Toshiba No refund for laptop which repair center did not fix Irvine, California

Within a few days of purchasing the Toshiba Satellite L7770D I started having problems. The computer shuts off a few seconds after I turn it on. I was first told to take the battery out and run it without the battery. That did not work. Then, they authorized a repair, as it was outside the 15 day return period. The laptop failed 4 hours after I got it back.

At that point, I had been without a laptop and without a means of doing my work for over 2 weeks. I called Toshiba for a refund but they refused to give me a refund. My only option is to send the laptop back for repair - again. I googled this problem and see over 300,000 hits for "toshiba laptop shuts down after boot up". The first post, which describes a problem nearly identical to mine, is dated 2009.

I am stuck now with a $700 investment in a piece of electronic trash. Their big concession to me was to authorize a "VIP" repair - whatever that means. I await the complimentary "VIP" shipping box now. The first time I sent it back, I had to pay $25 shipping, despite the fact my laptop is under warranty.

Apparently, Toshiba has been aware of this problem for the past 3 years and is still shipping out laptops which might well malfunction. Their response seems to be to draw the castle gates shut tight - you can't even get the corporate address to write a complaint out of them. I don't know where they think their business is heading with these kinds of practices.  Their stock is currently trading less than $5/share...which places it in the "junk" category alot of brokers won't even let you trade.