<p>Last summer my oldest used his graduation money and purchased a new laptop and a warranty directly from Toshiba. We recommended the brand to him because we’ve had one for over 5 years now and it’s been great.</p>
<p>Just before Christmas his laptop totally quit working - no reason. Over Christmas he sent it to Toshiba after verifying it was covered under his warranty. It took Toshiba almost a MONTH to get it back to him - and they sent it to his college address.</p>
<p>He tried to use it, got it to start, and got blocked by a screen saying his harddrive was password protected and he needed to enter the password. He never HAD a password on his hard drive. Calls to Toshiba couldn’t produce one and they told him to send it back. Within the phone call it came out that he was in college and they refused to send him a box at college. He couldn’t find anyone off campus willing to send it out for him, so waited until the first week in March to send it out from here on spring break.</p>
<p>Toshiba has since told him the PASSWORD is not covered under warranty and he’ll need to PAY $180 to have a new hard drive installed.</p>
<p>He called them back and told them he NEVER HAD A PASSWORD on it prior to sending it to be repaired.</p>
<p>They told him that he “must have been using it since he kept it so long after it was returned.” He wasn’t using it. He was using the school’s computers.</p>
<p>They refuse to budge. I’m furious and will NEVER, EVER buy anything from TOSHIBA again nor recommend anyone do so.</p>
<p>But, in the meantime, what does he do??? Can he file a small claims suit somewhere? Is there another option? I’d hate for him to lose all his graduation money on an idiotic company and I really don’t want him to pay $180 for THEIR MISTAKE.</p>
<p>If he does anything himself or has anyone else do anything to his computer it will void the rest of the warranty on it.</p>
<p>Did I mention I’m furious? Today it’s going to be my topic of conversation on forums (genuinely looking for advice for our next step as well as a buyer beware message) and at work. I’m ****ed. This company should have had his computer fixed quickly the first time and then been apologetic that they didn’t get it right afterward. And what, exactly, is the problem with shipping a computer to/from a college? Perhaps their meaning is that college students shouldn’t buy their computers? My next two won’t! My next one won’t be a Toshiba either.</p>
<p>I feel so bad for you and your child – it’s not just the $180, it’s the wasted time and inconvenience for a college student who really needs a working computer!</p>
<p>Have you tried to get through to a manager’s manager? Tell Toshiba you want to speak to a supervisor. Keep calling until you get the name of a manager and send them an actual letter (and/or email) and cc the President of Toshiba. Your letter should contain the dates you spoke to people and their names. </p>
<p>Did you buy the computer through Amazon or Bestbuy? They all have “reviews” – so you can post your experience there. People really read those – I know I did before I bought my son a Toshiba netbook. So far, nothing wrong.</p>
<p>I had similar nightmare with a Dell. For us, that particular manufacturer was a four letter word in our house.</p>
<p>Thanks for the letter suggestion. I’m going to e-mail that to him as a great next step.</p>
<p>He bought the computer directly from Toshiba’s website and customized it to get exactly what he wanted. He loved the computer, but now has been without it [working] for 3 months. My patience is exhausted.</p>
<p>FWIW, we’ve heard similar about Dell and won’t head their way for our next computers. Someone out there must have both a good product and good customer service if needed.</p>
<p>Have you looked into the school’s resources? Most univ. bookstores or computer centers have tie-ins with Apple and a PC-alternative, and offer a few standard platforms that the school will provide support for.</p>
<p>We bought our sons’ computers through their colleges. That way there were support programs for the purchases. I’m now using my son’s desk top from 6 years ago. </p>
<p>We have had some computer issues to on laptops purchased, Unfortunately, no brand is exempt from this kind of problem. If you look at message boards, these things seem to happen all of the time. I’m sorry this happened,and fear it happening here too. What a pain when things like that don’t work out.</p>
<p>PC World has a column that deals with problems that people have with getting companies to provide customer service. With luck, maybe they will decide to take up your battle.</p>
<p>He needs to contact Toshiba again but go up through the supervisor ranks to get to someone who has a brain and can do something other than reading off of a script. They’ll often resist giving you to a supervisor including saying inane things like ‘they’ are the only one in the office and there’s no supervisor available which is bogus. However, if he persists he can usually get transferred to a supervisor but if he gets no satisfaction there then he needs to get to another level. I sometimes will specifically ask to speak to a USA based person when I know I’m talking to someone in India. The India based support people in my experience only speak from scripts, aren’t permitted to think for themselves, can’t communicate well, and are rude whereas someone at the USA based one is easier to deal with although you’ll still need to get past the first string. I don;t know if Toshiba’s call center is India based or if they have a USA based one.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t drop this. He can write the letter but I’d also get back on the phone and work through this. It might take an hour or two on the phone. If your S isn’t very good at working through things like this on the phone then maybe one of the parents can do it. The caller should be even keeled, not yell or curse or make personal attacks against the support person, but be very strong and take no guff from them.</p>
<p>btw - I’ve had call center issues with both Dell and HP (I haven’t had a Toshiba in a long time so I have no experience there) and you have to be persistent with the call center people (India based) at both of those companies as well. When buying a PC next time I’ll use the location of their call center as a key feature to decide which vendor I’ll buy from.</p>
