hard drive from retail external case was stolen-how to handle?

[pinkoos]

[quote MikeF]I'm not sure I'd take advice from someone raising SATAN as a child.

Spiderman I could see...
Hey! A future crime fighter and ruler of the underworld...who could ask of anything more of his sons??

;-)

[AAA]

dust it for prints.

[OWC Jamie]

Geek Squad will fix it right up for ya for $299.00

[cbelt3]

All- whatever you do, give us a follow-up so we know how to handle this next time. Or a paypal address where we can donate for your bail money...

[AllGold]

Good idea about tracing the drive except it's about about 10 years old. Even if there are still records kept on the original purchaser it could have changed hands several times.

I think I will tell the whole story but with the understanding that by doing so I might not get my money back.

[Buzz]

If you can't bring a friend with a video cam with you, at least bring a digital voice recorder with you, and record the conversation from the beginning. Ask probative questions to elicit responses..., "If in looking closely at the bottom of the case, it appeared that at least one of the cables wasn't connected, wouldn't you open the case thinking maybe all you had to do was connect the cable(s) and it would be fine?"

Your actions were reasonable; if you saw a dangling cable under your circumstances, is it more reasonable to think that the cable simply might need re-attaching, or that BB sold you a 1TB external Hitachi SATA drive that really had a 4.3GB Seagate IDE in it?

Keep your story in perspective, and recorded, and you should be fine. Explain that you simply want the matter properly resolved, and that you want a record of your efforts, should the issue not be resolved on the first try. Remind them that if you called customer service, they would likely record the call as well. There is no need for subterfuge. Good luck.

[space-time]

I would tell them what happened, I would NOT just return it.

If you return it and they figure out the drive was swapped, they will accuse you of trying to steal from them.

[AllGold]

Happy ending. I took it back today and told the whole story. They gave me a refund. The CS rep believed me and wondered out loud how many returns for non-working drives on this model might have been for the same reason since most people would have just returned it as dead without looking inside.

I would have exchanged it but the store didn't have any more. It might also have been the universe telling me that I didn't really need it--which I didn't.