Toshiba Warranty Woes - Warning to Would-be Purchasers

Hi everyone,

Would like to share a bad experience I've had with Toshiba warranty and customer service.

Bought a Portege M500 laptop about six months ago in Kuala Lumpur.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the laptop had developed 2 cracks in the magnesium casing near the dvd drive.

I took it to the nearest Toshiba customer care center (handled by the local distributor, Teledynamics), and was informed that the warranty did not cover cracked casings (this is despite Toshiba making a song and dance about the testing and durability of their products with their Safeguard advertising).

I insisted that they check with Toshiba, at which point they fed me a bull**** spiel that I had to contact Toshiba myself. I then called Tosiba, which glibly informed me that they could not advise me, since they could not see the part in question, and that I should return to Teledynamics and lodge a warranty claim.

At this point, Teledynamics caved and acquiesced to take some photos of the crack and send it to Toshiba.

I later received a call from Teledynamics asking me to return the laptop for them to take some additional photos. When I did, the technician who had handled my case had taken the day off without telling me, and I had to leave the laptop in their care for a few days.

Finally, I received a correspondence from Teledynamics stating they had contacted Toshiba, and that the reply from them was, and I quote,

Now that is hardly a reason. That's like an aircraft manufacturer saying "our planes are designed to stay in the air. Therefore, any planes that crash are outside our responsibility".

Here are links to some pics of the laptop and the cracks for any interested:
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/5005/m5001xk3.jpg
http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/9431/m5002closeupor5.jpg

I mush honestly say that this is the worst customer service and most misleading warranty coverage I have ever had to deal with in a computing product. In the past I have made warranty claims on my Thinkpad (poor hinge fit and dead hard disk), and both times IBM sent a courier to my address to pick up and fix the laptop (the second time, they agreed to let me swap the drive myself and simply sent a plain drive at my request). Now *that* is service, and I'm sorry I didn't pay attention then.

This is my second Toshiba, but you can be sure it will be my last. Caveat emptor.

 

I understand you want to keep your laptop looking nice but come on, that's hardly noticeable and it's not affecting your computing in any way. Throw some super glue on it. >_>

 

Cough.

Actually, it does affect the computer. The top crack pushes down on the wifi switch and twists it. I'm worried it'll eventually pry off or damage the switch.

The bottom crack can impinge on the dvd tray, and when it does, the dvd drive makes strange noises.

 

Then push it in place.

 

Hardly noticeable??? I can see it very clearly and that is some very poor build quality.

 

Yeah that sucks man, since they aren't going to fix it, try some super glue to get it back in place. It should fix you up nicely.

 

shrugging off a break in a 600 dollar piece of machinery is not something normal people do. he's dissatisfied with the build quality and deceptive warranty. The outcome, a bad experience with a toshiba product. He's sharing his experiences with other people so that they may be more aware of what they might encounter. So they're not as ignorant.

and pushing it into place doesnt solve the break.

 

Sorry about the poopy service, and thanks for the experiences. i never really was attracted to toshiba laptops... reading about things like these just make it better.... sticking with hp, dell and acer