I strongly recommend against purchasing items from XPCGear.com, based on my current experience.

I ordered a Toshiba MK1031GAS 100GB Laptop HDD. XPCGear sent me an invoice and an email confirming that the order was received, and in the process of being shipped. Three days later, I received a phone call from customer service, and the salesman informed me that the model had been discontinued. He said that he had another drive that would work as a direct replacement, and wanted to know if that disk would be okay. I asked him to confirm that the replacement disk would work in a Hewlett-Packard dv1000-series laptop. He PROMISED me that it would fit, and said that XPCGear fully guaranteed that the disk was a direct replacement for the MK1031GAS.

Well, the replacement disk arrived, and (1) it is too small, and (2) it has male connectors instead of the needed female connectors. I immediately contacted XPCGear's RMA department, only to be informed that they could not help me over the phone, and that I would have to submit an RMA request online. So as soon as I disconnected the phone call, I submitted the online RMA request, explaining the situation as described above.

XPCGear's response was a boilerplate email that said HDD's are not return-eligible items. In general, I have no problem with that concept, except for the fact that this disk was selected by the XPCGear salesperson. If I had selected the model, which then did not work, I would have no complaint, since it would be my fault. However, I trusted the salesperson who "guaranteed" that it would work, that XPCGear stands behind their products, and that it was a direct replacement. (The drive that was incorrectly shipped is Hitachi 120GB Model No. HTS541612J9AT00, MLC: DA1574, S/N: AVJJW99D).

In summary, XPCGear first confirmed shipment of the Toshiba MK1031GAS drive. After a few days, they informed me that, not only had it not shipped, but that it was discontinued. (even though I had already received an invoice via email for its shipment). They said it was replaced by another HDD with 20GB more storage capacity. The drive does NOT work, and now XPCGear is refusing to exchange the drive for one that WILL work in my HP dv1000-series laptop.

If XPCGear wants to enforce a "no-returns policy" on HDD, then they should not have guaranteed the performance of a different disk. Since they did just that, it is reasonable to expect that they rectify their error, and do so without making me pay for their mistake.

Again, if I had ordered the wrong drive myself, I would accept the "no-return" policy without complaining. However, I did nothing wrong here, except make the apparent mistake to trust XPCGear salespeople's "guarantee."

I am still hoping that XPCGear will help resolve this issue in a more business-appropriate manner. Hopefully, this posting is a step towards that goal.
From: Message Author (click here to email author)
Date: Wednesday, 17-Sep-08 11:36:58 CDT

Business: Reply Online Consumer: Comment On This
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Dear Valued Customer:

Thank you for shopping at xPCgear.com! We just wanted to follow up and see how things were going with the hard drive you purchased with us. From our phone conversation, we hope everything worked out ok after you were able to remove HP's gender changer from the back of the hard drive. The

IBM/Hitachi 120GB 5400RPM 8MB Cache 2.5" IDE / PATA Notebook Hard Drive: 0A28418 (OEM, Factory Sealed)

you received from us should work just fine for you. Please give us an update and amend your complaint about your order.

Thank you again and please feel free to contact us for further assistance.