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LTO Tapes have "Limited Lifetime Warranty". False advertising?

 
Fenixhawk
Occasional Advisor

LTO Tapes have "Limited Lifetime Warranty". False advertising?

The reason I have purchased HP LTO-3 Tapes in the past is because they're advertised as having Limited Lifetime Warranty.

"HP warrants LTO Ultrium cartridges for up to 30 years archival life and/or 260 full backups. This ensures businesses can meet the ever-increasing demands of regulation for data retention and archiving."

However, the first time that I required replacements I'm told by the Support Team that tapes only have 3 year warranties and there's no such thing as a "Limited Lifetime Warranty".

I had simply wanted to replace 4 bad tapes. Each tape was written to once (one of the 4 made a rattling noise) but kept failing to read data. I wrote to the tapes a second time to test them out, same issues.

It took 4 months to be finally told that the tapes were OOW and could not be replaced. Not only that, but it doesn't matter when they were purchased as the warranty applies to the MFG date of the tapes.

During the 4 months waiting for incident resolution, most time was spent waiting for responses and the rest of my time was spent sending diagnostics reports and testing results. I was first told by HP that I could just throw out the bad tapes and that replacements would be sent to me for free. Then I was told NOT to throw them out and ship them to the closest warranty-replacement center. Then, I received an email stating that the parts were shipped to me. After 3 weeks, nothing had arrived and I had to contact HP again to find out the status update. HP finally told me that nothing was ever shipped or will be shipped since the tapes were OOW.

You can understand that it has been very frustrating.. four months of waiting (Incident Submission Date: 06/25), and during that time I was told completely different information each time. Even the webpage is wrong apparently.

Anyone have an idea as to what's going on? Did the warranty information change, but they haven't updated the webpage yet? This whole experience seems very unfair and based on what I'm told I won't have the same issues with other vendors. Other companies also have Limited Lifetime Warranties, and colleagues have told me that they've never experienced any of the problems that I have had. When they request replacement tapes, they're replaced within a week.
4 REPLIES 4
James HP
New Member

Re: LTO Tapes have "Limited Lifetime Warranty". False advertising?

Dear HP Customer,

Firstly I apologise for the complete lack of support you have encountered. HP do operate a Limited Lifetime Warranty and have done so for many years and continue to offer this. So somewhere there has been a break down in communication, which will be resolved.

In regards to issues generally the documented response would be to assess the solution as a whole to determine root cause thus we can all be assured that the action we take will remedy the problem. There have been many instances where media and even drive issues are symptoms of other issues in the solution.

However in your specific situation given the poor level of support you have receieved I can arrange for replacement cartridges to be sent. If you can send a follow up email to >>> Address removed by moderator for privacy <<< I can make the necessary arrangements.

Br

James Winstone SCPM
Service Segment Manager
Warranty & Support
NSS Supplies
HP Invent
Curtis Ballard
Honored Contributor

Re: LTO Tapes have "Limited Lifetime Warranty". False advertising?

Fenixhawk - please post if you have reviewed the previous response. We prefer to not have personal email addresses directly accessible in forum postings and if you have reviewed the post and recorded the email above I will edit the post to remove that address. Not having personal email addresses posted helps protect against harvesting for Spam.
Fenixhawk
Occasional Advisor

Re: LTO Tapes have "Limited Lifetime Warranty". False advertising?

Confirmed, I've been in touch with James and you can edit his post and remove his contact information.

He sent me replacement tapes, and I'm very grateful. His prompt response was also very much appreciated. :)
James HP
New Member

Re: LTO Tapes have "Limited Lifetime Warranty". False advertising?

Yes we have managed to resolve the situation adn as such the email can be removed from the response.

Thanks
James