How does RMA work?

[Sparcx]

Hi there!

I recently found out that my NAS (My Book World Edition 2TB) is somehow defective. I don't know whether it is the firmware, chipset or the drive that had a failure, but no matter what I try, I cannot access my external hard drive. I can't even do a reset or turn it off on the power button. It is simply not responding.

Therefore I figured that I would use the RMA to replace my product. But before taking the step, there are some questions I was hoping someone in here would answer:

1. First of all - do I really have to pay a company to recover the data on my external hard drive. I cannot access it myself, so do need to pay me out of this?
2. If I started to take out the hard drive itself out of the WD box, would I then void my warranty?
3. I'm currently living in Denmark and I have not heard of UPS. I still have my original packaging and all the accessories. How should I send it and should I send it all (retail) or just the NAS?
4. Will the RMA service cost me anything?

I would be pleased to hear from anyone who experienced the same problems as me, and if they solved their problem, I would be pleased to know how. I'm quite frustrated that I cannot recover my data.

Thank you for your patience.

[Vlado]

yes, you need to pay transport cost.

yes, you will lose all your data.

[Sparcx]

Will I be voiding the warranty if I take out the hard drive from the box itself?

If not, then I could use the advance RMA and get my new NAS, switch the two hard drives, copy all my files down onto my computer and switch the hard drives back again. That way I could get all my data.

- The question is if WDC will accept take back a NAS that has been open and what about the warranty on my new NAS? 

[khaynn2112]

Sparcx,

following European laws, i don't think customers have to pay for sending the product for repair.

i have the same concerns about the repair services. If the electronics are brokken, but not the HDD, a product exchange will result as data lost. I'm curious to know WD answers, about this kind of issues ?

What is the interest of such kind of products, if the data cannot be easily retrieved  if HDD is ok ?

[BigEaredMonkey · Accepted solution]

I am sending back my World Edition 1GB drive due to botched firmware from WD. The following is from the RMA documents:

All WARRANTY CLAIMS ARE VOIDED IF A PRODUCT IS RECEIVED UNDER ANY OF THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS:
A. Product was damaged during transport as a result of bad packaging
B. Product damaged, modified, scratched, or opened
C. Product has one or more WD labels removed or torn
D. Product was shipped without proper ESD protection (except external drives)

External Western Digital Enclosures: Do not remove the drive from the external enclosure. Return the drive in its original enclosure/plastic housing (without having been opened or dismantled, along with the power adapter). Please keep all software, manuals and interface cables. WARNING: Removing the hard drive from, a Western Digital single unit external enclosure, will void the warranty.