B & H Foto & Electronics Corp. Bait and Switch New York New York

After receiving written assurance on January 2, 2017 from B&H customer service representative (Neil B) that the Western Digital WD4004FZWX hard drive they sell was a new, retail item, B&H sent me a pre-owned bare one. 

Internal hard drives are sold in retail kits with documentation, screws and cable or they are sold Bare/OEM in a plain, brown box with no documentation or anything else. BARE/OEM hard drives are sometimes of questionable origin as the one I received was.

Bare/OEM hard drives are usually sold to manufacturers or other buyers like people who build their computers and accept the risks. Warranty problems are associated with Bare/OEM hard drives based on my research. In addition, the potential price savings are not worth the risk for everyday consumers. 

After waiting three days, I received email confirmation on January 4 from B&H customer service representative (Angelo N) that the Western Digital WD4004FZWX was a retail unit. 

After receiving a bare hard drive I was disappointed and surprised. It was not a retail hard drive. I checked with Western Digital warranty customer service on Jan. 7 to get more info about the hard drive which had come from the Netherlands.

According to Western Digital warranty service representative Gabriella, the warranty began on Dec. 10, 2016, almost a month before I purchased the hard drive. It is reasonable to think that had been previously owned by a different consumer. 

Obviously, the previous owner had registered the hard drive or contacted Western Digital about the hard drive. B&H will claim otherwise but is it logical for the warranty to begin before the consumer has purchased an item? Why would anyone believe that? Do you know of any other product where the warranty begins when the vendor receives it? Does that make any sense?

What is relevant is that I received written assurances that the hard drive would be a retail drive and that is not what I received. B&H lied.

To sum it up: B&H Photo Video sold me a pre-owned bare hard drive even though two B&H reps falsely claimed me it would be new and retail. When I wrote B&H about my experience, they claimed their were no issues and only gave me return authorization. I imagine they will sell the same hard drive to another unsuspecting consumer. I believe that this was a bait and switch.