Drobo customer service could use an upgrade
Yesterday Drobo released a new model of their “robotic storage” which provides Firewire 800 connectivity, in addition to the USB ports of the original model.
I purchased the USB-based Drobo 12 days prior to the announcement of the new version. Had the Firewire version been available, I would have purchased it. I went to the Drobostore.com site and could not find a written policy for exchanges or returns. In fact, even the privacy policy comes up “not found.” So, they don’t have a return policy? I called customer service. The woman on the phone confirmed that they do not have any policies in place, took my information and said she would have to talk to someone and they’d get back to me. I followed up with an e-mail via their support form to make sure my request didn’t get lost. A little more digging around their website turned up a warranty policy that only covered non-functioning hardware.
I found out this morning, via email, that they will not exchange it.
Most retailers have either a 14-day or 30-day return/exchange policy. I find this to be poor customer service. Especially since they don’t have a written return policy online. What if Best Buy, Dell, Apple and others didn’t have a return policy? Not acceptable.
-Al Degutis
