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?!
I think if my business saw a $400 return for damaged goods, and I’m sure higher in cases too, I’d ensure I have a robust system to package those orders correctly the second time, no? I’m not complaining about the way it was treated in transit, but the way it was packed. It used only air bubbles, which both times (and on the same side) ruptured or deflated from elevation change, but either way left the drives just freely bouncing around their containing box. And I directly and precisely explained exactly the nature of the failure to them, with photographic evidence (as their process requires). I’m willing to acknowledge that mistakes happen, but c’mon. In addition, shouldn’t Newegg of all places know these are fragile devices, and probably savvy customers?
Heads up; newegg has been shit for returns for about ten years now. Their monitor return policy in particular is notorious for being bad.
Okay good to know, thanks! I have to admit I’m out of the loop on the retail landscape cuz I haven’t been making many consumer purchases for a while, until I started to prioritize my home environment more lately.
$400 is nothing for businesses. At my job, purchases under $10,000 don’t require any approval.
You haven’t said who you’re actually buying from. Any actual retailer selling new drives should be shipping them in the OEM packaging, and WD and Seagate should be packaging them just fine.
But really, hard drives aren’t that sensitive to shock. If the drive is off, the heads are parked, there’s not much that can happen unless they get absolutely slammed against something and directly impacted. I run plenty of used drives shipped in a single layer of bubble wrap with few issues. Where I do have issues (connector damage, excessive bad sectors, failed short/long/conveyance SMART tests), those I replace.
But, if this is critical data, you should always be prepared for drive failures with hot spares. Even an apparently healthy drive can suddenly stop working.
I understand it’s small potatoes, I tried to indicate that. It isn’t to me.
I also did specifically and exactly call out the seller, Newegg, and even say that I wanted to name and shame right in the initial post, so I just don’t know what you want from me there lol. Does Lemmy support the old marquee tag somehow?
Thanks for the info on your experience with drives, I admit I’m slightly uncertain there. But nonetheless I bought new, enterprise grade drives and they were rattling around unprotected in their boxes, I don’t know why I should be expected to accept that.
After all I’m literally asking for more thoughtful careful retailers if they exist. And I gave Newegg two tries to get it right with detailed explanations of the problem, I don’t think I’m being unreasonable. In this day and age and with all the terrible treatment of all of us by corporations I am just asking this community who they might like better, and my bad experience with this one. Why is that contentious?
Yes, the seller is Newegg, but they’re a marketplace like Amazon. Check who fulfills the order.
If they’re in OEM packaging (cardboard box and formed clamshell plastic for individual drives, I assume, since you said “boxes”) that’s totally acceptable. If you put a shock sensor in the box at the origin, you wouldn’t see anything particularly bad even if the box fell off the truck. F=m*a, and with small m (a few drives) and small a (not falling very far) then F is going to be pretty small too.
I did, I don’t remember the exact phrasing, but I ensured it was basically Newegg fulfillment (I’ve even gotten a literal Amazon box from Newegg in the past when not doing so, I do basically understand how it works).
I also understand you’re trying to be helpful, but I really don’t need the physics lesson, I double majored in physics and electrical engineering and graduated with a 3.9 GPA, I understand that equation and it’s implications a lot better than you assume, and moreover I spent a lot of years in my career with a lot of HDDs, from many sources and for many purposes. I don’t agree with you that being shipped these drives in obviously faulty outer packaging is something I should be willing to accept, at least not without seeking out more conscientious suppliers first. It’s amazing to me that people disagree with this so much about spinning platter drives - I couldn’t give a shit less about any other kind of hardware I can think of, intact OEM packaging would be fine for me.
Why do you say “obviously faulty”? Do the drives not function, or do they fail any SMART test?
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.
This is my point. You can package your electronics as good as you want, but when it comes to hard drives, if the middle man decides to play ice hockey with your package it doesn’t matter. If you want to blame something blame Newton’s second and third Laws of Motion. 🤷♂️
No I don’t think I will, I think I’ll blame the shoddy packing which is very unlikely to successfully protect the goods, due to the well-known challenges of shipping products and especially delicate products that you’re describing, and which indeed did fail 2x in a row to protect said goods, but you do you!
I owned my own tech firm for 10 years or so. I setup any number of backup solutions with enterprise level HDDs. I’ve seen HDDs packaged impeccably. I’ve seen them come in a cardboard box with absolutely no protection and it’s an absolute crap shoot no matter what. As a matter of fact, there’s a HDD connected to a NAS attached to the computer I’m typing this out on that’s been working for over 8 years non-stop and it was one that just came direct in a cardboard box. Didn’t have a lick of paper or bubble-warp in it.
I’m not telling you not to be critical of retailers who don’t properly protect the things you buy. I’m telling you to measure your response because at the end of the day they’re incredibly fragile no matter how they’re packaged. Properly packaging doesn’t mean you’re going to get a 100% success rate. If you’re that worried about it, then find a local retailer and don’t buy them online.
Okay that is truly a useful perspective and I appreciate it. I don’t understand why asking a community dedicated to passionate enthusiasts for retailers they specifically like should be contentious, it seems like precisely the point of these communities. I will keep your perspective in mind, but I don’t intend to just accept whatever even a plurality of retailers think I should be willing to accept. I’m going to hunt down ones I like giving my business to, especially in this day and age, and I think we’d all be better off if we each did the same.
I’m not saying its contentious. I’m saying if you’re gonna be mad, be mad at the right people. And in this specific case, the retailer is probably not the only issue, so switching to another retailer really won’t help you.
I might sound like a dick, but I’m trying to help you out–telling you that even if you switch retailers, if whomever is delivering your mail is a dick, you’re not going to experience a better situation.
I’ve been through a tremendous number of hard drives over my career. I shudder to think how many.
Thanks for your input.