HDD from Amazon with Frustration Free Packaging

Forums › Desktop computing › HDD from Amazon with Frustration Free Packaging - Worth It?

AndyR

73 posts

Master Geek

#311090 13-Dec-2023 09:13

Needing to replace the drives in my 2 bay NAS as the 6TB pair I have had for nearly 5 years now are filling up, and noticed Amazon US have a sweet price on Seagate Ironwolf 12TB shipped to NZ.

But, I noticed all the Amazon drives when shipped from them come in the "Frustration Free Packaging" which from my experience with other items is, they throw it into a cardboard bag with no packaging. Doing some googling/reddit it seems that its a super common problem with drives turning up dead because of the lack of packaging etc.

So just wondering if that's peoples experience here too and if its worth the risk for the 30% cheaper price than buying locally in NZ.

1 | 2

3423 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#3171364 13-Dec-2023 11:48

That, as people say, is a toughee.

I buy HDDs from Amamzon quite often and things have generally been fine. I did have one that failed on startup and they swapped it no problem, but others have had problems. I can believe it depends on the rep you get...

I'd imagine you'd be OK so long as you give it a good test within the 30 days return thingy, otherwise its dealing with WD / Seagate or whoever direct.

Amazon even sent two HDDs with a postage label slapped straight on the WD boxes recently. They worked, but one of the ones send in an extra box with bugger all packing so it could slide about inside didn't (see above).

Don't think this helps much...

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

rb99

AndyR

73 posts

Master Geek

#3178982 8-Jan-2024 13:40

Thanks.

To complete this for anyone searching in future, I ended up ordering from B&H Photo instead of Amazon. I found way too many posts on Reddit of people posting HDDs arriving in just cardboard envelopes with zero padding, to want to risk the Frustration-Free Packaging. Getting the drives from B&H was $12NZD more than Amazon with shipping, but they arrived in solid boxes with nicely packed plastic housing and tonnes of bubble wrap, and touch wood so far have been running fine.

Movieman

3320 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3185457 23-Jan-2024 11:08

I have just ordered two Seagate IronWolf Pro 20Tb hard drives from Amazon US. I checked the price to buy from PB Tech before I ordered. They were NZ$1434 each. I got free shipping from Amazon and chose the added Amazon packaging option so that people can't see what is in the parcel. Hopefully they will arrive intact. Total cost... NZ$1380! better than two for the price of one. If I had shopped around the various NZ tech websites, I probably could have got a cheaper option than PB Tech, but no one in NZ was going to match the Amazon prices. Retailers need to stop whining about imports affecting their business and become more competitive. Amazon's price included a US$50 off each drive promotion.

I have considered adding a Synology NAS to my desktop set up (DS423 or DS 923), but for now I have settled on the Sabrent USB Type-C to Dual 3.5" SATA and RAID docking station, which I also got from Amazon US. If I'm not happy, I can always buy a NAS at a later date. The cost of populating the NAS is a major expense; at least now, I will have a head start 😀

I will post again in this thread when I receive them.

MAN CAVE: 2019 Panasonic GZ1000 65" OLED TV - Panasonic DP-UB 820 4K Blu-ray Player - PlayStation 5 Console - Yamaha Aventage RX-A1080 Receiver - Dolby Atmos / DTS:X 5.1.2 Surround Speaker System - Apple TV 4K 32gb (2nd Gen) - LIVING ROOM: 2021 Sony 75” X95J LCD TV - Apple TV 4K 32gb (1st Gen) TECH: iPhone 15 Plus, iPad Gen. 10

richms

28192 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3185468 23-Jan-2024 11:49

AndyR:

Thanks.

To complete this for anyone searching in future, I ended up ordering from B&H Photo instead of Amazon. I found way too many posts on Reddit of people posting HDDs arriving in just cardboard envelopes with zero padding, to want to risk the Frustration-Free Packaging. Getting the drives from B&H was $12NZD more than Amazon with shipping, but they arrived in solid boxes with nicely packed plastic housing and tonnes of bubble wrap, and touch wood so far have been running fine.

