I recently needed a NAS enclosure and well I shop all over the Internet like most of us do I suppose, So I wonder off to my trusty http://svp.co.uk/ which amongst all the online retailers I ever visited hold a fair amount of gadgets at good prices and above all their Customer service so far is second to none. It as always been my number one reason why after so many years I still go back even when things go wrong. SVP is 5 STARS shame about their choices sometimes but hey we all make mistakes eh!

I decided to whack of my WD 1TB HDD sata II on one of their enclosures that had support amongst other things bitorrent they call it a EDATA 3500 NAS BT Nice built aluminium look durable but what about the rest, soon found screws missing to Hold HDD inside no Tools but me being a sort of resourceful guy that was not about to stop me but alarms started going off.

Well soon Find out the dammed thing kept coming on and off and after wrestling it for a while I managed to upgrade the firmware to no avail it still was not working properly, after wrestling with it for the weekend I decided enough was enough and got a replacement/exchange from SVP after letting them know what I found or not in this case (like the missing parts) and the list of issues as its recorded on the support tickets to SVP. I went for the DATASTATIONII JBOD I don’t know why I thought maybe hard luck the first time around it happens you know. A great design solid aluminium great detail again and I though that a company that has clearly invested on design would have put guts to support/match the design, besides that now this is now a NAS anymore it supports USB 2.0 and mean while I decided to get another sata II 1TB drive out and try out this JBOD on Both WRT350Nv2 and WRT600Nv1 Both with beta firmware not available to public quite yet since I am waiting for the bug reports I sent to be addressed and fixed before you guys have them as good as possible either way these support USB 2.0 mass storage devices and distribute via Network pretty much like a NAS. Even connected straight to PC performance to 1 Meter away sucks big time and JBOD is complete failure straight connection to PC as I start to create  Folders and well mapped a Network drive did some FTP tests and suddenly I’m only getting 1TB showing.

Just to make sure I wasn’t seeing thing I wacked a Western Digital My Book Premium 2TB USB 2.0 to see if its me again of what the heck is going on. Na not a site of any issues with the WD drives chugging away like a champ and then as if by miracles they spin down as the signal to the drives ceases... mmmmm!!! Interesting! I admit I didn’t break the 6 meg barrier but I wasn’t far off funny thing is that the First HDD on this Glossy shiny DATASTATIONII JBOD is exactly the same drive as WD uses on their boxes hell I could have taken the whole lot appart just to put my mind at rest and swap the drives with the WD enclosure but it was clear to me I don’t need any more evidence that I have another failure on my hands.

Tested the 2nd HDD just to make sure it was not a dud all things right as rain this drive is as healthy as the time it come off the assembly line Maxtor do provided half decent tools to test their drives and its was like I said a thumbs up.

JBOD was a no show corrupting drive number two by creating a random number of inaccessible partitions which was the oddest thing ever. So I decided to try out the separate disk features for a while and see how that performs after of course I recovered the drive which not only new was now ready to pack it in as was I to be honest.

Drives are always screaming, never spin down and the transfer rates are abysmal and well under the 3/5mbps Tsunamitech say they should on a spanking new giga lan cat6 wire and if that not all I decided to try their support... They never addressed the fact that the second enclosure fails to operate on JBOD mode and say they sorry that the product does not meet my expectations and that's it that and I quote "Different user has different expectation on different product, we are sorry that we cannot fully satisfy yours" Is expecting your product to work is it a reasonable satisfaction or expectation you say from any customer?? Hold on a second boys and girls ever heard of UK retail law? no it seems to me? Well I have! Guess what? You having this one back unfortunately via SVP whom I have advised to discontinue the sale of these clearly glossy products with not real clockwork inside and it will be my uneducated guess that you SVP will have a few of these back before its starts to loose patience and dump you like you deserve, no one with brains on Tsunamitech side to know about Customer Service/support or even their obligations to the customers... I don't know where Tsunamytech have been since 1994 but I hope you soon go back to that anonymity and get real... Also reconsider your internal processes and retraining your staff not to make absurd claims about technology they clearly know nothing about.. I wonder what trading standards would have to say about that, maybe if you like me to act a a Customer Service consultant and technical/product trainer advisor to your company, please leave a comment my services to the industry both on Customer service levels and technical expertise on general equipment clearly qualifies me to at least set you on the right track...

My advice to any of the readers is to steer clear of these glossy well design and poorly conceived products for a good year or two and go spend a few more pennies with brands like D-link (insert your favourite brand here) you know never going let you down and if you don't know have a good scour on the Internet and read the product reviews for whatever you want to buy, though most people talk crap there on some of the reviews I find there is one or another that know what they talking about...

TSUNAMITECH you been served what you served me... Named and shamed Your Products and your Company Stink!!! 1/10 I would have given you Negative points but I have to say the design is spot on unfortunatly Beauty is only skin deep with your stuff (the Two that I tried and failed), the rest a nightmare!! 

I hate jerks that get into business to make money off of the consumer and when things go wrong, tell them well tuff! Maybe this guy that read my email was having a bad day and the boss doesn't know either way sorry, I had to do it! A gave TsunamiTech two chances You pissed me off and then pissed me off some more with the reply email I got after I actual made an effort to explain what all the issues were...

Oh I saved the communication emails... Not that expect You be requesting my professional advice. Cleary another mistale you'll make. I could definitely show your staff a thing or two about customer service and maybe train them to have a better understanding of the finer technical aspects not only of your products but other products that actually interact with yours, possible uses based on products available on market today, etc... Shame a little better testing and and it could have been a better product... I blame the guy/girl that for the sake a few pounds rushed things out the door that otherwise could have made a really great products. there's always one lured into a false sense of economy and expecting the return rate will be below a expected rate of failure... And this is how you loose customers...