worste service ever, does anyone there speak english i don't think so. liars and more liars. i was going to buy four hundred external drives of theres through newegg.com, but the one i bought for my self was a wash, i figured no biggy customer service, right. wrong they can't diagnose anything i will keep my bussiness but not four hundred drives i can't get service for. heres to you western digital and my mopney your not getting, do the math who is loosing here  
QTY400 x price $100 = get a calculator i'm sure you won't be able to figure it out.

I purchased a WD 500 gig drive - and within 2 weeks it was dead. Not only did it boot up with a RAW filesystem twice during that 2 week period, it finally would not spin up at all.  
 
I contacted the warranty/support area of Western D igital and an advanced RMA was created on 10/27/2007. I was told it would be 3-5 business days for delivery of the new drive, and I would need to return the dead drive with the packaging material.  
 
After 11 days I checked online and saw the replacement has not even been shipped! I called and was told the item was out of stock!  
I asked why I was not notified of the delay - no reply...  
 
I inquired how long before stock was available - a minimum of 4 weeks and I would receive the replacement in approximately 6 weeks.  
 
3-5 business days vs. 6 weeks is totally unacceptable - especially when after 30 days your credit card will be charged for the new drive for an advanced RMA! They are going to charge my credit card for the replacement RMA drive BEFORE they even ship it?  
 
I canceled the RMA since I could return the item to the store purchased (which I should have done in the first place) - but they refused to cancel the $6.48 shipping label charge put on my credit card.  
 
They have not shipped anything, they have nothing to ship, and I canceled the RMA. Why would they expect I would pay for a shipping label when nothing has been shipped?  
 
I asked to speak with a supervisor and after a few minutes was told that I would receive a call from him. I asked when would the call come - "sometime that evening"... I asked for a specific time so I would be available - I was told "within the hour". Of course, no call ever came from a supervisor.  
 
This experience with their RMA support is the worst I have had with any company over 43 years. You can bet that future purchases for equipment will be from anyone other than Western Digital.

This review was modified by its author, jlowrance, on 11/9/07 10:02 AM.

Okay folks here's the deal:  
 
I unfortunately just lost EVERYTHING! 2 HD's crashed, including my backup 500GB 5000AAKS.... *Click click click* out of the blue  
 
So I noticed during the whole RMA process that the drive they (WD) is shipping is a 5000KS model Vs the AAKS I RMA'd. I've seen a few forums noting that the major diffs are the AAKS uses one fewer platter (160GB density) Vs the KS using 1 more and 133GB density. Also many posters reported the KS is louder and produces more heat. Having noted the platter issue that would make the KS slower also....  
 
So after 7 emails of canned responses to my inquiry about W.TF am I being sent a different model than I ordered, I made the CALL: basically the disgruntled tier 1 told me that the ONLY diff is the KS has legacy molex power connection support. "They both have the same platter number, density, blah blah sir..." Okay fine no help there either, so I will post a few questionable links stating otherwise:  
 
1) The 1st and most disturbing:  
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q148/JAFFA22/KS-vs-AAKS-wb.png  
 
2) Note the complete diff case design  
http://img514.imageshack.us/my.php?image=5000aaksvsksod5.jpg  
 
 
3) Lastly the design/temp discussion  
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=336384&sid=e09c1980adc9310eea4ce9289700dd7c  
 
So what do you guys think - am I getting ripped, and should call up after I do some homebrew testing of my own (HD tach, etc.)?  
 
I was on the phone with a tier 1 about it and he was getting pretty huffy about how they are the same model blah blah - and I ask then why the diffs in the drive's physical appearance, why is the PCB diff - IF they are the same drive aside from a power interface: Molex + Sata Vs Sata... It would cost too much money to retool a whole new casing and PCB IF the drives were identical just for an adapter... again he said the drives are THE SAME just the power interface is diff... Should I bother even HD-taching to see if there's a diff, or when I get the drive, immediately call up and ask to speak with a manager about getting pushed into accepting a DIFF drive than what I purchased, regardless of similarities?  
 
If I wanted to sell these on ebay, people would immediate ask questions about W.TF are they listed as diff models etc... So I'm not buying this switcheroo either!  
 
Well today I received my updated RMA after 7+ emails calmly pointing out the know differences, performance compros, and the issue of fraud and general bad business practice and losing customers: And it PAID off... sorta. I did get a 5000AAKS = Recertified, but I guess it's better than a slow poke Recert'd 5000KS!  
 
