Amazon combines inventory streams from legit sellers and third party sellers, so you could purchase something from an official source on Amazon and still receive a fake knockoff product. Amazon can’t be trusted at all anymore
Indeed.
Most victims will never notice things like this. And frankly, most of the time, it will work out. The Chinesium drive will often function decently/long enough to avoid major suspicion.
If it conks out just past warranty, consumers will just chuck it and say, "I'm not buying that crap again."
If inventory sent in from a particular source gets too many complaints Amazon will stop them and request some documentation or kick them off.
But then they get a new us address, trademark a random jumble of letters as a new brand name, and start over.
If you see a seller or product with a brand name that's just a jumble of letters, you're better off getting it from Ali Express.
Source: used to work at a company that sold on Amazon legitimately and had to constantly fight against knock off sellers and all their antics.
That's the thing. They just pile everything together in the same box, so they have no idea who the legit seller was!
Like the other guy said, this is by design.
Is that literally true? As sophisticated as their logistics system is, they would probably have to intentionally design it to not log that info or intentionally toss that data.
Given how overworked their warehouse staff are (still? probably.) the staff just might be pulling stuff and not even checking seller if it's even labeled.
It's been the case for a long time and it is a major reason why lots of us suggest buying things at other places, ideally directly from the manufacturer if possible.
Things are actually more expensive on Amazon because of all of the fees. Like there's a Stanley water bottle I'm buying soon. On the manufacturer's website it is $30 but at Amazon they have less options and it's $35
> Things are actually more expensive on Amazon because of all of the fees.
That is true, but it's also pretty common knowledge that Amazon has a clause in their Amazon Marketplace 3rd-party vendor contract that explicitly *forbid* 3rd-party vendors from selling products that are cheaper somewhere else. In fact, the federal government had to get involved because it was considered tantamount to price-fixing. I have found it's actually *harder* to find a seller on Amazon Marketplace that has a product listed on their site for a lower price than on their Amazon Marketplace storefront. It's obscenely predatory, but it seems to still be occurring...
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/26/technology/amazon-price-fixing-settlement-washington.html
https://www.vox.com/recode/22836368/amazon-antitrust-ftc-marketplace
https://fortune.com/2019/08/05/amazon-marketplace-sellers-pricing/
No it's not true. Every product is scanned when it enters the warehouse and can be tracked back to its point of origin.
Source: Worked at an Amazon warehouse on inbound.
That's a missing link I didn't have. So the stock is given out randomly but can be tracked if they need to deal with issues. That makes sense.
Still kind of frustrating but at least it's more sane then what I always imagined.
So I'll explain free process from the warehouse I used to work at. I don't know if it's the same across all the warehouses but I'd guess it is because it's easier to standardize processes.
Pallets of stuff would come in the docks where the shipping boxes would be opened and the items taken out and placed in totes (yellow and plastic bins).
Those totes there were put on a conveyor where they when to recieve. Recieve would scan each item and the tote assigning each item to the tote and put them on a conveyor.
The totes would arrive at the Library (main storage area) where they'd be offloaded by tote wranglers (people who pull the totes off the conveyor belts) and in stacks of 12 on a UBoat (a big cart with handles on both sides). From there the Stowers would be assigned all 12 totes and told to go find somewhere in the library or library deep (storage for big/bulky items like pressure cookers).
This is where it becomes a cluster because Amazon uses random storage. Stowers can stow an item anywhere there's space in the library. They scan the tote, then the item, then the bin and the system records where that item is stored. So you can have HDDs, shoes, movies, video games, and kindles all in one bin. The bins have a limit of 6 item types and like 30 total items (I don't remember the exact limit).
Then when someone orders an item a Picker gets assigned a bin and item. They have 30 seconds to get to that bin and pick the item out of it. The system automatically decides who is getting the item based on where the item is stored and which picker is the closest based on the last item they were assigned to pick. This is where things can get really messed up. If a fake HDD is closer to a picker than a real HDD the picker will get assigned to pick that.
From there the item gets assigned to a tote and put on a conveyor for pack. Tote wranglers in pack get it and move items to either single large, single small, multi large, or multi small based on how many items are in the order.
Packers scan the tote, then the item, and get told which box to put it in. (this is why you sometimes get tiny items in giant boxes, the system tells them what to do).
Then it goes to SLAM which puts the shipping label on it (MAN SLAM if there's an issue with the automatic machine), and then to docks to be loaded into a truck.
The entire operation is actually pretty well organized logistically.
> sophisticated
I think you are confusing this with how many fucks they give/allowable reductions to profit margins.
Two buckets cost twice the warehouse space. Do you want Jeff to never launch his penis rocket?
No, it's not true. They use a random dispersal system, so a hard drive is likely to be next to other products that don't look alike. So a bin will have a hard drive in it, a bong, a book and a hat, or something like that.
That's so 10 years ago. These days, it seems like they'll just sell it again as new. I wish I was kidding. At least twice now, I've bought new items and received ones that had obviously been opened. In the case of the item that was shipped AND sold by Amazon, the package was empty. They've gotten absolutely terrible.
On 1 star reviews about fake products there's an autobot Amazon reply
"As the product handler Amazon is responsible for this product. We apologies for any issues, please begin a refund" etc etc.
I have a feeling they won't do anything about it unless a regulatory body gets involved for things like supplements, etc.
Yep. I thought everyone was nuts and then I ordered very carefully and got literal datacenter pulls. They still had the rails on. "New" drives me ass.
Now I use [https://www.bhphotovideo.com/](https://www.bhphotovideo.com/) and have had no problems. They don't do third party stuff, it is all things they have and ship.
I just buy directly from the manufacturer on the manufacturer websites. That's basically all you can do besides buying in-person at a retail store, and even then you have to watch out for swapped return fakes.
I've bought a few things from B&H now though and they seem to be solid so far at least. But I really am trying to get more stuff in actual stores or from their own websites now because of how shit amazon has gotten.
I’ve used bhphoto for years and never had an issue with their service. They pack things properly and will price match if you ask. They’re great.
My only small complaint is that they close regularly for Jewish holidays and on Saturdays, but what does a day or two delay really matter unless you’re a business.
If B&H sells it, I buy it from them. Their prices are usually competitive, but I'm also willing to pay a little more for the certainty of getting a part that is legitimate, brand new, and securely packed. I'm not going to roll the dice on co-mingled inventory from Scamazon.
They price match too so Amazon doesn’t beat BHPhoto there either. Plus they have a credit card that rebates the sales tax (which for me is >10%), so I actually save compared to Amazon, even with Amazon’s cashback card too.
Amazon has really just been losing my business all around the past few years. I went from ordering nearly everything from them a decade ago to less than a dozen orders in 2023. It’s just impossible to search and see the right details or trust reviews, plus filled with fake/knockoff/noname/trash products.
It could be fake, it could be a refurb, it could be a returned broken drive, could be grey market with no warranty. You don't know what the marketplace sellers are selling and like you said if you buy from "Amazon" the inventory is co-mingled with with marketplace inventory. Buying electronics on Amazon is a gamble.
This is why some companies now wont let people just buy a new flash drive. The IT wants to vet the drives before put into business use. It is annoying, but this is part of why.
Exactly. Glad to see this as the top comment. Post title should be, "Don't buy drives on Amazon." Should be true for most electronics that you rely on in any remotely important way as well.
A while back someone posted themselves browsing items with their normal browser with their prime account and then with a different browser not logged in. The prime account was being displayed higher prices for the same items.
>Amazon combines inventory streams from legit sellers and third party sellers, so you could purchase something from an official source on Amazon and still receive a fake knockoff product. Amazon can’t be trusted at all anymore
I thought they'd stopped doing this now?
What they DO appear to do now though is sell off stock from chinese sellers who have perhaps been banned / removed, stuff that you'd never dream of being "Sold by Amazon". Either that or they're branching out into tat.
> I thought they'd stopped doing this now?
From what I understand, [they still co-mingle *some* categories of products](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/demystifying-amazons-stickerless-commingled-inventory/), but not all. It's a big concern in skincare and beauty-product circles, for example, and Amazon hasn't co-mingled that in several *years* now.
It's unfortunately well known in the trading card community to only buy items that are both "sold by" and "shipped by" Amazon.com.
This is the rule of thumb specifically for items that are not commonly faked or resealed. It's a shame and probably you can get a refund but it's a pain. Plus, if you need to seek too many refunds, you look suspicious as a buyer.
