Bad Deal - RMA advise needed

[Boddy]

Over the course of four months, I have purchased 8 large SanDisk Optimus Ascent SSDs (around $4K in total) for a RAID array.

The first disk was as Optimus Ascend, as described. I have found out that the following 6 or 7 disks are the cheaper Optimus Eco disks. Payment through PayPal.

Seller imagined the problem was a shipping error for single disk but I have since advised him that it was several disks over several shipments that he supplied.

Seller has advised he is willing to swap over Eco disks for Ascend disks and pay $50 credit. I'm asking him to pay for return postage.

Fortunately 5 of the Eco disks are sitting in my Shipito warehouse in USA, so I will get them to take pictures of disks before sending them back to seller.

Two of the disks are on their way back to me in Australia. I could send these directly to seller or to my Shipito account and they can take photos and verify goods as an independent 3rd party before I send it to seller.

Due to the value of the goods I'm bit hesitant to send them back to seller, in case seller says he did not get them or other excuse.

Any tips how I should proceed would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[T_Minus]

4 months to notify you got the wrong drives, yikes... even using a forwarder I know they can take pics and let you know what you received.

That seller sounds like a very nice person for fixing a mistake that should have been handled within days of receiving the merchandise.

If you're that worried you could open a dispute, provide tracking # for return, and go all through paypal for the most recent transactions but this may piss of the seller even more since papyal will then lock-up his $$ until the items are received/returned.

Those are my thoughts on the situation at-least

 

[Boddy]

Thanks @T_Minus for your thoughtful and insightful reply.

Re: Photographs - I'm negotiating procedure with freight forwarder (Shipito) about them handling electrostatic sensitive goods as photographer no longer receives the 'special consideration' message ($5) I send when I make a photo request.

I get bit concerned when I purchased 3 x C6100 motherboards with antistatic bag and stickers. Admittedly, one of the bags were not sealed (I think EBay seller open bag to take pictures for his listing) but it still had electrostatic warning label on it. And Shipito photographer took the motherboard out of the bag for pictures .

My negotiations with Shipito are going around in circles.

Anyway, seller has offered $40 credit per drive if I take the cheaper 'Eco' drives, but considering the 'Ascend' drives are 10 DWPD, I think I will go for the more enduring drive.

Seller has not confirmed if he will pay for return postage at this stage.

 

[Boddy]

Looks like PayPal is offering free refunded returns for up to 8 returns a year for customers who register with PayPal for the service.

When I Googled the link (after signing into EBay) the information seemed specific to Australia (could be geo sensing where I am).
Try googling from your location 'PayPal free returns'.

Here's some links that came up from my location:
I just activated free return shipping.
Refund Terms and Conditions: Refunded Returns - PayPal Australia

 

[frogtech]

The cloudspeed ascend is 1 DWPD. Where did you get 10?

 

[T_Minus]

@frogtech This is the drive he's talking about.
http://www.sandisk.com/assets/docs/optimus-ascend-sas-ssd-datasheet.pdf

It's not the Cloudspeed it's the Optimus lineup


=== Other data i Found before realizing I was looking at wrong drive ===

Good catch @frogtech looks like the difference is the warranty (may not be relevant to used/out of country drives) and slight increase in endurance. I also noticed an "ECO Gen2" so it appears they have two variations of the "ECO" Line up. Oddly the GEN2 is slower, and is rated for less endurance. (I also noticed a GEN2 ULtra line up too)

CloudSpeed ECO Gen2 Data Sheet:
https://www.sandisk.com/content/dam...s/cloudspeed-eco-genII-sata-ssd-datasheet.pdf

I also noticed this "1 unrecoverable error in 10^18"
First time I've seen that... anyone else noticed this "10^18" ? I've never seen anything over 17.


CloudSpeed Ascend Data Sheet:
http://www.sandisk.com/assets/docs/cloudspeed-ascend-sata-ssd-datasheet.pdf

• CloudSpeed Ascend—This high-end drive is designed for read-intensive application workloads such as File Servers, Web-based Applications and Virtual Tape Libraries (VTL). The CloudSpeed Ascend comes in capacities ranging from 240GB to 960GB, achieves up to 1 full DWPD with a 5 year warranty, delivers up to 80K/15K IOPS and supports up to 1.8 PBW.
  
  
• CloudSpeed Eco—This entry-level SSD is designed for read-intensive application workloads such as Web Servers, Web 2.0 Content Repositories, Photo Sharing, Media Streaming, Video on Demand (VOD) and Cloud Computing. The CloudSpeed Eco comes in capacities from 240GB to 960GB, achieves up to 1 full DWPD with a 3 year warranty, delivers up to 450/400 MB/s of sustained read/write performance and 80k/15k read/write IOPS and supports up to 1.0PBW.
  
  
  
  SanDisk Announces New CloudSpeed SATA SSDs | StorageReview.com - Storage Reviews
  
  

 

[Boddy]

Correct T_Minus. I was talking about the 'Optimus' line of SSDs not 'Cloudspeed' FYI

 

[Boddy]

@T_Minus I am concerned if I would receive the returned goods. The return address provided by the seller is 50 miles from his EBay address , he wants me to use his initials (not whole name) on the return address and will not provide a picture that he has the correct drives.

I have opened a dispute with PayPal.
Does PayPal hold the seller's funds when you open a dispute or do you have to escalate it to a claim before PayPal holds the funds?

Seller is now offering a refund for the returned goods, though I'd prefer the correct hard drives?

Any feedback greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[frogtech]

just accept the refund and don't do direct invoicing outside of ebay on purchases you can't afford to lose money on, lesson learned.

 

[Boddy]

thanks @frogtech for your good advise

 

[T_Minus]

IF your dispute is open with paypal then he auto got the funds frozen in his paypal account or went negative balance if they were not in there.

If you ship back make sure to use tracking so you can provide that to paypal.

Accept refund, and move on-- like I figured he probably is upset paypal froze his $$ this is why ebay sellers say "CONTACT US FIRST FOR REFUND DONT OPEN DISPUTE/CASE" No one wants their $$ locked up, but that's how ebay/paypal play it.

Also, technically speaking they're not "supposed" to do a replacement only refund -- at-least according to ebay.
I would figure paypal has similar rules as it's hard to track / cross-ship etc... accurately for the 'middle company' paypal/ebay passing judgement. What they want is a refund, and then a 2nd transaction to go on the books. Maybe the seller is going to do that for you?

You could message him and say "Once you receive items, and I receive refund can you "sell me" the correct ones?"
That is if you want to risk it again.

I had an ebay seller attempt to "Trade" me good SSD for a bad one he sent (cheap one <$100) but he never sent it after a handful of days of communication, the crazy part was I as going to buy 2 more from him... since he never replied to me I just opened a case, and he refunded in another 3 days. Sometimes I swear they think you're going to 'forget'.

 

[Boddy]

Thanks so much T_Minus for your insightful and detailed information!
It's good to know how it all works...ask a pro
Crazy me open a case, but when others post on the forum that the Eco was a great deal at a more expensive price; I could not resist accepting his reduced price for the Eco drives. Particularly as later ones have a more recent manufacturing date.