Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 15 years and 7 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.So last night my RMA replacement for my failed WD Expander arrived. I opened the box and found … an internal 500gb SATA drive, just the bare drive.
So I called up Western Digital and spoke with a support rep. I explained that I had opened an RMA for my external MyDVR Expander and received an internal drive instead. The rep checked my ticket and told me that I had opened an RMA for an internal drive. I responded by saying I typed in the serial number on the back on my unit. He put me on hold for a few minutes. Then he had me read him the serial number again, which I did. He insisted again that it was an internal drive.
“Look,” I said. “I’m holding my external DVR Expander right now. It’s not an internal drive.” He then tried to tell me I purchased an internal drive and put it in an external case. No, I explained back (getting a little upset at this point) , I purchased this as a complete package … a MyDVR Expander for my TiVo. I finally got him to transfer me to a supervisor.
After some more time on hold I finally re-explained the situation to a supervisor. He was much nicer and understanding and acknowledged that it could be a mix-up in the RMA system, matching the serial number to the wrong product. He said they would e-mail me a return label to ship back the internal drive. Then he asked me to scan the label of my external drive and e-mail it to them so they could verify ownership. He said they would then open a new RMA and send me the proper replacement. So I did all of that … looks like I’ll be waiting a few more days to get this replaced. 🙁
I think the serial number on the back of my expander is actually the serial number of the drive inside the case, which is probably the source of the mix-up. The internal drive they sent me was the same model I recall seeing show up on my TiVo’s System Information screen. If there was any discernible way of opening the external case, I probably could have swapped the drives, but that would definitely have voided my warranty. So I’ll just be patient and wait for the actual replacement.
I tried calling again tonight and after waiting on hold for about 5 minutes an operator came on the line to say the hold times are over 1 hour! They offered to take my name and number so they could call back tomorrow morning. I said I would just call back on my own time. Maybe I’ll get an e-mail response in the meantime.
Oh oh, this is not going to go well. I just got an e-mail from another support rep at WD in response to my e-mail last night with the scanned image of the back of my drive. The rep said that the drive in question is already covered by an existing RMA and the replacement drive was already shipped! So basically everything I went through last night was for naught! I responded to the e-mail explaining what the problem is: they shipped me an internal drive and I need an external one. I get the feeling I’m going to need to call them on the phone again. Argh!
All hope is not lost: I just received an e-mail with the UPS return label for the incorrect internal drive. Here’s to hoping soon I’ll have a delivery notification for the replacement external drive.
I received another e-mail from WD acknowledging the mix-up and indicating that a new external drive is on its way. Yea!
My new external drive finally arrived and my TiVo is happy again: