Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

AFTER NOTE: Finally, resolution...It took several (at least 5) interactions with Customer Service, none of which were possible by phone, but the issue is finally resolved. Western Digital replaced the drive (finally agreeing to pay shipping back the bad drive to them). It took additional attempts for acknowledgement of my return of the bad drive shipment back to them, which then finally activated the full 5 year warranty on the replacement drive. Their default is 120 days, seriously, so if you do buy this and have to return it, be diligent! They just seem overwhelmed in Customer Service. ORIGINAL Which is worse? A hard drive with a 5-year warranty that dies after 33 DAYS, or the company that makes them --in this case Western Digital -- responding unreasonably with rigid rules that are far from appropriate. From my point of view, for a business, the purchase of the hard drive is not just the sheet metal and magnetic discs needed to put them together, it is the company backing the drive, ensuring its reliability. To be fair, I have owned 3 "Red" drives used previously for three years without a problem. This specific purchase was for 4 drives to be used in a Synology DS918+ NAS. I moved up to these "Pro" drives because I was concerned with the period AFTER 3 years, not the first month! The drives installed easily, seemed (on the outside) to be constructed well and were packaged appropriately for shipment. Yesterday, the NAS reflected significant degradation in one of these 4 drives, to the point of not being usable. I figured even good companies have a few buggy drives so I went to the WD website, which was buggy in and of itself and incapable of processing an RMA. So then I called the company this morning. I was informed that I could ship the drive back to them (AT MY EXPENSE) and they would ship me another drive ("re-certified") upon receipt. 10-15 business days (that's two-three weeks, folks). The alternative was I could get premium service, if I gave them my credit card number:They would reserve the full retail price of the drive on my card, ship me a NEW drive now, and release the amount on hold when they got the drive back. Again, shipping on my dime. When I pointed out that it was 33 days (the drive had itself only actually been at work for about three weeks), they said that they would escalate the case, and try to get free shipping, but that if I wanted a NEW drive, they would still need my credit card...even though I explained to them that I was happy to return the drive and wait for them to get it before shipping me the new drive (I bought another drive as a standby for the NAS). They said they would escalate and see. That was about 12 hours ago...still waiting to see. As a business person, I rely on machines...but more importantly I rely on the good faith of the companies producing those machines. When the machine fails -- which happens -- I expect the company to back them up, and do what is right. Right now, I can't even get a straight answer from WD. As some in Washington are known to say "SAD!!!" Two stars in respect of the WD drives that have worked for me in the past.