Review on LaCie Professional USB C External STHA10000800 by Ricardo Mercado

I used to buy Lacie drives all the time and had no problems with them until Seagate's lousy quality and customer service completely changed the company. I've had a couple of Lacie drives that broke and because Seagate said I damaged the drive during the trip, they refused to honor the warranty. That was some years ago. Fast forward to this year when I thought, hmm, I'll try them again. I bought one of these little guys for a project and everything has been fine since July, although not as quickly as advertised. Fur. I wasn't worried too much. Then 6 months later in December this stupid thing crashed and refused to get back up. I took it to the Apple store and they recommended I replace it immediately as the drive was damaged and probably unmountable. I called SEAGATE and they told me I had to send in the old drive or they wouldn't replace it. Since it still has a blue light flashing on it, they claim that they should check it out and if they find it's defective THEY keep the drive and send you a new drive which may or may not be a REPAIR PRODUCT. The person I spoke to was unable to describe any data security standards or privacy practices. This person told me that they test the drives. If they work, they realize that you lied and sent the product, which was fine, and you may or may not get it back. The BUYER should pay the shipping. And again, there are no guarantees of confidentiality or secure data throughout the process. In fact, I was told two different versions of how the product is checked for defects. That's the problem. This is not a pair of shoes. I have a lot of very sensitive customer data on this hard drive and I don't want to just send it to a service center where who knows what will happen to it. The SEAGATE rep was rude because 1) I didn't want to give them all my personal information and 2) I asked if a replacement was possible without sending it in a dead drive. They got blunt to me when I asked how my privacy was being protected while they were testing the drive. Avoid this company like the plague. LaCie is no longer the standard for good external hard drives that perform well and look good on your desk. I remember good customer service, a solid warranty and a good product. If a bad reputation, poor customer service, and refusing to take responsibility for a faulty product weren't enough to make you avoid this company, here are some other issues I have: This drive has a HUGE BRIGHT blue light that keeps pulsing, and I had to put a small strip of tape on the light because it was very distracting during use. The old Lacie drives had a bright blue light, which was pretty cool, but not that huge bright blinking blue dot that would look better on a bright Las Vegas marquee or in a truck stop restroom. Did you know that in some public places these bright blue lights are lit to deter drug addicts? Yes, it's so bright and disgusting. The drive is LOUD. Even when not actively used, it makes noise. Don't repeat my mistake. avoid them.