before I discovered them, I just bought stuff from ebay liquidators... plenty of them around.

I've had a similar experience. I ordered 4 drives in August and one was DOA. 2 months later I managed to get a replacement from them but that was also DOA. Silence since then. Went through Paypal and supposedly they were getting me a refund equivalent to the worth of one drive, but it hasn't gone through yet. First issue I've had with them, sad if they're gone... Dunno where else to consistently get such good deals on drives.