Warranty rights. Futu online RMA experience

• 

  dualcore on 08/09/2020 - 01:10

  +1

  1. There is no way to expedite the process. Generally, retailers will expedite DoAs, however that is actually just a courtesy and not something required under ACL. Under the ACL, retailers and manufacturers have the rights to investigate and diagnose the issue within a "reasonable period of time". Unfortunately, courts have ruled that several months is a reasonable period of time, as long as no party took undue delays (e.g. let your HDD sit for 3 weeks or something).

  2. ACL grants you the right to a repair, replacement, or refund (your choice) for a major fault. You may indeed ask for a refund.

  3. Yes, it is safe, because you have 2 drive redundancy.

• 

  smashman42 on 08/09/2020 - 01:37

  I'd personally buy a new one to speed up the replacement process, and then either warranty for a cold spare or go for the refund option, but either way buy the new one and get it in there in a week or so rather than the likely over a month the warranty would take.

  If they were all 8TB drives with 2 drive redundancy (I think that is what you've said in point 4?), you've basically dropped back from RAID6 to RAID5, so it should be safe enough to wait for the replacement - much safer than if you were single redundancy with a missing drive in any case!

  (I went through RAID5/single redundancy drive failure earlier in the year in my old ReadyNAS 104, ran it degraded RAID5 for the week it took for the new replacement to get to me, then a quick long smart test in another PC before adding it to the NAS to rebuild - my drives were well out of warranty though so buying straight up was a no-brainer for me)

• 

  xuqi on 08/09/2020 - 02:03

  +2

  RMA it yourself directly with Seagate Australia (far quicker than going back through a retailer). Their RMA address is in Sydney, and generally as soon as they receive your fault drive there, they'll ship out the replacement to you.

  https://www.seagate.com/au/en/support/warranty-and-replaceme…

  • 

    wallen on 08/09/2020 - 08:58

    +1

    I did just that with a failed 8TB Ironwolf. Also, if you inform them it is part of a RAID subsystem, they’ll do advanced RMA where they’ll send you the new and then you return the old one in the same packaging. Convenient…

    Edit: and someone already said the same thing. Doh!

    • 

      bingsta on 08/09/2020 - 09:22

      Thanks! Still good to know they did the same for you. Will try this.

    • 

      bingsta on 08/09/2020 - 11:10

      Just wondering how you got them to send the new drive before receiving the old one. The automated process on the seagate website seems to suggest you have to ship back the drive to them first (can't see any option to get them to cover the shipping either).

      • 

        xuqi on 08/09/2020 - 11:50

        They have always been very quick with RMA. I send them a failed drive from Perth to Sydney via StarTrack, and receive the replacement by the same Friday, or the next Monday.

        Now COVID and logistics related issues may slow things down now, but direct RMA with Seagate is still far quicker than going through the retailer.

        I paid for shipping to send, they paid to express it back to me.

• 

  s20man on 08/09/2020 - 07:30

  When I had a failed 8tb ironwolf I just dealt directly with Seagate. I advised it was in a NAS with data at risk and they advance shipped the new drive and I sent back the old unit in there packaging of the replacement. You also don't need proof of purchase as they just check the warranty from the SN.. Note they like to send the new unit with an OEM top sticker and may be a recertified drive. If that's an issue for you then specify a new retail labelled drive. Yes you could do a refund under consumer law but would need to ship back to the retailer first for an inspection and would be a slower process.

  • 

    bingsta on 08/09/2020 - 07:43

    Thank you. Very useful info. Might try the Seagate route. Sounds like the service is fairly good…

  • 

    bingsta on 08/09/2020 - 11:09

    Just wondering how you got them to send the new drive before receiving the old one. The automated process on the seagate website seems to suggest you have to ship back the drive to them first (can't see any option to get them to cover the shipping either).

• 

  uncompressed on 08/09/2020 - 09:22

  I had a Dell monitor taken care of under warranty and it was pretty OK. It was bought on eBay as a new item from Futu.

  There was no followup after I'd sent them my defective monitor but a new replacement showed up soon enough.

  • 

    bingsta on 08/09/2020 - 10:59

    Did you send back to Futu or back to Dell? Was postage taken care of?

    • 

      uncompressed on 08/09/2020 - 15:55

      Sent back to Futu. I had to pay postage there but they shipped it back at their expense.

