Venting: (not) Buying Hard Drive(s) In Thailand!

[Rice_King]

I am turned off from buying a new hard drive in Thailand. I'll only buy mine in Singapore now. Why?

Because everywhere I have shopped for one here in Pattaya has had the drive's packaging (anti-static bag) opened and re-sealed with tape. I assume Panthip and Fortune in Bangkok do the same?

When I questioned the shopkeepers why they open the sealed bags, they say it so they can affix their shop's warranty sticker to the hard drive. This practice prevents me from giving the local shops my business. I want to be certain that I am buying a NEW hard drive. NOT a used one. The open bags just give me too many doubts.

The question begs: Why do the retailers insist on placing this useless sticker on a new product? I say "useless" because that is exactly what the "sticker" procedure is, since the drives have a manufacturer's warranty anyhow. Each drive has a serial number and the build date stamped on them. The warranties are for a pre-defined period. Most manufacturers warranty their drives for 3 or 5 years.

Whenever my hard drives fail, I never take it back to the store for replacement. Instead, I go directly to the maker's website and enter the drive's serial number. The website then tells me that the drive is indeed covered by their warranty and what steps I need to complete to send it back to them. This often entails requesting a RMA (Return to Manufacturer Authorization) from them. Sometimes, they also want the error code from diagnostic software they provide on their website. (This is to ensure that the drive really is faulty.) Then I ship the bad drive to them directly. They, in turn, promptly mail a replacement drive back.

I have done this procedure with Hitachi, Seagate, and Maxtor drives. I've sent hard drives from systems that were originally purchased by someone else, which I received second-hand. I have had very positive experiences. Seagate returned a 300 GB for a bad 200 GB I sent them. I have never had to wait more than 7 days for a replacement drive.

I have learned, when possible, to keep the layers of bureaucracy to an absolute minimum. When you involve a third party whose rationalization might be, "What is in this for me?" there just isn't anything to motivate them into helping you.

Recently, a friend's new hard drive failed. He returned it to the store where he bought it just a few months previously. That was over six weeks ago and he is still waiting on a replacement drive.

[Phil Conners]

Good point!

[h90]

I bought arround 10 drives at panthip and every time I bought one, they opened the drives package when I was there and put the sticker, so I saw it was closed before (it was hardware house).

the sticker is also so they know you did not opend the drive.

your process for warranty seems very slow and difficult. I go there, give them the drive and get a different in exchange within 5 min. not 7 days (hardware house pantip) (even drive is already 2 years old).

if it is in the sealed package or not does not mean anything because the machine for sealing it costs 500 Baht.

[Phil Conners]

I go there, give them the drive and get a different in exchange within 5 min. not 7 days (hardware house pantip) (even drive is already 2 years old).

Wow that is one unusual place!

Here in Pattaya you have 7 days to EXCHANGE anything with a problem. After that it's "Please wait 3 months while we send it to Bangkok for repairs"!

One time I came back with a dead memory stick. It wasn't Kingston but one of the others, can't remember the name, Rambo or whatnot, with a bright orange sticker on it saying "LIFETIME WARRENTY". Girl in the shop explained me seriously that LIFETIME means 3 months.

Edited February 24, 2006 by madsere

[Firefoxx]

The common method is to tear open the antistatic bag only a little bit, enough to put the sticker on. If your bag is completely open, then go buy at some other place. The sticker *has* to be placed there, or else it would be too much trouble to find out which distributor sold it and when it was sold (there is no central database that has barcodes and dates of sale here, as there are plenty of distributors for any single product). It helps facilitate the warranty process, or rather, it makes the warranty process possible (in Thailand). If your harddisk has to be pristine, then by all means buy it from outside Thailand.

The "warranty sticker" (Thais call it "void", or rather "woy") method has been in use for a long time now. Why? Because the RMA process isn't very practical in Thailand. The process of sending anything overseas (and that's what you'll have to do, since there are practically no locally represented harddrive companies that will accept RMAs in Thailand) and then waiting for a return is just not what you normally do, when you can get a "claim" from the local distributor. *If* you have a sticker. The distributor will place their sticker, and from that you (or the shop) know where to send it to. Or, you can go to the shop (which usually also places their own sticker), and ask them to process it. Since most people don't keep their receipts, having a sticker to tell them when they bought the thing and where they bought it is a huge help. The system generally works. If your shop is treating you badly, stop taking your business there. If they're taking their time with the warranty process, go directly to the distributor, or go to another shop.

What I find strange is your record of being able to communicate directly with the manufacturers, and doing the RMA process directly. When I was working with a local distributor (of the now defunct Quantum drives) in Thailand, it was well known that the manufacturer would *not* accept directly claims origininating in Thailand, and that all claims were to be handled by the distributor. It's the norm in the US, but unheard of here. Perhaps this has changed, but frankly I would rather take my harddisk to the local service center and have it exchanged within the hour.

I had some PQI (no-name, like Rambo) RAM fail after a year of use. It also had "lifetime warranty". I brought it to the shop (I knew which shop, because of the sticker), and they knew where to send it to (because of the sticker) and that it had a lifetime warranty (because of the sticker).

I have 7 desktop PCs, and 17 notebooks (among my family of 4). I have no idea where the receipts of each component of each PC/notebook is, yet I will know where to send the stuff to if it ever breaks, and whether it's still within warranty. All because of the pesky stickers.

It's not a perfect system, but it works, at least here.

And here it is folks, from https://www4.maxtor.com/en/support/service/rma/create/

"Online RMA creation is supported for Pan America, Europe, Middle East, and Africa only. Customers residing in Asia Pacific should go back to their place of purchase to obtain a RMA, for any problems please contact support.) "

[Wallalai]

Just bought an HD in Panthip Chiangmai a few weeks ago, the antistatic bac was sealed and opened just in front of me to place the sticker. Never saw an opened bag.

[stumonster]

I had the adsl modem in my SMC 7904 WBRA stop working on me late in january , and even though it has a 3year warranty sticker ( DCOM) on it , I could not remember which shop I purchased it from and could not find the reciept. I decided I would just buy a new one and use the old one as a router/wifi access point.

So I purchased a new one and its adsl modem went the same way , so I took my reciept and the SMC barricade back to the shop in panthip I had purchased it from , and they told me to follow some one up to the 5th floor where the service center is . the girl took me up there filled out a form ( simple - name , phone number , manuf , model , serial ) and gave me a queue number . I sat down for 5 minutes waiting and the girl called my number , I took the form and my barricade to her , she entered the info on her comp took the barricade and asked me to sit till my name was called by a bloke at another counter - another 5 mins waiting and he called me over , got me to sign a form and gave me a new barricade. I was very happy with the result and now intend to take my other barricade back to be replaced.

the DCOM service centre is on the 5 th floor of panthip at the back near the car parking.

[Axel]

....with a bright orange sticker on it saying "LIFETIME WARRENTY". Girl in the shop explained me seriously that LIFETIME means 3 months.

Great, I always wondered what lifetime means. Once the drive is dead, the life is gone, no guarantee...

No sure if I am joking.