I'm still debating whether or not I should take this to the major review sites: I'm betting MANY people do not know about this and would like to be informed before they purchase a WD HD....?

This review was modified by its author, Jryder, on 9/7/07 5:16 PM.

Amazing Service! I will definitely be returning.  
 
I'm a computer enthusiast and stress all of the parts in my 7 systems very hard. This includes harddrives. I purchase about 3-4 new harddrives annually. I've never had a problem with WD, and there harddrives always seem to work great.  
My recent service from WD, however, was above and beyond anything I have received from any company in the last five or so years.  
 
I ordered this harddrive about 1.5 years ago. It worked great, but then died. This isn't anything new, harddrive are like any piece of hardware; they'll die eventually. Some die earlier than others. I must note however, that I have NEVER BEFORE HAD A WD HARDDRIVE DIE on me.  
 
I noticed that I still had a good year and a half of warranty left on the drive, so I figured I'd try RMAing it. Best decision I ever made. The RMA process for WD is very quick and streamlined. I then took the lazy route and didn't bother to ship in the drive until my RMA period was nearly up. It arrived on the last day of that period.  
 
I figured that this would by like many other RMA processes, and would take a couple weeks at minimum. Boy was I surprised when the next business day, I recieved an email saying that my RMA had been shipped. Not only shipped, but when I checked the tracking number, they had used 2ND DAY AIR. They were under no obligation to do so, but did it anyway.  
 
I must say I am VERY HAPPY with this service. I will definitely prioritize my harddrive purchases to WD from now on.  
 
NOTE: They seem to be getting ripped here, but remember that usually only dissatisfied customers rate a store. Its not always accurate.

Warning !!!! Out of the box, a WD external hard drive does not allow transfer of files larger than 4 GB. If you want to transfer files larger than 4 GB you have to reformat the hard drive. Of course, when you do you lose everything on the drive.  
 
This is especially unfortunate when you've transferred 200+ GB to it from a video editing project and you have no where to put it when you reformat.

This review was modified by its author, kengrosser, on 3/2/07 8:27 AM.

WARNING: If you value your data don't buy WD HDD, just by saving a few bucks it's not worth it to risk with this company, their HDD are lousy poor reliability, bought a 320GB drive, last 3 months and now it's gone with all the 320GB of info I had, this company should go to bankrupcy! It just make garbage.  

Purchased a couple WD Hard Drives one from Comp USA and the others from Newegg. Too late to get anything other than a replacement from Newegg, so I contacted WD and Leonard in Customer service treated me very well. He asked detailed questions about my problems with the Hard drives, etc.. and is going to help me to replace the hard drives the FLA2 and FLC0 Raptors that did not work for my Asus Motherboard with.... drum roll.. the newer, faster better, with error correction raptors that should work fine.  
 
I am extremely happy with Western Digital and its Customer support and seeing they are getting ripped on reseller ratings I thought I would reply! Great Treatment!

Several years ago, the hard drive manufacturers all got together and decided to cut their warranties from 3 years to 1 year.  
 
There were some minor exceptions. One of these was the Western Digital Special Edition drive.  
 
I immediately began purchasing these drives for the systems at work; specifically for their ADVERTISED 3 year warranty.  
 
Recently, one of these drives failed just inside the 3 year mark and I attempted to get an RMA for the malfunctioning drive.  
 
Imagine my surprise when a Western Digital support representative told me that despite the correct part number, an advertised 3 year warranty and my ability to document the date and location of my purchase (Newegg); they would not honor the warranty.  
 
Apparently, the drive I had purchased was tagged in their system as destined for the Asian hemisphere; ‘Out of Region’. They will not honor the warranty.  
 
There is supposedly a process for handling such problems. I diligently emailed them scans of the hard drive label and the original receipt. That was almost three weeks ago and the ‘forum post’ is still listed as ‘escalated’.  
 
I believe that Western Digital has some compelling products in their Raptor and RE2 lines. Unfortunately, I will no longer be purchasing or recommending them to others as Western Digital’s word is apparently not worth the letterhead it is printed on.  
 
I encourage anyone else who has had similar problems with Western Digital to file complaints with the Better Business Bureau and continue to post your experiences online. Maybe if enough complaints are registered, some enterprising lawyer could start a class action lawsuit that would get them to change their nefarious business practices.

