HP Personal Media Drive nightmare.

[Oso_Grande]

I'm on my 2nd--soon to be 3rd--HP Personal Media Drive (PMD).

The first one died (no power, nothing) within two days after I got it, so I returned it to HPShopping.com within the return window. The rep told me they didn't have any more 1TB models but offered me a discount on an upgrade to the 2TB.  No problem.

I've had the 2nd drive for less than 6mo now and a few days ago, the drive started making a horrible grinding noise.

http://youtu.be/jvgNb1UzR5A?hd=1

I called HP support and spent 45min on the phone with a rep who spoke so (pardon my french) f'ing fast that it was hard to understand him. I told him that the drive was working just fine but that it sounds like the drive is dying. I held the phone up to the drive so he could hear it. The first thing he asked to do was plug it into another computer (huh?!). I told him that the drive is working fine but it didn't matter, so I obliged and (sure enough) the drive is still making the grinding noise.

Next, the rep told me the drive was out of warranty. I told him the drive is less than 6mo old, he conceded that it may still be in warranty but it wasn't showing in their system. I gave him the original order # from HPShopping.com and he said he would send it to his manager. 15min later on hold, he came back on and said that I would need to forward my e-mail receipt to their support department to verify it.  I repreated that I bought it from HPShopping.com, gave him the order #, and yet that still didn't matter.  He finally conceded and said he would process it after I told him that I would need to speak to the manager if they are not going to honor the 1yr warranty.

I was placed on hold three separate times, each time being told that they are looking into it. My phone battery died so I gave up. I did receive a call back to tell me that I would need to call in with a case # if I wanted further help.

This morning, I turned on the drive and it is making an even worse sound....

http://youtu.be/EHPcD30EbQQ?hd=1

I bought this drive after getting a new HP printer to use as a Time Machine backup for our home iMac. This was the first drive I have purchased that was not a Western Digital or Seagate (I have several of the former).  I feel that I have learned a valuable lesson that if something looks too good to be true, it probably is. In this case, I had a coupon for HPShopping.com and should have just stayed with WD or Seagate.

[Oso_Grande]

I called again yesterday and ended with the same result--the rep asked me the same question which I answered three separate times before hanging up.  "Is there any dust in the back of the drive?"  "No--for the third time--and none that I see."

After several lengthy holds, I hung up in disgust. I promptly submitted a complaint to the BBB and will (hopefully) have resolution soon. In the meantime, I've zero'd out the drive and waiting patiently to hear back from the BBB. I'm through trying to get support through HP, their customer service is deplorable.

As an anecdote, whenever I have had to call Apple for anything--ANYTHING--I get ahold of someone rather quickly and (this may explain things) in North America who also can understand proper western English.  I speak two languages so I am sympathetic when people do not understand English but when I am a paying customer, I expect competency on the other end. I guess it is no surprise that HP is getting out of the computer market and why Apple is eating their lunch.