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Amazon vs. Newegg for bare/OEM hard drive orders

Flash SWT

Flash SWT

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 14, 2009
459
23
Houston, TX
(Hey gang, forgive this lengthy post but I thought it might be of interest to members here.)

I've been a longtime Newegg customer and only made a purchase from Amazon for the first time last Christmas. However in the time leading up to the purchase of my new Mac Pro I began reading numerous reports online about questionable packaging procedures for bare hard drives. I had never had a problem in the past but it had been at least a year since I'd ordered a hard drive from Newegg.

I was going to just order from Amazon but when I read similar reports about their recent packaging I decided the best thing to do would be order from both so I could share my results.

THE ORDER:
I ordered four OEM (bare) hard drives at the same time, two from each retailer.

From Amazon:
Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST3750330NS 750GB
Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1.0TB

From Newegg:
Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST3750330NS 750GB
Western Digital Caviar Green WD15EADS 1.5TB

SHIPPING COST:
One interesting thing to note is that both retailers offer free shipping on orders over a certain price, which most hard drives will fall into. However while the free shipping from Newegg got my order delivered in two days, the free shipping from Amazon estimated it wouldn't even leave the warehouse for a week. I had to pay an extra $13.95 to get my Amazon order delivered on the same day as the Newegg order that was shipped for free.

I verified this same thing with a recent software order, one title from each vendor based on best price of the two things I needed. Newegg's free shipping option gets sent out immediately, the day after order in my experience, while Amazon's free shipping will sit in the warehouse for almost a week before making it on a truck.

PACKAGING:
Boxes.jpg

(The box from Newegg is larger because in addition to the two HDs it also included a Netgear PS101 Mini Print Server for use with an older HP LaserJet 6L printer. BTW, it is working just fine and setup on our Macs was fairly simple.)

AMAZON:
Amazon-1.jpg

As you can see each of the drives from Amazon was in an individual smaller box inside the larger one, however there was nothing to keep these two from sliding around within the larger box.

Amazon-2.jpg

The Seagate drive was in a plastic clamshell surrounded on both sides with "egg crate" material.

Amazon-3.jpg

The Western Digital drive was in a anti-static bag surrounded only loosely by "air bag" filler that was mostly popped.

NEWEGG:
Newegg-1.jpg

Newegg-2.jpg

Newegg-3.jpg

The HDs had a some bubble wrap around them however as you can see they were crammed into a corner of the box with brown paper filling the bottom. This offers minimal protection and the bubble wrap was popped along one side of each drive. It would have been much better to have the products in the middle of the box surrounded by the paper instead of just resting on top of it and physically touching the box exterior.

The Seagate drive was in a plastic clamshell and the Western Digital drive was in a anti-static bag, both wrapped in bubble wrap.

RMA:
The Newegg 1.5TB WD failed almost immediately. It initially mounted but didn't make it through the initial format before locking up. So $12 later I RMA'ed it and Newegg sent a replacement that seems to be working fine.

Newegg-RMA.jpg

I complained about the initial packaging in my RMA and the replacement was surrounded on most sides by packing peanuts, however as you can see there were none on top of the drive.

CONCLUSION:
I give my vote to the best packaged drive to the Seagate from Amazon. However I give my vote for the worst packaged drive to the Western Digital from Amazon.

That said, both Seagates and the Amazon 1TB WD seem to be working just fine [knock-on-wood] as I near one month of service.

Hopefully this is somewhat helpful to anyone in the market for additional hard drives in their Mac Pro. What about other retailers? Please feel free to add any recent experiences you've had ordering bare/OEM hard drives.

.
 
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I just go to the shop where they don't speak much English so I just point to what I want on the price list.

Similar price to buying online, but faster and no shipping drama.
 
thanks for the nice indepth analysis ...ive been tempted to snag a few 500GB 2.5 drives from amazon as theyre 10$ or more cheaper at any given time than newegg (which i almost always use btw)

I've sent a few emails to newegg's HQ regarding their packaging process; specifically for harddrives, ive only had maybe 2 hdds came faulty which I'd say took the huge hit from shipping.

Retail, is another gamble..higher prices and tax on top of the retail pricing.
not to mention the retail merchandise goes through the same maybe even more processes to get to its destination; manufacture, to warehouse to shipping companies to retail warehouse and/or distribution center to retail supply store,

good stuff.
 
Strange. My WD hard drives shipped from Amazon packaged the same as your Seagate, not at all like your WD package.
 
You can't reliably use the 1.5TB drives as a control, because the drives themselves are worthless.

Firmware issues and the like. Your problem could easily have existed when the drive was made, prior to shipping.

Oh, wait, a Western Digital?

Wow. Hmm... strange.
 
So far, so good:
directron.com
ewiz.com
BHPhotovideo.com

Though I've noticed variances in packaging from muliple suppliers, everything I've ordered from the listed sites has worked. No Bad Sectors, DOA's, or other failures. :)

I've had other orders from newegg arrive that were mangled by UPS. :rolleyes: The gear worked, but it wasn't HDD's. No drives from Amazon, though they did pack a router rather well.
 
