I purchased a Seagate 500GW external hard drive from Costco in Ontario, California. Within 30 days of having the drive, with minimal use, the drive goes into a "standby" mode and will NOT wake up. I called tech support at Seagate, they tell me it's a common problem that computers do not have enough power to power there hard drives. So, they send me free of charge, a cable that has the ability to plug the hard drive into two (2) usb ports simultaneously.
I plug it in and still, it does not wake up. I called technical support again and now they are telling me to send them my hardrive and they will send me another one. What about my data! I asked. Here's where it gets more interesting. The technician says "well you can try and recover it your self but then it will void your warranty, or, you send it to us, we will charge $300.00 and if we recover any amount of data then we keep the money". I said "so to confirm, if you guys recover even 1 byte out of my over 400GB of data that is on the drive, you get my $300.00, is that correct?" he said "that is correct".
Not only does Seagate have my money but then they also have copies of my exclusive & confidential data. At this point I would rather risk it myself. I check the internet only to find that this is a common problem with Seagate drives. Further I speak with other techy's who have experienced the same problems and they have spoken to many others who have also.
Here's where Costco comes in. Normally I am successful with Costco, however, this time I was extremely disappointed by they way they handled (or lack thereof) the situation. Before I give you the details let me inform how Coscto works... Of course we all know they get a percentage of the goods the sell, otherwise, there would be no point of being in business. Costco also has a 3 strike rule with their suppliers. Anything that goes wrong and strike 3 your out... Be it sipping shortage, late shipment, warranty issues, product performance, etc. For this reason I have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at Costco and have referred many of my friends and family there.
I called Costco to inform them of the problem with the Seagate hard drive, how it is defective, how Seagate appears to be scamming consumers by putting out faulty products so they can make money on the back end by charging to recover files. I informed further, how there are many complaints on the internet. They tell me "well that's between you and the supplier" I explain to them "you are my supplier". The lady tells me "you need to resolve this issue with Seagate and there is nothing that Costco is willing to do" Key word "willing".
I hoped that Coscto would be "Very Willing" to support its customer but I was wrong. Come to find out that after being in standby mode too long the data is no longer recoverable as it causes the hard drive to permanently crash. The data could not be recovered and now I have lost more than 400GW of my client information. How costly and embarrassing this has been for my company. I know that Costco nor Seagate would take it lightly if the same happened to them. It's simply math, Costco Saegate = RIPP-OFF, Costco Seagate = Disaster, Costco Seagate = NO SUPPORT
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