Drive Failure and Customer Support expectations

I got criticized recently for hijacking a thread when the subject of a certain brand of hard drives mentioned and I piped up with my experience. The nature of many discussions here is freeflowing, but I think it might be useful to discuss what we can legitimately expect from hard drive suppliers and how to insure a reasonable level of satisfaction.
Test your drives extensively when you first get them. Most vendors will exchange the drive or give you a refund within a week or so. Looking back on my recent experience, there were symptoms that I know realize were caused by the faulty drives that appeared almost immediately. Everything would have been much simpler, if I had just taken the drive back to the vendor immediately.
Always keep your receipts. If you lose your receipt many resellers will send you a copy. I bought my drives from Tekserve in NY and when I couldn't find the receipt for a particular drive they made a copy for me.
You should be able to expect a timely response. Keep a log of all communications and copies of all emails sent and received.
And here is where we might find some difference of opinion. If you haven't received satisfaction, let people know. I think people who have participated in this forum for the last 5 years or so, have a sense of my level of experience. When someone unknown to me badmouths a product I take it with a grain of salt. When I hear from someone I know from their participation here and on other forums, I will listen and it will effect my purchase decisions.

> If you haven't received satisfaction, let people know.
I couldn't agree more with you Michael - if you're not happy, let others know but equally, those of us who've had good service should speak up too. That's only fair.
My G-Tech G-Raid died in a big way a couple of weeks ago and as I posted elswhere, both drives needed replacing. Needless to say, I lost an awful lot of data - but most of it was (double backed-up) on my faithful LaCie Big Disk 500 GB (Which has been ultra-reliable).
G-Tech were courteous and efficient - but then I'm in the UK, so the staff are different to those you dealt with.
Since the repair, the G-Tech has given sterling service - I was worried during the recent heatwave we had over here - temperatures in the office were hideous, so I was extra careful not to run either HD for too long.
Fao anyone who's interested, G-Tech listed a few things that External Hard Drives don't tolerate:
They don't like having the connection or power interrupted whilst they are working
They won't tolerate being moved or bumped (AT ALL) while working, so locate yours where it's out of the way on a solid surface.
Most of all, they won't tolerate excess heat, so you're better off with a fan-cooled one, especially if it will be working in a hot office . . .
That's my bit - do I get the star now?
(Just Kidding)
Andy
G5 Quad. 8 GB. 250 & 500 GB Internal HDs. G-Tech G-Raid 1 TB. FCP 5.0.4 (Studio) Mac OS X (10.4.7) Sony HVR-Z1E.
You can't educate pork . . ..

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Trying to restore my Mac OS after a hard drive failure and my password is no longer recognized, however I can log in by double clicking on the Lion Icon? How can I reset my password

I am trying to restore my Mac OS after a hard drive failure and my password is no longer recognized, however I can log in by double clicking on the Lion Icon? How can I reset my password

First, make sure caps lock is not on.
Another reason why your password might not be recognized is that the keyboard layout (input source) has been switched without your realizing it. At the login screen, you can cycle through the available layouts by pressing the key combinationcommand-space or command-option-space. See this support article.
If the user account is associated with an Apple ID, and you know the Apple ID password, then maybe the Apple ID can be used to reset your user account password.
Otherwise*, boot into Recovery mode. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, select
Utilities ▹ Terminal
from the menu bar. In the window that opens, type this:
res
Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:
resetpassword
Press return. A Reset Password window opens. Close the Terminal window to get it out of the way.
Select your boot volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected.
Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.
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Payment withheld and customer support unable to help

My payment for about $4,000 was withheld this month because of an outstanding $30 app ad campaign balance.
The balance exists because my bank issued me a new credit card, replacing my old credit card on file. Ok, fine, I assumed I can pay the balance and have my payment issued, right? Wrong, the problem is that there is no way to pay the balance. I was finally
able to add my new card as a payment option but even adding the new card as a payment option does nothing; the ad campaign remains unpaid and no payment can be issued.
I've created support tickets and customer support has been unable to resolve this issue, with no end in sight. What few responses I've received from customer support all read the same way: "we are investigating the issue but have no updates for you
at this time". Meanwhile I fully expect my next month's payment to be withheld as well, because the outstanding balance is still there.
Has this happened to anybody else? If so were you able to resolve this? I find it hard to believe I'm the only one who has an outstanding balance for an app ad campaign.
I am half-hoping that somebody higher up reads this who has the authority or resources to help with this. I'm amazed there is no solution for this after weeks. I am simply out of options, I have no idea what can be done about this.