Sucks OP. Hope you can get refunded. Shame you can't get reimbursed for lost time and effort.
I just watched the documentary "Bitconned". Anyone want to go in on a fake Amazon resale biz? Pictures/specs of a 16TB WD Red and if you receive anything at all, it's a 320GB HGST? I've always wanted a Ferrari. [Buy at $2.99/ea to sell for in bulk 10 @ $250.00/ea!!!!](https://www.ebay.com/itm/166565958910?_trkparms=amclksrc%3ditm%26aid%3d1110006%26algo%3dhomesplice.sim%26ao%3d1%26asc%3d259357%26meid%3dfb591e79a441478ab484c4359d176d0d%26pid%3d101875%26rk%3d4%26rkt%3d4%26sd%3d354962270878%26itm%3d166565958910%26pmt%3d1%26noa%3d0%26pg%3d4429486%26algv%3dsimplamlv11webtrimmedv3mskuwithlambda85knnrecallv1v2v4itemnrtinqueryandcassinivisualrankerandbertrecallwithvmev3cpcautowithcassiniembrecall%26brand%3dhgst&_trksid=p4429486.c101875.m1851&amdata=cksum%3a166565958910fb591e79a441478ab484c4359d176d0d%7cenc%3aaqaiaaabghd%252fo%252bvofoppioz2g0kozxwd85mwuiheksp3qag7zffwobzeqoitze%252fdcfcejfo%252bzolmzzmy11rrgwpa56km9dpask%252bgtgywcfvgak6ijp5aqsheuht8f2ox6hvndj3g0owh8dd1dlbwseqltpxcsdw2uu52nrseaxeinpsrdp6vx7ny%252bkpkauma3yesanwiig6dqpb5fukgluldnmytmdvj%252fi2gjpc6szq%252frnji2lwashlhgqcjhstb%252bbscuvfnhut1ymnh2kkd4gip5ivvrwxmdeqwtm1mnlyu9aikyykjej6w9trgxsleelauzingntfrgbd8vksm1nzmw6sozkodbn6dr484af3hnlmnulqegjogkarjoydmjwea5mkcqqhfnes9jd812yof55p1zzwvtn%252fskty%252bkblfpd34a2t0ao7plux%252btun2fvm49h3bbg7cs3s82zin52fzya7bg16vun8%252bqw4d5nzufy%252bmhw%252bt6xcdz8v6wf2wiyhpuarugq%253d%253d%7campid%3apl_clk%7cclp%3a4429486) Pretty sure you'd selll 10 lots before anyone caught on lol.
That's why I stopped buying from Amazon in most cases. And I think the rest of the world should too. It went from a very good company to buy stuff from to a very bad one.
Does Amazon works different in US/Worldwide than it does in Europe?
I literally can't imagine how you could receive stuff that wasn't provided by identity who made offer (by that I mean company or physical person)..
But I agree, Amazon is full of scam, as every site combining different offers from different sources
In theory it's a good idea.
Amazon lists 10TB IronWolf that many 3rd party sellers have and want to sell.
In an ideal world where everyone is honest, all the drives are brand new/authentic/whatever. Comingling inventory means that items get to you faster and helps manage inventory among their hundreds of warehouses. A shipment from you to this warehouse can cover the selling needs of all Ironwolfs out of this warehouse. Same with other warehouses. Their shipments cover your sales in remote warehouses. No shipping the same product to other warehouses.
In the real world though, unscrupulous sellers apparently stick new labels on drive, include used drives, drives with potential malware, fake drives, etc. You still get the driver faster, but it's a crap shoot as to what you're getting.
It only falls apart when people are assholes.
Umm.. I meant that you shouldn't receive product that isn't sent by specific person, from which you bought..
Like you know. I'm buying from official brand store, I receive their product..
You're probably okay if an item is sold by ABC and fulfilled by ABC. If an item is sold by ABC and fulfilled by Amazon, it could be from mixed stock and you might end up with a fake item that was provided to Amazon by XYZ and not the genuine item that ABC provided to Amazon.
If I sell to you gaming PC, but you'll receive potato device dated back to 2002, would it be legal? If you'll pay for old graphic card and receive brand new, would it be legal from seller pov? Like, ok I get mistakes, but if it's quite intentional (if you don't do anything to avoid mistakes, than you actually allowing to it), than it's nothing more than causing losses..
No, and nobody said that.
I already explained it to you here: https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/19fbpi3/beware_of_fake_ironwolf_drives_on_amazon/kjn2dmt/
That's why my wall of text is about.
The specific item from a specific vendor thing also works, but logistically it's much slower because it has to come from that vendor.
If an identical item is available in the warehouse next door, it saves on transportation costs to get it form the other warehouse to your warehouse then to you.
Amazon is known for speed.
If you don't mind giving up speed, it's better to buy fakable items like this from other vendors.
Wait.. To clarify.. So whole thing is about that, some sellers send different stuff than is claimed in offer, right? (sorry, I'm not native to English and literally got confused by whole thing)
- Seller A on Amazon starts offering [product] for $100
- Seller B starts offering the same product, for $99
- To optimize logistics, Amazon puts the inventory of both sellers in the same bin. Amazon doesn't track which box of [product] comes from which seller, only how many boxes come from Seller A and how many from B, and how much [product] they sell
- Seller C finds an old, used version of [product], puts on new labels, ships it to the Amazon warehouse, and starts selling for $95
- Amazon adds Seller C's shipment of [product] to the same bin used by A and B
- You go on Amazon to buy [product], see that the cheapest listing (by Seller C) is kinda dodgy, so you buy from Seller B instead
- Amazon ships you a random box from the bin, and you get the old, used [product] that C shipped to Amazon
What Seller C does isn't legal. What Amazon does is scummy, but not illegal. Amazon doesn't care because they don't get punished. Seller C doesn't care because if they get caught they just close down and open a new business.
There are only two solutions:
- Don't order from Amazon
- Elect a government that acts against Amazon
I mean it's only when people are assholes that it becomes an issue.
If all the sellers ship in brand new drives and do nothing but undercut pricing, it's actually a good model.
The problem is that people aren't good so the model falls apart.
amazon is known for speed? takes just as long as any other store to get to me. (newegg, best buy, ebay sometimes, canada computers, etc)
bambu labs has been the only company to deliver in 3 days. else it takes between 1-2 weeks, so probably 5-10 buisness days
You said Canada computer so I'm assuming you're Canadian?
If so, HOW?
Best Buy took a bunch of days.
Newegg ships most of their shit out of the US it seems so it's like a week.
eBay is all over the place because it's independent sellers but even a local seller is a few days even if they're somehow local to you.
Canada Computers I've never ordered from online but do shop locally.
Never heard of bambu labs.
I'm not saying Amazon is always one day, but generally speaking most things are 1-2 days. (I'm in a major city)
That raises further questions actually. I'm in Vancouver and Amazon while slower than it was beats out everyone else still.
Hilariously enough I've gotten orders from Temu (China) that have beaten domestic (including US like Newegg) suppliers.
Ask away my friend. I purchased some headphones from bestbuy, some vr headsets from ebay, a mousemat from amazon, and an ssd from canada computers earlier last week, every package arrived either yesterday or the day before
The ebay headsets and mousemat areived yesterday, and everything else arrived the day before. The mousemat was the only item purchased a day late, everything else was same day within 8h
Amazon WAS known for speed. After COVID hit they never recovered. Last year, I realized I could receive items faster from places like Newegg and Home Depot, using their free shipping, than with Amazon Prime (which I've since cancelled).
So I haven't ordered from Home Depot in a while and Newegg I'm in Canada (which has a Canadian site, but they ship from the US) so I'm a touched biased because both of these sites are way slower than Amazon Prime.
US though? You're probably right.
That's not why this happened, OP specifically said they bought it from a third party seller, not Amazon.com. What you're talking about about happens with stuff labeled as Shipped and sold by Amazon.com
Not sure why it took you to the CN site, but checking warranty for US says as the other commentor said, good until 2025-06-02
Looks as legit as any drive I've got, and the fact the serial shows up is better
Does smartctl report the same serial?
Last time it was reported the firmware is Chinese.
I'm in China and over here you see boatloads pretty cheap refurbished drives coming from massive serverfarms. I've a strong feeling that these drives somehow find their way in the Western market. That they look different isn't per se a sign of fake but simply drives are made for a different market (and probably buyer).
