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2014-12-16
1/5
"I bought a Toshiba Satellite L45T-A4230NR in August of 2013, which comes with a standard 1 year warranty. About 3/4 of the way into the 1 year warranty (May 2014), the hard drive died (think infamous blue screen). After numerous phone calls I finally received instructions to pay for the shipping and to ship it to a Toshiba-certified repair shop. I received the repaired notebook about 1 and 1/2 weeks later and everything seemed to be working well.
Three months after the warranty expired, the hdd crashed again. It would start up and work for a couple of minutes, but then it would freeze and the hard drive would stop working (or at least it wasn't making any noise). The next day, knowing that it was out of warranty and therefore Toshiba wouldn't really do anything to help, I took it to a computer expert. The expert told me that the hdd has died and it's only at about 20% capacity. He also asked me why I had a REFURBISHED hdd and explained that refurbished hdds are used hard drives which were broken and then repaired. However, refurbished hdds could NEVER BE REPAIRED fully and the old problems always CAME BACK (which was why I was having issues with this supposedly "new" hdd).
Indeed, I was quite surprised to find out that Toshiba had used a refurbished hard drive for the repair because I wasn't informed of that fact and was left with the impression that a new hdd was put in (having no reason to check it, I did not discover this fact until the hdd died again). I asked the computer expert to double check if it was really a refurbished hdd and found out that the hdd had a label stating it was "refurbished." Why is this a problem? Well, using refurbished hdds is apparently illegal because it's like "repairing" a laptop with a defective product ON PURPOSE. In other words, Toshiba would still be LIABLE for any issues caused by the refurbished hdd their repair shop put in (even if the warranty for the computer had expired).
Of course, I called Toshiba (I spoke with a woman called Florence) to ask them why they used refurbished hard drives during repairs, if it just meant that the person receiving the repair will have to deal with another hard drive disaster in a few months. At this, Toshiba denied that they ever used refurbished hard drives and told me that I must be wrong. I explained that their repair serviceman was the last to ever touch the hdd and there was a "refurbished" sign on the hdd when an expert looked at it because it crashed again. At this, they reiterated that they do not use refurbished hard drives for repair and basically insinuated that I conjured a refurbished drive out of nowhere and put it in my laptop so I can crash it. Now, as much as I appreciate Toshiba's overestimation of my technical savviness, there is no way I'd pull off such an elaborate scheme just so I could crash my own computer a few months after repairs and have to deal with the aftermath of all my lost files. I even asked, if they had a system in place to keep track of hard drives they replaced (so I could just read the serial number on the refurbished hdd and they could check it against their system to prove they put it there) and conveniently enough, they told me they don't keep track of the products they repair (?!).
I tried talking to a supervisor (a guy named Robin) as well, but he told me that because my warranty had expired and because Toshiba only uses new hard drives in repairs, the only think he could do was file a complaint about how my "refurbished hdd of unknown origins" ended up in my laptop after Toshiba repairs. He told me my only recourse was to call the repair department and pay for an out-of-warranty repair which would cost virtually the same as the original price of the notebook. Coincidentally, when I asked the out-of-warranty repairman if Toshiba can guarantee that this time, I won't end up with a random refurbished hdd after the repair, I was told not to worry because the repairmen buy the hdds on their own and get reimbursed after the repair. When I inquired as to how they make sure that the repairmen don't buy refurbished hard discs, I was told that they just don't. Well Toshiba, according to my magically-appearing refurbished hdd, at least one does. Needless to say, I began looking for a new laptop.
The next day, I got a call from the supervisor I had filed the complaint with. His advice was to buy a new laptop because it would be the same price as the repair. The kicker? When I looked up available laptops within the price range and specifications he mentioned, none of them were Toshiba laptops. Yes, that's right! A customer service supervisor for Toshiba basically told me that in order to solve my problem, I should not buy a Toshiba laptop. Well, I'm happy to report that I'll take that advice to heart and this was the first and will be THE LAST TIME I buy a Toshiba!!!"
