Mastodawn

Andrew 🌻 Brandt 🐇

tl;dr: Don't buy SSDs from Amazon. They sell counterfeit goods and have a too-short return policy.

Bought a brand-new Western Digital NVMe SSD hard drive from Amazon in January to replace one that was failing, and received it right away. It has been causing me nothing but trouble - randomly it just stops responding, causing bluescreens and general failures constantly - but it only had a 30-day return window.

So I went to Western Digital's website today to register the serial number and set up an RMA for the product and - could you imagine my surprise? - the serial number printed on the SSD is a counterfeit, tied to a real item but from a completely different product line.

It doesn't even look like the product shown on the box, or the other WD NVMe SSDs that I own.

On the phone with support now - they are issuing a refund even though this is outside of the return window.

Never buying storage from Amazon ever again. They are not a reliable vendor. This came not from a third party seller but out of their own warehouse sold "by" Amazon.

EDIT: Apparently the small-sticker version looks like what they shipped to PC Mag for a review. I still say this is a counterfeit device, based on the serial number/product mismatch, but it does, in fact, look like the one posted to https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/wd-black-sn770-nvme-ssd

WD Black SN770 NVMe SSD Review

The WD Black SN770 is a nice-priced PCIe 4.0 NVMe internal SSD that aced many of our benchmarks, especially for program loading and file copy. Our only quibbles? Hardware-based encryption and a snap-on heat spreader would complete this package.

PCMAG

Andrew 🌻 Brandt 🐇Mar 13, 2023

Epilogue:

I returned the drive. Amazon agreed to refund me based on my claim that the drive was counterfeit. 👍

I turned in the drive to the returns counter at Whole Foods, came home and saw my refund...was not the entire price. 🤷

So I ended up having to call customer service *again* and arguing that, no, there really should not be a $32 "restocking fee" applied to a product that has no business ever being sold or restocked. They agreed.

3-5 business days until that restocking fee refund gets processed. 😠 They were pushing me hard to refund the money to an Amazon gift card. I literally told the service person "that would then mean I would need to spend another $32 here, which...will not be happening." 🤸

nadin brzezinski Mar 10, 2023

@threatresearch @hacks4pancakes there are some things I do not buy through Amazon. Drives is one of them

Andrew 🌻 Brandt 🐇Mar 10, 2023

@Nadinabbott @hacks4pancakes Lesson learned. 👍

Kevin Jones Mar 10, 2023

@threatresearch reminds me of the time I bought an SSD on Amazon and the 3rd party sent me a Sesame Street alarm clock. I then initiated a return. The vendor refused to issue a refund because I did not, in fact, return an SSD. Amazon eventually intervened and issued a refund but I came to the same conclusion you did.

Emelia 👸🏻Mar 10, 2023

@threatresearch @hacks4pancakes I have a feeling that majority of the more expensive goods on Amazon are fake/dubious quality, heck, even most of the books aren't legit. Most of the clothes are knockoffs or drop sellers from suppliers in china

a172 Mar 11, 2023

@threatresearch LTT recently did a video covering the issue.

https://youtu.be/QOhLlvNlI20

Amazon... more like SCAMazon - Fake SSDs

YouTube

Greg Bell Mar 11, 2023

@threatresearch @hacks4pancakes the gradual aliexpress-ifying of Amazon.

Andrew 🌻 Brandt 🐇Mar 11, 2023

@ferrix @hacks4pancakes it wasn't even that gradual. Amazon has been going through extended enshittification for years, @doctorow couldn't have put it better. https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

Pluralistic: Tiktok’s enshittification (21 Jan 2023) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Pablo Dee Mar 11, 2023

@threatresearch Amazon is the new AliExpress.

Olav Mar 11, 2023

@threatresearch two red flags: A WD drive has a Sandisk controller (although not impossible I guess). But the chip on the left has had all it's markings removed. It could be literally anything that fits in that pinout.

Sucks to get hit with one tho:/

Jernej Simončič �Mar 11, 2023

@olavf @threatresearch WD bought SanDisk, and still uses the branding in some places (including the PCI id – all WD NVMe SSDs I've come across use 15b7 vendor id, which is SanDisk).

PCI Devices

Olav Mar 12, 2023

@jernej__s @threatresearch thanks, I haven't paid a ton of attention since I'm not doing a lot of builds these days. My current (occasionally worked on) project is 5TB 2.5" server platters.
So Sandisk is still a SSD brand as well as uSD so assumptions were made

That one chip with the markings ground off is still super sketchy tho

bassplayer Mar 11, 2023

@threatresearch I started to use other sites instead of amazon. Newegg has better compatibility checking and I can specify the shipping method unlike prime.

Steve Hill 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇪🇺Mar 11, 2023

@threatresearch note that in the UK / EU, only accepting returns for 30 days is unlawful.

Nick Stevens Graphics Mar 11, 2023

@threatresearch
I've seen a LOT of reports that they sell storage with tiny amounts of hardware rigged to return a false capacity.

«As in beer.»Mar 11, 2023

@threatresearch 🎉 It’s such a relief to read that Amazon apparently cleaned up and their authenticity problems are limited to SSDs. I was fully on board with their goal to destroy local shops but not with the added cost of my time being wasted on dealing with fake products. Thanks for the heads-up!

Yancy Burns Mar 11, 2023

@threatresearch I get all my drives from crucial directly. Great hardware. All my RAM comes from them too. Never had an issue.

endrift 🏳️‍⚧️Mar 11, 2023

@threatresearch @dexter This has been happening for years with SD cards too. Amazon's inventory gets mixed with third party inventory at their warehouses so it becomes a total crapshoot.

Stewart X Addison Mar 12, 2023

@endrift @threatresearch @dexter Yeah that has often worried me. Certainly had some SD cards from them that haven't quite seen up to scratch and I've not been convinced of the source / legitimacy sometimes. Although they do always seen to have plenty of stock in their warehouses ... Of "something"

pacey Mar 25, 2023

@threatresearch @hacks4pancakes I bought two small Intenso SSDs as boot drive for my NAS.

Couldn't get my Truenas to put both of them in a mirror configuration, why? Because both drives have the same serial number