BEWARE! Western Digital will NOT honor warranty on NEW hard drive purchased from Office Max. (This is not Office Max's issue - their warranty is for 14 days on electronic items. WD's drive warranty stated 1 year for this drive.)  
 
Evidently, a NEW hard drive will be considered out of warranty by Western Digital if it is not SOLD within a limited time from date of manufacture!  
 
This means if several thousand of these are warehoused by a big retailer YOU can end up with a NEW hard drive that is OUT OF WARRANTY BEFORE YOU PAY FOR IT! A hard drive is not a carton of milk! It does NOT spoil on the shelf!  
Do Western Digital's products have an inherent defect that causes them to degrade while still sealed in the factory packing? Sounds stupid, doesn't it? Yet that is their approach... Perhaps they need a "Born on Date" like a bottle of beer?  
 
In the very least, the packaging needs to state, somewhere, that the warranty expiration date begins when the product is manufactured... and not when you purchase it!  
 
In my case, the drive crashed after 2 weeks in a new system taking literally years worth of data with it that had been transferred over to consolidate several old drives... (this was in preparation to build a raid array but the drive developed the 'click of death' before data could be mirrored!).  
 
Western Digital's customer service is apathetic at best... your questions will lanquish unanswered and (in my case) marked "Solved" without being answered!  
 
Over the couse of a month, a heated response on my part to that bit of horse-hocky finally did get a 'ho-hum' "We'll look into it... but it's out of warranty even though it's new..." response. But that was it.  
 
No warranty. No customer service. No hard-drive. Crap - they didn't even send me my rebate check.  
 
Avoid Western Digital at all costs if you value your data... or more importantly, if you value being treated like a valued customer.  
 
Feel free to contact me for a complete transcript of my contact with Western Digital's "customer NO-service".  
 
Dwayne de Lung  
lunghd@yahoo.com

BUYER BEWARE!!  
 
My WD raptor drive (enterprise class)decided to randomly die after a year of use. I get an advance RMA approved and here it is over TWO WEEKS later and i still havent heard anything from them other than it was approved. Contacted support 3 times, absolutely useless, no help at all. So Now i have a drive that has a warranty that expires in 2009 but aparently WD doesnt not honor it.  
 
I should report them to the better business Bureau!

Excellent customer service.  
 
I purchased 2 wd1600js drives that turned out to be incompatible with my RAID card (adaptec 1420SA). While the first-level support techs couldn't help me, they did give me the name of someone in Customer Care, who immediately agreed to replace the drives with RAID-compatible WD1600SD drives.

Western Digital does not ship the item even the item has "in-stock" status when you order. Do not waste your time and energy dealing with Western Digital.

This review was modified by its author, thaikb, on 2/28/05 12:59 PM.

I recently ordered a 80GB SATA drive from Western Digital. Ordering was simple and straight forward as it should be. There was only one problem. I thought about ordering the OEM or the retail package, but I couldn't locate the retail package from a retailer with a good reputation at the time. So I ordered what I thought was the retail package from WD.com. It turns out that the retail package was removed from the online store the day or of the day before I ordered, I am 99% sure it was there when I was researching this in the days prior to ordering. In short, I paid $30 extra because I failed to read the page thoroughly when I ordered. My fault, not theirs.  
 
I called customer support when the OEM drive showed up, aside from the extremely helpful service and the amazing fact that someone answered the phone within 2 rings (Peter) they could not refund my drive but only give me store credit.  
 
In short, WD.com is easy to deal with and incredibly helpful with phone service... but chances are good you will find the drive allot cheaper somewhere else. Recommended? Yes. After you have checked for better prices elsewhere and found none.

BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE  
I recently had a wd 8mb 120G go bad. This drive was warrantied until 11/10/2006. My replacement was a recertified drive which only lasted one week. I checked the warranty status only to find out that the replacement is only warrantied till 01/27/2005. They sent out another"recertified"(read sh*t) and that one is warrantied until 02/10/2005. Had I known that WD'S flagship drive was handled in this unscrupulous manner I would have stayed with maxtor who appreciate thier customers by giving them brand new drives with the original warranty unaltered. BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE

i would just like to say this is the second western digital that i have had die on me... my hitachis and my maxtors work fine but i had a 60gig western digital die and a 200 gig western digital.... the problem is there rma service is horrible... they expect me to pay for the shipping on the hard drive while they hold MY money so they can ship me another thatll probably die in 2 months... i am fed up with western digital... :|