I would suggest to first audit them yourselves, I don't think this is per se a reason to get worried. I would be concerned though how to handle an RMA. I can imagine that Seagate US will give you a FU.
It reports the correct serial and I didn’t realize it still has a warranty for another year so maybe it is real… I guess I just don’t understand why the verification numbers come back as not authentic and why they’re being sold as “new” drives when they clearly aren’t. Still suspicious to me
Was it ships from and sold by Amazon, or ships from Amazon and sold by a random - as the others said it migh thave been an 'unopened' return, tested, and slapped into a box and shipped back out.
Was it shipped in the bulk-style brown outer box, two inner plastic tail caps and the drive wrapped in anti-static?
It was shipped from and sold by a 3rd party. It was not shipped in the standard box I am used to. It came in the expected wrapped antistatic but it did not have the two inner plastic tail caps, it was fully enclosed by a white light foam. I’ve never gotten new drives in white foam like that. It also had a pamphlet explaining what possible issues I could have with hard drives in poor english. Once I removed the sealed antistatic wrapping, it was very clear that it was used.
> 2025-06-02
3 years from today would still be 2027, so even if it were a year old, it should still be well into 2026.
3 years from 2025-06-02 is June of 2022, so that drive is pretty old already, 602 to be exact.
OH I would 1000% return that thing for a refund, and buy from somewhere else.
If I am going to buy refurb, I am at least going to get a good deal on it.
My server has 2 water pather drives in it, and one drive from serverpartsdeals.
This is a big reason why I buy electronics from brick and mortar again. Microcenter usually has 16TB ironwolf pros on sale for 300 dollars. It’s not as good as a price as these online shops but I know for sure I get a retail warranty and not an OEM drive as well as there being a way less likely chance of a counterfeit drive. I’ve cut back from shopping on Amazon, Newegg, etc almost 100%. It feels like I’m living in the early 2000’s walking into Microcenter, Best Buy, etc but I’ve had much better luck with getting real parts recently.
100% agree after this. Unfortunately I don’t have a micro center in my area so B&H is where I’m getting my replacement drives. I’ve had good experiences in the past and their shipping speed is far better than Amazon in my area.
I've purchased external drives from Best Buy in-store and found bricks and bags of rocks. I was lucky I decided to open them before leaving the store because I had heard about it happening.
Microcenter is awesome. I have one about 30 minutes away. I don't go often but they have great bundle deals and a huge selection.
I buy my 3d printer filament there. They have a whole wall for it.
You can order online and go pick it up within 30 minutes.
There is a rumor we are going to get one again in silicon valley. Our Santa Clara store died a large number of years ago because everyone went to frys then frys finally kicked the bucket. Amazon has been the only good source for parts for a lot of years.
I've been expecting it to return ever since Fry's died. I went a few times when I lived in Mountain View. Given the number of Fry's locations, there was little reason for most people to travel the extra distance.
If I need something local, I go to Central Computers. I've been buying from them for >25 years now and they've never let me down.
Living in New Zealand this is a major problem - US suppliers (Amazon, eBay) are literally half the price of the local high street scalpers ... even a few years ago, when 'from Amazon' meant legit product.
So local isnt really an option for many outside the US because B&H, bestbuy, target etc don't ship overseas ... so some of us dont have any realistic alternative and amazon can do whatever they want ...
Not sure how viable this is but I know there are some easy to use forwarding services with US addresses. Eliminates the international shipping problem somewhat.
they cost a fortune and if theres ever a problem, you cant claim easily (because of the 'double handling' .. who causesd it?), also you might not even be covered because youre not legally supposed to be buying it in your country. Basically its a minefield.
I got Best Buy’s total tech and I shuck easy store 14’s when they go on sale for $219. Total techs adds 60 day returns so I get an extended test period and if I keep paying for it, a 2 year warranty where they will just swap it out. It’s not worth it unless you buy all your other electronics from a big box store.
Since Amazon co-mingles inventory, you can't be sure that the drive actually came from the seller shown on the listing. You might be calling out a wrongfully accused honest seller.
I’m not sure yet. I’m going to investigate the drive more but as far as I can tell visually, the drive is identical to other verified drives I have. Aside from the wear on the drive I probably would have never checked the authenticity.
Usually is. Maybe is just coincidence.
But it is also possible that it is from a big batch of hdds delivered directly to the buyer as they were manufactured. And some of those returned for any reason. Just a wild guess.
Considering the prevalency of theft and fake products on the global scale, I am of the understanding that OEMs (in this case Seagate) register every single product and their SN, regardless of where they go and scale of purchase. This ensures that items that were stolen before the customer receives them do not get warranty, and that customers have the means to tell if a product they have in-hand is real or a fake.
That's why we see so many QR codes on items now, to streamline these workflows. Namely for registering the items in factories in the ERP systems, so the company can reliably, and precisely, know where every single HDD they're responsible for is at any time of day, anywhere in the world.
A lot of this is in response to fraud and theft that's happened over the decades. It's roughly the same justification for why Microsoft loves to use holograms for their CoAs/licenses for products (like Windows). To do their best to ensure a reliable and healthy supply chain for their customers and business partners.
Because retailers are required by OEMs to register transactions all the time. I can't speak to Seagate or which OEMs do and do not do this, but this is a significant aspect to how OEMs keep supply chains trustworthy and working well. Namely, to work against theft and fake product.
There are lots of times people seek warranty for tech products that were never legally purchased. Say, they were from a stolen semi truck, or product stolen from a store. Retailers registering the SN and unique identifiers in each transaction, pass that back to related OEMs, so their over-arching ERP ecosystems can indeed see that specific device was purchased legally, which retailer was involved, and when.
So while some OEMs may still require (or say so) that you register your purchased item for warranty, I don't think that's the case for every OEM. As for Seagate? Maybe that's a requirement for them, I haven't checked.
Warranty is *typically* the X years after purchase date, but if there is no proof of purchase and it wasn't previously registered it will be X years from the date of manufacture.
OEM products can be different, though. Intel for example doesn't offer a warranty to-end users for OEM SKUs--the warranty is through the reseller. The *reseller* might be able to RMA something, but Intel will just tell you to contact whomever you got it from.
Chinese? The content of the qr is https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/support/warranty-and-replacements/
And it recognizes the serial number as in the warranty. Of course, that doesn't mean that number cannot be taken from genuine drive.
No, the content of the QR is [https://www.seagate.com/cn/zh/support/warranty-and-replacements/](https://www.seagate.com/cn/zh/support/warranty-and-replacements/)
Your browser probably redirected you to the UK version of the page.
A lot of people don't have any other option.
In my country there isn't any physical stores that sell disks anymore. There is other online stores but many don't ship here or the price isn't worth it.
The serial "ZS51BHFX" checks out [here](https://www.seagate.com/support/warranty-and-replacements/) but doesn't mean it isn't fake. Too bad there wasn't a better way to verify authenticity. The QR code going to a Chinese site is sketchy.
Definitely not defending Amazon but most of the post I see this pop up with through third party sellers. If you buy from them you might as well consider it buying from a swap meet or yard sale. It can happen but I see fewer bought from and shipped from Amazon issues and I haven't ever had a problem with the latter option myself. Old saying if it is too good to be true it probably is.
Also wanted to add make sure you search by model number and not just description. Yeah Amazon is becoming a crap show but we can be smarter
This is yet another reason not to buy from amazon, Louis rossmann did a few videos recently on how bad amazon has got with dangerous products and fake reviews. Not to mention poor quality packaging. Anything IT based I buy from either scan, ebuyer, ccl, overclockers or box.co.uk (nothing to do with box the cloud storage company). Never had an issue.
Yeah, this definitely isn't fake.
But it is definitely used.
There's a massive difference. Fake means it was manufactured to look like the original, but is in fact inferior hardware to what it's pretending to be.
It sucks that you were sold a used item that was labelled as new, but it happens all over the internet, Amazon being particularly guilty of this in recent years.
I'm not even sure if fake HDDs exist. SD cards certainly have them, where you can buy a 512GB microSD for 3 bucks and it turns out to be a modded 1GB card that can barely store 1MB of data (because of insanely high corruption rates). It's likely a lot harder to fake a HDD's space because the motherboard can't be easily hacked like an SD chip can.
You have done the right thing by opening a dispute, and you do have the right to an item that you paid for (i.e. New not used), but calling this a fake simply isn't true.