I don't buy from them because of their idiocy of closing the checkout for a day because of nonsense.

My last lot of internals from Amazon came in a cardboard box with the plastic holders spacing the drive away from the ends of the box. That was just labeled with my address. There was 1 box for each drive. They did manage to put 3 of them in a larger cardboard box with some brown paper stuff to fill the gap. the other 2 were just the cardboard box on its own.

The externals came with the retail box with my address label on it. Really great when aramex leave it at the side of the road in the milk part of the old mailbox.

Richard rich.ms

Movieman

3320 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3185471 23-Jan-2024 12:05

richms:

AndyR:

Thanks.

To complete this for anyone searching in future, I ended up ordering from B&H Photo instead of Amazon. I found way too many posts on Reddit of people posting HDDs arriving in just cardboard envelopes with zero padding, to want to risk the Frustration-Free Packaging. Getting the drives from B&H was $12NZD more than Amazon with shipping, but they arrived in solid boxes with nicely packed plastic housing and tonnes of bubble wrap, and touch wood so far have been running fine.

I don't buy from them because of their idiocy of closing the checkout for a day because of nonsense.

My last lot of internals from Amazon came in a cardboard box with the plastic holders spacing the drive away from the ends of the box. That was just labeled with my address. There was 1 box for each drive. They did manage to put 3 of them in a larger cardboard box with some brown paper stuff to fill the gap. the other 2 were just the cardboard box on its own.

The externals came with the retail box with my address label on it. Really great when aramex leave it at the side of the road in the milk part of the old mailbox.

Amazon do state that some parcels will show what the contents are. You can choose to have your purchases shipped in Amazon packaging at no extra cost. At least no-one will see what's in it, but they will know that its from Amazon 😄

AndyR

73 posts

Master Geek

#3185537 23-Jan-2024 15:34

Movieman:
Total cost... NZ$1380! better than two for the price of one. If I had shopped around the various NZ tech websites, I probably could have got a cheaper option than PB Tech, but no one in NZ was going to match the Amazon prices. Retailers need to stop whining about imports affecting their business and become more competitive. Amazon's price included a US$50 off each drive promotion.

Agreed! Both of my drives came out $75 nzd cheaper than pbtech all time low they they charge for a single drive! So better than 2 for 1.

I’ll always buy local if the price difference is negligible or I am worried about returns, but when you see such a giant price difference, yeah nah.

richms

28192 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3185544 23-Jan-2024 15:49

I don't consider HDDs to be returnable once I have my data on them, so the lack of returns isn't a worry. If they fail in testing before going into the raid then I am within the amazon timeframe to get the the DHL label to send it back to them.

Has anyone tried the recertified drives on there? Somewhat cheaper and if they work then thats all good.

Richard rich.ms

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

boosacnoodle

963 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3185548 23-Jan-2024 15:58

Have you ever tried to do an Amazon.com return? They refused to provide me a label last time and insisted I must arrange return shipping at my own expense. They alleged that they would reimburse me for the expense.

AndyR

73 posts

Master Geek

#3185552 23-Jan-2024 16:20

boosacnoodle:
Have you ever tried to do an Amazon.com return? They refused to provide me a label last time and insisted I must arrange return shipping at my own expense. They alleged that they would reimburse me for the expense.

Yeah done several, both on com and com.au.

All but 1 time they gave me a label, but the time they didn’t which was a change of mind return, they told me they would cover up to $75 return and to provide proof, so it only cost $30 and had the money back a day after I sent it before it even arrived.

Movieman

3320 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3185568 23-Jan-2024 16:46

richms:

I don't consider HDDs to be returnable once I have my data on them, so the lack of returns isn't a worry. If they fail in testing before going into the raid then I am within the amazon timeframe to get the the DHL label to send it back to them.

