Remember the commercial where all you see is the upper floor of an office building; then suddenly the mirrored glass shatters and a CRT monitor flies through the window and smashes into the parking lot a few stories below?
I've been away from the blog for a while to visit with my family, work on a few client projects, and study.This topic, however, brought me back to the blog. It even made me think of a new challenge.
I just took a look at my recent comments. So many people, having the same problems with Toshiba Tech support, are sharing their frustrations and asking for help on my blog. These are folks who have spent thousands on new Tablet PCs from Toshiba. This, in addition to the many who've written to me directly to ask if I knew a way to get support from Toshiba. [I don't.] It does not appear to matter whether or not extended warranty support was purchased or not. Ouch! [I wonder if Toshiba has anyone reading blogs. If so, they would do well to read the user comments to any of these posts.]
I myself have been collecting a small list of problems (I've blogged about these here) that I plan to submit to Toshiba. Right now, my Tablet PC is working for me and I've learned to ignore most of the problems. I am almost to the point of announcing that I'm YABHTU. Just a few issues in the way. Unfortunately, only Toshiba can help, and, well ...
I will probably end up purchasing a new computer and then ship my M4 in for repair. It makes me sick to think about doing it this way, especially since my M4 is not even a year old and since I paid many hundreds of dollars for the extra warranties, screen coverage, and service agreements from Toshiba. After reading and speaking with people who've been down the Toshiba Support path, I'm scared to send off my only Tablet PC without a backup - not knowing if I'll see it again or in what condition. I hope I will be able to blog about my wonderful support experience with Toshiba. I promise to blog either way.
What's ironic is that I actually would consider buying a new or used second M4 as a spare. Other than the DVD eject button issue I blogged about, I think the hardware is well designed and I'd gladly buy another. It's just the support issue (or lack thereof) that concerns me. While I'm pleased with my Tablet PC and will continue to recommend the platform, I certainly cannot recommend a Toshiba unit to a client in good faith without fully disclosing the support experiences described on this blog, too.
When I'm ready to get my M4 repaired, I'll blog the experience here. That could be an adventure much more challenging than my paperless challenge.
Speaking of challenge, here's an idea for my next challenge: I wonder if I could convince someone at Toshiba Support to look up my warranties and ship me a fully functional Tecra M4 Tablet PC, identical to the one I have. I'll then swap my drive into it so that I can get back to work. Then, we'll chronicle the Toshiba Support experience here on the blog as a resource to others in the Tablet PC community. On second thought, that's a lot of work and, based on other Toshiba customer's experiences, it could take months to complete the challenge. Still, it's an interesting concept.
Meanwhile, if any of you have tips to offer to the many readers of my blog about how to resolve their Toshiba support issues, please post.
Eric
P.S. I'll look up the email addresses that I have for a few executives at Toshiba Corporate and Toshiba Direct. I won't post them here, but I'll send them a link to this blog. Perhaps we can help Toshiba understand that we would remain loyal customers if we were supported. The readers of this blog represent a significant investment in Toshiba Products. I don't know about you, but I know that I will purchase (and recommend) many computers in my lifetime. I'm sure that's worth something to at least one computer company.
ONE MORE THING: Toshiba: if you've found this blog and would like to respond to me via email, I will promise to post your response, in its entirety, here on my blog. Ultimately, all I want is to solve my own problems and help out the many readers of my blog who, like me, spent thousands - perhaps hundreds of thousands - of dollars to purchase your products.
Updated: 10:48 PM PST. I need to find out how much I actually paid for all of my various warranties & support agreements.
Discussion/Comments (22):
As far as the eject button thing, I gave up and just replaced the drive with a 2nd battery. Solved the battery life issue and eject button in one fell swoop. :)
And, I replaced the 60gb drive with a 100gb drive, so any cds or dvds I may have needed I just keep on the drive.
Posted at 03/02/2006 19:12:29 by Paolo
Eric,
You might check this post out at Tablet PC Buzz. If you intend to buy a back-up tablet before you send yours in, and would be willing to buy another Tecra (no surprise here, I'm very happy with mine) you two may be able to help each other.
{ Link }
I practically never need a CD/DVD while away from my desk so I've installed mine in the Toshiba docking station. Replacing it in the M4 with a battery makes it more viable as a portable-as does the 4700 MAH main battery.