Weepul said:
Strange. My WD hard drives shipped from Amazon packaged the same as your Seagate, not at all like your WD package.
Click to expand...

Interesting, thanks for sharing. Maybe it really is just a crap-shoot and it all depends on which employee is packing things up for shipment.
 
Flash SWT said:
Interesting, thanks for sharing. Maybe it really is just a crap-shoot and it all depends on which employee is packing things up for shipment.
Click to expand...
This has been my belief with newegg as well. I just ordered 3 drives, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed. ;)

Hopefully, it'll be packed well enough to survive the Gorilla squad err... UPS. :p
 
I just received my 2nd HD from Newegg, in the last month, and both drives were packed bubble rap and with "peanut" similar style foam pellets in the bottom of the box, sides of the box, and on top in the box. The only bubbles that were burst where the ones at the end of the raps where they cut and then sealed. I don't know what Newegg could have done to more securely ship my 2 drives. Both drives I had no problem with upon installation into my Mac Pro.

I've been doing a lot of converting of my old VCR analog tapes (VCR tape deck hooked to my camcorder hooked to my Mac Pro) to digital and it's a "piece of cake". Simple and easy and I'm amazed at how well the old tapes look after all these years (about 20 years).:):):):):)
 
nanofrog said:
West Monroe, Louisianna. :rolleyes:

Fairly small, not much open after 5PM, or on weekends except for WalMart, fast food, and convenience stores. :p
Click to expand...

Hehehe, population: 13,250, Yeah I guess there's not much around there. :-/ Shreveport has nothing? Is that close? Whoa, what the heck are these things? http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=32.363026,-92.576916&z=14&t=h&hl=en

Here's me: http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=35.168239,136.88597&spn=0.014419,0.025492&z=16 <-- Quite a bit different... :p
 
Tesselator said:
Hehehe, population: 13,250, Yeah I guess there's not much around there. :-/ Shreveport has nothing? Is that close? Whoa, what the heck are these things? http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=32.363026,-92.576916&z=14&t=h&hl=en

Here's me: http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=35.168239,136.88597&spn=0.014419,0.025492&z=16 <-- Quite a bit different... :p
Click to expand...
Man, do I miss larger cities. :rolleyes: Pensylvania and Maryland were rather cool, as you could live in a smaller area and not feel crowded. But a decent sized spot of civilization wasn't that far. Say 30 min or so. I was only about 2 - 2.5 hrs from DC as well.

Shreveport is about 1.5hrs away, so not terrible, but not a trip I'd want to make daily. :p

BTW, my Caviar Blacks just arrived. 25.5hrs from order to door. :eek: :D They were sliding around in the box a bit (bubble wrap on the drives, but stuffed in a large box full of paper). I need to get them in, and test for errors.

Keeping my fingers crossed. ;)
 
We got a bunch of 1 TB Western Digital blacks from NewEgg last week. Each drive was wrapped in about 4 layers of the large bubble wrap. The HD bubble wrap cocoons were buried in a big ol box of foam packing peanuts. Seemed fine to me.
 
That reminds me of something else I read before ordering. If I remember correctly it was that Newegg orders shipped from TN had the brown paper filling the box while orders shipped from CA had foam peanuts. That would explain why my RMA drive had the peanuts but the original was the brown paper.
 
Flash SWT said:
That reminds me of something else I read before ordering. If I remember correctly it was that Newegg orders shipped from TN had the brown paper filling the box while orders shipped from CA had foam peanuts. That would explain why my RMA drive had the peanuts but the original was the brown paper.
Click to expand...
These came from the Memphis facility as well.

I relocated/rerouted some of the drives and cabling, but still need to error check them. I'm careful, so it takes time. ;) That, and the case is rather full ATM, though not maxed yet. :D I can still fit another 5 drives. (Full tower case).
 
Flash SWT said:
Were they in with the brown paper filler or packing peanuts?
Click to expand...
A couple of layers of bubble wrap on the drives, and the box was filled with brown paper.

Oddly enough, I got an email from newegg on a survey/opinion of the packing materials (brown paper). It's newegg's idea of going green for packing materials. I gladly let them know I didn't care for it, and preferred peanuts. ;)
 
I usually pit NewEgg against ZipZoomFly. ZipZoomFly seems to have Free Shipping a bit more often but the product itself might be a $1 more.

You want that Free Shipping.
 
Newegg -vs Amazon packaging

I ordered 7 1TB WD green drives for use in an opensolaris zfs server. No problems with any of them.
 
Tesselator said:
This is why I try only to buy HDDs in store.
Click to expand...

nanofrog said:
Nothing local carries anything. :rolleyes: It's always "No, but we can order it for you". :p So I do it myself, and save some money at the same time. :D
Click to expand...

buying in store is better, more personal and they can see how confronting i am (if you knew my physique you would be cacking yourself) :rolleyes:

i like in a town of about 2,000 people, when i drive the hour to uni though i am a 2min drive away from basically the cheapest store in australia :) (cheaper because i dont have to pay shipping) - so its great :)
 
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