• 

  hoverboardrider on 03/04/2021 - 11:40

  I have bought lots of things from Futu Online but have just had a bad experience with them through their eBay store and will never buy a thing from them again - be warned.
  I've been in the market for a Dell U2720Q monitor for a while, I'm in need a good colour-correct monitor for photography work with 100% sRGB coverage (regular calibration for colour accuracy is easy with a colorimeter). This monitor is one of the best reasonably priced options and is usually picked up for around $900, which is not cheap, but to step up to a professional grade monitor costs thousands more and I don't have the budget for a pro-grade monitor.
  Dell shop has had U2720Q out of stock for ages due to pandemic and I contacted Dell Australia to find out if or when they expected to restock. Dell told me that they were not expecting stock for months and suggested I check resellers as some resellers were still carrying new stock.
  - An eBay Plus 20% off voucher came out on ozbargain and Futu-Online eBay were selling the U2720Q (Brand New, Unopened etc) for $869 less 20% with the voucher, plus I bought using eBay gift cards which at the time had a 5% discount, so the price was $651.75 which is a very sweet deal, I got in just before the 20% off voucher expired on 20th March 2021.
  - Very quick delivery, it was at my local post office inside two days, very snappy for a small regional town on NSW South Coast.
  -Picked up from the post office and alarm bells starting ringing. The box was a bit battered and torn and poorly resealed. Took photos before opening.
  - Opened the box and fears were realised. The monitor had clearly been repacked in a very haphazard way. The internal packaging was torn, the cords and accessories were just loosely thrown in the box not even coiled up properly and they weren't in the the inner cardboard box where they should be, and the monitor itself wasn't packed properly, there was no protective film on the monitor etc. Took more photos.
  - Contacted Futu through eBay messaging a couple of times explaining that I would like a return refund as the monitor was not brand new and unopened and was not as described on eBay. It is impossible to talk to them on the phone, there is an answering machine message saying both Shopping Express and Futu staff are all working from home and then the message machine hangs up without the caller being able to leave a message. I received a reply through eBay messaging a bit later asking me to send photos, Futu would check with their logistics dept, etc. I sent photos and a bit more info. Futu then stopped communicating completely.
  - I entered the service tag number printed on the monitor stand into the Dell website and the 3 year Dell Advance Exchange Support service warranty had been initiated a few weeks before I had even placed the order, somebody had apparently initiated a warranty claim or registered their purchase on this monitor weeks before I even ordered it. Told Futu about this.
  - There was an old delivery sticker on the box and my delivery sticker had been stuck over the top, however I noticed that the tracking number on the old sticker was still visible. I entered the old tracking number into the Auspost website delivery tracker and discovered that the item had travelled from Minchinbury NSW to Alexandria NSW via Auspost a few days before I placed my order. A quick check revealed that Dell has a service centre located in Minchinbury and that the item was later dispatched via Auspost from the eBay seller addressed to me from Alexandria. Told Futu about this also.
  - It seems clear that this item was either a previous return or a refurbished item that Futu_Online had sold to me as a new unopened item. May have been an accidental error by Futu, or may have been deliberate, who would know? What do you think?
  - As Futu have gone completely incommunicado I have started a return process. I went through an online chat process with eBay to find out who pays postage as I was new to the whole eBay return process. eBay were terrific, I am really pleased with the help and information they gave me after I initiated the return process. The seller has to either pay for postage or send a return postage label via email, and they have 7 days to do this. After 7 days if I haven't received the postage details from Futu, I can expect an automatic refund through eBay, and may get to keep the item as well.
  - It's now a few days after I initiated the return and still haven't heard a peep from Futu, I'll update this post if I hear from them but I don't think it's likely. I suspect that Futu may have already claimed the item as faulty and may have gotten a refund from Dell, and couldn't care less about this matter, but that's just a total wild guess on my part.
  - As I have said at the start of this post: I WILL NEVER DEAL WITH FUTU EVER AGAIN. BE WARNED. THEY ARE ALSO CONNECTED SOMEHOW WITH SHOPPING EXPRESS, SO OUT OF AN ABUNDANCE OF CAUTION I WILL NEVER DEAL WITH THEM EITHER.
  - Thanks for reading.

• 

  bingsta on 21/04/2021 - 10:11

  +1

  An update to my saga. I circumvented Futu and claimed warranty through Seagate. RMA was a smooth process but thankfully I live near the return center so could deliver my faulty unit myself otherwise I believe I would have had to pay for the postage to return my faulty unit.