1 Yeah later Laptop Still busted

Kira of Silver Spring MD (9/27/04):

On January 31, 2004, I purchased a Toshiba Satellite laptop A15-S129 at my local Microcenter store. From the start, the battery always died within 90 minutes, sometimes with 45. Since I had purchased a laptop for its portability and deliberately chose a model with a battery life >2 hours, this was a problem for me! Leaving it plugged in all the time effectively transformed it to a desktop, which is not what I had wanted.

I also noticed that it always got very very hot, whether it was plugged in or running off battery -- and I mean MUCH hotter than normal. Then, it started shutting itself off -- just instantly going to a black screen. No saving work, no warning, just instant off. So I immediately contacted the Tech Support line at Toshiba, and got very friendly with a number of the techs there. I spent several hours trying to work out the problems with them, but they finally admitted defeat and suggested I take it to a repair center. There was a registered Toshiba repair center just 15 minutes from my home, so on April 7, 2003, I took it to the repair shop.

After the service center had replaced the system board and the power supply and it was still not working, I called Toshiba. By then it was mid-May (the power supply had been on back order). After going through the usual 8 people and being disconnected twice, I finally got to a service person (Alisha) who listened to my tale of woe. I explained that I felt that four months of attempted repairs was a reasonable length of time to give the company to fix the thing and asked what I needed to do to have a replacement sent to me.

She informed me that no replacement would be sent as Toshiba had not yet determined that there was a problem with the laptop. I pointed out to her that it was Toshiba who worked with me on the problems for weeks then finally told me to take it to the service center, and that it was the Toshiba-approved service center who told me they were having major problems fixing it. Her reply was, essentially, "Tough." Until they declare it unfixable, no replacement would be forthcoming. Furthermore, she explained, they had no time limit under which they had to declare something unfixable.

I asked if this meant that they could just put it on the shelf and wait 5 years to see if someone then could fix it, and she said that was pretty much the case. In the meantime, I was just out of luck and out of a computer, and out of the money that I had spent on their LEMON. She said she would talk with "the corporate office in California" about my case as they were the ones who needed to decide about replacing an unfixable computer anyway. I thanked her but said that while I understood she did not have the authority to send me a new computer, I'd like to plead my own case with the "corporate office" and asked for their phone number. Nope. She wouldn't give me that. I was "not allowed" to call them.

Okay, I said, may I please speak with your supervisor? No, she replied. I am the supervisor. There is no one else to speak with. I asked if that meant that she reported directly to the head of Toshiba, and she said yes. (Wow! They sure have important people manning phone trees at Toshiba, don't they?) Okay, I said (hanging onto my temper with an effort). So what you're telling me is that there is no one with whom I can speak, and I just continue to not have a computer. Right, she said.

I hate being told that "you can't talk to anyone but me and I refuse to help you in any way at all". I sent a formal letter to Toshiba's corporate offices. Nothing. I filed a complaint with the BBB in California, where Toshiba's corporate office is located. Nothing. I spent more time on the phone with Toshiba Customer Service. Nothing. The service center tried to enlist the help of their Toshiba rep. Nothing. The service center kept the laptop until mid-August when they admitted that they cannot get Toshiba to declare the laptop a lemon. There is nothing else they could do (by now they had also replaced the battery) to cause the thing to keep its charge over 90 minutes.

The service center people were not happy with Toshiba either. They sent my laptop to the Toshiba "Depot" twice, where more Toshiba people looked at my laptop but refused to listen to either my own or the service center's descriptions of the problem. Instead, they decided there was nothing wrong and sent it back to the service center who then promptly confirmed the problem still existed. When they brought this up to the Toshiba rep, they were essentially told to shut up.

I reclaimed the computer, now seven months older but just as broken. Shortly thereafter I got an email asking me to fill out an online form re my satisfaction level with the Toshiba repair. You can imagine what I said. I then got a call from someone who offered $100 in vouchers for Toshiba products (most of which cost over $100) and which required two additional phone calls over a period of 4 weeks to claim, and also asked me to send the laptop to yet another Repair Depot. I figured what the hell and agreed. I also called the repair tech to explain the story. I left several messages and on one occasion stayed on hold for 20 min trying to talk with this nitwit. Needless to say, the only call I ever got was a voicemail saying that there was nothing wrong with the laptop and he had already sent it back.

So, end result? Spent $1000 on computer that never worked. Spent hours and hours and HOURS of time on phone trying to get Toshiba to live up to its warranty -- unsuccessfully, of course. Now have had semi-functional laptop in my possession for grand total of 10 weeks, after purchasing it back in January. Toshiba, of course, has had my money since January 31st. What a loser company.

This is a repost from http://www.consumeraffairs.com/computers/toshiba.html