Hello Nate,
You might not be able to create a new campaign in the payment failed state, but you can go to campaign creation page, add a new credit card and select the same. This will change the credit card associated with your account. If the card is good for swipe,
the account will be unblocked during the next monthly swipe cycle.
Please do so before the end of this month, so that your accounts get unblocked before the next payout cycle which is usually in the first week of every month.
If you have other feedback, please do let us know at
[email protected]
Thanks,
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I recently had a catastrophic hard drive failure and had to replace it. At the time, I had a VERY extensive music library and it is now lost. This entire library was also on iTunes. Is it possible to recover that library, or do I have to download again?

I recently had a catastrophic hard drive failure and had to replace it. At the time, I had a VERY extensive music library and it is now lost. This entire library was also on iTunes. Is it possible to recover that library, or do I have to download again?

If your hard drive was not backed up then you can download items purchased from the iTunes Store.
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519 - enabled with iTunes 10.3 and newer; not available in all countries; apps, books (not audiobooks), music, t.v. shows, and movies (some - not all studios have permitted this). Movies currently available in the USA only. Downloading previously purchased movies and TV shows requires iTunes 10.6 or later. Discontinued items not available. For items not included in the iCloud list, or locations or computer systems where iCloud is not (yet?) available, you only get one download per fee paid. Apple notes it is your responsibility to back up your purchases.
Did you subscribe to iTunes Match service? If you did, your other music would be available too.
Note, this restores the music files themselves, not playlists, playcount, ratings, or other things associated with the actual library file structure.
You really should consider getting a backup drive. Hard drives failures are a certainty and it saves a lot of grief.

I had a drive failure and lost the iWeb file along with other things. I did manage to save a lot of user file documents but I don't see or recognize the my iWeb site file. It was on a 15" G4 Titanium pb. I'm trying to find a way, using version 2.0.4

I had a drive failure and lost the iWeb file along with other things.
I did manage to save a lot of user file documents but I don't see or
recognize the iWeb site file. It was on a 15" G4 Titanium pb.
I'm trying to find a way, using version 2.0.4 of iWeb on a different
pb to recover the file into the iWeb app or a way to download the site into iWeb.
There are 6 pages of images and text, and it
would be a task for me to recreate the whole thing again. I did
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Does anyone have any knowledge about this? The link to my site:
<http://web.mac.com/danauerbach>
Any suggestions will be most appreciated.
dan auerbach
[email protected]

Unfortunately iWeb cannot read or import previously published files, only generate them. You'll have to recreate your site from scratch.
However, Chapter 2.3 on the iWeb FAQ.org site has tips on using some of the existing files, image, audio, video, etc., from the published site in the recreation of the site.
OT

Problem with headphone jack on zen micro and customer support hel

I have had a zen micro for about a month now and i am very pleased with my purchase. BUT a few days ago the sound suddenly changed whilst i was listening to it. i found out it was a faulty headphone jack. i emailed customer support to arrange a replacement and the replied asking to send back information about my player then they would send me a returns number.i did that and im still waiting for the returns number 3 days later!
i was wondering if anyone else is experienceing the same problem as me and how long it takes for customer support to send you a returns number?
im afraid i will eventualy get a relpacement and the same thing will happen again. anyone got any advice on how to avoid the problem?Message Edited by alexkelly on 02-02-2005 09:0 PM

This happened to me as well after about a week. Like most portable devices I think the headphone jack is one of the weak points and can be easily jarred from its solder joints. I am taking extra care with the replacement Creative sent and I expect that it will not happen again.
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IMac Drive Failures and Boot Camp - large install experience and question

We have a large 24" iMac install, purchased in August of '08, 49 machines spread across 6 offices. All run Windows Vista in Boot Camp as their primary (and mostly sole) operating mode - I will be happy to explain why after we get this cleared up, but that is not the point of this question.
We have had 11 hard drive failures, a rate of over 22% in one year. No machine has failed twice. The equipment was purchased in different groups so a bad lot is unlikely. I am aware that there is an HD failure issue with the iMac's but this seems to be extreme. Personally I've been building apples and pc's since my first apple kit, have a mac plus in a box somewhere, and am fond of these machines (as is the staff) but I've never seen a failure rate like this.
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no one has any thoughts on this?

