I purchased a Seagate GoFlex external hard drive at Best Buy in Conroe, TX on February 16th. I brought the drive home and installed it that evening. The drive immediately started disconnecting and reconnecting, reinitializing the USB port each time and popping up a dialog box. I took the drive (with all packaging) back to my local Best Buy in Arlington, TX the next day. After having their "Geek Squad" check out the drive, the store employee brought the drive back to the service counter and informed me that it was indeed defective, but they could not do an exchange or refund because the serial number on the drive did not match the serial number on the box it came in. $130.00, donated to Best Buy/Seagate!!!
I initially assumed Best Buy was scamming me, but after reading all of the scam reports here on Seagate, it is perfectly clear that Best Buy and Seagate are partnering on this particular ripoff scheme. I had noticed that in recent years, Best Buy would find ways to avoid doing exchanges/refunds even in the most clear-cut cases where the customer was eligible for such, so I have finally learned my lesson.
From now on, I will always ask for any electronics item I'm going to purchase to be opened to make sure the serial number on the product matches the serial number on the packaging. If the store won't allow the item to be opened, I'll either go off and open it myself, or buy the product elsewhere.
But I will never step foot into another Best Buy or buy another Seagate product.
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