The Tale of Four Maxtors – How to get your way with big business
Welcome back!
In January of last year, my third Maxtor hard drive died on me.
You see, I had been a faithful Maxtor user since about 2002. I had purchased two of them: both at 250 GB each. When the first one crashed, I lost all 250GB worth of data, and it was data that took me quite some time to acquire.
Of course I filed an RMA, because it was still in warranty. I installed the replacement and figured I was on my way to happy computing once again.
WRONG!
The second (originally purchased) Maxtor died – again I filed an RMA and got another drive. Being a bit wary, I decided not store my important data on it: I used it to run programs. I would rather lose a drive running programs than my precious data.
In January of 2006, my first RMA replacement hard drive failed. This time it was out of warranty. But as this was my third failed drive, I was pissed. I called Maxtor RMA line and demanded a replacement. By this time, Maxtor had been purchased by Seagate, but I still felt it was their responsibility to make this right. All the people I talked to, Jason Wascovitch, Bridget Beer, and Bob Watkins all refused my request. With each person I spoke with, I went further up the chain of command. When I got to Brett Janssen, I was really fuming. I told him my trials and tribulations with my Maxtors and told him that this was drive #3 that failed. I had a 100% failure rate with Maxtor drives! He immediately agreed to replace it and even sent me a 300GB drive instead of the 250 which I had. I was pleased. It was also Seagate, which carries a 5 year warranty.
But I told Brett one thing before I hung up – when my second RMA replacement drive failed, I would be calling him back.
And, of course, it failed a week and a half ago!
I got on the horn and tried to get ahold of Mr. Janssen, but he was no longer with the company. I explained my predicament to the receptionist and she directed me to Brian Wilkes in the customer escalation department. I talked to him and he requested that I email him the RMA info from my other drives. When I emailed him that information, I wrote him this:
Brian,
Below is the email from the second RMA that I had of a Maxtor hard drive,
and the third one that was RMA’ed is the html attachment that is with this
email.
When I had spoken to everyone at the last time I called, I told them that I
was extremely displeased that I have had four Maxtors die on me. I realize
that Maxtor was purchased from Seagate, and I do hold Seagate in high
regard, but am absolutely astounded at the 100% failure rate I have had
with all my Maxtors.
I have three other drives in my PC, and over the course of my years of
computing (10 years), all my other hard drives are still running. Even the
4GB drive that came in my Gateway in 1998! I have Western Digital drives,
MTI and Seagate. They have ran along side the Maxtor in each and every PC
that I have owned, and as I stated, all my other drives are still running.
ALL of my Maxtor drives have run so hot that you can barely touch them -
they were extremely warm running drives even when I put them in my case
with empty slots above and below. None of my other drives are this hot: I
would be willing to bet that the Maxtors have run between 20 and 30 degrees
hotter.
As I told everyone the last time, I will not take no for an answer in
regards to replacing this last drive. I had told Brett that when my fourth
one died, I would be calling him again- to get it RMA’ed.
I emailed him on Monday and as of Wednesday, I had not heard back. I was getting peeved again so I called him to raise hell, and was told that he had just finished speaking with his supervisor and that they would be issuing an RMA for my last Maxtor drive. It would again be replaced with a Seagate and included a 5 year warranty.
When it comes to something I believe in, I won’t take no for an answer. I will fight all the way up to the president of the company if I have to. You, too, can succeed in fighting the big guys – just stick to your guns and progress up the chain. The squeaky wheel gets the oil!
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