Seagate not honouring hard drive that's 'out of warranty'.

B0bbyEwing

Not quite sure what's going on here. In 2024 I bought a Seagate hard drive from Amazon. Going in to my order history, under the listing title it says "visit the seagate store" so I'm presuming it was sold by Seagate via Amazon?

C.D.I. has given me a warning about the drive so I thought I'd contact them regarding the warranty since on the sales page on Amazon it says "limited 5yr coverage" & 2yr data recovery. I'm guessing coverage is warranty? Since we're not talking about mobile signals here!

Anyway I contact Seagate & they tell me the driver has been out of warranty since 2024. I bought it in the last quarter of the year so that's not even a years warranty.

Not quite sure what's going on.

jaybeetoo

Have you sent Seagate a copy of your receipt?

jim1999

There's a major issue with drives being reset, moved across borders etc. It's very easy to buy a drive that seems new and legit, but isn't, and then you can discover that the warranty isn't what you thought it was.

No idea if that's what's happened to you, but it is remarkably common. I doubt it came from Seagate to you, especially given the situation you're describing.

B0bbyEwing

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81895141#Comment_81895141

Yes. I'm waiting on their response.

MattMattMattUK

What does it say on the "Sold by:" section on the downloadable invoice for that order on Amazon? As Jim says there are a lot of grey imports, repackaged used drives and even cheap drives rebadged as major manufacturers products. Seagate drives are warranty from date of manufacture unless sold via an official authorised reseller, Amazon is one of those, but almost all third party sellers on Amazon are not.

B0bbyEwing

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81895210#Comment_81895210

Ah I've just seen it now.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/sp?ie=UTF8&seller=A5Y5ZDGV1AKXL

Them guys.

So I'm guessing Seagate are going to say - well you didn't buy it from us so unlucky pal, not our concern.

MattMattMattUK

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81895302#Comment_81895302

Yes, they are not an authorised reseller, they are not even a real business, their VAT number returns a private individual who apparently trades from a defunct HMRC office. Your consumer rights would be against the entity you bought it from, so nothing to do with Seagate.

Seagate can have any warranty terms they like, which includes requiring purchase from an authorised reseller to gain any kind of extended warranty and that would be if the drive was a European drive, or even a genuine Seagate drive in the first place. Saving a few pounds by buying from an unauthorised third party seller is rarely if ever worth it.

B0bbyEwing

So how then can this seller advertise selling drives with a 5yr warranty?

Or is this just some random bloke selling things he's no intentions of delivering on & needs reporting?

MattMattMattUK

This is a "random bloke" selling things, he had the intention of delivering a hard drive which is what you got. He was not an authorised reseller so the five year limited warranty would not apply even if the drive is genuine and a European model.

He will have picked the standard listing for the drive, which includes the full manufacturer description, the listed using that. His claim of the warranty applying is incorrect.

You can report his to Amazon if you want, they may make him amend his listings, or they may if multiple people complain kick him off but as hard drives rarely fail in warranty periods as their MTBF is normally well in excess of those it is unlikely that many people will have issues.

victor2

This is why I always buy items sold by Amazon if possible, although sometimes it isn't and you have to gamble that it will be OK.

I've had stuff shipped by Amazon but sold by another party and Amazon have refunded me when the item failed because they couldn't replace it.

wongataa

under the listing title it says "visit the seagate store" so I'm presuming it was sold by Seagate via Amazon?

That does not mean that all. Amazon just aggregates items with the same brand into one place an calls it a 'store'. The actual items are sold by a variety of vendors. The 'store' is nothing to do with the brand name.