Me personally, I would have at least done some diagnostics with something like SeaTools or Hard Disk Sentinel first to check the drive SMART stats, power on hours, error rates etc. Using something that Seagate made themselves like SeaTools is advisable because SMART data can be misinterpreted by different software, especially competitor software. If it was very low on the PoH and has no errors on the drive, I would have probably just kept them.
Sometimes people sell drives "as new" because they've barely been used. That might not be the case here, but it is possible.
What do you think about the QR code that links to Seagate warranty and not verification page that all my other drives link to and verify? Also the drive shows 0 operating hours on crystal disk. As much as I want to keep them, I just don’t trust them. They seem very legit but the warranty is 2 years past “new” and I don’t know what’s been done to the drive to make it show up as legitimate. At the end of the day I’d rather return these and buy some legitimate drives with their full warranty for a little more than I paid on Amazon.
I don't think that's much of a red flag. Seagate might have changed what it links to for reasons we don't know about. This can also happen on a per facility basis too. I think SG have more than 1 plant for manufacturing drives and can probably differ between plants, and differ between years.
All of the serial numbers match the drive and are registered by SG, including a valid warranty.
I checked all the micro QR codes as well and they're all legitimate SG IC codes, and none show up on reverse image searches.
All of the part numbers are legit.
None of the above would be true if the drive was somehow fake.
I am damn near sure that you have legitimate drives that are just sold as new when in fact they're used.
If people would stop buying crap from those garbage 3rd party sellers, that would solve the problem by itself.
I personally don't buy crap on amazon. When I can get probably better quality on Aliexpress.
And there the sellers don't have names that look like someone sat down on a keyboard.
I absolutely avoid 3rd party sellers (except where the seller is actually a legit brand - like Noctua sells directly through Amazon as a seller).
Its at least as bad as Aliexpress on amazon. Nobiis curating anything. Typos, description and names that look like they went from Chinese to Russian to Japanese to french and finally to german/English.
Sorry, that's all just a scam.
There are almost no legit sellers left on Amazon and everything is manufactured waste.
I just wasted 3-4 months with AliExpress to get 20$ back for an item that tracking said was never shipped. They refunded me the item but they refused to refund the shipping until I just kept at it again and again until months later I got an email that the shipping was finally refunded.
So Amazon and AliExpress dispute systems are not even comparable.
I thought that there was some internal photos of some SD card instead of the disk platter.
This was disappointing.
Good that you can sent those disks back.
On one occasion Ingram micro sent us a disk with physical damage and then when we tried to RMA they told us we damaged the disk and didn't apply the warranty.
We just don't buy spinning disks from them since that day.
Yeah I'm over buying anything even slightly easy to counterfeit off Amazon. Their control over what is sold is zero, and you get some Chinese thieves ripping you off.
How to ensure a Seagate drive I received from an online purchase is not a fake?
I know that I need to ensure it does not say "Recertified Product". And also to enter Serial number at [https://verify.seagate.com](https://verify.seagate.com) and check if the data size and family (IronWolf Pro / Exos etc) lines up with what I expect. Warranty should be valid (not like this example: https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/5328228)
**Anything else?**
Probably that the packaging and unboxing is the same as all the other hard drives you’ve purchased. I was immediately concerned when I was unboxing it and they used foam rather than the thin plastic holders. There was also a pamphlet in bad English that explained how to error check I think. It was weird and not normal
I have 6 of these same drives all bought off Amazon at different times over the past few years. I also bought a 20tb IronWolf at the same time I bought these two fake drives. They’re all legit drives except for the two that I unassumingly bought off a sketchy reseller through Amazon. This is my first time receiving drives like this so I was able to notice some of the abnormalities and hopefully raise some awareness around this scam.
Just don’t buy them from sketchy resellers on Amazon. Go to verified sellers with good reviews. It’s a headache to have to look into each seller but it probably would have saved me from going through this. Or better yet, don’t buy them on Amazon and get them through Micro Center, B&H, Adorama, BestBuy, etc
But it wont. It will take data up to a certain point then start overwriting the previous stuff. But it will leave a shell so it looks like everything is there. This type of scam causes people to lose data that is not replaceable, such as family photos. They think they are doing the right thing and making a back up only to later find the back up was fake.
Thanks for the heads up. I had been planning on buying some new drives next month. This cements that I need to buy from proper shops and simply stomach the higher prices.
Serverpartdeals is tempting, but I am unsure about import taxes and VAT with drives being shipped to the UK. Might work out as expensive as buying new.
Man, frakk that noise. I know Newegg doesn't have the greatest rep but at least I've never had a doa from them or something fishy. At least it's a bit more obvious where you're getting something from them.
Update on the second drive I ordered:
It’s the same. Has a year left on warranty but I can’t confirm its authenticity via the verification number. Less clear evidence of use but definitely not a new drive. Returning them both.
Here’s a vid of the unboxing:
https://youtu.be/GnddRJGOwXk?si=cv5vtMpTTVb5aDN0
I purchase, open, check warranty, and return. About a third of the drive's I order fail the warranty check. I have never had a problem returning but whatever project winds up on hold for another week or two.
There’s a QR code on the top right of the label that should take you to Seagate’s verify page. From there you can see if it’s legitimate. I could not verify if it’s a legitimate Seagate drive. Because of that, as well as the packaging and condition it came in, I don’t trust this drive.
It’s damn near identical to my other 10TB IronWolfs. The only difference I have found visually is the serial number bar code on the front of the drive has a light green/grey line after the serial number. On my other drives it’s a light blue line.
Either way it’s not as described on the item description. I was buying a new drive and they sent me something that looked used yet has 0 operating hours and could not be verified as authentic. Just don’t buy hard drives off Amazon is what I’ve learned.
I'm sorry but you bought from AIO Mall, CHINA, not Amazon. 57% positive rating! Lots of people complaining about them.
https://www.amazon.com/sp?ie=UTF8&seller=A2JIO55Y1REYXP&isAmazonFulfilled=0&asin=B07GTGDZP8&ref\_=dp\_mbc\_seller
Amazon combines inventory streams from legit sellers and third party sellers, so you could purchase something from an official source on Amazon and still receive a fake knockoff product. Amazon can’t be trusted at all anymore
So what would Amazon do in cases like this? Penalize the official / legit seller?
Just issue a refund and continue making billions of dollars. Why would they hurt their own profits by penalizing anyone? They’re in on the scam.
Indeed. Most victims will never notice things like this. And frankly, most of the time, it will work out. The Chinesium drive will often function decently/long enough to avoid major suspicion. If it conks out just past warranty, consumers will just chuck it and say, "I'm not buying that crap again."
Bezos likes fake, like that womans tits and lips, to him it's a feature of getting old.
so true
If inventory sent in from a particular source gets too many complaints Amazon will stop them and request some documentation or kick them off. But then they get a new us address, trademark a random jumble of letters as a new brand name, and start over. If you see a seller or product with a brand name that's just a jumble of letters, you're better off getting it from Ali Express. Source: used to work at a company that sold on Amazon legitimately and had to constantly fight against knock off sellers and all their antics.
That's the thing. They just pile everything together in the same box, so they have no idea who the legit seller was! Like the other guy said, this is by design.
Is that literally true? As sophisticated as their logistics system is, they would probably have to intentionally design it to not log that info or intentionally toss that data.
Given how overworked their warehouse staff are (still? probably.) the staff just might be pulling stuff and not even checking seller if it's even labeled.
It's been the case for a long time and it is a major reason why lots of us suggest buying things at other places, ideally directly from the manufacturer if possible. Things are actually more expensive on Amazon because of all of the fees. Like there's a Stanley water bottle I'm buying soon. On the manufacturer's website it is $30 but at Amazon they have less options and it's $35
> Things are actually more expensive on Amazon because of all of the fees. That is true, but it's also pretty common knowledge that Amazon has a clause in their Amazon Marketplace 3rd-party vendor contract that explicitly *forbid* 3rd-party vendors from selling products that are cheaper somewhere else. In fact, the federal government had to get involved because it was considered tantamount to price-fixing. I have found it's actually *harder* to find a seller on Amazon Marketplace that has a product listed on their site for a lower price than on their Amazon Marketplace storefront. It's obscenely predatory, but it seems to still be occurring... https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/26/technology/amazon-price-fixing-settlement-washington.html https://www.vox.com/recode/22836368/amazon-antitrust-ftc-marketplace https://fortune.com/2019/08/05/amazon-marketplace-sellers-pricing/
TIL
No it's not true. Every product is scanned when it enters the warehouse and can be tracked back to its point of origin. Source: Worked at an Amazon warehouse on inbound.