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2014-12-16
1/5
"I bought a Toshiba Satellite L45T-A4230NR in August of 2013, which comes with a standard 1 year warranty. About 3/4 of the way into the 1 year warranty (May 2014), the hard drive died (think infamous blue screen). After numerous phone calls I finally received instructions to pay for the shipping and to ship it to a Toshiba-certified repair shop. I received the repaired notebook about 1 and 1/2 weeks later and everything seemed to be working well.
Three months after the warranty expired, the hdd crashed again. It would start up and work for a couple of minutes, but then it would freeze and the hard drive would stop working (or at least it wasn't making any noise). The next day, knowing that it was out of warranty and therefore Toshiba wouldn't really do anything to help, I took it to a computer expert. The expert told me that the hdd has died and it's only at about 20% capacity. He also asked me why I had a REFURBISHED hdd and explained that refurbished hdds are used hard drives which were broken and then repaired. However, refurbished hdds could NEVER BE REPAIRED fully and the old problems always CAME BACK (which was why I was having issues with this supposedly "new" hdd).
Indeed, I was quite surprised to find out that Toshiba had used a refurbished hard drive for the repair because I wasn't informed of that fact and was left with the impression that a new hdd was put in (having no reason to check it, I did not discover this fact until the hdd died again). I asked the computer expert to double check if it was really a refurbished hdd and found out that the hdd had a label stating it was "refurbished." Why is this a problem? Well, using refurbished hdds is apparently illegal because it's like "repairing" a laptop with a defective product ON PURPOSE. In other words, Toshiba would still be LIABLE for any issues caused by the refurbished hdd their repair shop put in (even if the warranty for the computer had expired).
Of course, on 12/15 I called Toshiba (I spoke with a woman called Florence) to ask them why they used refurbished hard drives during repairs, if it just meant that the person receiving the repair will have to deal with another hard drive disaster in a few months. At this, Toshiba denied that they ever used refurbished hard drives and told me that I must be wrong. I explained that their repair serviceman was the last to ever touch the hdd and there was a "refurbished" sign on the hdd when an expert looked at it because it crashed again. At this, they reiterated that they do not use refurbished hard drives for repair and basically insinuated that I conjured a refurbished drive out of nowhere and put it in my laptop so I can crash it. Now, as much as I appreciate Toshiba's overestimation of my technical savviness, there is no way I'd pull off such an elaborate scheme just so I could crash my own computer a few months after repairs and have to deal with the aftermath of all my lost files. I even asked, if they had a system in place to keep track of hard drives they replaced (so I could just read the serial number on the refurbished hdd and they could check it against their system to prove they put it there) and conveniently enough, they told me they don't keep track of the products they repair (?!).
I tried talking to a supervisor (a guy named Robin) as well, but he told me that because my warranty had expired and because Toshiba only uses new hard drives in repairs, the only thing he could do was file a complaint about how my "refurbished hdd of unknown origins" ended up in my laptop after Toshiba repairs. He told me my only recourse was to call the repair department and pay for an out-of-warranty repair which would cost virtually the same as the original price of the notebook (or sue, which would cost more). Coincidentally, when I asked the out-of-warranty repairman if Toshiba can guarantee that this time, I won't end up with a random refurbished hdd after the repair, I was told not to worry because the repairmen buy the hdds on their own and get reimbursed after the repair. When I inquired as to how they make sure that the repairmen don't buy refurbished hard discs, I was told that they just don't. Well Toshiba, according to my magically-appearing refurbished hdd, at least one does. Needless to say, I began looking for a new laptop.
The next day, I got a call from the supervisor I had filed the complaint with. His advice was to buy a new laptop because it would be the same price as the repair. The kicker? When I looked up available laptops within the price range and specifications he mentioned, none of them were Toshiba laptops. Yes, that's right! A customer service supervisor for Toshiba basically told me that in order to solve my problem, I should not buy a Toshiba laptop. Well, I'm happy to report that I'll take that advice to heart and this was the first and will be THE LAST TIME I buy a Toshiba!!!"
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