OWC - Other World Computing - TERRIBLE SUPPORT

[fmckinnon]

After being EXTREMELY discouraged and disappointed with OWC (Other World Computing), I felt it necessary to post this report for the sake of other users ...

At the recommendation of others on this forum, I recently purchased a OWC Mercury Elite 120GB firewire drive for my PTLE system. The drive seems to work fine, and because there is no fan, it's very quiet, which is now the only reason I'm keeping it.

I've had several issues with the drive itself - saving problems, as well as the occasional inability to boot up the system with this drive connected, so I've now made THREE attempts at contacting OWC's Tech Support Department.

On my first attempt, I visited the Tech Support section of their website, and filled out their support request form in detail. When submitting the form, the redirect page says to expect a reply within 24 hours.

After nearly one week, I submitted the form again, and mentioned in the form that this was my second attempt to get someone to call me ..... NOTHING.

Finally - I called earlier this week and spoke to Customer Service. When I told them this had happened, the guy said "Oh No - let me put you through to support right now!" ... and he transferred my call to a voicemail box. I left a message there, and indicated this was my third attempt in two weeks, and needed someone to call me back ASAP.

As of today, I have not received any return phone calls or emails from OWC. I have CallerID and an answering service on our phone, so I've not missed any calls.

Because of this experience, I highly recommend that you do NOT purchase from this company, as contacting them for any tech support has proved impossible.

Fred F. McKinnon
Highest Praise Productions, Inc

[Maxwell]

gee Fred, I'm wondering why all the murmuring and complaining in a third party forum. You should change your business name!!
8^) [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[fmckinnon]

Maxwell -

LOL! Actually, it's not normal for me to go to such extremes, but after such a lousy experience, I thought it would help others when making a purchasing decision ... if this type of support from OWC is "par for the course", I would have loved to have known it before I purchased from them ...

So, hopefully, when someone does a search on OWC, they'll see all the great posts about the drives (I've been happy with the drive), but will also be made aware that they shouldn't count on customer support!

RE: "third party forum" - OWC is mentioned on this forum A LOT - I heard about OWC from reading this forum, so although it's a 3rd party forum, it is "on topic", IMHO!

Take care!
FM

[naireko]

Maybe they are overloaded with osx.2 jag problems? what OS? what hardware? My dad got a brand new 17 in Imac dvdR model with jag(off) preinstalled. he has the same problems as you and has an OWC drive as well.

I too have the same drive. no problems, he has never had any problems untill now (moved the firewire drive from a iMac dv 400mhz). I know with owc drives they give you hard disk speed tools. Did you install that as well? what about new firewire drivers (in place of the hard disk speed tools firewire drivers)?

I love OWC and have only had problems with their shipping dept. YOU HAVE TO CALL THEM. who returns calls? good luck

[keysmia]

I wasn't going to do this but here is my story. I purchased a firewire drive from owc and a firewire card. To make a long story short. The firewire card was causing my mac to freeze when copying files, I was told by someone in tech support that i should send both back. I received an ra #. Fed ex picked it up and I was told I had to pay for shipping because I wanted a different firewire card. ( Restocking fee). Anyway the fed ex guy checked the most expense way to ship and charged them. It was refused by owc and was on my way back to me. Anyway after several hours talking to ow'c's incompetent customer service, my sales guy got involved and basically tried to help but his hands were tied. I did get the drive and the new card but only after i called fed ex to tell them don't sent it back to me. They did not charge me for that but, I had to pay the original charges to send it back to owc. These charges were 57 dollars. I was told I would get a credit but I got nothing. I finally got the new card and my original drive. The drive is cool and works great, anyway what a nightmare. I wasn't going to post this but since they never even sent me a credit an I haven't heard from them , I thought somebody should know.

[Slim Shady]

Wow, this is all very insightful. For what it's worth, I buy almost all of my 3rd party stuff from OWC, and never had a problem either with customer service or with returning an item. I haven't had to return anything in a while though, so maybe they've had some layoffs or something, all I know is that I've used them without a hitch for almost 3 years now. Larry O'Conner is a great guy with great deals, but let the buyer beware!

[Tubelover]

I've had nothing but the best support from OWC!

[Stage]

I've been holding this one in a while..

I had an OWC drive fail with some very expensive data on it. (backups from 2") Jack at OWC tech support told me that it was probably a bad case and to send it back. I gave explicit instructions to SEND THE DRIVE BACK if it was a problem with the actual drive so i could do data recovery. 4 days later i have a brand new drive in my hands. The original drive? OWC informed me that it was sent back to Western Digital. The kicker was when the customer service manager said, "We can't get it back, but you can try to call Western Digital yourself."

They have said they were going to call me many times and never did.

A once loyal customer will never look at that company the same.

[keysmia]

Wow that really sucks. It was probably the same customer service guy that told me about the restocking fee on r.a. return. I think their prices are good and the firewire drive is cool but they did not do the right thing by me. I spent hours trobleshooting the issue and paid an extra 57 dollars and spent hours on the phone. Definitely not cool.

[Philthy]

I've given lots of people advice to buy from OWC... I haven't had a bad experience, and the one time that I needed customer support, they were reasonably prompt and offered accurate advice. I guess I will have to hope that my luck continues...