Subject: OEM vs Retail Box (Was: Re: When will the YDL 2.2 iso...)
From: Gordon Neault (gordo-x@shaw.ca)
Date: Tue Mar 19 2002 - 19:00:29 MST
Not to start a war here; you could say both these guys are right.
In general, a "retail box" item costs more and provides more. It varies,
but it could be better instructions, more (or some) software, almost
always a fancy box, etc.
For some items it's worth it (the troublesome kind). For others, maybe not.
As far as HDs are concerned, you are almost always dealing with the
manufacturer of the drive, Retail Box or OEM. Best advice for OEM is get
the guy to write on the invoice that he will replace a dead drive within X
days (5 or 7 should cover you). You have to buy from the "super service"
firms to get good, quick and friendly instore experience, but that usually
means top dollar. Some others charge like "super" but respond like a pawn
shop; and almost everybody can remember some poor mom-and-pop operation
that went the extra mile. So, your retailer may not be much help if
trouble comes your way. However, Retail usually comes with a more
extensive warranty; I know 3 or 6 months isn't anything to write home
about but it does beat 30 days. Take solace in the knowledge that 99% of
electronic failure happens in 48 hours. The other 1% is the stuff of angry
consumer complaints, and the rest just works.
As always, this varies from vendor to vendor. The drives themselves are
exactly the same, except when they're not. By that last statement I mean
that a reputable vendor of OEM drives sells the same physical drive you
get in the retail box and has SOME kind of warranty; but there are people
out there who sell what amount to manufacturer's overstock or bankruptcy
lots. There are such things as no-warranty OEM parts (a vendor, let's call
him DELL for no particular reason and without any hidden meaning (just an
hypothetical example)) decides to buy huge lots without warranty support.
They save $7 a drive and agree to eat the ones that fail, the bean
counters assure them it's a win situation. A gamble for them, and usually
not your problem, so who cares? BUT, if "DELL" decides to quit offering
this model, some online vendors buy these drives (usually a
bankrupcy/overstock/court seizure/who-knows-what), which do not come with
any warranty (because they are marked with a model/serial number that
mirrors the terms of sale); and market them against other vendors who
offer the "regular" OEM drives. In other words, use a vendor you can trust
and an OEM drive is a small gamble (maybe more grief but you do get
warranty); buy from the cheapest guy you can find on the 'net and you may
find yourself with a drive that is essentially orphaned by the mfr and the
guy who was supposed to assume warranty (in my hypothetical example, we
called him DELL) because he resold them on a surplus basis, as new drives
without warranty. This does happen. Use your common sense, and you'll be
OK; and if you are the kind of person who will walk for $2 expect to get
some junk now and again.
At 1:10 AM -0600 3/19/02, Robert Brandtjen wrote:
On Monday 18 March 2002 11:55 pm, Timothy A. Seufert wrote:
This is not any kind of commentary on the quality of the components
you can get this way. It's just that you do not have one of the
safety nets you would normally expect. If it breaks, too bad, you're
stuck with it. Warranty service is part of what you get when you pay
extra for a preassembled system, or even when you pay extra for a
non-OEM component.
FUD!
Fact. OEM parts don't have a warranty. As I said, this doesn't mean they'
re bad parts, just that the lower price you pay for them *does* have
implications as to the level of support you get.
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