OWC Reviews 

OWC has been good and helpful for a number of years, but I recently notice a serious manufacturing defect in a product that is not far outside the warranty period. No solution was given other than I should buy a new one. They wouldn't even give a small discount on buying a new unit.

Regrettably, I've found OWC's approach somewhat misleading. When you buy one of their Hardware Raid Solutions, it's not immediately clear that you also need to commit to an annual subscription for the SofRaid software (first 3 years are included). This detail is buried in the fine print, yet SofRaid is essential for both managing and utilizing the Raid. My experience with it has been fraught with issues, leading to periods, sometimes extending to months, where my Thunderbays were unusable (a quick glance at the Support Forum confirms I'm not alone). Consequently, the seemingly competitive initial purchase price escalates into a substantial total cost of ownership. In contrast, other leading brands like Promise, Qnap, and the now-defunct Drobo have historically included the necessary software at no extra charge

What a terrible company. They literally made three HUGE mistakes back to back and were unwilling to unable to correct any of them. Tied up my customers parts money for a solid week and delivered no product. They can bill your card with any zipcode or address even though this is against federal law.

Dont deliver your purchase..Need to be serious doing business.. They commit to deliver... and dont do it. The dont send what you pay for in the the time they say. Live chat asistant not able to respond as expected. Better response if you want to, you can cancel your order

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??