# Warning



## really upset (Dec 16, 2009)

I am in the midst of perhaps my worst experience as a consumer. I am 55. I will never buy a Toshiba product again.

I live near Boston, MA. I bought a Toshiba Satellite L505D for my daughter, who began college at McGill U. in Montreal in August. It arrived in the last week of the month, only a day before we took Gabriela to school. The computer worked for a few days and then would not boot up. Shortly after Labor Day, my daughter called Toshiba. They told her to send the computer to a company in Toronto in a box that arrived 2-3 weeks later. She complied. 

Weeks went by. I called Toshiba: What’s up? It literally took hours on the phone before Toshiba could even locate the computer. My daughter and I made repeated calls to the repair center, leaving messages to which there was no reply. Gabriela finally got someone on the phone, who said a part was back-ordered and could not predict a repair completion date.

It is now mid-December. My daughter is half-way through her first demanding year of college and has struggled without the use of a computer, which is standard equipment for college students these days. Dealing with this situation since September has been a nightmare. I’ve spent 20 hours on the phone if I’ve spent 10 minutes.

I called several customer service numbers, speaking to different people in Canada and the US. Canadians said the US branch was responsible b/c I bought it south of the border. The US branch said the Canadians were responsible b/c that’s where the computer was located. I reminded them that Toshiba is one company. Then they said it was the repair company’s responsibility, the same one that Toshiba hires. Except to promise (several times) to refer the matter to a “case manager,” who would call me (hah! never happened), they refused to intercede with the repair company, or even call them (“we can’t call Canada”). They also refused to refer me to a supervisor, who, they all said in the same words, “didn’t take calls.”

I’ve certainly had headaches with computer companies’ customer service departments over the years. But there were always helpful people among the unhelpful. I’ve never seen such a consistent policy of turning up the middle finger towards the consumer. I am left literally with no way to get relief, except to sue Toshiba. What do I do in the meantime? Buy another computer? My daughter needs one badly, but I don’t have the money to buy her two computers. I am thoroughly disgusted. 

I thought that Toshiba offered a nice deal on a computer. No deal is nice enough to compensate for this kind of aggravation, however.


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## BCCOMP (Jul 9, 2007)

If you purchased this unit with a credit card, most credit card companies give you up to a year of some sort of protection on purchases. Was this purchased through a credit card?
Bill


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## Done_Fishin (Oct 10, 2006)

What about consumer affairs? 

I have never heard about Toshiba giving this sort of performance before ..


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## 2xg (Aug 5, 2009)

I've filed complaints with BBB before and I got a well deserving $$$ back. The process takes about 2 months but it's worth it => http://www.bbb.org/

good luck!


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## -WOLF- (Jan 17, 2009)

What about the warranty? Did you purchase any? If so I'm sure you could have taken it to the store and gotten a replacement.


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

ComsumerAffairs.com - Toshiba (30 pages of complaints from angry Toshiba customers)
*http://www.consumeraffairs.com/computers/toshiba.html*


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*http://www.customerservicescoreboard.com/Toshiba*


> Toshiba is ranked *#120* out of the *191* companies that have a CustomerServiceScoreboard.com rating with an overall score of *31.87* out of a possible 200. This score rates Toshiba customer service and customer support as *Disappointing*.


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