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Hi Friends,

Do you guys feel comfortable buying HDDs online?

My first WD portable HDD was purchased online years back, from Infibeam. It came nicely packed in a larger box, with adequate padding, and is still running fine. My next few drives were purchased in local stores.

Yesterday I received a recent order of 'My Passport' from Appario Retail (Amazon.in seller), packed in a thin plastic envelope, with no other packaging whatsoever! The courier people don't even seem to know what a hard drive is!

The box inside feels intact from outside, but I'm so scared that I haven't even opened the package, and am mulling returning it! Should I?

I wonder how WD extends warranties in such cases, with a huge number of sales online worldwide! Are the modern drives made and packaged in such a way that the shipping and handling is foolproof, as long as the drive is not powered on? I'd appreciate views from members experienced in this regard very much, so I can decide what to do next. Thanks a lot.

I have bought the exact hard drive you mention (Western Digital My Passport) in capacities of 1TB, 2TB and multiple drives in 4TB from Amazon-fulfilled sellers (Appario and Cloudtail), and have had no problems with them at all.

Yes, the first time I received it I was a bit alarmed at the (lack of) packaging, but never actually faced a problem, and all the drives are still running normally today, with no bad sectors or SMART warnings.

Interestingly, once you open the package, you'll notice that WD themselves don't offer much in the way of packaging - they only provide a plastic/cardboard "carton" to hold the drive, reminiscent of egg cartons. So obviously WD are confident in the drives themselves to ship it with such little packaging.

I believe that these drives are built tough - the platter spindle is well fitted to prevent any movement of the platters, and the drive head is securely parked away when it is not powered (as you rightly allude to).

This is really sad way of handling customers.

I know it's easy for me to sit out here and give advice, but IMO you should have probably rejected the sale.

Hope you leave a negative detailed review on the website. Atleast it will make it clear for future buyers.

Two recent orders from amazon.in, each worth 25k were sent with just the amazon branded plastic wrap over the original box. Fortunately, both came undamaged and are working fine. However, it is a bit unsettling to depend on the said fortune for the safe transportation of delicate devices.

In contrast to this was the fort-like packaging that a pair of tempered glass for the aforementioned devices came in. The ₹500/- item was truly a manifestation of an enigma wrapped in a mystery and hidden inside an impregnable safe! I went on and on peeling off multiple layers of bubble, sponge and cardboard wraps before I could reach the items. And yes, this too was from amazon.in.

Been there :-) I ordered ~100 sheets of glossy photo paper worth a few hundred rupees, and was alarmed at the size of the box handed over, and then was nervous wondering if I had been given an empty box. Some digging through what felt like a year's supply of air cushions, and I found the pack of paper - at the bottom of the box, protected by the air cushions only from the top.

I think Amazon gives standardized & procedural guidelines on how to pack items, and not to deviate from the script, which is why we find such weirdly packed items. In the face of stringent rules, people just stop applying common sense (and I can't fault them!).

That's one reason why I've turned to specialist vendors for specific items being purchased online - they know their product and package it meaningfully. Glassware from FabFurnish, IT hardware from IT Depot, mobiles from Samsung's online shop, all of these are packed and delivered sensibly.

Same thing happened with me last year. I had ordered a new phone on Amazon.in in exchange of my old one. The website clearly said that the phone should be unlocked with intact body (i.e. no cracks) and a working display. There was a clause under T&C saying that signs of normal wear & tear are allowable.

At the time of delivery, my phone was rejected and I was asked to pay the exchange value if I wanted to have the new phone. The rude delivery agent told that discolouration of silver side frame was the reason for rejection. I believe it was covered under normal wear & tear, that too for a 3 year old Samsung, as it was probably due to the case rubbing against the edges. To top it off, he then proceeded to rip off the tempered glass, to "check the screen", before returning the old phone to me :eek:

Even though the exchange value was under Rs. 2000, I decided not to fall for this scam and returned the package. A few friends came in and we were able to extract Rs. 200 from the delivery agent to make up for his nice behaviour and the lost tempered glass.

Thank you very much. That's reassuring! Yes, I am familiar with the plastic packaging of WD drives. The drive can't move while in place in the plastic packaging. In addition, the drive is also kept a bit away from the cardboard box walls, so there is some protection from squashing. This is good enough to survive reasonable handling. But what about surviving through the usual rough handling of couriers, with things getting thrown around, and heavy items landing on top of fragile ones? I've also received another item packaged in a reasonably rigid (but thin) plastic enclosure which got squashed badly out-of-shape on one side (also shipped by Amazon in the typical thin, soft plastic wrapper)! Thankfully, the item itsef was not fragile.

I believe shipping the HDD boxes in a well-padded larger box would increase the amount of protection. But even so, once I received a HDD from Flipkart packed in a larger cardboard box that got crushed and torn so badly on one side that the HDD box itself was squashed on one side (it was visible from the tear). I, of course, refused to accept and sent it back for a refund. I also settled for local purchase for my next few HDDs. Only this time I didn't find it in ready stock locally (if I didn't want any weird colours, that is :)).


