SSD Warranty Claims: What UK Buyers Need to Know in 2026

If your SSD dies right now, don't assume the manufacturer's warranty will make you whole. Over the past few weeks, several of the biggest names in storage, including SK hynix and Crucial (Micron's consumer brand), have been telling customers with legitimate warranty claims that they can't have a replacement drive. Instead, they're offering a refund of the original purchase price. That sounds fair until you remember that SSD prices have roughly doubled since the NAND shortage took hold this year, which means the cheque in the post won't buy you back what you had.

This isn't a one-off support failure. It's a pattern across the storage industry, and it's a direct consequence of the same supply crunch we've been tracking on our SSD prices UK 2026 page. If you're weighing up a drive purchase, or you're already sitting on one that's starting to throw SMART errors, it's worth understanding exactly what's going on and where you actually stand as a UK buyer, because your rights here go well beyond the manufacturer's own warranty booklet.

Why SSD warranty claims are breaking down

A standard manufacturer warranty promises to repair or replace a faulty drive, and if neither is possible, to refund what you paid. That last clause is normally a formality; stock is available and a replacement goes out. What's changed in 2026 is that NAND flash is now genuinely scarce, and that scarcity has fed straight through into street prices for finished drives, as we've tracked on our SSD prices UK 2026 page.

With replacement stock hard to source, manufacturers are falling back on the refund clause buried in their warranty terms rather than the repair-or-replace promise most buyers assume they're getting. SK hynix's policy pays out the lesser of your original purchase price or current market value; with market value having climbed well above what most people paid, buyers are being sent a cheque for what a drive cost a year ago rather than what it costs today. Micron has taken a similar line with some Crucial claims, citing depleted inventory. Samsung has had at least one high-profile dispute over the same issue, though its outcome has varied case by case.

The practical effect is the same everywhere: you lose your data-carrying drive, you get back less money than you'd need to buy an equivalent replacement, and the manufacturer has technically honoured its warranty in full. That's the trap.

It isn't confined to one brand or one shortage

It's tempting to treat this as an SK hynix problem, but the underlying cause, a NAND market where demand from AI datacentre buyers is squeezing consumer supply, applies to every drive maker sourcing flash from the same handful of fabs. Samsung, SK hynix, Micron/Crucial, Kioxia and WD/SanDisk all draw from the same constrained pool. If you own a drive from any of these brands, or one built on their NAND under a smaller label, the same warranty-refund dynamic can apply the moment your drive fails and stock runs short. This is worth bearing in mind if you're comparing options on our storage category page: the sticker price and the spec sheet don't tell you anything about how a claim will actually be handled a year from now.

Your rights don't stop at the manufacturer's warranty

Here's the part most buyers miss: a manufacturer's warranty is a voluntary promise on top of your legal rights, not a replacement for them. As a UK consumer, you have two separate, stronger routes that don't depend on what a warranty booklet says.

The Consumer Rights Act 2015

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, goods you buy must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described, and your claim sits with the retailer you bought from, not the manufacturer. If a drive fails within the first 30 days, you're entitled to reject it and get a full refund. Between 30 days and six months, the retailer must offer a free repair or replacement, and only if that's genuinely not possible can they fall back to a refund, one that should reflect what it now costs you to get an equivalent replacement, not an arbitrary depreciated figure. Past six months, the burden shifts slightly, but you're still entitled to a repair or replacement attempt before a refund is on the table.

The key point: this route runs through whoever sold you the drive, whether that's a major UK retailer or a marketplace seller, and it isn't limited by whatever refund clause the manufacturer wrote into its own warranty terms. If a retailer tries to wave you off to the manufacturer's warranty support line, you can push back and insist on your statutory rights instead.

Section 75 and chargebacks

If you paid any part of the purchase (as little as £1 of a deposit counts) on a UK credit card, and the total price was between £100 and £30,000, Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act makes your card issuer jointly liable with the retailer. That's a genuinely useful backstop if a retailer has gone quiet, folded, or is based overseas and hard to pursue directly. Debit card purchases don't get Section 75, but most UK banks offer chargeback schemes that can achieve something similar, albeit with a weaker legal footing and a time limit (typically 120 days from the transaction).

How to protect yourself before you buy

A few habits now will save you a genuinely frustrating argument later if a drive fails during a shortage like this one.

• Buy from a retailer with a track record on RMAs, not just the cheapest listing you can find on a marketplace. If something goes wrong, you want a returns desk that answers the phone.
• Pay at least part of the price by credit card where you can, specifically to keep Section 75 available as a backstop.
• Keep your receipt and order confirmation somewhere durable. Retailer claims under the Consumer Rights Act need proof of purchase, and "I bought it from that shop last spring" isn't proof.
• Register the drive with the manufacturer if there's an option to, but treat it as a secondary safety net, not your primary route to a fair outcome.
• Don't assume a longer manufacturer warranty is automatically worth paying extra for. A five-year warranty is only as good as what the fine print pays out, and right now the fine print is the problem, not the headline number.

If you're at the point of choosing a drive, our how to choose the right SSD guide covers the endurance and controller factors that make one drive more failure-prone than another in the first place; pairing that with a retailer you trust for support does more for your long-term outcome than chasing an extra few pounds off on price.

What to do if your drive fails right now

If you're already dealing with a dead SSD, go to the retailer first, not the manufacturer, and frame the claim under the Consumer Rights Act rather than the manufacturer's warranty. Ask explicitly for a repair or replacement rather than accepting a refund offer as the first option; a refund should only be on the table if replacement genuinely isn't possible, and even then, you can reasonably argue it should reflect current replacement cost. If the retailer is unresponsive and you paid by credit card, get your Section 75 claim moving with your card issuer in parallel rather than waiting weeks for a resolution that may never come.

The shortage isn't finished yet

Nothing about the current NAND supply picture suggests this resolves quickly. Datacentre demand for flash isn't slowing down, and consumer SSDs are competing for the same wafers as enterprise buyers with far deeper pockets. That means the warranty-refund squeeze we're seeing now is likely to keep showing up wherever manufacturers can't source replacement stock. Keep an eye on our storage page for where actual prices are sitting before you buy, and treat the retailer relationship, not the manufacturer's warranty card, as your real protection if things go wrong.

Source: Tom's Hardware