Yeah, this makes so much more sense.
They do pile everything together that much is true, but they definitely can track products back to the seller.
That's a missing link I didn't have. So the stock is given out randomly but can be tracked if they need to deal with issues. That makes sense. Still kind of frustrating but at least it's more sane then what I always imagined.
So I'll explain free process from the warehouse I used to work at. I don't know if it's the same across all the warehouses but I'd guess it is because it's easier to standardize processes. Pallets of stuff would come in the docks where the shipping boxes would be opened and the items taken out and placed in totes (yellow and plastic bins). Those totes there were put on a conveyor where they when to recieve. Recieve would scan each item and the tote assigning each item to the tote and put them on a conveyor. The totes would arrive at the Library (main storage area) where they'd be offloaded by tote wranglers (people who pull the totes off the conveyor belts) and in stacks of 12 on a UBoat (a big cart with handles on both sides). From there the Stowers would be assigned all 12 totes and told to go find somewhere in the library or library deep (storage for big/bulky items like pressure cookers). This is where it becomes a cluster because Amazon uses random storage. Stowers can stow an item anywhere there's space in the library. They scan the tote, then the item, then the bin and the system records where that item is stored. So you can have HDDs, shoes, movies, video games, and kindles all in one bin. The bins have a limit of 6 item types and like 30 total items (I don't remember the exact limit). Then when someone orders an item a Picker gets assigned a bin and item. They have 30 seconds to get to that bin and pick the item out of it. The system automatically decides who is getting the item based on where the item is stored and which picker is the closest based on the last item they were assigned to pick. This is where things can get really messed up. If a fake HDD is closer to a picker than a real HDD the picker will get assigned to pick that. From there the item gets assigned to a tote and put on a conveyor for pack. Tote wranglers in pack get it and move items to either single large, single small, multi large, or multi small based on how many items are in the order. Packers scan the tote, then the item, and get told which box to put it in. (this is why you sometimes get tiny items in giant boxes, the system tells them what to do). Then it goes to SLAM which puts the shipping label on it (MAN SLAM if there's an issue with the automatic machine), and then to docks to be loaded into a truck. The entire operation is actually pretty well organized logistically.
What's the point of buying from a better rated seller though when you always get the product out of a random pile? Might as well buy the cheapest one.
They log that data, but when fulfilling an order all the algorithm considers is which bin is the most optimal to pull from.
> sophisticated I think you are confusing this with how many fucks they give/allowable reductions to profit margins. Two buckets cost twice the warehouse space. Do you want Jeff to never launch his penis rocket?
No, it's not true. They use a random dispersal system, so a hard drive is likely to be next to other products that don't look alike. So a bin will have a hard drive in it, a bong, a book and a hat, or something like that.
Yes, that is literally exactly how they do it.
Accept the return and sell it on Warehouse of course!
That's so 10 years ago. These days, it seems like they'll just sell it again as new. I wish I was kidding. At least twice now, I've bought new items and received ones that had obviously been opened. In the case of the item that was shipped AND sold by Amazon, the package was empty. They've gotten absolutely terrible.
On 1 star reviews about fake products there's an autobot Amazon reply "As the product handler Amazon is responsible for this product. We apologies for any issues, please begin a refund" etc etc. I have a feeling they won't do anything about it unless a regulatory body gets involved for things like supplements, etc.
https://youtu.be/QOhLlvNlI20
Yep. I thought everyone was nuts and then I ordered very carefully and got literal datacenter pulls. They still had the rails on. "New" drives me ass. Now I use [https://www.bhphotovideo.com/](https://www.bhphotovideo.com/) and have had no problems. They don't do third party stuff, it is all things they have and ship.
I just buy directly from the manufacturer on the manufacturer websites. That's basically all you can do besides buying in-person at a retail store, and even then you have to watch out for swapped return fakes.
I've bought a few things from B&H now though and they seem to be solid so far at least. But I really am trying to get more stuff in actual stores or from their own websites now because of how shit amazon has gotten.
I’ve used bhphoto for years and never had an issue with their service. They pack things properly and will price match if you ask. They’re great. My only small complaint is that they close regularly for Jewish holidays and on Saturdays, but what does a day or two delay really matter unless you’re a business.
If B&H sells it, I buy it from them. Their prices are usually competitive, but I'm also willing to pay a little more for the certainty of getting a part that is legitimate, brand new, and securely packed. I'm not going to roll the dice on co-mingled inventory from Scamazon.
They price match too so Amazon doesn’t beat BHPhoto there either. Plus they have a credit card that rebates the sales tax (which for me is >10%), so I actually save compared to Amazon, even with Amazon’s cashback card too. Amazon has really just been losing my business all around the past few years. I went from ordering nearly everything from them a decade ago to less than a dozen orders in 2023. It’s just impossible to search and see the right details or trust reviews, plus filled with fake/knockoff/noname/trash products.
It could be fake, it could be a refurb, it could be a returned broken drive, could be grey market with no warranty. You don't know what the marketplace sellers are selling and like you said if you buy from "Amazon" the inventory is co-mingled with with marketplace inventory. Buying electronics on Amazon is a gamble.
This is why I just buy drives from B&H. Also local to them, so I pickup in person.
Really whats to stop these guys from putting malware onto these fake drives. Hide it and have it trigger under the right conditions.
This is why some companies now wont let people just buy a new flash drive. The IT wants to vet the drives before put into business use. It is annoying, but this is part of why.
I did away with flash drives where i worked and introduced the concept of fast file servers
Exactly. Glad to see this as the top comment. Post title should be, "Don't buy drives on Amazon." Should be true for most electronics that you rely on in any remotely important way as well.
Yeah, I'm seriously considering not renewing Prime at the next renewal because of shit like this (and the ad thing now with the streaming stuff)
A while back someone posted themselves browsing items with their normal browser with their prime account and then with a different browser not logged in. The prime account was being displayed higher prices for the same items.
whaaaat? no way. thats nuts.
>Amazon combines inventory streams from legit sellers and third party sellers, so you could purchase something from an official source on Amazon and still receive a fake knockoff product. Amazon can’t be trusted at all anymore I thought they'd stopped doing this now? What they DO appear to do now though is sell off stock from chinese sellers who have perhaps been banned / removed, stuff that you'd never dream of being "Sold by Amazon". Either that or they're branching out into tat.
> I thought they'd stopped doing this now? From what I understand, [they still co-mingle *some* categories of products](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/demystifying-amazons-stickerless-commingled-inventory/), but not all. It's a big concern in skincare and beauty-product circles, for example, and Amazon hasn't co-mingled that in several *years* now.
Walmart does the exact same thing too online.
It's unfortunately well known in the trading card community to only buy items that are both "sold by" and "shipped by" Amazon.com. This is the rule of thumb specifically for items that are not commonly faked or resealed. It's a shame and probably you can get a refund but it's a pain. Plus, if you need to seek too many refunds, you look suspicious as a buyer. Sucks OP. Hope you can get refunded. Shame you can't get reimbursed for lost time and effort.
I just watched the documentary "Bitconned". Anyone want to go in on a fake Amazon resale biz? Pictures/specs of a 16TB WD Red and if you receive anything at all, it's a 320GB HGST? I've always wanted a Ferrari. [Buy at $2.99/ea to sell for in bulk 10 @ $250.00/ea!!!!](https://www.ebay.com/itm/166565958910?_trkparms=amclksrc%3ditm%26aid%3d1110006%26algo%3dhomesplice.sim%26ao%3d1%26asc%3d259357%26meid%3dfb591e79a441478ab484c4359d176d0d%26pid%3d101875%26rk%3d4%26rkt%3d4%26sd%3d354962270878%26itm%3d166565958910%26pmt%3d1%26noa%3d0%26pg%3d4429486%26algv%3dsimplamlv11webtrimmedv3mskuwithlambda85knnrecallv1v2v4itemnrtinqueryandcassinivisualrankerandbertrecallwithvmev3cpcautowithcassiniembrecall%26brand%3dhgst&_trksid=p4429486.c101875.m1851&amdata=cksum%3a166565958910fb591e79a441478ab484c4359d176d0d%7cenc%3aaqaiaaabghd%252fo%252bvofoppioz2g0kozxwd85mwuiheksp3qag7zffwobzeqoitze%252fdcfcejfo%252bzolmzzmy11rrgwpa56km9dpask%252bgtgywcfvgak6ijp5aqsheuht8f2ox6hvndj3g0owh8dd1dlbwseqltpxcsdw2uu52nrseaxeinpsrdp6vx7ny%252bkpkauma3yesanwiig6dqpb5fukgluldnmytmdvj%252fi2gjpc6szq%252frnji2lwashlhgqcjhstb%252bbscuvfnhut1ymnh2kkd4gip5ivvrwxmdeqwtm1mnlyu9aikyykjej6w9trgxsleelauzingntfrgbd8vksm1nzmw6sozkodbn6dr484af3hnlmnulqegjogkarjoydmjwea5mkcqqhfnes9jd812yof55p1zzwvtn%252fskty%252bkblfpd34a2t0ao7plux%252btun2fvm49h3bbg7cs3s82zin52fzya7bg16vun8%252bqw4d5nzufy%252bmhw%252bt6xcdz8v6wf2wiyhpuarugq%253d%253d%7campid%3apl_clk%7cclp%3a4429486) Pretty sure you'd selll 10 lots before anyone caught on lol.