Posted at 03/03/2006 4:08:36 by Steve New
I just finished having a terrible experience with HP repair. It took them a solid month to repair my tablet. I couldn't get answers. I just got shuffled from call center to call center, drone to drone.
They STILL haven't fixed it, but they finally replaced it. I will never buy another HP computer. But now you say Toshiba service is also no good? Who's left?
IBM? Motion? Are they any better, or have we just not heard their horror stories yet?
Posted at 03/05/2006 10:59:18 by Andy
I have had an awful experience with Toshiba customer support with my M200. The only way I got the system fixed in a decent amount of time was to buy the 'At Home Service' which essentially means they send a Tech directly out to your house.
Their call centre is pathetic.
Posted at 03/21/2006 10:57:39 by Drew
I had trouble with Toshiba right from the start. Some bright spark at Toshiba arbitrarily cancelled my order for a customised M4 with the 6600 Go. No notice and they kept my money. It took over a month to finally get them to acknowledge what they'd done - no apology - and by then the 6600 was removed as an option. When the option was finally available again they made me place a new order, and charged me again. The second order was processed quickly, but I had to wait a month again after delivery to get a refund for the first unit I ordered.
I like the M4, but I'll consider every other manufacturer first before I buy from Toshiba again. All told it took nearly five months to get mine and Toshiba kept my money the entire time.
Posted at 04/02/2006 5:12:59 by Ian
I am writing to express my deep disappointment and concern about the quality of Toshiba products and also its post-sale service gave from their authorized agents.
On December 2004 I bought a Toshiba laptop, model A75A, in Miami, Fl., specifically at a Best Buy Shop. Only just five months later my laptop started to overheat and immediately shut down by itself, causing me uncountable problems at work and business school. It was unbelievable! that in only five months my brand new personal computer which I have recently bought following the supposed reputation of Toshiba brand gave such a big problem.
On august 2005, I sent the machine to an authorized agent at Caracas City – Venezuela where I was informed that the Pentium 4 Processor and Mother Board had serious problems. I had to wait four weeks to receive it repaired on September 2005.
Just four months later of the reparation, another problem started to show up. On March 2006 the authorized agent checked the machine for second time reporting a new failure: the charged system on the mother board was damaged.
But this time, I was informed that the guarantee expired, so I should pay almost US$ 500 for the replacement.
Sincerely, it is unconceivable that in just four months the machine shows a new problem again in the mother board.
I feel very upset but also cheated by Toshiba.
David
Posted at 04/08/2006 20:02:32 by David
Chalk another one up to Toshiba being horrendous to work with. I bought three projectors. While I was pleased with how they work, the screen resolution etc, one of them quit working after only three days. It has been in a repair center for almost 2 months at this point. Toshiba refuses to send a replacement. When I informed them that they should, they were rude and hostile towards me . . . that's not nice! Now, after only 1.5 months of use another projector has quit working. I don't know what to do. I haven't even got the first one back. I FEEL CHEATED! It's kind of like "Tech NON-Support". I preditct this company will be out of business soon because of their horrible repair and warranty policies.
My sales rep at Dell informed me that if I bought a projector from him, and it had problems, I could ship it back and they would send me a replacement. How nice. I guess I will buy from projetors from Dell from now on. I'm not as impressed with the product, but the service is excellent.
Posted at 04/27/2006 13:37:06 by Cody
I bought a Toshiba laptop from Costco in January 2003 and had no problems until near the end of my extended warranty in January 2006. The hinges were bad for the screen. Also at that time my floppy drive went bad.
I had the express service, for which I paid extra, and sent it in to Toshiba. They fixed the floppy drive almost imediately, but they had to wait for the hinges to come in because they were on back order.
After two weeks, they still had not received the hinges and said it would be two more weeks. After two more weeks, a total of four weeks, they still had not received the hinges, and they told me it would be two more weeks.
I also have to mention that I called a half a dozen to a dozen times into Toshiba to get updates and to try to get them to do anything.
At that point I contacted a local Toshiba service provider, and they told me they could order the parts for me and I could bring it in after the parts came in. So I told Toshiba to send back my laptop.
They did so, and within about three weeks the local Toshiba service provider told me to bring my laptop in for service. The local provider then installed the hinges within about three hours after dropping it off.
I purchased an additional fourth year of exteneded warranty coverage in January '06, before I had dealt with Toshiba's support.
About two months after getting my computer fixed, in March '06, the hard drive froze and wouldn't start again. Also, the headphones jack would only give mono, not stereo. I took it to the same local Toshiba service provider for repair.
After 12 days I was informed that they could not work on it without verfication of warranty coverage. I provided verification in the form of an e-mail receipt I had gotten from Toshiba to the local provider at the time I dropped off the computer. That was not good enough for the local service provider, but they waited 12 days to tell me that it wasn't good enough. So I had to get Toshiba to update their records or send an exception code to the local provider.
I was given the runaround from Toshiba in just trying to give the authorization to the local provider. It took about a half a dozen calls, or more, before they finally got the authorization to the local provider. So after two weeks in the shop, they finally started working on my laptop, but only after another trip to the provider to give them the recovery disk, which they didn't ask for initially.
They put the recovery disk in and said that it is now working. They have ordered the part for the headphones jack and told me it's up to Toshiba on when it's repaired because they're at Toshiba's mercy as to when they send them the part. It could be two days or two months.
I would never buy another Toshiba computer. I have talked to Toshiba countless times on trying to accomplish repairs. I'm told the call center is located in India. Most of the people you talk to are hard to understand, and they're extremely dense. It's like pulling teeth to get anything done. You have to call time and time again to accomplish anything.
Posted at 05/14/2006 12:00:42 by John
I have had an irritating experience with Toshiba Support too. The motherboard on my Portege failed and I sent it in under the express service warranty plan I purchased. The service tech logged in the wrong code, so it was handled 2nd day air rather than next business day. I wrote to complain, and this morning received a phone call from Toshiba acknowledging the mistake but refusing to refund the extra I paid for express service. It's a minor point, but the attitude of this company is a turn-off.
Posted at 05/15/2006 8:59:49 by Jeffrey Steenson
Ouch. My M4's been acting up lately, too. I'm concerned that my screen is about of give up.
Posted at 05/16/2006 14:05:01 by Eric Mack
Toshiba is horrible. I have had mine for less than three months and have tried to get service, but instead got run around.
Not only is tech support useless, customer service just puts you in a loop with no solution. I have tried to search for a complaint document, but they conviently do not offer such.
I may just call 7 on your side to see about resolving the issue or at least getting some money back. Cause a two month old laptop should work!
Posted at 05/22/2006 15:02:57 by fiona
My Satellite laptop is in repair now since 2 months. Toshiba does not answer emails. The local Toshiba Service Provider cannot do anything because Toshiba refuses to send the parts they need.
I paid a lot of money for extra warranty (4 years international with repair within 5 days). That was a waste of money, and so is the notebook.
Posted at 06/01/2006 9:57:24 by BVPERU
Please Mr. Mack be very wary of recommending Toshiba to anyone EVER.
The post by Fiona sums up the experience i had perfectly. I wonder if she is a London England customer too.
Posted at 06/04/2006 7:04:18 by Peter
My husband is a medical doctor and has a international career: That is working on ships all over the world. Also in NZ.
We are citizens of South Africa. We bought a Toshiba Laptop with a three year international warranty because of above reason. The laptop needed repair under warrantee while we were in New Zealand. We handed the laptop in at the LAPTOP COMPANY, Wellington, NZ.
They told us that they need to order the part from South Africa and that will take one and a half week. After six weeks we got tremendously irritated because we need our laptop because we must admin big business in South Africa.
I just want to tell you that your “three year international warranty” is a total joke. We are at the brink of leaving NZ and still battle to get our Laptop repaired, because of your policy that the part had to be SHIPPED from South Africa!!!! We must suffer from one internet cafe to another. The way you honour a three year warranty is a disgrace!!! What if it needs repair when we are only one week in a country?
I will never consider buying a Toshiba again and will also advice my friends not to support the Toshiba brand.
Thank you
Susan Barnard
Posted at 06/04/2006 11:38:07 by Susan Barnard
I have just e-mailed the following to Toshiba GERMANY, I have found no e-mail for USA.
Dear Sirs, I have found no way of contacting service support by e-mail.
I have a Qosmio part N° PQF 10U-00K00H, serial N° X4070871H, purchased in the US on Dec 2004, that begun having green vertical lines on the screen on booting, and then just a black screen.
I already restored the computer with the original disks with no result.
Making a web search, I found that this is quite a common ocurrence with that model, that appears to be factory defective, there are even mentions to "silent recalls" by Toshiba, and "repair under warranty" fot that issue, even after the initial one year period.
I cannot beleive that Toshiba, beein a serious company, will leave customers with a defective product without a solution.
What can i do?
Thanks.
Posted at 06/04/2006 14:00:58 by Mario Poblete
I BOUGHT MY 13 YEAR OLD GRANDSON A TOSHIBA SATELLITE A100/A105 ON THE 7TH OF JUNE 2006 ON THE 30 OF JUNE HAD TO TAKE IT TO THE STORE BEST BUY FOR REPAIR THEY TELL ME SINCE I DID NOT BUY AN EXTENDED WARRENTY THEY HAVE TO SEND IT TO THE MANUFACTURER WILL I EVER SEE THIS $500.00 COMPUTER AGAIN ALL FOR A BACK LIGHT GONE OUT IN LESS THAN A MONTH I COULD NOT RETURN IT ACCORDING TO BEST BUYS' RULES IT HAS TO BE WITHIN 14 DAYS WILL I EVER BUY TOSHIBA OR BEST BUY AGAIN NO NEVER
NINE
Posted at 07/08/2006 10:41:47 by FREIDA RUFFIN
I bought a Portege tablet after six months the trim around the top was coming off. We had a 3yr extended warranty (JOKE)Best Buy sent it in and they sent it back said it was abused. It was used daily, not abused.
Best Buy has given me the run around on other network problems, told me they would not fix it because the hard drive crashed, I picked it up and it worked fine. Still no wireless network. When I called to complain they said it was going to crash so they would not fix the network! My attorney is sending a letter today. Do not purchase extended warranty. They do not honor basic warranty. You are wasting your money. Toshiba and Best Buy will not see me again!
Posted at 07/20/2006 14:40:24 by T Rimbey
Hi!
Same problem with me. Purchased Satellite pro M30 in Saudi and now i stay in Hyderabad, India. I hold a 3 year international warranty for which I paid a huge amount. Looks like my system has a motherboard problem. When called the HCL, India who is Thoshiba authorised service personnel in india, they told that only chennai & b'lore in India has international warranty service and they cannot serice the laptop. When check if I can give them out of warranty they ask Rs.2500 for diagnosis of the problem. I wrote to Thoshiba - middle east, india, HCl and the place I purchased the system asking help. It has been 15 days none of them has responded.
It is really frustrating. Hope people reading this will aviod wasting money on international warranty
Posted at 08/11/2006 23:54:21 by saravanan
The back up service of Toshiba.
Who can tell me at TOSHIBA,is the waiting time before you get some service about 8-10minutes before you answer the phone after they put you through to repairs? Is it only lack of intelligence or don't they how to answer the phone??
I thought United Kingdom is a first world country,but I think South Africa has better service than Toshiba UK. Guess what happened to me,you write a comical play about my experience!!!
I bought about two years ago a Toshiba Tecra P9100 laptop that has a three year international warranty.Then I started to get serious problems.
Screen went blue when switched on,take about 35minutes before log in.
Then it start to make funny noises when working with beeps on any key selected.
Sent in for repairs.
Came back and accupoint mouse not working and keyboard faulty.
Number "1" gives Browse by Page,short cut on Word doc
Key A gives the following " ~BN¬A"
Tab log you out of all programmes
Ctrl+Esc gives windows task manager
Accupoint not working at all
Results from Toshiba was the mouse unit was not replaced and is part of the keyboard and the Mother board went again.
All will be replaced free of charge and time will be much faster.
I could not use it and it has to be sent in again.DHL collect the laptop and after three weeks I received it.Even then the wait for the laptop was not a good experience.
On the 20th of July I had to send in the laptop again with the following faults:
· Cd drive not working
· Power jack is loose
· Cooling fan makes funny noises
· Cursor moves of track by itself and does not stand still
After eight days the laptop came back.The accupoint mouse still not working and even the touch pad buttons are not active.I have to use a external mouse to do any work.
The screen had INTERNAL marks and the answer to my question is,Toshiba damaged it while in their position.Either they cleaned the screen while it was switched on or TOOOOOO much pressure when the cleaned it while it was switched off.
I phoned them the following day and report the screen and the accupoint mouse is still not working.I received the basic reference number and the laptop will be collected the next day by DHL.
On the 14th of August I phoned Toshiba and spoke to Micheal, to find out what is going on and when will I receive my laptop.He told me that they are still waiting for parts and I just have to wait.I asked him do I then even have to wait two months because the parts can't be find in the UK.He did not have any answers and put me through to his supervisor.
Unluckily I did not have his name,but he corrected all the details with the reports on their system.He said they are waiting for the systemboard,(it was not faulty when I handed it in) and the accupoint module.He gave me a reference number
and said I must call them on the 18th August.
On the 18th I called and gave the reference number.Spoke to Suzanne who is handling the case.I asked what is wrong and when will I receive my laptop.She said that she will find out and call me back.She called me back and said they have to order new parts and it will be there on the 21st of August and then it will be replaced.I asked what part and she said the system board.Why do they want to replace a new systemboard?
On the 21 I phoned again and ask if the laptop is repaired.Suzannes said the part they ordered,an antenna,is not responding and they have to replace that.The antenna??how can the antenna has an effect on the accupoint mouse and screen that must be repaired??
I phoned on the 22nd August at 09:40 and ask if there's any progress.Suzanne said she will phone me back and I have to wait.At 09:51 Suzanne called me and said the antenna is not responding.I said I will phone later then.
At 12:00 I phoned and speak to another person and ask some questions about the laptop and how long do I still have to wait.He made if he could not hear me and when I repeat the question slowly and neatly to him,he deliberately switched the phone off.I called again and when I was sent to laptop repairs,report it and spoke directly to Suzanne.She said to me the laptop is repaired and will be with me the next morning between 9-12 o'clock.
In conclusion to this scenario,what do you,Toshiba,think will happend when I send this report to the Mertro News where every one in London area read it every day on the Tube or Overland train? Your shares on the market will tumble because there are more than hundred people that has the same experience and did not know what to do.
I canceled my order to buy a Toshiba note book and projector from a Toshiba dealer in London,just because of the of the poor quality of service I endured.
Do you guys and girlsin the USA have the same problems like I did in the UK? Please let me know.
Regards
Henning
Posted at 08/22/2006 14:42:27 by Henning Ras
Its to my great disappointment that i bought a Toshiba state of the art notebook only to find it does not work after three days of its purchase and to top it when i contacted the show room and informed them about the problem, I had to call several times to get my problem across and the agent suggested why you did not by the Sony one its better and Toshiba was a cheaper choice.
After speaking to him for 20 minutes on overseas call i was convinced that he would solve the problem only to my surprise i got a mail stating i have to bear the expense of shipping it back and then also i have to bear the expense of getting it back.
I did not buy an expensive device to send it back for repair or exchange; i have been using Toshiba for quite some time and know its value very well.
I am totally dissatisfied by the way of treatment and also the poor quality of device being sold to me.
The above was purchased from Jumbo Electronic , Deira City Centre ,Store Manager , Neil Dadula Bisquera
Cash Memo no. RI 425890
DATE OF PURCHASE 23/08/06
Posted at 08/26/2006 9:46:06 by Manish Pandey
What support? I am a redheaded 60 year old woman who taught English in an Alabama high school. I know how to teach and I speak to be understood. I have tried hard to keep up with technology but with such poorly English speaking and understanding (however nice) people, I have resigned to leaving the heart attack region and just start complaining. (not that I have not complained in the past)
Is there anyway to remedy the situation at Toshiba NO support centers about the way they treat their customers? I think it is a current and future way of life! Outsourceing is forever! I think I have been quite clear. Thanks for the gripe session.
Posted at 09/11/2006 11:11:41 by Runette Finch
It's frustrating to receive complaints, almost daily, about Toshiba support when there's little that I can do personally to help my fellow tablet PC users.
I did do one thing today and that was to write to Toshiba (again) and invite them to respond on my blog or send me an email that I will post on their behalf.
I hope this will help.
Posted at 09/11/2006 12:53:51 by Eric Mack