help, do you can go to the trade fair and look for the shop?
Paul: ahh can try but long time since i was there, been again once since and not seen them there
Paul: why is the proof of purchase needed? If i have a drive of yours thats faulty at some point it would come back up the chain from the supplier i bought it off to replace either way?
Michael E.: The serial number you provided appears to be tracing to a drive that was originally sold to a system manufacturer for use in one of their systems.
Michael E.: When a drive is sold in a specific model system, the warranty for the drive is handled by that system manufacturer.
Michael E.: The problem is, you have a OEM drive
Paul: ahhh - i see. Ok... just to test - i bought 2 drives in a pair, would you like the serial of the other to check?
Michael E.: yes please
Paul: CDEXXXYD
Michael E.: one moment i will look for you
Paul: drives are often sold like this in the UK... if you look at http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=14&subid=167 they are a huge retailer and all the drives they sell are OEM
Paul: it was purchased as a bare drive in an anti-static bag in a shipping box
Michael E.: Can you please wait for one moment as I have to answer the telephone. Thankyou.
Paul: sure
Michael E.: Can you please wait for one moment as I have to answer the telephone. Thankyou.
Michael E.: Thank for waiting.
Paul: no problem
Michael E.: this is an OEM drive too.
Paul: the sites like overclockers.co.uk, "smallandtothepoint.co.uk", "onlinebuyer.co.uk" all sell OEM drives with "3 year warrenty" is theis warrenty not valid then?
Paul: ive RMA'd drives bought from these sources for other manufacturers before too (had a maxtor i had to return and the OEM status of the drive didnt cause any problems)
Michael E.: they handled the warranty without us
Paul: in the case of the maxtor it was an RMA to maxtor themselves
Paul: its something I should bring up on the forums of these sites if so, if people are left without any cover by buying your drives from these sources they should probably want to buy another brand?

Interesting - it seems the "3 year warrenty" doesnt apply? This is admittedly without proof of purchase but the likes of maxtor/western digital (2 i've dealt with) seem happy to go with just the serial. Comments?

Edit: Editted out other site names!

 

[Five_Star]

Sounds like its gonna be a nightmare to get this sorted. I've never bought from a computer fair but if what they are saying about buying oem drives from other bigger retailers i don't think i'll be buying from Hitachi!!

 

[Trippynet]

Not good at all. I had a Seagate OEM drive go a while back (several years back) and one quick phone call later and they happily issued me with an RMA for it. I agree that proof of purchase shouldn't normally be necessary. It's one of their products and it's packed in within the warranty period. Hmm.

 

[Phil99]

Might want to edit your address out there

I can't see why they wouldn't honour it though if the drive is still in warranty period starting from manufacture

Perhaps you could 'create' proof of purchase from this computer fair and say you've found it A simple invoice done in MS Word would do

 

[Amp34]

If this is true people that bought from OC and other sites shouldn't have a problem as I am sure we can demand a replacement due to them advertising the 3yr warrenty wrong. For you though I don't know.

 

[Mercutio]

Might want to edit your address out there

Thanks!

Perhaps you could 'create' proof of purchase from this computer fair and say you've found it A simple invoice done in MS Word would do

And this is being considered

 

[Slackworth]

If you buy a Hitachi from us then you will have no problems with the warranty.

 

[IAmATeaf]

Aren't there 2 types of OEMs drives?

There are OEM drives that etailers and shops sell and then there are OEM drives that system builders use, these drives normally only have a years warranty and the warranty is with the system builder and not the drive manufacturer.

I've got some WD IDE drives like this where putting in the serial number on-line tells to me effectively naff off

 

[Cyber-Mav]

best thing to learn from this is the stay away from hitachi and stick to WD, Seagate and the others.

 

[smids]

There is some confusion here.

Some OEM drives are sold to System builders - these will ONLY be warrantied by the system builder e.g. Dell, Fujitsu, IBM etc.

Other OEM drives (which I'll call bare drives), are sold to component shops like OcUK so they can sell to 'system builders' like you and me.

These bare drives have full warranty and will be honoured. The former are not.

This applies to all manufacturers of drives... which is why, when you use the online checker, it sometimes says 'Contact reseller' or some such - these drives came as part of a system.

This should not deter you from Hitachi as this applies to all.

 

[Avalon]

I had the same thing with drives sold from broken dell's a long time back - again Hitachi, my oem drive (45 series aka dethstars oddly enough purchased from a retailer at a fair) was covered but the two x dell drives were not - I coud see on the lable they had dell branding to be fair. They aren't being dodgy with you but you purchased it from a fair, you should know who you got it from and if they indcate on the reciept it's got 3 years then that's with them (the company you purchased it from) but if you find it I suspect it'll be 12 months RTB like almost every other outfit.

Motto: Buy your drives from a reputable source next time and keep your paperwork with all your other paperwork somwhere safe!