Why I'll Never Purchase Another Western Digital Drive

Western Digital used to be my go-to drive manufacturer. Their drives were reliable and they stood behind their product. That is, until I had to go through the RMA process myself. To the best of my recollection, and reviewing my emails, here's what happened:

A timeline of events

November 1st, 2025

I received a notification from my nas that a 1.2 year old Western Digital 4TB Red Plus drive has an error. I check the logs, and see that it reported that it failed a SMART test. That seems odd for a drive with a 3 year warranty.

November 2nd, 2025

Start the RMA process - I head to Western Digital's site, go through the support process for warranty claim, and am told I can either RMA my drive or pay $25 and do an "Advance RMA" to get a replacement drive first. Perfect, because I need to backup about 2TB of data off the existing drive.

During checkout, I'm asked to pay for a return shipping label, as well as given a warning that failing to return my drive will result in a charge for the full drive price on my card. There's also a note that my replacement will ship in 2-3 days, but a warning that shipping times have been delayed by 5-7 days.

I've paid ~$32 to replace a drive I purchased on sale for $80.

November 12th, 2025

No shipping notifications, so I decide to livechat with Western Digital and ask what's going on. A rep apologizes for the delay, but says the order should ship within 24-48 hours and I'll get a shipping notification. Cool!

November 17th, 2025

Still nothing... Guess I'll reach out again. A livechat agent informs me that they are actually out of stock on replacement drives (what?), so they will be shipping an 'upgraded' drive within 24-48 hours. I ask what that means, and am informed "It depends on whats available, but it will usually be a better class of drive or the same class with higher capacity". Oh? Well ok then, I guess the wait might have been ok, but would have liked some honesty about the stock levels earlier.

November 20th, 2025

This time, I decide to call. The rep I speak with tells me that he's sorry, but he's going to ensure it gets taken care of! He doesn't really seem to know what an 'upgraded drive' would mean, but he says they have the proper replacement drives back in stock however he will make sure I get an upgraded drive. I ask about refunding my advance RMA fee and he says he will "put in that request and I should get a notification within 24 hours when the replacement ships.

November 20th, 2025 - Evening

I receive an email that another RMA has been created. Maybe this is progress? Instead I get an email letting me know that as soon as I ship my original drive, they will be happy to send my replacement.

... I'm sorry, what? I paid for an advance RMA so I could copy my data! I see where this is headed, so I go buy a new toshiba drive to get my data backed up. I'll probably need it someday anyway. I decide to wait until the next day and see what's going on.

Later that evening I get an email about that RMA (#2) that says I don't need to send my failed drive back.

November 21st, 2025

I open live chat and a rep tells me that I can ignore that second RMA and that a replacement will ship in 24-48 hours. You've got to be kidding.

I then get an email from a rep saying that they were mistaken, and I DO need to send back the drive first for RMA #2 to be handled.

I go ahead and file a BBB complaint in hopes that it will get to a different team and maybe get resolved.

November 23rd, 2025

A gentleman calls me. He says that he's so sorry and he's going to get this taken care of. He assures me that he'll get my $25 advance RMA fee refunded and get me a drive out. He says he will call me back in 24 hours with an update. I express my inclination to doubt that statement, but he tells me to "rest assured that he's personally handling it"

I never heard from him again, by the way.

November 24th, 2025

A new advance RMA (#3) is created by someone at western digital. I get a shipping notification from UPS that a package will be delivered the following day. I think to myself "I do appreciate they're over-nighting one after all this. Good on 'em"

November 25th, 2025

Western Digital finally ships my package this evening. It won't arrive the next day because they shipped it out to late. I've still heard nothing from anyone at Western Digital to let me know what's happening.

November 28th, 2025

I receive my drive. It is a refurbished 4TB Red Plus drive with the exact model number I was replacing. Guess the "Upgrade" was a complete lie. Check my credit card, no pending refund for the $25 advance RMA fee. Whatever, I just want to be done with this.

November 30th, 2025

Another RMA (#4) is created with zero context or communication, just an automated notification. WAT.

December 2nd, 2025

I get an email to tell me that they are ready to ship the drive from the warehouse! And the tracking number shows it was delivered 4 days ago. Thanks for the timely update.

I decide to call to find out which RMA number I need to reference when sending the failed drive back. I paid for a shipping label on RMA #1, and they fulfilled it with RMA #3. I want to ensure that I'm not going to be billed for a drive if they never get a drive on RMA #3 to close it out. I'd send it referencing #3, but to do that it wants me to pay for a new shipping label (Absolutely not).

Rep Justin puts me on hold for a while then comes back to let me know that I can just use that original shipping label and it will be fine because the cases are all referenced by one another. Ok cool.

30 minutes later, I'm making grilled cheese for the kids and my phone rings. It's Justin. He wants to know if I have the packing slip from the drive I received, and if I can take a photo of it to send it him. He wants to double check.

After sending it, he responds and says (paraphrasing) to "Just go ahead and use a shipping label for RMA #3. Which I don't have. And won't pay for.

I call again and speak to a supervisor. He checks around and says to just use that first shipping label. I tell him that that's what Justin said and then told me not to after he saw the shipping label. Supervisor Andy says that he's sure its fine and will email me that in writing. I ask if he can refund my $25 fee for all this as well while he's on the phone. He needs to check... aaaand he can't but he ASSURES me it will be refunded when they receive the drive.

I ensure that he sends me all of this in writing, which he does, and tell him that I'll probably talk to him again in a day or so.

A different RMA process

About 6 months ago I bought a drive from a company on amazon. It was a refurbished drive, and I'd never heard of the company. It wouldn't execute a smart test. They had me RMA the drive and had a new one to me 48 hours later. Those drives still work great, by the way. Pretty sure they are refurbished seagates, though.