Customers often worry about how a spin-off will handle the service obligations it inherits from the parent company. One reader’s experience suggests such concerns might be valid in the case of Certance, the company that’s taken over Seagate’s tape drive products.
The reader writes:
Our Seagate TapeStor DAT 240 Autoloader tape drive failed while in warranty. I called Seagate/Certance and obtained an RMA, and I supplied a credit card number so they could ship the drive immediately -- I was told they had a unit available.
Four days later I called back to find out the status of my drive, and was told they had no idea of the status, and was told they didn't even know if they had one. I voiced my concern that I have four sizable file servers that I could not back up, and I was told, "I don't know what to tell you." Great answer for a company which advertises "We keep data alive."
Since then I have tried to call the warranty line several times and all I get is a recording saying "If you have a warranty problem, fill out a form on the Seagate/Certance web site, and you will get a reply in two business days."
I have left several messages on the warranty web site without a single reply, and have tried several times to call the main office asking for a supervisor, and all I have gotten is a runaround and voicemail. I have now gone two weeks without a back-up, and I can't even talk to a person at Seagate/Certance. Is this the kind of support Seagate/Certance provides to a company that has been a loyal Seagate customer for over six years?
Out of curiosity, I called the Certance 800 number myself this morning to see if it was possible to get through to the warranty service line. The recorded greeting said that "due to software system upgrades, our customer service representatives are not available by telephone" and that RMAs would have to be obtained on-line.
1:28:10 PM 
|
|
