3 ms·

I think it's a little disingenuous to compare it to theft. They left some information out of their datasheet that was relevant to people. They said some really

I think it's a little disingenuous to compare it to theft. They left some information out of their datasheet that was relevant to people. They said some really stupid stuff when they got called out on it. And I bet if you had access to the internal communications of WD after that blog post you'd see a bunch of big direct customers threatening to pull blanket POs for WD Reds unless WD added some information to their data sheets. All I see is a company playing fast and loose with the specs, and their marketing people not understanding why SMR would not be fit for purpose. I would bet WD doesn't have a US-based tech team making those low-level decisions. They probably outsource all of it to their contract manufacturers that make the actual drives. And since the CM isn't responsible for marketing, they were like "you can save $5.00 per drive if you use this new recording technology." The marketing people have no idea what the trade offs are and the CM doesn't care. Then 2 years later when the first batch of these drives start failing, the marketing person who made the original decision isn't there, the CM doesn't have any record of any of the conversations, and nobody has any idea what's going on. So in a bid to try to manage the conversation without actually knowing anything their marketing people release that first blog article. Then the customer outcry happens, people threaten to pull blanket POs, and finally the marketer realizes they have to do some real work because it's not just the angry grognard brigade making noise. Most modern companies that sell commodity electronics work this way.

xadhominemx 7y ago
Of course any major end customer or OEM are definitely going to know if the drives are SMR. Do you really think they’re going to slip that by EMC or AWS? Those customers are intimately familiar with the technologies used in these drives as well as technology development.
Silhouette 7y ago
To clarify, I wasn't intending to equate what WD are doing with theft. I was looking for analogy to illustrate the failure in trying to do something bad, trying to do essentially the same bad thing but to a slightly lesser degree, and then pretending that admitting to this makes it somehow better while you're still in fact doing the bad thing. I think "left some information out of their datasheet that is relevant" is being rather kind here. They were advertising these products for one specific purpose, and the change in spec makes them unsuitable for that purpose. They then tried to upsell to a more expensive product that retained the original spec and was still presumably suitable for that purpose in their initial non-apology apology. I understand the mechanics of how this can happen, but the fact is that this isn't the customer's fault. It's a failure of basic management and leadership skills, and criticising the company for that is entirely fair.
- perl4ever 7y ago
  "unsuitable for that purpose" "WESTERN DIGITAL DOES NOT PROVIDE ANY OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE"
  - Silhouette 7y ago
    Consumer rights laws in various places now render such statements impotent. You don't get to make claims about what your product is for or how it performs in nice big letters on your website and then hide behind some legal weasel words on page 93 of an agreement no customer is ever likely to read.

xadhominemx 7y ago

Of course any major end customer or OEM are definitely going to know if the drives are SMR. Do you really think they’re going to slip that by EMC or AWS? Those customers are intimately familiar with the technologies used in these drives as well as technology development.

Silhouette 7y ago

To clarify, I wasn't intending to equate what WD are doing with theft. I was looking for analogy to illustrate the failure in trying to do something bad, trying to do essentially the same bad thing but to a slightly lesser degree, and then pretending that admitting to this makes it somehow better while you're still in fact doing the bad thing. I think "left some information out of their datasheet that is relevant" is being rather kind here. They were advertising these products for one specific purpose, and the change in spec makes them unsuitable for that purpose. They then tried to upsell to a more expensive product that retained the original spec and was still presumably suitable for that purpose in their initial non-apology apology. I understand the mechanics of how this can happen, but the fact is that this isn't the customer's fault. It's a failure of basic management and leadership skills, and criticising the company for that is entirely fair.

perl4ever 7y ago
"unsuitable for that purpose" "WESTERN DIGITAL DOES NOT PROVIDE ANY OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE"
- Silhouette 7y ago
  Consumer rights laws in various places now render such statements impotent. You don't get to make claims about what your product is for or how it performs in nice big letters on your website and then hide behind some legal weasel words on page 93 of an agreement no customer is ever likely to read.