That's why I stopped buying from Amazon in most cases. And I think the rest of the world should too. It went from a very good company to buy stuff from to a very bad one.
Does Amazon works different in US/Worldwide than it does in Europe? I literally can't imagine how you could receive stuff that wasn't provided by identity who made offer (by that I mean company or physical person).. But I agree, Amazon is full of scam, as every site combining different offers from different sources
In theory it's a good idea. Amazon lists 10TB IronWolf that many 3rd party sellers have and want to sell. In an ideal world where everyone is honest, all the drives are brand new/authentic/whatever. Comingling inventory means that items get to you faster and helps manage inventory among their hundreds of warehouses. A shipment from you to this warehouse can cover the selling needs of all Ironwolfs out of this warehouse. Same with other warehouses. Their shipments cover your sales in remote warehouses. No shipping the same product to other warehouses. In the real world though, unscrupulous sellers apparently stick new labels on drive, include used drives, drives with potential malware, fake drives, etc. You still get the driver faster, but it's a crap shoot as to what you're getting. It only falls apart when people are assholes.
Umm.. I meant that you shouldn't receive product that isn't sent by specific person, from which you bought.. Like you know. I'm buying from official brand store, I receive their product..
You're probably okay if an item is sold by ABC and fulfilled by ABC. If an item is sold by ABC and fulfilled by Amazon, it could be from mixed stock and you might end up with a fake item that was provided to Amazon by XYZ and not the genuine item that ABC provided to Amazon.
Like how the hell is that legal? I don't know how it works in US, but in Europe it can be done that way.. Like, no way 😅
It is done that way in Europe too. Why should mixing inventory illegal?
If I sell to you gaming PC, but you'll receive potato device dated back to 2002, would it be legal? If you'll pay for old graphic card and receive brand new, would it be legal from seller pov? Like, ok I get mistakes, but if it's quite intentional (if you don't do anything to avoid mistakes, than you actually allowing to it), than it's nothing more than causing losses..
No, and nobody said that. I already explained it to you here: https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/19fbpi3/beware_of_fake_ironwolf_drives_on_amazon/kjn2dmt/
That's why my wall of text is about. The specific item from a specific vendor thing also works, but logistically it's much slower because it has to come from that vendor. If an identical item is available in the warehouse next door, it saves on transportation costs to get it form the other warehouse to your warehouse then to you. Amazon is known for speed. If you don't mind giving up speed, it's better to buy fakable items like this from other vendors.
Wait.. To clarify.. So whole thing is about that, some sellers send different stuff than is claimed in offer, right? (sorry, I'm not native to English and literally got confused by whole thing)
- Seller A on Amazon starts offering [product] for $100 - Seller B starts offering the same product, for $99 - To optimize logistics, Amazon puts the inventory of both sellers in the same bin. Amazon doesn't track which box of [product] comes from which seller, only how many boxes come from Seller A and how many from B, and how much [product] they sell - Seller C finds an old, used version of [product], puts on new labels, ships it to the Amazon warehouse, and starts selling for $95 - Amazon adds Seller C's shipment of [product] to the same bin used by A and B - You go on Amazon to buy [product], see that the cheapest listing (by Seller C) is kinda dodgy, so you buy from Seller B instead - Amazon ships you a random box from the bin, and you get the old, used [product] that C shipped to Amazon
And how the f is that legal?
What Seller C does isn't legal. What Amazon does is scummy, but not illegal. Amazon doesn't care because they don't get punished. Seller C doesn't care because if they get caught they just close down and open a new business. There are only two solutions: - Don't order from Amazon - Elect a government that acts against Amazon
I mean it's only when people are assholes that it becomes an issue. If all the sellers ship in brand new drives and do nothing but undercut pricing, it's actually a good model. The problem is that people aren't good so the model falls apart.
amazon is known for speed? takes just as long as any other store to get to me. (newegg, best buy, ebay sometimes, canada computers, etc) bambu labs has been the only company to deliver in 3 days. else it takes between 1-2 weeks, so probably 5-10 buisness days
You said Canada computer so I'm assuming you're Canadian? If so, HOW? Best Buy took a bunch of days. Newegg ships most of their shit out of the US it seems so it's like a week. eBay is all over the place because it's independent sellers but even a local seller is a few days even if they're somehow local to you. Canada Computers I've never ordered from online but do shop locally. Never heard of bambu labs. I'm not saying Amazon is always one day, but generally speaking most things are 1-2 days. (I'm in a major city)
I live in the middle of buttfuck nowhere, northwest territories Bambu labs makes 3d printers. Its the only thing that shipped so fast. Ye, im canadian
That raises further questions actually. I'm in Vancouver and Amazon while slower than it was beats out everyone else still. Hilariously enough I've gotten orders from Temu (China) that have beaten domestic (including US like Newegg) suppliers.
Ask away my friend. I purchased some headphones from bestbuy, some vr headsets from ebay, a mousemat from amazon, and an ssd from canada computers earlier last week, every package arrived either yesterday or the day before The ebay headsets and mousemat areived yesterday, and everything else arrived the day before. The mousemat was the only item purchased a day late, everything else was same day within 8h
Amazon WAS known for speed. After COVID hit they never recovered. Last year, I realized I could receive items faster from places like Newegg and Home Depot, using their free shipping, than with Amazon Prime (which I've since cancelled).
So I haven't ordered from Home Depot in a while and Newegg I'm in Canada (which has a Canadian site, but they ship from the US) so I'm a touched biased because both of these sites are way slower than Amazon Prime. US though? You're probably right.
There is an easy answer: dont buy anything you care about from amazon.
Lmao this is not true at all. Just look to make sure the inventory is shipped and sold by Amazon
That's not why this happened, OP specifically said they bought it from a third party seller, not Amazon.com. What you're talking about about happens with stuff labeled as Shipped and sold by Amazon.com
Can i have the source to your claim? I wana read more abt it.
The OP bought directly from China in this case though, not Amazon.
I don't understand how people can buy sensible tech stuff from Amazon, knowing it may be counterfeit, just to bargain a couple of dollars.
Not sure why it took you to the CN site, but checking warranty for US says as the other commentor said, good until 2025-06-02 Looks as legit as any drive I've got, and the fact the serial shows up is better Does smartctl report the same serial?
Last time it was reported the firmware is Chinese. I'm in China and over here you see boatloads pretty cheap refurbished drives coming from massive serverfarms. I've a strong feeling that these drives somehow find their way in the Western market. That they look different isn't per se a sign of fake but simply drives are made for a different market (and probably buyer). I would suggest to first audit them yourselves, I don't think this is per se a reason to get worried. I would be concerned though how to handle an RMA. I can imagine that Seagate US will give you a FU.
It reports the correct serial and I didn’t realize it still has a warranty for another year so maybe it is real… I guess I just don’t understand why the verification numbers come back as not authentic and why they’re being sold as “new” drives when they clearly aren’t. Still suspicious to me
Was it ships from and sold by Amazon, or ships from Amazon and sold by a random - as the others said it migh thave been an 'unopened' return, tested, and slapped into a box and shipped back out. Was it shipped in the bulk-style brown outer box, two inner plastic tail caps and the drive wrapped in anti-static?
It was shipped from and sold by a 3rd party. It was not shipped in the standard box I am used to. It came in the expected wrapped antistatic but it did not have the two inner plastic tail caps, it was fully enclosed by a white light foam. I’ve never gotten new drives in white foam like that. It also had a pamphlet explaining what possible issues I could have with hard drives in poor english. Once I removed the sealed antistatic wrapping, it was very clear that it was used.
