Western Digital Reviews

I purchased a Western Digital (WD) 2TB My Passport Portable External Hard Drive and a 3-Year Rescue Data Recovery Services plan via Amazon on 02/12/20 for a total of $76.95. The day after I received the drive, on 02/16/20, I registered and reformatted it to use with my MacBook Pro. Unfortunately, the drive barely lasted two months before I began having issues with it disconnecting itself from my Mac. On 04/30/20 WD support was contacted the first time, but they passed the buck and told me to contact Apple. They were contacted multiple times that day and numerous times since then. On 05/01/20 support said the issue might be due to a bad USB cable or bad drive, and a replacement offered. I was then informed on 05/04/20 that the replacement would be refurbished. In the meantime, the issue worsened causing me to lose access to an entire volume on the drive which required reformatting and resulted in a loss of data. Then on 05/12/20 support said they would provide 3 months extension on the warranty. Finally, on 05/13/20 I created an RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) for a replacement, which I called support about but they were again a waste of time. After throwing a fit about the whole ordeal I was contacted by a manager at WD Tech Support on 05/14/20 who said they will process the replacement with extended warranty of 3 months and provide a prepaid shipping label to return the defective drive. In addition, I was asked to provide proof of purchase so they could process the replacement with "Prime (Brand New Drive)", which I immediately provided. After a couple days I heard nothing back and contacted them again. They responded on 05/19/20 saying they would be processing my RMA with a brand new WD My Passport with 90 days extension on the warranty and a Prepaid UPS Shipping label would be sent within one business day. But I basically had to harass them to set this in motion rather than just "discussing" it and even still it took more than two weeks! Finally I received the replacement, which I did not get around to or register until 05/29/20. When I registered the serial number the replacement came back as a "Legacy Product", which instantly I knew I had received a refurbished drive and immediately contacted support. On 06/01/20 the same manager as before responded that the replacement was not a legacy product. Meanwhile, my original drive was received by WD on this same day. Then the manager responded on 06/05/20 directing my attention to an attached image saying it shows the drive was not refurbished or a legacy product, and requested I share the screenshot of the page where I am seeing the drive as a legacy product so they can investigate. In spite of their best efforts, it proved nothing as far as I was concerned, but it did clearly show the drive had only a 90 day warranty which they were aware of. Furthermore, I had attached copies of emails and screenshots when I created this support incident a week prior that provided all the information they needed and chose to ignore. He then responded on 06/12/20 saying the replacement I received was "incorrectly mapped as legacy products", which they have "fixed", and I could check by creating a new account with a new email address and registering the drive again. Essentially, they simply edited the information associated with the serial number in their system. I do not know if I was more shocked by this or disgusted. Until I returned a missed call from them on 06/16/20 regarding a new replacement I requested multiple times, and spoke with someone else who let it slip that I was in fact sent a refurbished drive. After throwing another fit I was asked to provide information for support to create a new RMA (drive serial number, shipping address, etc), which I asked for confirmation multiple times that a brand new drive would in fact be sent and was again told it would be a brand new drive. Then I asked about a return shipping label, but was told I am responsible for one-day shipping to return the drive and I said absolutely not. Support promised I would be sent a brand new drive, but sent a refurbished drive instead and flat out lied about it the last two weeks. He started to explain their "policy", but I pointed out I was sent a prepaid label before, and of course was told that was a "one time exception". In the end I told him to forget about and hung-up the phone. Several hours later I received a RMA confirmation email which had the incorrect serial number! Despite the fact that support is more than well aware of the serial number, the RMA was for the original drive I purchased, and that WD had in their possession for over two weeks!! So I called support explaining the issue, and the gentleman literally told me he did not see a problem. After explaining this no less than a half dozen times and having to resort to yelling he finally "got it". At that point I expected a new RMA to be created, but I was basically told the information would be passed along, and I would receive an email with all the information as well as a prepaid shipping label. I of course received no information or label, and the following day, on 06/17/20, decided to write a complaint here because I am beyond fed-up with WD's so-called "support". They were informed of this complaint, which several hours later I went back to add files to, and only then discovered there is a limit to how many files can be included. Unable to remove the files I had already added, I was forced to request that my complaint be deleted so I could combine multiple files into a single file and resubmit my complaint with this in mind. They were informed of this as well but I did not receive any response or acknowledgement. Then on 06/20/20 I received a RMA Received Confirmation email stating they received and processed the RMA product three days prior, and I will be notified by email once a replacement is ready for delivery. So I contacted support the same day to find out if I am being sent a new replacement or if someone simply changed information in their system again resulting in this email since the product in reference was the original drive WD received on 06/01/20. Again, I did not receive any response or acknowledgement.

User's recommendation: I would recommend a Dollar Store brand hard drive before ever recommending WD!