Toshiba Tech Support (...or lack of...)

G'day,
I'm in Australia and have a P15-S479 my wife purchased in Kansas last January. After having all kinds of problems, I shipped it to one of the Toshiba repair centers here in Australia in late February and I still haven't got it back.

Has anyone had similar experience with Toshiba's "world wide warranty" ?

I'm hoping to hear from someone who can give me a name and/or direct phone number for someone I can speak to at Toshiba. I can never get past the first level of "tech support", I cannot get any answers, and, apparently, replacing a motherboard is an extremely time consuming job (the ONLY info I've managed to get out of Toshiba is that this component was a dud).

I don't know what my wife was thinking. I told her "don't buy Toshiba", but apparently she knows better

Cheers,
Jason

 

I'm sorry to hear that your having such problems with your new Toshiba unit. The "World Wide Warranty" is like most manufacturers warranties, but I have never had any experience with Toshiba's.
The Toshiba Service Center you shipped it to is probably not owned by Toshiba, they just authorize the shop to do the repairs. I used to be an authorized Toshiba Notebook Tech, so I'm familiar with some of their procedures.
A systemboard replacement performed by a good service center by a quailfied/competent tech should not take more than 1.5 weeks from receipt of the unit. I've replaced systemboards on some Toshiba units within 1 hour, sometimes it could take longer because the replacement part is also defective (it happens). The delays in Austalia could be because they don't have your systemboard model there and may have to be shipped from the USA (possible). Even with the delays and a tech that likes to take their time to swap out the boards, you should have gotten the notebook back by now, had the unit for almost 3 months.
Getting someone above the Level 1 tech support will be rare. You may want to ask for a manager after speaking to the L1 guy and see if it goes anywhere. Your final step may be to demand the repair & return of the unit ASAP, otherwise give you a new unit.

I hope this helps you...as a last resort, my friend works at an Authorized Toshiba Repair Facility here in Canada which may be able to do the work, but shipping to Canada may be VERY expensive. Let me know if you want to cosider this route, I could forward off his contact info to you and you could speak with him directly (hopefully the moderators I'm allowed to do this, if not, let me know).

Good Luck,
-Vb-

 

Thanks for the reply Venom.

The service center is indeed a separate entity from Toshiba Australia, but so far I've been happy to deal with them. They always made prompt replies to my phone calls, emails etc. and have tried to offer advice where they can.

The hold up seems to be in getting the part shipped from the USA. I could understand a small delay but three months is ridiculous. While this particular model is not available in Australia, I'm sure the majority of parts for the local models are not manufactured here either.

Getting answers to even the most basic of questions from Toshiba tech support has been little more than an exercise in futility.

Had I known it was going to be such an issue to actually use the world wide warranty, I would have shipped the laptop back to the USA with a friend (we know plenty of people travelling to and from the US)

I'll get on the phone to Toshiba again tomorrow. Maybe if I try the rude, yelling and shouting routine something might happen. Nothing else has worked so far !!!

[ !][ !][ !]

Cheers,
Jason

 

I believe the systemboards are manufactured in Japan (could be wrong). But even if the parts are made there, Toshiba USA should have the parts readily available in stock and should be able to be shipped anywhere in the world within a few weeks. If it's just a systemboard replacement, it's usually just 1 or 2 pieces (the main board & an AC/DC board). If the part that was ordered did not fix the problem or was defective (happens) then it could delay it again for a few weeks. Since Toshiba themselves are not doing the repairs, they probably can't/won't offer much help. The best bet is to have the Service Center contact/pressure Toshiba on your behalf to get the parts there faster.

Good Luck!!

-Vb-

 

sup, I happen to be a toshiba tech also for a sorta sister company to compusa called global service solutions (gss). I would have to agree with you in your advice to your wife, but I guess that might have something to do with the fact that I work on broken toshiba laptops all day. I don't know anything about world wide warranty since I work on compusa sold toshiba tap warranty machines. Like Venom said it probably went to a service center like the one I work for, but unlike them we are required to keep close customer contact keeping the customer informed. Only help I can offer you is if you give a full problem description of what problems you were having and I can give you an idea of what is probably wrong with it. I highly recommend you push to get in contact with the tech that is servicing your laptop.

The reality of the situation is that 19 times out of 20 your laptop is going to fall victem to a part swapping idiot that couldn't trouble shoot a laptop properly if hes life depended on it. Majority of all laptops sent to service centers are broken bc of software issues, but since no one knows software it gets mistaken as hardware problems. So it usually goes like this: Oh it gets ac power but doesn't power must be the logic board. ordering part. install part. (10 screws left over) oh its still not powering lets order a power board... take apart put back together.. (3 screws left over). damn wtf mayb I should make sure the processor, ram, and switch board are seated properly or if they even work. My point is simple majority of techs don't know how to troubleshoot so it takes forever to get your laptop back when they are ordering new parts from toshiba hoping that will solve the problem. Then you get your laptop back and your restore cd's say "wrong machine" bc the tech didn't write a dmi to the bios on the new system board. I'm sorry thats the way it is at least where I work.... I mean heres an idea I think only 3 techs there including me actually know HOW to type out of about 20 sad but true.

- §árd¡µs
"God is outside the "box" of religion. Nevertheless, nearly everyone-religious or not-has come to equate beliefs and tradition with God himself." - www.gogeneration.com
http://Sardius.home.comcast.net/SardiusSig.jpg

 

Sardius, you're SO right regarding the incompetence of some techs out there. Having extra screws shouldn't worry you as much as using the wrong screw. I've seen a company that would put the wrong screws into the holes and pierce the top cover or screw through one of the logic boards & then give it to the customer as fixed. What Toshiba has been doing (don't know if they stopped or not) is to track how many parts are required to fix a unit, per service location. If the numbers go too high, they get lowered on they list of recommened service centers, are they still doing this? You may want to check out the list of recommened authorized service locations and take your unit there for repairs.

-Vb-

 

Well you could have knocked me over with a feather yesterday, after I received a phone call from Toshiba customer service stating they had located my missing part. Apparently it "got lost in transit". They tell me the service center will have it today and I should get my laptop back sometime next week. Mmm...yeah, and I'm holding my breath [ ]


Cheers,
Jason
(For Sale: Toshiba Laptop - hardly ever used)

 

"Originally posted by Sardius:
> restore cd's say "wrong machine" bc the tech didn't write a dmi to > the bios on the new system board. I'm sorry thats the way it is at
"

So, Sardius, I have a satellite 2455 that the restore CD says wrong machine. Can I solve this by myself or do I have to send it to a service ?

Thanks a lot !!!

 

Brd,

Just to make sure, are these the correct Recovery CD's for this unit?
Have you ever had your system serviced (systemboard replacement)? If so, it's a possibility they forgot to update your DMI. If this is the case, just have the service center fix your DMI (make sure they do it for free they're the ones that forgot), but if not, there could be other issues causing the problem.

-Vb-

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by aussie1

 

A warning to Melb based Aussies looking for warranty service:

Southern Cross in Melbourne are now charging $70 p/h for WARRANTY work unless they sold the laptop. Pretty sad given Toshiba put me on to them...

Oh well.

 

Hmmm....That's strange. I don't know if they're allowed to do that. Since they're an Authorized Toshiba Service Center they must follow Toshiba's warranty policy. Since the units are sold with a Worldwide warranty, they can't charge for the repairs, it's all covered by Toshiba. You may want to contact Toshiba and verify that this is proper on the service centers part if you do decide to take it to this shop for repairs.

-Vb-