Disatisfied notebook owner with an aftersales support

Question

Is Toshiba making its customers victims of its success? Generally reliable products resulting in a poor aftersales support?
I have been using laptops for business and pleasure for several years without fault and as the satisfied owner of Toshiba TVs and other electronic equipment decided to buy one of their laptops.
I paid in full for a new L series and after 6 months of normal use it stopped charging. Felt like the pin in the machine the charger plugs into was loose.
I contacted the supplier and they accepted it would need repairing and after apologising for my inconvenience, were happy to carry it out but pointed out it would probably be repaired quicker if I contacted Toshiba and asked them to carry out the repairs.
So I did. And it just goes down hill from there. First mistake was mine, not registering the warranty. So I tried to do that. But I'd bought on line and as my six month old machine was apparently manufactured 11months and 28 days ago, I had to provide evidence of purchase. Offering to email a copy of my bank statement showing the purchase date, price and supplier was not satisfactory.
This meant contacting the supplier in London during office hours, the same as I work, and therefore not easy to do. They emailed me a copy of this and I then spent two nights trying to forward this to Toshiba for verification.
This I eventually did and the next day during another lunch hour, rang to arrange collection. I was put though to a repair tech who said yes, we can repair this but his manager told him it would not be a warranty repair, regardless of the fact it was only six months old. I rang off, not happy.
Next day, I rang back, spoke to some one else and was able to arrange for collection, having been told that if, in their view, it was my fault it was not working I'd have to pay for repairs and the return fee of almost 80. These threats, and thats how i view them, were given regardless of my statement that it was used normally like all the other ones I'd used for years and was less than 6months old.
The following Monday, it was not collected as agreed. It was collected on Tuesday and not packed by the collection company as I was told, I did it as the driver did not know how the box worked. Neither did I but I did it. And, as instructed, I did not include the charger unit.
It was returned, unannounced, at the beginning of the third week, over four since it stopped working. By way of explanation, a two line note was found behind the address label saying the DC In lead changed, battery tested.
Happy just to have it back, I took it home, plugged it in and it doesn't work. Looks like the charger is faulty as well as the pin. I am so not looking forward to tring to get this bit sorted.
Sorry this is so long winded but this is my experience of Toshiba's after sales service. I can't help but wonder if I am the only dissapointed, disallusioned and angry customer out there and am curious to hear of the treatment others have experienced.

Answer 1

Hello
At first sorry to hear you have this negative experience but in such situation you must be a little bit realistic. It is well known that notebook manufacturers or any other manufacturer by different products recommend product registration and it should be done pretty quickly and not 6 months later. Last month I bought pretty expensive vacuum cleaner with 5 years warranty and I have registered immediately. Now if something goes wrong I can be sure it will be repaired for free.
Anyway, it is nice to hear you made one big mistake.
I use two Toshiba notebooks and I have registered both of them after first start immediately when this option was offered even before operating system started for the first time.
Unfortunately I cannot help you with your case but just want to write about mine experiences.
After just one month of usage motherboard on my Satellite A300 died. I just wanted to connect external HDD but some electric shock destroyed whole power supply electronic and my external HDD was dead too.
I have contacted Toshiba service in my country and next day I was in the shop. I didn't want to be arrogant or make some kind of pressure and just kindly asked if this can be fixed as soon as possible.
You will not believe me 7 days later I got my notebook back with new motherboard.
I was so happy so I paid coffee for two technicians who have managed all this.
One more time sorry to hear you had bad luck with all this but I think it is not to give general statements about service worldwide. Maybe the guys in my country are more motivated to do good job. ;)