The great HD rip off

hedgey

hedgey

hedgey

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Seagate on Tuesday reported financial results for the quarter ended December 30, 2011. Shipments of hard disk drives (HDDs) dropped only 3.1% in terms of units, but at the same time the Seagate's earnings increased by 18.5%, whereas the company's profitability rose whopping 375%.


This is off a per unit increase of $2.50 due to the flooding. We are being fleeced.
 
Seagate came out the best of all the hard drive manufacturers.

Western Digital and other manufacturers were harder hit.

So now you have a fall in the overall shipments of hard drives, which means much higher demand for the products coming to market. That's where the price rises came from.
For another example, see the 7970 / 7950 launch. Some stock with high prices to stop them selling out instantly.
 
The fat cats will always find a way to line their pockets, what really annoys me though is the normal working man or woman that defend these money grabbers.
 
Neo Speaker drivers have gone up in price also, it's not just hard drives. An Eminence 3015LF for example was around £130 and it is now around £200.

Saying that, if you think they are too expensive then vote with your wallet and just don't buy any hard drives until the price has come down to what you see as reasonable.
 
MikeHunt79 said:
Neo Speaker drivers have gone up in price also, it's not just hard drives. An Eminence 3015LF for example was around £130 and it is now around £200.

Saying that, if you think they are too expensive then vote with your wallet and just don't buy any hard drives until the price has come down to what you see as reasonable.
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UNfortunately people are too greedy/impatient/stupid for this, had no one bought a 7970 so far, hell if they didn't buy any for a week they'd have dropped in price.

To be fair though, Seagate can and should have had months of supply in stock elsewhere. Its very possible for most of the financial hit to essentially be delayed by a quarter.

If their production went kaput whenever, but their stock only ran out say late december. But because of the upcoming stock shortage due to months of no production, they would increase prices for 3 months..... then have nothing to sell for the next three months... then the production lag is over and they can start shipping again.

IE, one awesome quarter followed by one terrible quarter, then back to normal.
 
Of course its a rip off, its because there's sweet f-all anyone can do about it. I won't buy an HDs until prices are reasonable again but repair centers and manufactures have no choice if they want to continue business.

I'm one of the 3.1% who have a choice, everyone else just has to suffer.
 
I hardly see at a rip off, merely someting we'd expect from capitalism. It's the business of making profit. If a products OEM and/ raw materials increase in price, then the hit isn't going to be realised on the profit, instead the unit price is increased maintaining the same profit margin. That's just business.
 
MikeHunt79 said:
Neo Speaker drivers have gone up in price also, it's not just hard drives. An Eminence 3015LF for example was around £130 and it is now around £200.
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Firstly, the massive devaluation in the UK pound over the past few years would account for a large part of that increase (Making importing the raw ingredients and components expensive). The remaining amount is probably because the cost of production has gone up, plus inflation. The joys of recession.

hedgey said:
Seagate didnt lose anything from the flood.
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True, but their component manufacturers did. Especially NIDEC, who produce most of the hard drive motors for the world.
 
Admiral Huddy said:
I hardly see at a rip off, merely someting we'd expect from capitalism. It's the business of making profit. If a products OEM and/ raw materials increase in price, then the hit isn't going to be realised on the profit, instead the unit price is increased maintaining the same profit margin. That's just business.
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I can agree with this. It is, after all, all about the black and the red.

However, the sad fact is that if the seller has an excuse to hike up prices (even a short-term legitimate one), they will not readjust prices to pre-hike levels for much longer than necessary.

It is likely that this latest opportunity is like gold dust for the HDD manufacturers, because there is no onus on them to say when their manufacturing capabilities are restored, and they can go on charging a 100% markup to all prices, effectively doubling profit.
 
Where possible I would always use Western Digital. Its a real shame they dont sell SSDs

I have used their warranty service 3 times on drives that are almost 3 years old. They always send out new drives before you return the old one, fast delivery and generally great customer service

I had a Seagate years ago and the customer service was poor
 
IvanDobskey said:
Ive just delayed buying another hard drive until prices return to normal, simple.
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I was planning on picking up a whole bunch of 2TB drives to replace the 1TB drives in my file server. As it is I held off a few months then picked up a single 2TB to tide me over **No competitor hinting ** When prices get back down to ~£50 (which they should do once 4TB drives arrive on mass) I'll get the rest.
 
hedgey said:
Seagate didnt lose anything from the flood.
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They didn't need to loose anything, Western Digital lost most of there production capabilities, with no major competitors Seagate can charge what they like without loosing market share. Once Western Digital are back up to full production we'll see some nice price cuts as Western Digital try to win back a bigger share of the market.
 
Guest2 said:
Where possible I would always use Western Digital. Its a real shame they dont sell SSDs

I have used their warranty service 3 times on drives that are almost 3 years old. They always send out new drives before you return the old one, fast delivery and generally great customer service

I had a Seagate years ago and the customer service was poor
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Couldn't agree more. Each to their own but for the reasoning you gave I will never buy anything other than WD.
 
Yamahahahahaha said:
Firstly, the massive devaluation in the UK pound over the past few years would account for a large part of that increase (Making importing the raw ingredients and components expensive). The remaining amount is probably because the cost of production has gone up, plus inflation. The joys of recession.
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Doesn't really wash, the pound has been pretty static against pretty much all major currencies for the past 3 years, if anything its appreciated slightly (3 years ago the dollar was 1.4, its about 1.55 now)
 
You got to shop around i seen 2TB hard drives just the other day for £65 plus delivery. You have to remember shops wont let prices drop while they can make extra profit on them.
 
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