LaCie external drives are crap

Yesterday I bought a 500gb USB 2.0 "big disk" from LaCie. It doesn't
work. I knew I'd have to reformat it because it comes with NTFS
(windows) standard, but the Mac disk utility doesn't even see the
drive. I tried 3 different computers, no dice. The instructions say
nothing about such a possibility. I therefore have to assume it's
defective. Told my friend about it, and he said he also had trouble
with LaCie external drives. So that settles that: don't buy their
stuff, unless you like returning to Best Buy frequently. Very
disappointing.