HP Pavillion DV7 Hard Drive failure and replacement

Hi all,
As the title mentions, I have an HP Pavillion DV7, p/n: NB406AV. The SMART is showing an imminent hard drive failure. The primary hard disk quick test stops at 4% and shows a code "303" for hard disk 1. It also stops at 4% when doing a full HD scan.
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Hi,
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You can use 1Tb on your machine. New HDD's are thinner but the screws will be lined up and should be strong enough to hold the HDD in place.
Regards.
BH
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Adobe photoshop clipboard and customer support.

What does this error message mean and how do I deal with it?
“Could not import the clipboard because an unexpected end-of-file was encountered”
Also, why when adobe customer support gives you space to submit a question and you type in your question and submit it, does it bring you to this page where you have to retype your question? Why isn't Adobe customer support more user friendly??

Hi Barb. Thanks for replying. I suspected I was in a customer forum, even though I was searching for Adobe support and everything I read on page I looked at gave me the impression I was contacting the company. I am using Adobe Photoshop Elements 6, and every so often I get these weird error messages that I don't understand. Using the Photoshop "help" link in the program is pointless. If you try the search engine, you can't even get anything to come up by searching things like "scratch discs" or "clipboard". I have tried to copy and paste from other images I have opened and that still works, but I still cannot import my captions. And I don't know how to clear the clipboard or even how to access it. I finally shut down the program, uninstalled it and reinstalled it and started over. It was the only way I could figure out to get things working again. Thanks for your help.

Photoshop Photography Program and customer support issue

Hello,
I registered to the usual one app plan membership a couple of days ago (this is the first month). I just now noticed this great deal you are offering, Ps + Lr for 12.50eur / month and I'd like to know how can I switch to it.
I'm waiting for half an hour on the phone on your customer support line and your chat is not working either, stucked at "2 customers in line ahead of you."

Solved, after 40 minutes on hold on the phone. Luckily hangouts has a free plan, because no way I would have stayed on call for so long, from Europe. Chat is still dead in the water.

Account theft, and customer support is useless

About a month ago my Skype account has been used to send about 10 dollars worth of texts to different Chinese numbers (I only had that much credit left on my Skype). Personally I can miss the 10 bucks, but I was very shocked that the customer support does virtually nothing to help anyone in my situation: I contacted them, they limited my account access, then I had to go trough a couple steps to enable full access to my account again. That cycle literally does nothing. Like I said I can miss 10 dollars, but had it been more money left on my account I would be very disappointed with the limited amount of customer care. And I don't think I'll get any more skype credit. Anyone else who's faced similar incidents?

what exactly does the customer support say or require you to do?
IF YOU FOUND OUR POST USEFUL THEN PLEASE GIVE "KUDOS". IF IT HELPED TO FIX YOUR ISSUE PLEASE MARK IT AS A "SOLUTION" TO HELP OTHERS. THANKS!
ALTERNATIVE SKYPE DOWNLOAD LINKS | HOW TO RECORD SKYPE VIDEO CALLS | HOW TO HANDLE SUSPICIOS CALLS AND MESSAGES
SEE MORE TIPS, TRICKS, TUTORIALS AND UPDATES in
| skypefordummies.blogspot.com |

Skype account suspended and customer support will ...

My Skype account was suspended by MS without any reason, I am 100% sure I have not violated any terms and conditions or even done anything out of the ordinary with my Skype accout.
I have contacted customer support on multiple occations and they keep telling me to fill out the account recovery form. Every time I do this they email me back saying to fill out the account recovery form if I want to recover my account, so I am stuck in an infinite loop. The customer service representatives don't even seem to be real humans as they just give a canned reply and don't tell me how to fix this issue. There is no phone number to talk to a real human being so I am now stuck without access to my account and Skype has stolen my money since there was credit on the account.
I will never purchase another Microsoft product again if this is how Microsoft treats their customers, I already own both Mac and PCs and I will simply use Mac from now on. Apple would never treat their customers with such distain.
Microsoft, time to own up to your massive failing in this matter and resolve the issue.
The service request number is SRX1267148237ID.

what exactly does the customer support say or require you to do?
IF YOU FOUND OUR POST USEFUL THEN PLEASE GIVE "KUDOS". IF IT HELPED TO FIX YOUR ISSUE PLEASE MARK IT AS A "SOLUTION" TO HELP OTHERS. THANKS!
ALTERNATIVE SKYPE DOWNLOAD LINKS | HOW TO RECORD SKYPE VIDEO CALLS | HOW TO HANDLE SUSPICIOS CALLS AND MESSAGES
SEE MORE TIPS, TRICKS, TUTORIALS AND UPDATES in
| skypefordummies.blogspot.com |

