My Toshiba Laptop is a LEMON
Written: Jun 09 '04
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Pros: Box looks good
Cons: Terrible customer support. At service center continuously for nine weeks and counting.
The Bottom Line: My Toshiba is a LEMON. Their Customer Support is TERRIBLE. Run, do not walk, to the nearest exit!
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| kbacal's Full Review: Toshiba Satellite A15-S129 (PSA10U-0ZH6MV) PC Note... |
On January 31, 2004, I purchased a Toshiba Satellite laptop A15-S129 at my local Microcenter store here in Houston, Texas. 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.
I'm writing this on June 9th, and I still don't have my laptop back.
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. See if the service center can fix it.
How much longer am I supposed to wait? I asked.
As long as it takes, she replied, sounding as if she were surprised I was so dumb I had to ask.
She swore she would contact the "corporate office" within the next 2 days and would contact me with the results. That was 3 weeks ago, and my good buddy Alisha has -- gasp! -- never called back. Alisha was extremely rude in that supercilious, "I am doing you a favor and you're too stupid to know it", passive-aggressive way. I hate being told that "you can't talk to anyone but me and I refuse to help you in any way at all".
The service center is STILL in possession of the laptop. I spoke with them today, and they have called Toshiba to declare the laptop a lemon, only to be told that just because nothing they do (by now they have also replaced the battery) can cause the thing to keep its charge over 90 minutes doesn't make it a lemon. The service center people are not happy with Toshiba either. They are now going to send my laptop to the Toshiba "Depot", where more Toshiba people can look at my laptop.
So, here I sit. It's been almost 5 months since I bought the computer. It's been at the repair shop (continuously) since April 7th.
Why would you want to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars, as I did, on a laptop that won't run on battery, that is too hot to hold in your lap, that suddenly turns off and loses all your data, and THEN, on TOP of that, after you have been patient and been without your new laptop for MONTHS, get all sorts of rude crap from their Customer Service (ha! what an oxymoron that is!)?
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 999
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Don''t Know
Processor speed: Don''t Know
Screen Size: 15 inches
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
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Epinions.com ID:
kbacal
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Reviews written: 28
Trusted by: 1 member
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