Has anyone tried the recertified drives on there? Somewhat cheaper and if they work then thats all good.

I actually had one in my cart until I realized that it was "renewed". I wasn't prepared to take the chance on a re-furbished drive. The prices are good though.

SirHumphreyAppleby

2849 posts

Uber Geek

#3185572 23-Jan-2024 17:05

boosacnoodle:

Have you ever tried to do an Amazon.com return? They refused to provide me a label last time and insisted I must arrange return shipping at my own expense. They alleged that they would reimburse me for the expense.

I've done this a couple of times with Amazon. On both occasions, they reimbursed me $US instead of $NZ, so that was a win. I've just had too many bad experience with them.

Someone suggested Water Panther drives recently. My next order will likely be from them.

Jase2985

13465 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3185591 23-Jan-2024 17:39

"it appears these are rebadged Western Digital devices."

Remember that there are only a handful of companies that manufacture HDDs these days so Water Panther has to come from one of them.

and " Every drive is backed by a 2-year, no-hassle warranty." so 1-3 years less than WD/Seagate.

Sharp prices, but you can get seagate/WD for that when they come up on special

richms

28192 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3185866 24-Jan-2024 13:01

boosacnoodle:

Have you ever tried to do an Amazon.com return? They refused to provide me a label last time and insisted I must arrange return shipping at my own expense. They alleged that they would reimburse me for the expense.

Yes,

they sent me a dhl ticket to print for a DOA drive, and I had to have the box open so the pickup driver could see what was in it before sealing it. Otherwise no issues at all.

Richard rich.ms

Movieman

3320 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3186328 25-Jan-2024 11:29

I just bought the Sabrent USB Type-C to Dual 3.5" SATA and RAID docking station from Amazon. Now PB Tech have a sale on their Synology NAS selection...Doh!

Movieman

3320 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3192466 8-Feb-2024 15:26

Movieman:

I have just ordered two Seagate IronWolf Pro 20Tb hard drives from Amazon US. I checked the price to buy from PB Tech before I ordered. They were NZ$1434 each. I got free shipping from Amazon and chose the added Amazon packaging option so that people can't see what is in the parcel. Hopefully they will arrive intact. Total cost... NZ$1380! better than two for the price of one. If I had shopped around the various NZ tech websites, I probably could have got a cheaper option than PB Tech, but no one in NZ was going to match the Amazon prices. Retailers need to stop whining about imports affecting their business and become more competitive. Amazon's price included a US$50 off each drive promotion.

I have considered adding a Synology NAS to my desktop set up (DS423 or DS 923), but for now I have settled on the Sabrent USB Type-C to Dual 3.5" SATA and RAID docking station, which I also got from Amazon US. If I'm not happy, I can always buy a NAS at a later date. The cost of populating the NAS is a major expense; at least now, I will have a head start 😀

I will post again in this thread when I receive them.

Well, my Sabrent Docking Station arrived over a week ago, and is in perfect condition. My Seagate Hard Drives however.....

Arrived in NZ on January 26th and was held by customs pending a NZ Importers Code, which I didn't have. Five days later I received the code from customs and forwarded it to Aramex's Customs Broker. Customs released the parcel on receiving the said code on February 5th. Since then I have emailed Aramex several times. Their reply:

"Hi There
I would like to inform you that according to our records, your parcel has been scanned in the customs of New Zealand and is currently awaiting inspection. However, we have not received any confirmation that your parcel has been forwarded to Aramex."

I had already received the following from NZ Customs:

"Good afternoon,
Thank you for your enquiry.

We can see that your client code was used on an import entry lodged by Contract Freight Management/Aramex on 05 February.
The import entry was cleared by Customs and MPI Biosecurity immediately, so there are no Customs or MPI holds on the shipment.

You will have to talk to Aramex about the reason for the delay."

So, I'm going round in circles. Anyone had this sort of problem when dealing with Aramex in the past?

1 | 2