So I bought a couple of Intel DC 480GB MLC SSDs back in April for relatively cheap from a local reseller
so I could start replacing the consumer SSDs which were wearing out crazy fast on my Proxmox/FreeNAS/Plex server.
I was skeptical at first as these were being falsely advertised as new but were in fact "refurbished" when I
got them as mine had already logged in little over 20000 hours with 2% wearout.
Anyway I wasn't particularly miffed as long as these were still covered by Intel's Enterprise warranty and
which I confirmed they were so I actually bought 6 more afterwards. LOL.
Fast forward to last weekend, one of the Intel drives in service suddenly became unavailable. I think it died mostly
due to heat, being placed too close to the GPU, more than actual wear since upon checking the proxmox logs it kept
on reporting this particular drive as always reaching mid 60C while the other one was normal.
Although I've read about Intel's legendary reputation when it comes down to customer support in the Enterprise space
on STH and reddit, I haven't personally experienced it myself so either this was going to be a total boss move or
I was going to look like a fool for purchasing a bunch of second hand enterprise hardware.
I figured that I should just wing it and file an RMA using only the serial number and some screenshots
to prove that the drive was actually dead. I didnt have any receipt nor legal proofs of purchase that I was the
original owner of the drives as these technically second hand.
In less than 2 days, not only did I get approved RMA with no further questions asked but Intel did all legwork ie
shipping labels and went as far as applying for the OMB permit themselves on my behalf. Talk about VIP treatment.
