Exabyte Corporation, Boulder CO - VXA-1 Firewire Tape Backup Drive - VXA-2 - drive failures

Exabyte Corporation, Boulder CO - VXA-1 Firewire Tape Backup Drive - VXA-2 - drive failures

Exabyte Corporation

Annette S

Press and Public Relations

Exabyte Corporation

This complaint concerns the Exabyte Corporation of Boulder, Colorado. Exabyte manufactures tape backup drives. My history with Exabyte products goes back to May 14, 2002 when I purchased a VXA-1 Firewire

Tape Backup Drive. My experiences with Exabyte over the past year-and-a-half have ranged from helpful to just plain awful. While there are more than 80 email correspondences between me and the Exabyte staff documenting this history, I will attempt to make this complaint as brief as possible. In roughly 18 months I have owned two different Exabyte VXA-1 tape drives and one VXA-2 tape drive. Each of these three drives has been taken back into service at Exabyte's request based on drive failures. These drive failures have caused me many hours of lost time troubleshooting, communicating with Exabyte, shipping drives back and forth and repeatedly resorting to alternate, slower, and much more tedious backups. (I am now backing up my critical data to CD-RWs which is extremely slow. Because my my recent drive has been in Exabyte's repair facility for more than five weeks, I purchased 100 new CD-RWs to handle just my important data. I'm currently up to #94. Try to imagine backing up that way on a daily basis). Currently, as of January 28, 2004, I have been without the most recent failed drive -- the VXA-2 Firewire -- for more than six weeks! It was shipped back at Exabyte's request, because "The specialist advised that

we service your drive for you." I've only had this VXA-2 drive since August of 2003, so after less than four months of moderate use -- I'm a one-man operation -- Exabyte acknowledged a problem with this $1,700

drive. I received my RMA (2003011141) on December 5, 2003. I needed several days to be sure I was able to restore as much as possible before shipping it back for repair. It was delivered to Boulder on December 19 (UPS tracking number 1ZF304780398660132). Since I still hadn't heard from Exabyte, I called RMA support January 8, 2004. My first call resulted in an odd repeat email confirmation of my original RMA. On the second call, I was told the drive just got "into the system" the previous day (January 7, 2003) after being on the premises for three weeks. I asked how long it would take and I was told 10 working days. When I asked why so long I was told there was only one

technician able to service the VXA-2 drives. So Exabyte had this drive, which was fairly new and should not have required service so early, for three weeks and I was being told I needed to wait at least 10 more days

for service. After three additional weeks had passed and I still had not received my drive I placed a follow-up call on January 28, 2004. RMA service informed that the one gentleman who is repairing the drives had not had

a chance to work on it yet. I asked to speak with a manager who informed me that they would do what they could to get the drive back to me. Nine days ago, I wrote to several executives at Exabyte, including CEO and President Tom Ward, but have yet to receive a reply from anyone. I have given this technology more than fair evaluation. I was even willing to assume, at different stages in the troubleshooting process, that the problem could have been on my end and I spent a great deal of

time looking at every possible variable. I was able to eliminate drive failures for awhile through my own diligence, but eventually the drive failures began occurring again.

My willingness to at least hold open the option that the issue may be a problem on my end was used against me when I attempted to obtain some sort of compensation. This from an Exabyte manager: "The results of the last dump file you sent in do show a hardware problem, but this is the only time I can find any indication

that the problem is with the tape drive. I understand that you are concerned about reliability, but unfortunately, these types of problems are not indicative of a bad drive and (name withheld) said he unable to extend any type of refund or replacement." Anyone who feels that I haven't given Exabyte a fair chance over an 18 month period should take another look at how poorly the case has been handled from the beginning, dating back to my first email to Tech Support on June 14, 2002. I'd be happy to furnish copies of the more than 80 emails I've

saved. (Ironically, there are several months worth of emails missing. I have to assume these were lost during a period when I was unable to successfully backup or restore all my data). It's important to note that what I've documented above only details problems with the most recently purchased VXA-2 drive (this was actually through an offer from Exabyte to VXA-1 users to "upgrade" to the newer technology. The company representatives I spoke with all but admitted the VXA-1 drives had not met expectations and they were trying to get existing customers into the newer technology (at additional cost

of course). Remember, I had already received and shipped back -- each time at Exabyte's request -- two different VXA-1 drives due to repeated drive failures. In addition to all the aggravation, I have also made a sizable financial investment in Exabyte's technology. I've spent roughly $2,000 on the original VXA-1 and the VXA-2 "upgrade" plus over $2,000 in V17 and V23 tapes for the two drives. That doesn't include the cost of numerous long-distance phone calls and the cost of shipping three drives back to Exabyte. I obviously consider these purchases a regrettable waste of money. Exabyte has not only failed to provide reliable products, but their customer service falls way short of acceptable. That I should have to wait more than six weeks for a repair on a product with a three-year

warranty is unacceptable. It's a tremendous inconvenience to me. If and when the drive is finally returned, I will never feel comfortable with it because I will always wonder when the next failure will occur. I believe Exabyte should reimburse me for the cost of the original drive, the "upgraded" VXA-2 drive and all the V17 and V23 tapes I have so far purchased. In addition I would expect reimbursement of my return

shipping costs and an allowance for my long distance phone calls. Although a fair company would also attempt some sort of reimbursement for all my lost time, I believe that's too much to expect from Exabyte. My recommendation is to avoid Exabyte's products. Even if you're lucky enough to get a properly functioning drive, this is what you can expect in terms of customer service. Referenced Cases:

wIncident #: 45515 issued approximately June 14, 2002

Case #313032 issued approximately April 18, 2003

Referenced RMAs

RMA/Order number 2003004434 issued approximately April 18, 2003 RMA/Order number: 2003007977 issued approximately August 14, 2003 RMA/Order number: 2003011141 issued December 5, 2003 Paul K

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