I finally got around to returning these dead hard drives to Seagate. This is months after doing the same for a couple dead hard drives from Western Digital. As mentioned, the difference in customer service between the two was truly remarkable.

And has yet become more remarkable still.

One of the many things about my service with WD was the fact that they charge me $200 for the hard drives to be refunded when I sent mine in. That they would take money out and put it back in is not unexpected. Nor is it unexpected that they would charge you more than you could get the drive elsewhere to compensate for their inconvenience. But the price they would have charged was 2.5x the cost of the drive at Newegg. It’s hard to paint that as anything but excessively punitive or ugly profiteering against those that either forget to send the drive in or fail to send it in a package meeting their onerous packaging requirements (requirements which WD’s packaging itself does not meet).

Even so, I expected something similar from Seagate. Maybe not $200, but something like $150 on a drive that I paid $120 for. Yesterday I found out that not only do they not take any money out of your account until the time-period to send your drive back in has lapsed, but worst-case scenario they charge you $82.50.

These are the same drives that I cannot find anywhere. I would gladly pay $83 for a few more of these drives. Completely worth it. It almost makes me want to call in a bogus RMA in the future and keep all the drives and let them take that money. I’ve been contemplating the best way to do that, but I can’t escape the feeling like I would be taking advantage of their good faith.