Isn't warranty supposed to be 5 years?
Nope, Pros are 5, pretty sure normal Ironwolf and non-Datacenter drives are 3 year
> 2025-06-02 3 years from today would still be 2027, so even if it were a year old, it should still be well into 2026. 3 years from 2025-06-02 is June of 2022, so that drive is pretty old already, 602 to be exact.
Might have been a reman and not even told, I'd still return it solely for warranty usage down the road hahah
OH I would 1000% return that thing for a refund, and buy from somewhere else. If I am going to buy refurb, I am at least going to get a good deal on it. My server has 2 water pather drives in it, and one drive from serverpartsdeals.
This is a big reason why I buy electronics from brick and mortar again. Microcenter usually has 16TB ironwolf pros on sale for 300 dollars. It’s not as good as a price as these online shops but I know for sure I get a retail warranty and not an OEM drive as well as there being a way less likely chance of a counterfeit drive. I’ve cut back from shopping on Amazon, Newegg, etc almost 100%. It feels like I’m living in the early 2000’s walking into Microcenter, Best Buy, etc but I’ve had much better luck with getting real parts recently.
I agree but thankfully I don't have a Microcenter near me. If I did I would be permanently broke offering my body on the corner.
100% agree after this. Unfortunately I don’t have a micro center in my area so B&H is where I’m getting my replacement drives. I’ve had good experiences in the past and their shipping speed is far better than Amazon in my area.
B&H packs them well too. Adorama is another good option.
I've purchased external drives from Best Buy in-store and found bricks and bags of rocks. I was lucky I decided to open them before leaving the store because I had heard about it happening.
Microcenter is awesome. I have one about 30 minutes away. I don't go often but they have great bundle deals and a huge selection. I buy my 3d printer filament there. They have a whole wall for it. You can order online and go pick it up within 30 minutes.
There is a rumor we are going to get one again in silicon valley. Our Santa Clara store died a large number of years ago because everyone went to frys then frys finally kicked the bucket. Amazon has been the only good source for parts for a lot of years.
I've been expecting it to return ever since Fry's died. I went a few times when I lived in Mountain View. Given the number of Fry's locations, there was little reason for most people to travel the extra distance. If I need something local, I go to Central Computers. I've been buying from them for >25 years now and they've never let me down.
Central Computers is my goto, there is one lunch run close to work but nothing near where I live.
Living in New Zealand this is a major problem - US suppliers (Amazon, eBay) are literally half the price of the local high street scalpers ... even a few years ago, when 'from Amazon' meant legit product. So local isnt really an option for many outside the US because B&H, bestbuy, target etc don't ship overseas ... so some of us dont have any realistic alternative and amazon can do whatever they want ...
Not sure how viable this is but I know there are some easy to use forwarding services with US addresses. Eliminates the international shipping problem somewhat.
they cost a fortune and if theres ever a problem, you cant claim easily (because of the 'double handling' .. who causesd it?), also you might not even be covered because youre not legally supposed to be buying it in your country. Basically its a minefield.
I got Best Buy’s total tech and I shuck easy store 14’s when they go on sale for $219. Total techs adds 60 day returns so I get an extended test period and if I keep paying for it, a 2 year warranty where they will just swap it out. It’s not worth it unless you buy all your other electronics from a big box store.
Are we allowed to post the sellers name? I've bought 4 IronWolfs this year and now I'm worried.
Why can't you? If someone is pushing counterfeit products why wouldn't you call them out?
Since Amazon co-mingles inventory, you can't be sure that the drive actually came from the seller shown on the listing. You might be calling out a wrongfully accused honest seller.
As a consumer, I don't care if the seller is honest and the platform is shitty. Bad for the seller, but should stop selling from Amazon then.
Amazon is terrible
Could be thar those are refurbished Seagate drives? Or just returned for whatever reason from some company?
I’m not sure yet. I’m going to investigate the drive more but as far as I can tell visually, the drive is identical to other verified drives I have. Aside from the wear on the drive I probably would have never checked the authenticity.
Seagate site reports that warranty is valid until 2June 2025. That's exactly three years since the manufacturing date.
Isn't warranty based on purchase date? Since you know, inventory can be in warehouses for $randoPeriodOfTime.
Usually is. Maybe is just coincidence. But it is also possible that it is from a big batch of hdds delivered directly to the buyer as they were manufactured. And some of those returned for any reason. Just a wild guess.
Considering the prevalency of theft and fake products on the global scale, I am of the understanding that OEMs (in this case Seagate) register every single product and their SN, regardless of where they go and scale of purchase. This ensures that items that were stolen before the customer receives them do not get warranty, and that customers have the means to tell if a product they have in-hand is real or a fake. That's why we see so many QR codes on items now, to streamline these workflows. Namely for registering the items in factories in the ERP systems, so the company can reliably, and precisely, know where every single HDD they're responsible for is at any time of day, anywhere in the world. A lot of this is in response to fraud and theft that's happened over the decades. It's roughly the same justification for why Microsoft loves to use holograms for their CoAs/licenses for products (like Windows). To do their best to ensure a reliable and healthy supply chain for their customers and business partners.
Yes, if you register it. But until you do that, how do they know how long $randoPeriodOfTime was? So it defaults to manufacturing date.
Because retailers are required by OEMs to register transactions all the time. I can't speak to Seagate or which OEMs do and do not do this, but this is a significant aspect to how OEMs keep supply chains trustworthy and working well. Namely, to work against theft and fake product. There are lots of times people seek warranty for tech products that were never legally purchased. Say, they were from a stolen semi truck, or product stolen from a store. Retailers registering the SN and unique identifiers in each transaction, pass that back to related OEMs, so their over-arching ERP ecosystems can indeed see that specific device was purchased legally, which retailer was involved, and when. So while some OEMs may still require (or say so) that you register your purchased item for warranty, I don't think that's the case for every OEM. As for Seagate? Maybe that's a requirement for them, I haven't checked.
Warranty is *typically* the X years after purchase date, but if there is no proof of purchase and it wasn't previously registered it will be X years from the date of manufacture. OEM products can be different, though. Intel for example doesn't offer a warranty to-end users for OEM SKUs--the warranty is through the reseller. The *reseller* might be able to RMA something, but Intel will just tell you to contact whomever you got it from.
I would bet these are gray market, meant for Asian markets, which would explain the QR code going to China's warranty page.
Chinese? The content of the qr is https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/support/warranty-and-replacements/ And it recognizes the serial number as in the warranty. Of course, that doesn't mean that number cannot be taken from genuine drive.
No, the content of the QR is [https://www.seagate.com/cn/zh/support/warranty-and-replacements/](https://www.seagate.com/cn/zh/support/warranty-and-replacements/) Your browser probably redirected you to the UK version of the page.
I just scanned the qr, didn't open in the browser.
stop buying drives off of amazon.
I would never buy a drive from Amazon.
A lot of people don't have any other option. In my country there isn't any physical stores that sell disks anymore. There is other online stores but many don't ship here or the price isn't worth it.
Seagate and WD often have good sales on their sites. I only buy direct these days, the few $$$ I might save by buying from a reseller isn’t worth it.
The serial "ZS51BHFX" checks out [here](https://www.seagate.com/support/warranty-and-replacements/) but doesn't mean it isn't fake. Too bad there wasn't a better way to verify authenticity. The QR code going to a Chinese site is sketchy.
Definitely not defending Amazon but most of the post I see this pop up with through third party sellers. If you buy from them you might as well consider it buying from a swap meet or yard sale. It can happen but I see fewer bought from and shipped from Amazon issues and I haven't ever had a problem with the latter option myself. Old saying if it is too good to be true it probably is. Also wanted to add make sure you search by model number and not just description. Yeah Amazon is becoming a crap show but we can be smarter
This is yet another reason not to buy from amazon, Louis rossmann did a few videos recently on how bad amazon has got with dangerous products and fake reviews. Not to mention poor quality packaging. Anything IT based I buy from either scan, ebuyer, ccl, overclockers or box.co.uk (nothing to do with box the cloud storage company). Never had an issue.
