Beware of counterfeit drives

[Matt_G]

Bought what I thought were 4TB CMR WD Red drives on Black Friday from NewEgg.
Turns out the seller was in China and sent what I am pretty sure are counterfeit drives.
These things couldn't pass badblocks if their life depended on it.
They are throwing hundreds of errors in badblocks.
I'm going to give them till tomorrow afternoon Mountain time to refund my CC or I will be disputing the charge with my card provider.

This is partly on me for not investigating the seller closely before purchasing.
Be careful guys!

 

[jgreco]

NewEgg doesn't have the best record. I'm guessing this is a third party seller on the NewEgg platform, which is even worse. In the mid-2000's, I purchased some dual ethernet server cards from NewEgg (themselves) which turned out to be horrible knockoffs.

Be aware that the guidance in the Hardware Buying Guide is relevant not only to random lusers selling on eBay out of apartments in California, but also to companies like NewEgg and Amazon who act as corporate stooges for these unscrupulous types.

Hardware Buying Guide - some tips for not getting ripped off

I've been giving this information out piecemeal for years, and should maybe have it summarized in one place. There's been a lot of people who are wary of secondary market sources for hardware, such as eBay, due to bad experiences with other...

www.truenas.com

 

[Matt_G]

Yes sir, you are totally correct.
It was a third party seller.
I fell into the "that's a great price" trap.
I know better than that, but I let my guard down this time and now I'm paying the price for my carelessness.
I compared these drives with a legit WD drive purchased in 2020 and the circuit boards are NOT even close to being the same.

It's really unfortunate that these big corporate sellers will stoop to these levels to increase sales/profits.
It seems to me like it would be in their best interest to properly check out sellers before granting them seller privileges.
But I guess I would be wrong.
I was reading on another site a few weeks back that Amazon has become the largest fence in the world.
How sad...

 

[Ericloewe]

Vaguely related: Someone in Europe is collecting defective DIMMs and redacted them out as "Mustang Memory" (no link, they don't have useful info anyway) for what I assume is cheap, because eBay sellers sure like to bundle that redacted with motherboards they sell. I don't know what the hell they do, but they're sure as hell not on the level.

 

[jgreco]

corporate stooges

largest fence

I stand corrected. I guess I've been thinking about eBay as the world's pawn shop for so long that I don't even really see the differentiation in severity much anymore.

Yes sir, you are totally correct.

I would prefer to be incorrect and for it not to be a problem for you or anyone else. It ruins the magic of enjoying your NAS. Good luck with the chargeback.

 

[joeschmuck]

I order from NewEgg often and I only purchase items which NewEgg directly sells (there is a check box for NewEgg Seller). With the exception of two UPS's that were mistreated during shipping and the case was broken, the third one was the charm, and last week when I got a faulty motherboard (worked for the most part but I found two issues that I couldn't get over) I just asked for a replacement and I got a free return shipping label. I could have asked for a full refund but I still want the product. Sometimes parts don't always work. If the next one is faulty then I will ask for a refund and consider an alternate part. So those are my NewEgg issues over about 20 years, well since I started buying from NewEgg.

I always stay clear of the third party sellers on any shopping site.

I'm going to give them till tomorrow afternoon Mountain time to refund my CC or I will be disputing the charge with my card provider.

Did you contact NewEgg to see if they will issue the refund? I'm not sure how they handle a third party sell, but maybe they would at least remove the distributor from the website so no other unfortunate soul gets screwed over.

 

[Matt_G]

Did you contact NewEgg to see if they will issue the refund? I'm not sure how they handle a third party sell, but maybe they would at least remove the distributor from the website so no other unfortunate soul gets screwed over.

Yes I did do that after my original post.
I requested a refund and it has processed.
UPS label has been printed and these pieces of junk will go out tomorrow from my place of work.
The drives will ship directly to NewEgg in California, rather than the seller in Xiamen, Fujian, China.

Lesson sufficiently reinforced.
I have got to be more careful!
100% of the time!

This is some serious thread drift, but this blew me away when I saw it a few weeks back.
Check this out:

 

[jgreco]

This is some serious thread drift,

Steve Lehto is never "serious thread drift". And about half of what he posts, several times a day usually, should qualify as "blows you away," at least if you give a rat's patootie about your rights and what happens in the US justice system. Which I realize not everyone does. So this is "IMO".

 

[Ericloewe]

This is some serious thread drift

That's this forum's standard way of being.

 

[Jailer]

I always stay clear of the third party sellers on any shopping site.

I couldn't agree more.

It's funny how certain videos show up in peoples youtube feeds. Steve Lehto's videos show up for me all the time. I do like that since he's from MI he covers some topics from our state from time to time but all his videos are a good watch.

 

[Davvo]

Trust but verify, or even better don't trust and verify anyway.

 

[joeschmuck]

Interesting video, I learned something new today.