"Customer service told me that my drive detected a “potential fault”, which is impossible in this case, and automatically turn on write protection."
You would prefer that the response to the fault be to wipe the drive so that you could still use it?
And why do you think the fault was impossible? If you plugged into a pc the fault was possible: low voltage, power surge, virus, etc all possible.
“So I’ll go buy another one. But from another brand.”
I hope their return policy is as generous as SanDisk’s for you. 