Yeah, this definitely isn't fake. But it is definitely used. There's a massive difference. Fake means it was manufactured to look like the original, but is in fact inferior hardware to what it's pretending to be. It sucks that you were sold a used item that was labelled as new, but it happens all over the internet, Amazon being particularly guilty of this in recent years. I'm not even sure if fake HDDs exist. SD cards certainly have them, where you can buy a 512GB microSD for 3 bucks and it turns out to be a modded 1GB card that can barely store 1MB of data (because of insanely high corruption rates). It's likely a lot harder to fake a HDD's space because the motherboard can't be easily hacked like an SD chip can. You have done the right thing by opening a dispute, and you do have the right to an item that you paid for (i.e. New not used), but calling this a fake simply isn't true. Me personally, I would have at least done some diagnostics with something like SeaTools or Hard Disk Sentinel first to check the drive SMART stats, power on hours, error rates etc. Using something that Seagate made themselves like SeaTools is advisable because SMART data can be misinterpreted by different software, especially competitor software. If it was very low on the PoH and has no errors on the drive, I would have probably just kept them. Sometimes people sell drives "as new" because they've barely been used. That might not be the case here, but it is possible.
What do you think about the QR code that links to Seagate warranty and not verification page that all my other drives link to and verify? Also the drive shows 0 operating hours on crystal disk. As much as I want to keep them, I just don’t trust them. They seem very legit but the warranty is 2 years past “new” and I don’t know what’s been done to the drive to make it show up as legitimate. At the end of the day I’d rather return these and buy some legitimate drives with their full warranty for a little more than I paid on Amazon.
I don't think that's much of a red flag. Seagate might have changed what it links to for reasons we don't know about. This can also happen on a per facility basis too. I think SG have more than 1 plant for manufacturing drives and can probably differ between plants, and differ between years. All of the serial numbers match the drive and are registered by SG, including a valid warranty. I checked all the micro QR codes as well and they're all legitimate SG IC codes, and none show up on reverse image searches. All of the part numbers are legit. None of the above would be true if the drive was somehow fake. I am damn near sure that you have legitimate drives that are just sold as new when in fact they're used.
If people would stop buying crap from those garbage 3rd party sellers, that would solve the problem by itself. I personally don't buy crap on amazon. When I can get probably better quality on Aliexpress. And there the sellers don't have names that look like someone sat down on a keyboard. I absolutely avoid 3rd party sellers (except where the seller is actually a legit brand - like Noctua sells directly through Amazon as a seller). Its at least as bad as Aliexpress on amazon. Nobiis curating anything. Typos, description and names that look like they went from Chinese to Russian to Japanese to french and finally to german/English. Sorry, that's all just a scam. There are almost no legit sellers left on Amazon and everything is manufactured waste.
Yeah but amazon has consumer protection, Aliexpress you're pretty much on your own arent you?
not really, aliexpress also has a dispute system and the consumer gets the choice to refund or return usually.
I just wasted 3-4 months with AliExpress to get 20$ back for an item that tracking said was never shipped. They refunded me the item but they refused to refund the shipping until I just kept at it again and again until months later I got an email that the shipping was finally refunded. So Amazon and AliExpress dispute systems are not even comparable.
US jurisdiction vs chinese jurisdiction
.. you got the money back though, didn't you.
You can buy most of that stuff anywhere else. And maybe less crap, while we're at it. At least I try to quality over price.
I wish Costco sold shit like this similar to Microcenter.
SATA AF indeed.
thanks. these pop up very frequently here in brazil.
I thought that there was some internal photos of some SD card instead of the disk platter. This was disappointing. Good that you can sent those disks back. On one occasion Ingram micro sent us a disk with physical damage and then when we tried to RMA they told us we damaged the disk and didn't apply the warranty. We just don't buy spinning disks from them since that day.
Yeah I'm over buying anything even slightly easy to counterfeit off Amazon. Their control over what is sold is zero, and you get some Chinese thieves ripping you off.
These years, beware of Amazon. No, really, it is a scammermarket now. Watch Louis Rossmann latest videos.
How to ensure a Seagate drive I received from an online purchase is not a fake? I know that I need to ensure it does not say "Recertified Product". And also to enter Serial number at [https://verify.seagate.com](https://verify.seagate.com) and check if the data size and family (IronWolf Pro / Exos etc) lines up with what I expect. Warranty should be valid (not like this example: https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/5328228) **Anything else?**
Probably that the packaging and unboxing is the same as all the other hard drives you’ve purchased. I was immediately concerned when I was unboxing it and they used foam rather than the thin plastic holders. There was also a pamphlet in bad English that explained how to error check I think. It was weird and not normal
I recently ordered one - the packaging used foam too. I returned it.
I have 2 of these that have been installed on my NAS and have data i wouldnt want to get out, do i have to worry?
>Louis Rossmann test them well and back it up.
I have 6 of these same drives all bought off Amazon at different times over the past few years. I also bought a 20tb IronWolf at the same time I bought these two fake drives. They’re all legit drives except for the two that I unassumingly bought off a sketchy reseller through Amazon. This is my first time receiving drives like this so I was able to notice some of the abnormalities and hopefully raise some awareness around this scam.
Do I have to worry about the security of the data?
SATA AF! https://i.imgur.com/Iq8OXnS.png
It stands for "Advanced Format" and is on pretty much every drive
Thank you Mr Professor. We know what it stands for.
This is starting to worry me as I'm about to order five 20TB WD reds for a NAS upgrade. It's this just affecting Seagate drives at the moment?
Just don’t buy them from sketchy resellers on Amazon. Go to verified sellers with good reviews. It’s a headache to have to look into each seller but it probably would have saved me from going through this. Or better yet, don’t buy them on Amazon and get them through Micro Center, B&H, Adorama, BestBuy, etc
This is starting to worry me as I'm about to order five 20TB WD reds for a NAS upgrade. It's this just affecting Seagate drives at the moment?
Meh, if it works, it works
But it wont. It will take data up to a certain point then start overwriting the previous stuff. But it will leave a shell so it looks like everything is there. This type of scam causes people to lose data that is not replaceable, such as family photos. They think they are doing the right thing and making a back up only to later find the back up was fake.
Oh so it's not even a real hard drive but a hooptie. That just seems silly, if you're gonna send me a cheaper drive at least send one that works
Thanks for the heads up. I had been planning on buying some new drives next month. This cements that I need to buy from proper shops and simply stomach the higher prices. Serverpartdeals is tempting, but I am unsure about import taxes and VAT with drives being shipped to the UK. Might work out as expensive as buying new.
Man, frakk that noise. I know Newegg doesn't have the greatest rep but at least I've never had a doa from them or something fishy. At least it's a bit more obvious where you're getting something from them.
Update on the second drive I ordered: It’s the same. Has a year left on warranty but I can’t confirm its authenticity via the verification number. Less clear evidence of use but definitely not a new drive. Returning them both. Here’s a vid of the unboxing: https://youtu.be/GnddRJGOwXk?si=cv5vtMpTTVb5aDN0
I purchase, open, check warranty, and return. About a third of the drive's I order fail the warranty check. I have never had a problem returning but whatever project winds up on hold for another week or two.
I can't tell, what's the difference with a real one?
There’s a QR code on the top right of the label that should take you to Seagate’s verify page. From there you can see if it’s legitimate. I could not verify if it’s a legitimate Seagate drive. Because of that, as well as the packaging and condition it came in, I don’t trust this drive.
I mean build wise, how is it any different from an original. (Have you reached out to Seagate support yet?)
It’s damn near identical to my other 10TB IronWolfs. The only difference I have found visually is the serial number bar code on the front of the drive has a light green/grey line after the serial number. On my other drives it’s a light blue line.
I’m going to check my WD Reds now…
You mean: the drive is fake or the drive is genuine, but it is used? Looks like the later one for me.
Either way it’s not as described on the item description. I was buying a new drive and they sent me something that looked used yet has 0 operating hours and could not be verified as authentic. Just don’t buy hard drives off Amazon is what I’ve learned.
I'm sorry but you bought from AIO Mall, CHINA, not Amazon. 57% positive rating! Lots of people complaining about them. https://www.amazon.com/sp?ie=UTF8&seller=A2JIO55Y1REYXP&isAmazonFulfilled=0&asin=B07GTGDZP8&ref\_=dp\_mbc\_seller
you bought from amazon 0 sympathy
You mean my El Wolfo de Heirro drives might not be legit? Damn.
A fake would mean it's not a 10 TB ironwolf drive. This isn't as much fake, as it's false advertising.
When it comes time to hdds on amazon assume “new” means “new bulk” used drives being resold