Hello Selfhosted - I’m writing to y’all asking for recommendations for a retailer that will properly pack spinning platter HDDs for shipping. These devices are sensitive to impacts, and since I’m intending to use them for critical data archiving, they need to be packed with appropriate padding! Newegg is apparently incapable of understanding this.
In particular I am looking for WD Red Plus drives, 2x of them, 10TB apiece.
To name and shame Newegg, I have now gotten two shipments of these from them, around $400 each time, and they have botched the packaging so badly on both that I would never accept and trust these drives. The first RMA I requested included notes about exactly how their packing failed, and about how these devices need to be treated better, which were entirely disregarded when they packed the second round.
Who can I buy from that will take their clients’ purchases seriously?!
NOTE: I said “obviously faulty outer packaging”. That’s twice now you’ve disregarded something I stated clearly. I did not intend to take ownership of these drives, I never opened them. It’s entirely possible all SMART tests and drop indications come up clean, but as I did not want to own these drives, it felt inappropriate to me to find out. Given how sensitive HDDs can be, and given my consumer-grade budget here (I’m spending my own money on a few important pieces of hardware, not griping over an enterprise installation that churns through drives like a runner does shoes), I am indeed sensitive to the way they are packed. The impacts that HDDs experience makes for a significant influence in its MTTF. Admittedly less so when powered off, but not at all zero! That is not controversial, it’s just engineering.
Let me put this a little differently - imagine I went to a brick and mortar, asked for some drives I couldn’t find on the display floor, and they brought out two drives, in sealed OEM packaging, in a dusty beat up box that had been through shit, and with no padding inside or anything. The employees were not being careful when carrying them either, giving little confidence that the damage looks worse than it is. It’s clear they’ve been mistreated to some extent, but no way to see from here how much.
This is an important distinction - I’m not asking if you’d be willing to buy those drives yourself. I’m asking if - when I decided not to buy those (and indeed not to test them!), would you grill me over that decision like this? Would you question me for wanting to find a retailer I can shop at that at least seems to take more care? Again, why is my preference not to receive drives in clearly mishandled and insufficiently padded packaging, so contentious?
(minor edits for clarity)
Yes, I read and understood what you said. If the packaging was obviously faulty, that means the drives were rendered unfit. If the drives were determined to be fit for purpose, that means that packaging was sufficient and not faulty. Hard drives are not eggshells, they are designed to survive FedEx punting them onto your porch.
If you want to play the combative game and accuse each other of disregarding each others’ comments, I will ask again the question you did not answer: do the drives not function, or do they fail any SMART test? If you are accusing your suppliers of being inadequate, please, support that with data.
YET AGAIN, answered that. I never opened the drives. It’s right there in the comment you’re replying to.
This is a fruitless back and forth, I’m tapping out. Have a good weekend, I wish you well, sincerely.
If you rejected the drives out of hand, then it’s impossible to say the packaging was obviously faulty.
You also did not answer my question about how exactly they were packaged. The plastic clamshell is generally fit for purpose and I doubt WD, Seagate, etc. would continue using packaging that resulted in high rates of failure. If you wish to contest that assumption, prove it with data.
For now the 4th time, the information you’re asking me to provide exists in comments I have already typed and that you have replied to. May we have an easier time seeing eye to eye if our paths cross again, again I really wish you well. I’m not going to reply any further, goodbye.
Call me blind if you will, but I don’t see anywhere you’ve said exactly how they’re packed. One place you said “only air bubbles”, but another place you mentioned boxes. All I’m asking is that you bring all the complete relevant information to the table in the first place.
Edit: okay that’s not all I’m asking. I’m also asking for test data on the received drives, so that we can determine whether the packaging was fit for purpose.