OWC Reviews 114

Horrible customer service- they sold me a product that was dead on arrival and after hours on hold waiting, over many days of “troubleshooting “ they still won’t replace.
Avoid this place like the plague - you will be out the money and have wasted a lot of your time for nothing. Complete fraud and the worst customer service ever

I ordered an IMac on Jan 29th, expecting it to ship on the same day, as advertised on the website. I just spoke with an OWC representative who said he still had no idea when it would ship.
System upgrades and the fact it is “the busy season” are not valid reasons.
The order has been cancelled.

Bought a 16TB raid to replace an aging Drobo. On installation, OWC renamed my existing Drobo and initialized it, causing me weeks of headache in restoring the data.

I have upgraded my MacBook Pro 2014 with a 1TB SSD Aura Pro X2 from OWC. The performance is excellent and it runs flawlessly, so far. A new life for my macbook. The upgrade was worth the cost to keep my MBP going a few more years. Thanks a lot for you all.

Bought a 2014 Mac Mini with a 256GB PCIe and was going to install an SSD in the drive bay. Unfortunately, it was missing the SATA cable connector bracket, also called the Hard Drive Retaining Plate (Apple part # 076-00017) and the SATA connection cable.
Contacted OWC support and was told that's how they're shipped, which implies that the relevant parts are deliberately removed prior to being sold.
I've been buying from OWC since before the internet existed (early 90's) and they only had the monthly catalog; first time I've ever been disappointed in anything I've received.

The maximum rating is in part a function of our exultation that came from ultimate success, though getting there was somewhat of a toil. Not realizing that we had a 500GB SSD card rather than a HHD aboard our 2019 27” iMac, I had ordered both a 4T SSD and a 2T card upgrade; the latter I ultimately installed and the other we arranged to return to OCW for a refund;Customer service was very accommodating…thank you. As for the installation process itself, the glass screen lifted off without any problem. We followed the excellent video step by step; After completing the installation I mistakenly taped down the glass front, plugged the iMac in and zero; the iMac refused to come to life. Ultimately I had to remove the glass and I carefully retraced my steps assuring myself that all the connections were properly seated, etc. And BEFORE replacing the glass, I plugged in the iMac and it immediately came to life. Setting up the drive, installing Sonoma, and letting Time Machine do its thing were pro forma, totally perfect. So word to wise; check out the device before closing it up. Also there ought to be a way to compare Model numbers rather than relying on the purported date of manufacture. Otherwise our revitalized iMac which is used for heavy duty Lightroom usage, is now zipping right along with considerably reduced latency and great image quality, BTW, We had previously maxed out the RAM onboard to 128GB from OWC which also helped a lot.

Got defrauded by them.

I spent over $8000 in equipment with this store since 2021.

Most of the machines worked great.

But by now they have twice sent me machines that were broken.

First a $2000 MacMini from 2018
And now a $900 MacPro from 2013

Each time I've reached out to them, and have first been ignored, and then stalled, until the return period was over.

As long as you're lucky and their machines work you're fine.

But they've sent me almost 3k worth of broken machinery by now, and are stonewalling any attempt to get them replaced or refunded.

Do NOT do business with them!

*** Edit: their reply is BS:

As I said, first they stall, and then they play the long game.

With the current situation: I told them the exact problem in my first message, by now we're at message 8, and they are still going in circles, making me jump through all kinds of hoops.

I have never had that much trouble getting a defective machine replaced. - or in their case NOT replaced.

This is their latest reply to me (after they already made me jump through hoops, essentially asking ME to fix THEIR broken machine)

" Hi

Thank you for your response. We apologize for any inconvenience you have experienced with the Apple Mac Pro. I understand you want to request a replacement for the machine, however, we need to forward this first to our Technical support team to check the error code that you getting. Before we forward this case I need a system report of the machine and send it to me. Can you please send me a system report?

Sincerely,"

That machine hasn't been working nor starting, and now they want a 'system report' - which can't even be sent when it doesn't start!

But all that is irrelevant!
I paid them money to get a working machine
It's not working - and it sure as hell isn't MY job to fix it FOR them!

See what frauds those guys are?

I can only warn about them!

***Edit 2: about their updated reply:

This is still BS:

Installing a different OS on a machine is something very normal, that is done on machines every day!

