I have a 1tb lacie harddrive which died when it was only a few months old. Luckily I back up everything! So a few months ago I sent this in to have it fixed and alas it has broken again in exactly the same way – The drives don’t spin up and I get a red error light. The response from LaCie is that my drive is out of warranty and that I can have it repaired for the price of a new drive. Ive put the full thread here but it reads like standard customer service BS – Feel free to skip to the end

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Kris: I have a Lacie  black 1TB drive that I had repaired a little while ago. The drive has died a second time. I barely use the drive – its an occasional backup of my main drive. When I connect power the blue led lights up, the drives do not spin, the fan does not spin and eventually the red warning led lights up as well. I would like an RMA and if possible to exchange it for a less problematic drive thank you kris

Jack M: Posted: March 2, 2010 @ 12:53 AM Good morning kris, My name is Jack, and I will be happy to help you with your LaCie product. First of all, I would like to thank you for choosing LaCie, and we appreciate your patience and trust in our products. I believe you drive is not mounting and also your fan in the drive. Many problems that occur with any electronics happen due to power problems. LaCie drives are powered by external power supplies. The external power supply is a small, black box that contains a transformer. This changes the AC power coming from a power outlet, into the small amount of DC energy required by a drive. They appear somewhat like this: A power supply failure can have these symptoms: Unusual sounds coming from the drive (clicking, humming or beeping in some cases.) Unusual sounds coming from the external power supply. They should normally be silent. Errors in Device Manager or System Profiler (error codes, driver problems, etc.) General file errors or other strange behavior. Some models of drives will flash or alternate colors when not receiving enough power. Try a different power supply unit, from LaCie and of the same specifications, if the drive has similar symptoms. Thanks, and please let me know your results Jack

kris n. Posted: March 11, 2010 @ 10:47 AM Well surprisingly enough I have a second power supply from the last time my drive died and it exibits the exact same conditions I mentioned above. I would like the drive serviced or replaced – It is unacceptable for a relatively new hard drive to have so many issues as I am using this as a back up drive. thank you kris

Posted: March 12, 2010 @ 1:18 AM Good morning kris , Thanks for the update. Based on the symptoms you have described, the next step is to repair the drive. As part of the repair and testing process the drive will be formatted and/or the mechanism may be replaced so any data on the drive will be lost. Note: Please note that your drive is out of warranty the cost of repairing the drive starting of 99$. Thanks, Jack

and my response:

Thank you Jack,

It’s unfortunate that LaCie now numbers amongst the companies that I won’t hesitate to relate my frustrations with when people ask me my opinion. As a freelance techy graphic designer / musician this actually comes up quite often when people ask me what sort of gear I use.

So rather than pay LaCie the price of a new drive to repair this piece of junk a second time because even if it were fixed I wouldn’t trust it further than I could throw it – I think instead I will put the money towards making a video along the lines of “United Breaks Guitars”. It would be a short video featuring a local punk rock band mournfully lamenting LaCies once great reputation and eventual decline that will be interspersed with high definition slow-motion, closeup and brightly lit footage of me smashing this crappy drive with a sledgehammer. Can’t you just see the spray of small bits of plastic bits tumbling end over end towards the viewer in slow motion? I love that!

Do you think I should rent multiple cameras and capture multiple angles? Does LaCie have a recommendation on which orientation I should set the drive on the ground in order to achieve the greatest spray of parts? Perhaps your engineers would know.

So, yeah… a local punk band to put the lyrics to music and will use the new drive I purchase (probably a seagate since their drives actually work) to store the tune after I record, composite, mix and master it.

My follow up video will be a short mockumentary capturing the highlights of my journey from my home state of Oregon (hey neighbor!) to Burningman with the shattered fragments of the drive talking about the scant memories of my very short relationship. “I barely knew ye!” Once at burningman we will interview a number of people who make insane art sculptures and reward the best idea for the final destruction of the remaining bits of the drive. First thing that comes to mind is a being tossed in the handcranked bowling ball trebuchet (catapault for the medeivally challenged) and launching it at many hundreds of miles an hour into the distance. Actually it would be best to try as many things as possible. Just for the viewers sake.