There is another aspect of rough handling of such shipped items, -- whether sharp impacts could jar the delicate mechanisms out of kilter, or put them in a way that could cause problems in future. But from what you say, WD seem to know that to capture a larger market the way it is, they must design for it.


Do you usually do a bad sector scan on a new drive before putting data on it? Thanks again.
.

That's true, the rough handling meted out to some packages almost seems designed to try and defeat packaging and safety measures!

Internal drives - yes, I use WD Drive Utilities and run the detailed scan before moving data onto it.

External drives - they're usually supplementary (e.g. to hold movies for my TV), so I'm a bit lazy to spend the time on it :)

If you're in B'lore or Chennai, try the IT Depot (online, or store), they are a good supplier of computer stuff, and I'm a happy customer. I buy my internal disks from them, but externals from Amazon due to better deals on occasion.

For me space on my external drives are much larger than that on my internal ones, and most of my valuable data are on them. So I take it that it would be a good idea to have the new external ones scanned before putting data on them? Do you usually find problems with your internal ones on scanning?

Unfortunately, cloud services are not yet practicable for India!


No, I'm not in Bangalore anymore. Never lived in Chennai. Why I need to be there if I can order online from IT Depot? Thanks.

Yeah, if they're your key data drives then do a full scan (takes a few hours) them before putting your data onto them. It makes spotting errors easier, you can return it/initiate a warranty exchange if errors are found, and you don't put your data at risk by copying it onto an unproven medium.

I've not found any errors in any of the scans I've run, nor have I faced any SMART warnings. I did have a WD 3.5" HDD fail on me some 5-6 years ago abruptly, and WD replaced it under warranty (replacements are refurbished HDDs, not brand new), and that replacement has been chugging on merrily without any problem, in what has become my standby PC.


They have local fulfillment centers in B'lore and Chennai, which means its their own staff who deliver it (not via courier), so they take the necessary care. Elsewhere, it depends on courier transport, and (in my opinion) that would be no better/worse than Amazon delivery.

No, hard drive should not be despatched in the plastic bag which protects against nothing but static.

What happens, I think, is that sellers buy them in bulk packs that are meant for machine builders, and then sell them off singly. They should at least add a few layers of bubble wrap!

Thus we never get to see the actual retail packing, but I'm sure it exists.

Having said that, my last couple of bag-wrapped discs, one from Amazon, one from a local shop, are doing fine. I'm waiting for a special offer on a WD Black 2tb :)

Thanks arunphilip, for all your help. I had simultaneously put my query to WD themselves regarding safety of the drives during usual ecommerce shipping. I've just received their response (which confirmed your opinion :)). Here it is for everyone's reference :


Thad, just noticed your post. The package I received from Amazon looks like usual, sealed, retail package! Don't yours? Or are you talking about internal drives ("machine builders" etc.) while we were discussing external drives?

Thanks.

That survey was carried out by a firm called LocalCircles and was reported in yesterday's TOI.



Results and image courtesy: LocalCircles

But so are amazon and snapdeal. True, they have their own/affiliated sellers, but even when you purchase from them and face some issue, they are quick to point out that their site is not the actual seller but only a marketplace. And that they are only facilitating the trade by connecting the buyer and the seller. Have been told so by the customer service executives multiple times.

Yeah, I think Thad is referring to internal drives. The external drives come in nice, tidy and colourful retail packaging. The internal drives I've bought have come in a plastic clamshell, like what is seen on this page. This is irrespective of whether these are consumer drives (WD Green/Blue), or prosumer/enterprise drives (WD Red/Gold).

Also, happy to be of help, meerkat!

Yep, that's the one. I'm very happy with them - I've bought UPSes, monitors, HDDs, SSDs, RAM from them, never been disappointed. Very fast shipping, prices are competitive or better than Amazon (e.g. just 2 days ago I bought a 1 TB SSD, Amazon listed it at 21k, IT Depot had it at 15.6k, but this is the most extreme example I've experienced).

Excellent customer service as well - when my trusty UPS died about half a year ago, I called them to place an order for a replacement, and asked them to expedite the delivery, as I was working from home, and I didn't want to use my computer unprotected from power fluctuations. Less than 1 hour from the call, I had the UPS at home!

If you prefer buying from a shop, I've found Computer Warehouse (Barton Center, MG Road) to be very reliable, professional and trustworthy. And it is more accessible to us than SP Road :) Before I came upon The IT Depot, CPW was my go-to place.

PS - I'm unaffiliated with both IT Depot and Computer Warehouse, let my enthusiasm not be misconstrued!

How is your experience with IT depot. I presume you are referring to these guys -

https://www.theitdepot.com

Are the pricing comparable to brick and mortar stores or ECommerce websites?