View Comments TMUP 137: Data Corruption, New Drobo FireWire and more »

1. Victor, APC has a “selector” that will recommend a config. I've had 2 units (UPS 800) and satisfied with them and the customer service.

   http://www.apc.com/sizing/selectors.cfm

   Comment by Dorothy — July 9, 2008 @ 10:17 am

2. I purchased the USB-based Drobo 12 days ago (from yesterday). Had the Firewire version been available I would have purchased that. I went to the Drobostore.com site and could not find a written policy for exchanges or returns. So they don’t have a return policy? So I called customer service. The woman on the phone confirmed that they do not have any policies in place, took my information and said someone would contact me. I followed up with an e-mail via their support form. I found out this morning (via email) that they will not exchange it.

   Most retailers have either a 14-day or 30-day return policy. I find this to be poor customer service. Especially since they don’t have a written policy online. What if Best Buy, Dell, Apple and others didn't have a return policy? Not acceptable.

   Comment by frumpa — July 9, 2008 @ 6:14 pm

3. I agree you should go to their PR department and talk to them about a return. i would be saying the exact thing you are saying. Be nice but firm and demand that they do the reasonable thing. Also check your State laws about exchange policies etc. I agree it would not be acceptable to me either.

   Comment by typicalmacuser — July 9, 2008 @ 6:52 pm

4. Did you buy using an Amex or other credit card that gives you an improved return option?

   Comment by georgestarcher — July 10, 2008 @ 3:41 pm

5. Thanks for the input guys.

   I did pay with a Visa card. I was hoping to get good customer service instead of having to play the annoying customer.

   The challenge may be swapping it out. I purchased it with two 1 TB drives. I only want to exchange the Drobo itself and not have to move the data off, although I'm not sure I can pull the original two drives and just put them in a new unit. I may have to get two more 1 TB drives and copy the data over to the new unit and then move the drives from the old to the new unit. Actually, I may be able to get away with just using one 1 TB drive for the initial copy over.

   I'll probably contact their PR firm and see where it goes.

   Al

   Comment by frumpa — July 10, 2008 @ 3:53 pm

6. Let us know how it turns out. Great idea about the Visa card thing Geore!

   Comment by typicalmacuser — July 10, 2008 @ 5:11 pm

7. Victor, thanks for this VERY IMPORTANT and informative episode. I do occasional Time Machine backups, to a drive kept in a safe-deposit box, but I need to do them more often. As soon as I can afford it, I need to get an UPS system. I'm in Southern California, near San Bernardino, where we frequently hit 105 degrees….and you never know when Edison is going to do rolling blackouts.

   Thanks again!

   Comment by Wayne Henderson — July 12, 2008 @ 10:17 am

8. Here is a link to the maintenance show Victor mentions listening to at the beginning of the show :-

   http://typicalmacuser.com/wordpress/2007/12/02/...

   Richard

   Comment by Richard Hyde — July 25, 2008 @ 1:54 am

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