I've done this on dozens(!) of computers.

And only one computer before had that problem that yours has... and that one got replaced within days, and the seller then figured out that the SSD was actually damaged, what caused this problem.

BUT: This is NOT something you need 'tech support' for!

This is a clear cut issue of a DEFECTIVE device, which needs to be replaced asap!

These guys took my money,
Sent me a defective device,

So I'm out of money, and now have to waste hours and days, and by now weeks, back and forth with them, to get it replaced.

Compare that to any serious companies like ebay, where you can always get your money back, or get a replacement, if the seller sends you a damaged item.

***Edit 3: Update Sept 22nd 2023

The games keep continuing.

Even with everything they claim here in the response. I am still NO step closer to getting the damaged product replaced, or my money refunded.

Yet another useless email, even more troubleshooting steps which they want me to do for them.

This is just utterly ridiculous.

The amount of time they have stolen from me, and the amount of pressure it needs before they even start looking at a return request... it really shows the state of this company

----

In conclusion:

However bad I said it is with OWC. - is exactly true, and even worse!
-> Since I posted this review they proved in any way possible, that they are not capable (or unwilling) to solve this.

It's such a clear cut problem:
-> they sent damaged product
-> it needs to be replaced or refunded.

That is how business is done!

But it seems OWC has not gotten that memo, even in 2023.

I hope they go out of business, cause they're pure scam!

Garbage. Don’t waste your time. They obviously didn’t check the machine before shipping it. Total waste of time.

No longer on our approved vendor list for a number of reasons ranging from poor quality products and poor customer service.

Most recently, ordered a computer shown on their site and it took them about 1½ days to contact me to let me know they did not in fact have it in stock nor did they have an equal replacement. Far from it.

Further, because of this experience I had to source the product elsewhere and not only did I find it for considerably less, but it also included an actual warranty with teeth and length, and the routine things one expects with buying a desktop, i.e., mouse and keyboard, which their unit did not.

Going back still further, we have purchased a number of OWC branded HDs and they seem to all suffer from the same early failure rate, leading me to imagine they are using inferior grade drives.

All of this coupled with a number of unpleasant to rude customer service experiences leaves me to conclude this is not a AAA vendor.

Mac just went barely past 90 days. Screen flickering - likely a main board video defect. OWC shuts down immediate request to assist. No help whatsoever. So sorry is all I get - and on my own with a useless Mac < 100 days old. Don’t purchase from this company.

I have bought an enclosure for an internal blu-ray recorder I had, and after two years it works flawlessly!!!

Thank you OWC!!!

I'm not writing very often a review however with OWC I had a product a bit out of warranty (40 days), no goodwill was applied, I had very little responses to my messages. I wouldn't buy any products from OWC any more.

Support is a disaster.

I am using the OWC products for many years under Mac Intel. After upgrading to the ARM chip it seems that OWC and LaCie are not able to release products which work. I have issued a ticket about the Softraid XT and no response... LaCie also didn't respond. It is very unfortunate that you buy a lot of gear but the company does not give a dime about your issues... Money first...client last. Ashame! I am kicking out all OWC product.

This is a follow up review from my experience with OWC's customer service.

I will quite literally never buy from this company ever again. In their correspondence with other dissatisfied customers, they admit that their "genuine apple products" are unreliable and they have received negative feedback regarding their performance. Yet they continue to sell these products to unsuspecting customers. I wish I knew of this before I spent my hard earned money. Like where are these products even made?

The call center supervisor refuses to make things right by regurgitating the same old free two day shipping or 15% discount. lol yeah right, what an awful offer. I guess I can’t call her out by name here, but regardless she’s awful at her job. OWC I know you’re reading this ;)

Is your company in such a horrible financial position that you won't replace your defective products? Don't you agree that a charger should last BEYOND 1.3 years??? Don't hide behind your warranty, TAKE RESPONSIBILITY.

It's so sad that they refuse to treat their customers right!

*UPDATE* OWC flagged my review, yet again. It's so funny that their response is to try to remove negative reviews vs. attempting to make things right with the customer. Shame!

Excellent gear until something goes wrong. Support is understaffed and cannot help in any relevant way - you are left to your own devices.

