Warranty difference OEM hard drive vs "Retail"

[phkhgh]

Spent a good while "chatting" w/ NewEgg & Seagate - India about OEM vs "Retail" hard drives.

NewEgg clearly states on their site that many "OEM" Seagate internal drives drives have 5 yr parts & labor "Manufacturer's Warranty" (on the specific HDD specs page).

Seagate - India, tells me that drives designated as OEM will NOT have any warranty (or support) honored by Seagate to the end user.

For those w/ experience in this, what's the actual truth about OEM drives & warranties, from NewEgg or any other E-tailer?

 

[tipstir]

OEM you have to go by what the Manufacturer of company says as they're the one going to help you out. So OEM drives if you buy them from a vendor at a computer show they'll replacement for free. The vendor not the Manufacturer company. HDDs I just buy them wholesale and still get the protection from the manufacture. Unless NewEgg is going to protect after 5 years down the line, but you'll have to get that in writting..

Retail - Price is higher unless you get it on clearance then it would be the same price of OEM but you get protection

OEM - Price is cheaper low overhead
OEM - no hardware brackets
OEM - no retail box
OEM - no manual
OEM - no warranty (unless you a PC repair shop of PC vendor since you would buy in blunk)

 

[phkhgh]

Thanks for reply.

I'm not talking about buying from a trade show or a guy out of a van.

I'm talking about buying an OEM HDD from retailers like NewEgg, Directron, TigerDirect.

NewEgg clearly says for many OEM (Seagate) drives, "Manufacturers Warranty: 5yr parts & labor."

So question is, is NewEgg's info WRONG, or is Seagate (India) Warranty Support dept WRONG? They can't BOTH be right.

 

[Brannonje]

Past Experience Says Newegg is Right

I've returned both Seagate and Maxtor oem hard drives to the manufacturer and received replacement drives within a few days. I purchased one from Frye's and the other from Newegg.

 

[phkhgh]

Thanks.
I'm not talking about returning a drive (or any other component) in a few days.

I'm talking about a long warranty - 1, 3, 5 yrs.

So you never tried to get an OEM one replaced / repaired under the Mfg Warr after you owned it for 1 or 3 or 4 yrs (like Seagate)?

I'm not sure why this is so confusing to NewEgg & Seagate. Seems like a pretty straight forward question.