An Update Regarding OCZ's Warranties
by Kristian Vättö on January 31, 2014 3:46 PM EST
There's been some level of uncertainty regarding OCZ and especially the outstanding product warranties. I covered OCZ's situation and its position at Toshiba in our Vertex 460 review but now we've finally got the official word about warranties as well.
In short, all OCZ's latest SSDs will be covered by warranty normally, but the unfortunate news is that all non-SSD products (such as PSUs, DRAM, USB drives etc.) will not be supported at all. Outstanding product warranties were excluded from the acquisition terms, so it appears that Toshiba is only willing to cover the most necessary products, those being OCZ's most popular SSDs. Bear in mind that the acquisition only included OCZ's consumer and enterprise storage divisions -- last time I heard OCZ was looking for a buyer for its other units but it seems that they've not been able to find one.
Update: OCZ told us that they have a buyer for their PSU business with more details to follow in two weeks. The RAM and cooling divisions have been discontinued a long while ago, though.
| Normal Support | Support Until Jan 22, 2015 | Not Supported |
|
Vector 150 Vector Vertex 460 Vertex 450 Vertex 4 Vertex 3 Vertex 2 Vertex RevoDrive RevoDrive 3 RevoDrive 3X2 |
Agility 4 Agility 3 Agility 2 Agility |
ALL Non-SSD Products Core Series Apex Petrol Octane Series Solid Series Colossus Series IBIS Enyo Nocti RevoDrive Hybrid Summit Synapse Onyx Series Solid Series OCZ SATA I SSD (1st gen) OCZ SATA II SSD (1st gen) |
The good news is that the most popular SSDs are covered, including the older members of the Vertex family. The Agility series will be supported for another year, meaning that some warranties of Agility 3 and 4 will be shortened. Unsupported products include the rest of OCZ's SSDs and most of these are models that were never even sampled to media. Ultimately I believe these products were also OCZ's stumbling blocks because although they were cheap, the performance was horrible and failure rates were ridiculously high.
If you have an unsupported product, you may not be out of luck if you happen to live in EU or other region with strict consumer protection laws. Here in Finland the seller is responsible for the warranty by law and OCZ's decision to discontinue support for some products does not change that. Obviously I can't speak for other countries but this is something worth finding out in case your product fails during the original, now discontinued, warranty period.
The full details can be found on OCZ's warranty page.
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Lonyo - Friday, January 31, 2014 - link
Better than nothing, considering Toshiba only bought the assets and not the whole company.That they are offering this level of support is potentially above and beyond their legal requirements, depending on the specific details of the contract. And as they only bought the SSD part it's no surprise they aren't supporting the rest, since for one they probably don't have the existing stock or manufacturing capabilities to support the products even if they wanted to.
melgross - Friday, January 31, 2014 - link
Well, they did bu the companies name as well as these product lines. They want to continue the name, and products. How do you think it would look to current, and potential customers if they hadn't homered those warranties? It wasn't nice of them. It was prudent.Bob Todd - Friday, January 31, 2014 - link
Pro: Maybe my 3rd RMA Agility 4 will work properly...Con: I lost 8 months of warranty for RMA 8 through 11...
Not surprised the Octane/Petrol units aren't covered, the failure rates were almost comical (some retailer data reporting almost 50%). Anyone who thinks OCZ's problems are ancient history should read through buyer comments on Newegg for those drives (that drive is only 2 years old).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
hoyty - Friday, January 31, 2014 - link
I am a bit confused I guess. Does this cover PC Power and Cooling (under OCZ umbrella)? I ask because if you go to their site their is no mention of zero warranty and they even introduced new products this week? I am not sure where one part of bankrupt OCZ ends and another begins?SunLord - Friday, January 31, 2014 - link
The last news update for PC Power and Coolign was from Jan 28th 2013 so a little over a year they're deadPenti - Friday, January 31, 2014 - link
Bidding on PCP&C is still under way, it's still in bankruptcy last I heard. If the former founder takes over I expect all PCP&C models to be covered but most OCZ dropped. Makes sense on the models that will continue to be made and sold at least. Depends on how the proceedings and bidding go and what kind of backing they have after emerging though.Kristian Vättö - Saturday, February 1, 2014 - link
OCZ has a buyer for its PSU business but the cooling division (as well as everything else like RAM, USB drives..) are dead.Penti - Saturday, February 1, 2014 - link
Hey Kristian! Did OCZ confirm who were interested in the PSU-business? I think It would be great if Dodson took over again, but I haven't seen anything about who is involved in the bidding.Kristian Vättö - Sunday, February 2, 2014 - link
They did not. The acquisition is still in process but once it completes in about two weeks we'll get more details.Owls - Saturday, February 1, 2014 - link
Well, now I regret buying OCZ again thanks to them not supporting PC&P PSUs. Note to self, don't buy anything OCZ ever.