I purchased several of their most expensive thunderbolt docks, and neither had gone wrong in the past until one failed. It's a basic software/driver glitch, but they have been unable to resolve it for two months. It seems like they're on a 30s-per-ticket quota.

They disqualified themselves as a provider of professional equipment. If you rely on these devices in a professional environment DO NOT BUY, find a compatible alternative, pay more and save money and time on support.

Brutal customer service; I called, spoke with someone who thanked me for all the info - then never got back to me. I put in a ticket: no response. I emailed; no response. How do they stay in business??

I ordered a refurbished laptop that was found to be defective when received. It was an obvious and consistent issue. I requested a return authorization which they provided. But when they received it they kept a $150 restocking fee (plus the shipping charges I paid). After multiple times of contacting them the final word from them was that their techs were unable to duplicate the issue so they were not going to honor a full refund. It was very obviously defective. Something isn't right at OWC.

OWC Case numbers: 01232846 and 01308724
Amazon order# 206-0264368-2257938
OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock: £274.49

On 18th June I bought myself a Mac Mini after owning an old Mac Pro, so I then needed to buy a whole load of peripherals so I could plug everything in.

After losing terabytes of data using a hard drive enclosure from an awful Chinese brand, I had been very sensitive to the sounds and lights of peripherals connected to my Mac, not least OWC peripherals.

I had previously noticed with the cheap Chinese HDD enclosure that the power was fluctuating, so I was a bit alarmed when I noticed during startup and shutdown the lights of my USB hub connected to my OWC Thunderbolt 3 dock would flash on and off.

I was frightened that the dock would be sending inconsistent power/signal to my new replacement HDD enclosures (also OWC).

I contacted OWC and they asked me to do a few tests. This was all over live chat and they were incredibly SLOW to reply during the conversation! I guess they were dealing with multiple people all at once.

I then set about making videos showing the flashing lights and how I was worried about it. They said to send the dock back and they would send me a replacement. There was a bit of confusion over payment of the postage to the US and I missed the part in an email where it said I would have to pay at least for one way. So it cost me £35 to send it to the US. They said they would not refund this.

It took an age to get to them and likewise it took ages to get back again. I was without the dock for a month and had to muddle along in the meantime.

I got the replacement which exhibited EXACTLY the same behaviour. I chased them about this and did various other videos showing what was happening.

Instructions of tests to try were via email and they would take at least a week to reply to me and most times it would be very vague instructions without any screen shots to help me.

After a month or so of testing the replacement they concluded that it was working correctly after all despite being told to send back the original one that behaved exactly the same way!!

So I had basically been used as their R&D!

I bought the dock in June, sent it to OWC in Aug, and have only just a week or so ago got a refund for the postage in December! BUT, although everything considered they did agree to refund me the postage (at the very least!!), when I received the refund, it was half what it should be because they said they most they refunded for postage was $25!!! They didn't even tell me this beforehand, they just arrogantly let me find out for myself. FFS, THEY were the ones who said the dock was faulty and yet now the dock is still the same in its behaviour, it's ME that has to pay for postage and waste nearly six months being messed about!

To top it off, when they sent me a replacement dock, they sent me a US PLUG!! I asked them to send me a UK one to which they agreed, and that was a couple months ago and I still have the US one with no sign of the UK one!

Their customer service is appalling, clearly they have ZERO regard for their customers and ZERO sense of responsibility when they have screwed up!!

I should have just got another Thunderbolt 3 Dock from the Amazon seller rather than waste all this time with OWC!

Truly awful!

And BEFORE you suggest I contact you, how about YOU contact ME, and firstly give me the full refund (maybe with a little compensation for my wasted time), and send me a UK plug!

Im surprise they still survive. I mean they are fast in coming out accessories that Mac Users wanted or needed. But the question is how long does it last?! They sent lots of promotional email daily But reply for support = non.

After purchasing an Aura Pro X2 that did not work in my Mac Pro. I wrote two emails an gave OWC all the infos for giving me support to get it work. I received an email that they had got my questions but nothing happend further. So in my oppinion just very poor customer service and this Aura Pro X2 is even poor too. But i receive several email by OWC every day just for promotion. I see what comes first in their minds. Sorry guys but you could do better jobs.