HDD return rates - BeHardware

We have obtained the figures for after sales return rates for hard drives coming from a large French online store. These are for drives that were sold between April to September and which functioned 6 months to 1 year.

To be counted in the below figures, the return had to be done directly with the store which is not always the case because it can be done with the manufacturer. However, the latter amount is a relatively small in the first year.

A little more than a year ago, the ranking was Western Digital, followed by Hitachi, Maxtor and then Seagate. Maxtor having been bought by Seagate, it’s replaced by Samsung which now has a large role in the hard drive market. Here are the figures:

- Seagate : 1.5%
- Western: 1.7%
- Hitachi : 1.8%
- Samsung : 2.5%

Overall, we can see that figures are not as good because these numbers were formerly between 1 and 1.6%. Seagate has first place, while Samsung is in last. In Samsung’s favor (or the contrary depending how you look at it), note that they do not offer an online RMA contrary to its rivals which increases the probability of going through the retailer. However, in general during the first year, online RMAs are used very little.

Now taking a closer look at drives with a 500 GB capacity:

- Western : 1.2%
- Seagate : 2%
- Samsung : 2.1%
- Hitachi : 2.5%

As you can see, the numbers can vary greatly depending on the capacity. In the end, two models sold in large quantities (more than 400 units) slightly surpass 4% of after sales return rates: the Samsung SpinPoint P 200 GB IDE and Samsung SpinPoint T 300 GB IDE.