Faulty mp3 player and customer support page does not w

I sumitted my problem online to the customer support but when I hit the submit button I get redirected from http://us.creative.com/support/contact/emailform.asp to a non-working URL http://dmzrespapp.europe.creative.com/kana/FRH
I do not get an e-mail confirmation either. But maybe you can also help with my problem below
I have an Creative Micro Zen mp3 player
When I start or reboot the mp3 player it hangs at the 'CREATIVE' logo and stops responding. This started 3 weeks ago.
I followed the steps below as suggested by Creative's knowledge base:.) Clean up2.) Format3.) Reload Firmware4.) Reboot
At each of these steps the player does not hang (I can hear the sound feedback when I touch the control buttons), but I stays there for hours saying i.e. 'Cleaning up', 'Erasing Firmware'

After I have read the FAQ I came across this last resort, tried it, and succeeded. Now it works again
http://www.nomadness.net/modules.php...ukebox+Zen#209
My Zen won't startup, what do I do?
align=justify>If your Zen won't startup the first thing to try is see if you can access the Maintenance Menu (click here for the procedure) and run a disk cleanup. If this fails, or if you are getting the "hard dri've error" message on startup, listen closely to the Zen when it starts up. If you can hear the hard dri've repeatedly clicking at the end of the start up chances are the heads or related mechanics are jammed in some way. <B>At your own risk</B> you can try and free this by firstly powering the player down, then giving it a hard slap on the side. An alternati've and less drastic approach is to hold it in your outstretched arm with the screen towards you and twist your wrist back and forth as quickly as you can. This might indicate a problem with the player, so you may want to seek getting your player replaced/repaired anyway, especially if this happens more than once. Also if this procedure doesn't help you will also have to look at getting the player repaired, or if out of warranty you can try repairing the hard disk yourself. See the Articles section for guides on upgrading. Note that you <B>should not hit your player</B> in any other circumstance as you could damage the hard disk. Hard disks make clicking noises in normal operation.

Repair Status and Customer Support 800 number.

I sent in my month old notebook dv6-1030us for repair due to a faulty HP Recommended Bios update.. I used the HP Provided shipping box via FedEx and tracked it to the destination in Tenn. An Email provided a site to monitor the progress of the repair. This page listed the progress up to and including an expected delivery date of the repaired notebook. A day or two later after it arrived at the repair site an email to me stated that the repairs were being expedited, and if they were unable to meet the expected delivery date an HP rep would contact me. No contact yet. There is a space on the page for the return shipment date. The service states FedEx 2nd day. Well here it is the day for it to be delivered. No delivery as of yet but then I don't expect it as the shipment date still reads: Not yet Shipped. So I called the 800 number listed for support but after saying in English that the conversation will be tapped, then repeated in Spanish, both times resulted in Hang Ups. Can anyone there give me an explanation as to the repair progress or repaired delivery date and or provide another number so I may talk to someone.

Thank you for visiting the HP Support Forums. This forum is to leave feedback and suggestions directly relating to these message boards. If you have feedback for HP about their products or services, please use the link below:
http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/wwcontact_us.html
This is a user-to-user community, and not a venue to receive direct help or feedback from HP. If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to send me a Private Message.
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Security question and customer support fail

I just recently got a new number and went from an iPhone 4 to an IPhone 5C and don't get me wrong I love the phone entirely but, I tried going to the iTunes Store to download music and it won't let me. I used the correct Apple ID and password but it insists I use my security questions. Which I no longer know the answers to. So I figured how hard can it be to fix this. A lot freaking harder than I thought. I went to customer support and it said it would call me and assist. It never did. I "scheduled a call" several times. I waited for hours looking at my phone waiting just to not receive one. All I freaking want is new music on my phone and apparently the only way I can do that is with the answers to these stupid security questions. Someone help!

Read this about how to change the security questions: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5312
If you can't use these procedures because you don't have a rescue email address you will have to contact Apple. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5699
You can also call your country number from http://support.apple.com/kb/HE57 and ask to speak with Account Security.
You can also go to the ExpressLane at https://expresslane.apple.com and then iTunes > iTunes Store > Password and Security Questions and fill out the form.

Drive Failure and Customer Support expectations

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