Did your PR department tell you guys about the PR disaster that resulted from United Breaks Guitars? with currently 8 million views on youtube its truly amazing how much sway a well-worded sentiment of frustration can hold. My favorite part was how Dave Carroll held to his principles and refused to be bought off when United realized how much bad press this whole thing was generating. in case your PR department was resting on their laurels I include a link for your amusement http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

This whole thing is actually inspiring as I’m planning on doing a series of these videos including the one about Apple gear quickly degrading which is sure to stir alot of sympathy amongst all the people who bought the hype about their stuff as well.

Surely some folks in your office can relate with the slowdown, crashes and systematic degradation of Apple products. Iphone? More like iWait. what about the 30 minute or less battery life on their laptops after a year? Thats so annoying!

anyways thanks for listening

Thanks for your time, kris

A collection of cars singing classics by mogipbob

Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody

Johnny Cash – Ring of Fire

Patsy Cline – I fall to pieces

I understand that lacking an International Cat Litter Olympics makes it impossible to determine the true titleholder of ‘the worlds best’. Your brand name, “Worlds Best Cat Litter” with the Best being boasted proudly and mightily in its larger font size, could be interpreted with poetic license but I would like to make a few arguements to readers of this open letter to consider otherwise.What warrants no poetry are descriptions of the foul reek insidiously working its way into every corner of my house emanating from the catbox. I’m reading the details off the mostly full bag right now as we won’t be able to tolerate the stench long enough to see our way through this losing investment into this endless bag of failure pellets.

I see you are based in Iowa which, having been to a number of times, I understand is known for not only its corn and its corn, but also it’s corn. Wait…. Are you sure you aren’t a bunch of farmers with a bunch of corn by-product not fit for pig feed on your hands who then thought

“HEY! We could mash this up into pellets and sell it at marked up prices to those dumb treehuggers out west as cat litter because IT’S ORGANIC!”

That’s what it seems like to me. It seems like total shitkicker humor to add the WORLDS BEST CAT LITTER tag as the cherry on top of that kneeslapper as its told to drinking buddies around the local bar

“And the funniest part is …HAHAHA……you’re not gonna believe this one….we package that bullshit with the label WORLDS BEST CATLITTER….Those hippies will buy anything!” and hilarity ensues.

I realize part of the blame falls on us for buying ANYTHING that has ‘worlds best’ written on it. I’ve had the Worlds Best Coffee which was glorified scalded mud. I’ve had the Worlds Best Pizza mmmm open up for some of that cold grease slathered cardboard as well as the worlds best donuts or as I fondly remember them – grease soaked sponges with curdled sugar lumps on top. Of course anyone knows ‘worlds best anything’ is going to suck but the mystery lies in just how much suck you just purchased (the suck to buck ratio). You want to see what sort of blowhard brags up his substandard product puffing himself up like a bullfrog and if they really believe all the tripe they are throwing out there.

So in doing a little homework I see your parent company got fined a little for some air pollution? Funny, because I would fine you for THE SAME THING. I think everyone in my house would be up for a little class action. Judge Judy would whomp your ass!

Now, I know cat urine is mostly ammonia and yes it stinks! I know how bad it smells if they pee on your things and I know what a normal litterbox smells like in all stages… from the “I have one cat and i scoop it daily” stage to the Im an assistant cat-lady to the “Im a completely insane cat lady and don’t even Own a little box” phase; (see below)

 

ok maybe not as bad as that video but whatever. I am not sure how, maybe its the scientific research you guys did but somehow your litter amplifies the smell of the urine and infuses it with this ‘aroma de barnyard drenched in zee piss of 100 cats’ The smell is so thick that as I leave the house I pull out a knife and try to cut off some of the noxious miasma trailing behind me in vain hopes of sparing others the foul reek of your patented but ultimately failed creation – Mini Barn Scented Urine Bisquits.

In all the ‘careful scientific studies’ you guys ran did you end up trying this equation?

(Wet Corn Matter + Cat Urine = DO NOT WANT)

You state on the side panel Finally we put it to the toughest test of all, In REAL litterboxes with REAL cats. Did you think of getting some REAL people with REAL noses to stick around and smell the REAL concoction you had unleashed? That would have been the true toughest test. Maybe not as tough as getting someone to buy a bag a second time.

Another unsatisfied customer

An online version of the astral chakra matrix as first seen in the Jaded Review.Now you can now magically manifest your prayerformance troupe name, playa-name or next cd name with ease. Simply refresh the page to ‘imagineer it”

An ironic masterpiece =)
How well would you do? I know I would ace the event where you weed our your music collection of bands that were cool when you discovered them and have since “sold out ie; become popular”