We’ve seen many different variations on the Grocery Shrink Ray over the years, but somehow never anticipated this: a Warranty Shrink Ray. A sneaky tipster who works at Best Buy noticed that the same product, a Seagate hard drive for notebook computers, had a lovely redesigned box. And a few years lopped off the warranty. Much like how other products change the size of an item just a tiny bit rather than raising the price, Seagate cut back on the warranty. [More]
Seagate Replaces Suspiciously Sparking Power Plug
By January 6, 2011
It’s a common theme in “above and beyond” posts: a customer contacts a company asking where he or she can buy a certain small part for their widget, and the company sends the part for free–or a new widget entirely. Today, we honor Seagate, which sent globe-trotting academic Donna a new power cord and international plug thingies for her external hard drive when her American plug began to misbehave. [More]
Write On Your Hard Drive, Kill The Warranty
By September 8, 2010
Scott warns you to use stickers rather than Sharpies to label your hard drives, because a pen mark is apparently all it takes to invalidate your warranty. [More]
Join The Latest And Greatest Class Action Lawsuits
By April 1, 2010
If you got some free time and want some cash and are cool with waiting a few months for it to arrive, here are some new class action lawsuits you can join. [More]
Seagate CSR: "Since You Know Better Then We Do, Im Sure You Dont Need Our Assistance"
By June 14, 2009
If Seagate tells you to call Microsoft for technical support, don’t talk back or you’re going to get an earful. At least that’s what reader K. learned when he called to ask why his external drive worked well under Vista, but not XP. Seagate’s customer service representative immediately blamed the problem on Microsoft, and when K. tried explaining why the problem might lie with Seagate, the CSR responded: “Well since you know better then we do, Im sure you dont need our assistance.”
Seagate Censoring Posts About Barrucada 7200.11 500GB Drive Failures
By January 29, 2009
A number of consumers are complaining about their Seagate Barrucada 7200.11 500GB hard drive failures, and the company is censoring them. While Seagate has issued a firmware upgrade, it doesn’t work if your drive has already been affected, like reader Danny, who just lost all his research material and papers for school. According to some posts on MSFN, moderators on the official Seagate forums are deleting user posts about the issue, and even going so far as to disabling links made on the Seagate forums to posts on other forums about the issue. Danny’s letter, inside…
Secret Phone Numbers And Email Addresses To Reach Executives At 101+ Companies
By November 7, 2008
Inside, email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses for over 100 different companies to inject your customer service complaints into their corporate executive offices, and get it well on the way to success.
Apple Replaces Hundreds Of Dollars In iTunes Purchases After Hard Drive Crashes
By April 25, 2008
Like any responsible computer user, Benny regularly backs up his data. Unfortunately for him, the three Seagate external hard drives he used failed, and he lost about $500 in iTunes purchases. Seagate wanted $1700 to recover the data. Fortunately, Apple saved the day.
Does Anyone At Dell Handle Busted Hard Drives?
By September 23, 2007
Nobody at Dell can help Kevin return two broken hard drives. Kevin’s Seagate 320GB FreeAgent drive refuses to power on, and his 160GB Western Digital won’t boot. Kevin sent Dell a note after wrangling with eleven CSRs over five hours:
I called tonight due to 2 harddrives I purchased 26 days ago. Both drives have completely failed. One is knocking and the other won’t power on at all. I called Dell and have been transferred to 11 people and 3 different calls:
