Back to Toshiba Travails
| Date | Days | Biz Days |
|
| Friday Aug 11, 2000 |
I received my spiffy new Toshiba Satellite Pro 4300 | ||
| Thursday Aug 17, 2000 |
My spiffy new Toshiba Satellite Pro 4300 refuses to boot. It hangs at the startup screen and will not boot from floppy, CD, or HDD. So I call tech support. They issue a case number and refer me to a local service center. I should have returned it to the vendor, but I decided on repair. | ||
| Thursday Aug 17, 2000 |
Due to the service center's distance and a few other factors I elect to ship the machine off to Toshiba for repair directly, thinking this will be just as efficient. I get an RMA and am told that I must wait for an empty box to be sent. Although I point out that the box the system originally came in is still at my feet (I had the thing for less than a week) I'm told I must wait for the magic box, but that it should arrive the next day. I am promised a 72 hour turnaround time once they receive the machine. | ||
| Friday Aug 18, 2000 |
1 | 1 | Customer Service assures me the box is on its way. |
| Monday Aug 21, 2000 |
4 | 2 | Customer Service tells me the box has not yet shipped. They don't know why, and don't know when it will ship. |
| Tuesday Aug 22, 2000 |
5 | 3 | 1st Empty box shipped |
| Thursday Aug 24, 2000 |
7 | 5 | I call Customer Service and discover that the box shipped to the wrong address. I don't know where the service center is, but English is obviously not the first language of anyone I spoke to there. I had to correct every piece of information at one point or another. They promise to ship another box. |
| Thursday Aug 24, 2000 |
2nd box ships. Nice and efficient this time. | ||
| Friday Aug 25, 2000 |
8 | 6 | 1st box arrives. Airborne Express is actually on the ball and managed to correct the address. I pack the laptop up and ship the machine. Finally. |
| Monday Aug 28, 2000 |
11 | 7 | Laptop arrives at the Service Depot. 11:00AM. |
| Tuesday Aug 29, 2000 |
12 | 8 | 2nd empty box arrives |
| Tuesday Aug 29, 2000 |
Laptop goes into repair 12:06PM. Record says "Repair in Process". | ||
| Friday Sept 1, 2000 |
15 | 11 | I call customer service for an update. Note it's been >72 hours. Laptop is not repaired. They can't tell me when it will be because they are waiting on "parts". They tell me I can put in for a callback from the Service Depot for more details. I do so. |
| Tuesday Sept 5, 2000 |
19 | 12 | I call customer service for an update. No new information. They put in another request for a callback from the Service Depot. I wrote a letter detailing my dealings and unhappiness so far and sent it to Toshiba Corporate Headquarters. Not that I expect anything other than a form letter 6 months from now. |
| Wednesday Sept 6, 2000 |
20 | 13 | I call Customer Service. No new information. At this point the stone-walling is irritating me more than the repair time. I asked to be bumped to a Customer Service Supervisor. He tells me they have no information. Since the machine is new I asked about replacement. He tells me that only Customer Relations can do that, but only if I escalate to a Major Complaint. I do so. Customer Relations is supposed to call me. |
| Thursday Sept 7, 2000 |
21 | 14 | 3rd empty box arrives. No idea why that happened. After discarding the idea of filling the spare boxes with bricks and shipping it to them I give it to the I.S. department which apparently has several other Toshiba laptops that need repair. |
| Friday Sept 8, 2000 |
22 | 15 | Records updated but still show "Repair in Process" |
| Monday Sept 11, 2000 |
25 | 16 | A helpful Toshiba employee responds to my complaint on Compuserve's Toshiba Forum and emails Customer Relations. |
| Tuesday Sept 12, 2000 |
26 | 17 | The guy on the Toshiba Forum tells me he got a reply from Customer Relations (who still hasn't called me) saying they were trying to get some information from the Depot. |
| Tuesday Sept 12, 2000 |
I manage to call into the Customer Relations department. Much to the shock of the Rep (we'll call him Rep#1) who wanted to know how I got there. But, he reviewed my case and even appears to be allowed to do more than read the script. Here's the really great thing though: even he is not allowed to call the Service Depot he claims. He can only email them for a status. He does, however, promise that if there is not some action by Friday he will start a replacement. I'm guessing the policy is no replacements before 30 days. I email the gentleman on the Toshiba Forum who has been helping me. I think he's nearly as frustrated with this as I am by this point. | ||
| Friday Sept 15, 2000 |
29 | 20 | I call Customer Relations around 3:45PM PST since they hadn't called me, and again much to their irritation. I spoke to a different rep but he said there was still no new info from the Depot. Still awaiting backordered parts, no ETA. I told him I was promised replacement by the rep I spoke to on Wednesday. Obviously not wanting that responsibility he talked to rep #1 who was "just on his way out the door". The supposedly relayed message was that rep #1 would start replacement procedure on Monday. In other words they put me off again. |
| Monday Sept 18, 2000 |
32 | 21 | I called into Customer Relations again 10:30a PST and this time spoke to Norman. And boy was he pissed. He demanded to know how I got to Customer Relations and refused to help me. He badgered me to find out how I got there and insisted that I had to go through 1st Level (Customer Service). I flat out refused to tell him despite the escalating annoyance on his part. This went on for around 5 minutes. I told him that Customer Service didn't transfer anyone and that this was my only way of getting information. His claim that they only wanted to make the system better by plugging the hole is laughable. Eventually Norm let me explain my situation and then let me leave a message on the voicemail of rep#1. No one wants to take the responsibility for doing a replacement. |
| Tues Sept 19, 2000 |
33 | 22 | Didn't try to call in today but I heard from another source that the machine is waiting on a hard drive and a battery. I expected the HD was bad but the battery seemed to work fine when I shipped it. Course it's possible a bad battery was the root cause. Anyway I'm also informed there's to be a meeting tomorrow between CS and the technical group. Smells to me like they got a batch of defective parts and the service depot is stuffed full of dead laptops. I'd be a lot more sympathetic if they'd own up to it rather than continuing to play bait-and-switch with me. |
| Wed Sept 20, 2000 |
34 | 23 | Called into Customer Service at 3pm PST and asked to be transferred to CR. Took a bit of badgering and a specific name in CR that I said was handling my case. After 30 mins on hold I got a rep (not the one I had named to CS). He tells me that parts are still backordered and also dropped the bit of info that it takes 10 days to get a replacement. He sent email to a supervisor at the depot asking for an answer and I extracted the promise that he would call me back by end of business. He didn't. |
| Thurs Sept 21, 2000 |
35 | 24 | With the help of my previously mentioned source we penetrated the veil of Customer Relations again. Took a while. Apparently rep #1 is actually a supervisor, which is why they're always trying to dump responsibility back on him. Once again I was promised that they would call me back by end of business with a response. I asked for one of the following responses: 1) Repair it in 72 hours, 2) Replace in 72 hours, 3) send it back as is and I will return it through the vendor. |
| Thurs Sept 21, 2000 |
At 4:30PM PST I got a call saying that they will replace the machine and it should take 5 days. And a later call saying that I would be faxed some paperwork. This, by the way, is the first time Customer Relations ever called me, despite repeated requests. | ||
| Tuesday Sept 26, 2000 |
40 | 27 | No fax yet from Toshiba so I call Customer Service and get to a supervisor. She tells me that it takes 5 days to get approval to get a replacement. Then 5 days to replace the machine. Looks like that other rep was right about 10 days and the one that called me last Thursday, as usual, didn't give me the whole story. I ask her if it bothers her to work for a company that treats customers like this. I think she said yes. If someone from Toshiba is reading this, don't be hard on her. I prefer her honesty to Customer Relation's bullshit. Anyway, apparently a Sales Supervisor has to approve replacement and, no I'm not allowed to talk to that department. |
| Wednesday Sept 27, 2000 |
41 | 28 | The faxed paperwork arrived today from Toshiba saying the machine will be replaced with a factory new unit. It also says "This offer is valid for five working days from the date of this letter. If your signed fax is not returned to us within this time frame, we will consider the matter closed." The letter is dated Sept 21 but arrived today Sept 27. I signed the paperwork and faxed it right back. The letter does not specify how long replacement will take. I'm sure it's a coincidence that action always seems to happen the day after I've called in and complained. |
| Friday Sept 29, 2000 |
43 | 30 | I note the Depot records have been updated and now show "Off Hold - Parts" as of today. Boy, there's a Just In Time system. I wonder if I'll get a new machine or the original one back. I don't care as long as it works. |
| Saturday Sept 30, 2000 |
44 | 30 | The Depot records have been updated and once again show "On Hold - Parts". Also the depot web page seems not to work if there are more than 10 entries in the list. |
| Monday Oct 2, 2000 |
46 | 31 | I received another fax over the weekend with the RMA number to return my machine, stressing that a replacement will not be sent until they receive it. Since they already have the machine I tried to call the number on the fax to talk to the rep. When I entered his extension number the system says "that number can not be reached from this service." Oh, I forgot. They don't want to talk to customers. So I faxed them asking if they really want me to return the manuals and CDs, which is all I have. The letter also says, "This offer is valid for 30 days ... Should this time expire due to unavailability of the replacement computer, Toshiba will extend the offer time period accordingly." How nice of them. |
| Tuesday Oct 3, 2000 |
47 | 32 | Since I received no response from Toshiba I shipped back the original box with the CDs, manuals, and warranty card. No laptop enclosed obviously. Charged it to Toshiba under the RMA number they sent me. I'm sure the shipping costs them more than the CDs, but I'm following instructions. And I don't want them to have an excuse for further delay. |
| Wednesday Oct 4, 2000 |
48 | 33 | The mostly empty box arrived at Toshiba. I posted a couple of smartass remarks and a link to this site on Compuserve's Toshiba Forum. The volunteers there promised to pass my complaint "up the food chain." |
| Thursday Oct 5, 2000 |
49 | 34 | I just got a call from Toshiba around 2:30p PST to let me know that my replacement machine would ship at midnight tonight. That's kind of odd. Maybe she said "by midnight" and I misunderstood. Anyway I asked her what prompted the call. She said she just works at the order desk and was asked to call me. I should have verified that the machine included the correct amount of RAM but I was so shocked to have Toshiba call me it slipped my mind. |
| Thursday Oct 5, 2000 |
Got another call around 4pm PST from someone in tech support. He said he was following up to tell me that a replacement machine would be sent and to apologize for all the difficulties. He'd apparently been reading this site. The guys on the Toshiba Forum forwarded a link and must have really stirred up the anthill over there. I'm happy something is finally happening. | ||
| Thursday Oct 5, 2000 |
Got a response on the Compuserve Toshiba Forum that a machine would be shipping out today and to apologize that this has taken so long. A tracking number was included, and it appears to have already been picked up and should be delivered tomorrow. It's amazing how the floodgates opened. Two weeks ago I couldn't get Toshiba to talk to me. Now they're falling over themselves to help. My complaint finally got to somebody with the power to solve these things I guess. Of course then I got chastised for my public thanks. | ||
| Friday Oct 6, 2000 |
50 | 35 | Yay! The replacement machine arrived today and is purring away on my desk. Minus, unfortunately, the extra RAM. Really wish I had remembered to mention that to the order desk person yesterday. After 45mins on the phone and climbing my way up the ladder as usual I got someone who promised to send it out today. I was annoyed that Customer Service initially tried everything to block me, telling me that since I didn't have signed paperwork from Customer Relations I couldn't get it, etc. I finally had to name names in Customer Relations again. All in all this step was less painful than I expected, but does leave me still thinking that Customer Service's primary objective is to find a way to say no. |
| Monday Oct 9, 2000 |
53 | 36 | The replacement RAM arrived today, so I think it's fair to call this case resolved. After 53 days. |
| Monday Jul 2, 2001 |
The hard drive died in this machine after a long life of, well 8 months, but hey, whatta want for $3K? The IS dept gave me a crappy Tecra 8100 and I used that for the remainder of my time at the company. Last I knew of this machine was sitting in a corner gathering dust. Lately I've been thinking of replacing my old Satellite 2595 at home. Dell's look nice. |
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