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

[AllGold]

I picked up one of those Hitachi 1TB externals from BB last week. Or so I thought. It was the last one and the box was damaged so I opened the sealed box at the register. No visible damage to what was inside the box so I took it home.

Tonight I finally got it out. It got power to the case but the drive didn't spin up. I was going to just take it back but decided to investigate. In looking closely at the bottom of the case, it appeared that at least one of the cables wasn't connected. So I opened the case thinking maybe all I had to do was connect the cable(s) and it would be fine.

A little problem with that plan: the drive was an IDE drive (and the case is for a SATA drive). No wonder the cables weren't connected. Someone had replaced the Hitachi 1TB SATA drive with a Seagate ST34342A, which is a 4.3GB 4500RPM IDE drive!

Over at slickdeals, there are a couple other reports of drive swaps from sealed boxes on this model.

If I take it back to BB and tell the whole story, are they going to believe me or should I just take it back and say it doesn't work? If I had simply taken it back when it obviously didn't work, I never would have known.

[ho'ard]

That's a tough call. . . . probably would not be to your advantage to tell them you opened the case, regardless of the situation. I'd go with "B".

[ADent]

I personally would seal it all back up and tell them it was defective. Doesn't mount, etc.

[bik]

If your receipt says it was an Open Box, I would be honest with them and tell them you found out why it was an open box.

If you have no proof that you weren't the first to open the package and the drive was so as "new", I wouldn't risk it. I'd just tell them it does not work. Maybe mention to them that you had been worried when you saw the box was damaged...

[MacArtist]

This is a tough one.

You could do ad ADent suggested and you would get your money back. I just am afraid that they will put everything back in the box and put it on the bargain table to pass it on to another bargain hunter.

They need to have some type of system to make sure the enclosures aren't opened prior to returning. A couple of durable self adhesive labels would do the trick. If they have been disturbed; you know the drive has been opened; thereby voiding the return policy.

[AAA]

remember to take vaseline - a BB Customer Support prerequisite, imo.

[pinkoos]

Is your name/personal information tied to the transaction in any way? That is, if you paid by credit card than the transaction is tied to you. Even if you paid cash, I believe they issue corporate checks by mail over a certain dollar amount, so the transaction would be tied to you.

I'm bringing this up b/c if you just "return" it and somehow they end up figuring out that the internal drive was swapped out, they'll assume that it was the last person who had it who committed the crime, which could possibly be you. [EDIT: They put a yellow barcode sticker on the box after the return is completed. I'm sure that barcode contains all the information pertaining to the return, including personal information related to the original transaction, etc.]

I agree...very tough call! I'd be interested to hear others thoughts as well.

[MikeF]

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

Spiderman I could see...

[MacArtist]

It's a balance of good vs. evil.

[cbelt3]

March back to the store and explain what you found, when, and how. Better to get it all out in the front. Oddly, returns people at retail get pretty good at telling when people are lying to them. Don't oversell your case- a clear statement of what happened, and your level of frustration will help. Pointing out that you use a Mac and have no dang use for an internal drive of that size might help.

Note also that it may technically be possible to trace the original owner of the IDE drive you found in there- point that out to Best Buy if they want to go all CSI on the case.