<p>He may have already tried this, but I thought I would relate my experience just in case it might help. I had the same thing happen when my laptop had to have it’s hard drive replaced- I needed a password, but I had never set one up. I called the the people who had done the work and they told me to try either the word “password” or the company name. One or the other worked (I don’t remember which one), and I had my computer back!</p>
<p>When I am told there is no supervisor there or the person is not available I simply tell them I don’t believe that and that I have all day and will hold until I speak to a supervisor. Rinse and repeat until I get to the person who has the authority to actually do something. This can sometimes take a few hours, days or even weeks. More than a few times I have had to go all the way to the CEO (Northworst Airlines, an internet provider and years ago whatever the phone company was before it became Verizon.) </p>
<p>Always get the person’s name and title who you are talking to and the name of their supervisor at the beginning of the call, and a phone number in case you get disconnected. Also, do not let them talk you into having the supervisor call you back - so make sure when you call you have plenty of free time. </p>
<p>I don’t really have any especially helpful advice, but I do empathize. My husband and I had a Toshiba laptop years ago that needed to be repaired. (As best I recall, the CD drive and the A drive both stopped working.) The details of our experience were different from yours, of course, but the entire ordeal was similarly infuriating, and I also vowed never, ever to buy anything from Toshiba again. </p>
<p>I think they did eventually repair the CD drive, but the A drive (for floppy disks – this really was a long time ago) never worked. Eventually, we just bought a new laptop from another company.</p>
<p>Try posting a request for help on a Toshiba user forum if wondering23’s suggestion doesn’t work. And send something to the consumerist blog, a well-trafficked avenging angel of consumerism . </p>
<p>If you or your son has a twitter account, send a tweet about Toshiba’s actions. Some companies keep an eye on twitter to see if they can quickly address bad customer press. </p>
<p>Make sure your son is keeping notes on the times and dates of the calls, the name of the person with whom he talked, and what transpired. If he doesn’t get quick resolution, have him do a search to find the phone number for customer relations or similar at Toshiba’s US headquarters. Call them, explain that you’ve been unable to get resolution from the usual customer help channels, and that you need to have this escalated. Be polite but firm. If things get really tough, or you can’t find the head of customer relations, call the company phone line and ask to be transferred to the office of the CEO. Asking for the CEO tags you as a loony but asking for the office of the CEO generally seems perfectly sane. </p>
<p>Call your credit card company and put the amount of the repair into dispute, asking for a charge-back. Harder to do if you’ve already paid the bill, but worth a shot.</p>
<p>Are there any consumer advocate groups in your area that can help you, e.g. those affiliated with a TV station or newspaper? In my area there are a few and they can often get a better response from companies once they realize their lousy customer service can garner bad publicity.</p>
<p>creekland:
My guess is that when Toshiba got the laptop they either updated the BIOS or applied some default settings to it which somehow included the HDD password. I suggest that when their support is called again on the issue, you (or S) explain the issue again but this time ask them if there’s a default passowrd the set - like ‘Toshiba’, ‘password’, ‘’ (i.e. just a blank), the serial number of the laptop used as the pw, or something like that. He can try these i suggested but assuming they won’t work, he can ask about the default. </p>
<p>S called and said he received an e-mail from Toshiba saying his computer was sent out today. He doesn’t know if it’s coming here or to his college. The tracking number says, “N/A.” (What does that mean? No tracking?)</p>
<p>I’m hoping they fixed it just to get rid of the hassle. I’m not going to hold my breath. When it arrives on Monday or Tuesday we’ll have to see. Then, if not fixed, we’ll try the default passwords suggested and move up from there if necessary. I’m expecting it to arrive here as that’s where he sent it from.</p>
<p>We haven’t paid for any repairs, so there’s nothing we need to get back, but considering it’s less than a year old, customized, and he bought a warranty, he does want a working computer without having to pay extra for something he didn’t do!</p>
<p>Is there a laptop brand out there that DOESN"T give customers a problem? Are there good customer service departments anywhere? I wondering…it doesn’t seem so.</p>
<p>Since that one Toshiba laptop, we (myself, DH, DS1 and DS2) have owned laptops made by Dell, Asus, and Apple, and have never had anything like the unbelievable problems we had with Toshiba’s support.</p>
<p>Apple!!! My son’s 4 year-old macbook’s battery was dying and had swelled, and the case was breaking where he closed it, and he took it to the Mac place and - get this, they replaced the whole case and gave him a new battery and it wasn’t even under warranty!!! He told me that he is so grateful he plans on being a loyal apple user forever. :)</p>
<p>I had a couple of Toshiba laptops years ago and never needed service. We’ve bought Dells for years now, desktops and laptops. I always spring for the on-site service contract. It’s a bit more money. They’ve replaced a CD drive and a couple of monitors (sent them and I did the switch). A technician spent 3 hours with me on the phone to get my laptop going again after a bad virus infection, followed by inept campus help to clean it. S2 is the only one who actually had to have someone come. We got him a laptop for hs graduation and it had a couple of bad memory chips. Technician came next day to install them, and then a support person spent a couple of hours on the phone talking him through reinstalling things. I’ve often been very perturbed by what went wrong but always satisfied with the service I got.</p>
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