Toshiba Of Canada Limited Customer Service Debacle Markham, Ontario

To start with, I have a large amount of experience with customer service. I have been the general manager of a retail store for 6 years, 1 of them also as an owner. I also run a theatre company which comes in contact with well over 800 people a year, not including our students or staff.

I own a Toshiba Satellite X200. I have had many small issues over the 3 years I have owned it, and 3 times have had to take it into a depot to be fixed (with this issue being the 4th). The first 2 were to Mainline Notebooks, which has since closed down, the next was to Microcad Computers, and the fourth I am still waiting for. The problem is that the computer will simply refuse to boot. 

I will turn it on, the Toshiba screen comes up, and then the screen goes black and refuses to move any further. I have been told a different reason on every occasion. The first time it was Motherboard. The second it was Hard Drive. The third time it was graphics card. This time I have been told it is my screen (even though the screen works fine to show the Toshiba logo).

I'm not sure how the same symptoms can be attributed to 4 very different problems, and then each time degrade into the same system failure again. I was told when I bought the unit and the full System Guard Extended Warranty that if the computer was irreparable for any reason, that it would be replaced. A computer that exhibits the same failure 4 times over a 3 year stretch obviously has an issue which can not be repaired through a depot. An issue which can not be repaired is irrepairable.  To that end I initiated a call to the only number available.

My first call resulted in be being told within 3 business days I would be called by a case manager, which I accepted, politely thanked the tech, and ended the call.

5 days later I called again, and was told by the tech that I should be recieving a call by the end of the day, so I politely thanked him, and ended the call.

3 days later, I called again. I was told this time by a supervisor named "Patrick" that not only would someone call me back on Monday, but that he would personally oversee the case, and he would call me the next day. 

After Tuesday rolled around, I called again. This time I spoke with a supervisor named "Mike" who told me I simply had to wait for a call from a Case Manager. I told him I had been waiting over a week for a call which was originally supposed to happen in 3 days, he promised it would come the next day, and that he would call me before 6. With doubts, I thanked him and ended the call.

I waited 2 days, and then, with no contact, I called again. I spoke with a supervisor named Jay who told me if I didn't recieve a call before 6, I should call the next day and I would be hot tranferred to customer relations.

After receiving no call, I called again. This time I spoke to a tech named Jay and asked right away to speak with a supervisor. He tranferred me to someone who refused to identify himself, and told me I had 2 choices: to terminate the case or to wait for a case manager. He then refused to talk about the subject any more, and hung up on me.

I called back right away to register my displeasure, and spoke with a supervisor named Raul. Raul told me there was no record of my previous call, and that he was sure I hadn't spoken with a supervisor (I wonder who I actually got transferred to). Raul swore to me that he would call me the next day. 

After waiting two weeks for a phone call which was supposed to come in 3 days, I finally spoke to someone in Customer Relations named Malow. Malow told me that my "System Guard Warranty" isn't a warranty, and that my warranty was expired. I would therefore have to pay the labour cost of the repair myself. I argued this was unacceptable, and that because it is a system guard warranty, the unit should probably be replaced. It was explained to me when I purchased the system and the very expensive warranty that if the unit was irreparable it would be replaced fully.

Malow told me that not only was that not the case, but it did not matter what I was told when I purchased the unit. What I was told at point of purchase could be fully wrong and Toshiba would take no responsibility for it, or uphold what their salespeople guarentee.

Malow then went on to tell me they only had record of 1 repair, and that it was impossible for me to have had this computer repaired previously. When asked if I was being called a liar, Malow refused to respond other than to repeat that there was only one record. The Toshiba authorized depot where I purchased the computer went out of business a while back, so unfortunately there is no way of verifying one way or the other. It is my opinion however, being in business myself, that the customer isn't assumed to be lying right off the bat, and when your records are incomplete (sometimes willfully as seen by my experience with the "supervisor") you give the customer the benefit of the doubt.

At this point I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told that Malow wasn't willing to transfer me. I argued with Malow for about 10 minutes about being transferred, and explained to him that my entire family have purchased Toshiba computers at my reccomendation, and that all of my employees also had Toshiba laptops, again at my reccomendation, and that I felt this to be a retention and public relations issue at this point. He then offered to transfer me to his supervisors desk, though his supervisor was not there, and he would not tell me when he would be back.

I accepted, and left a message on the machine of someone named "Al" asking him to call me back, and explaining that I had a very large customer service issue, and that this is the computer I use in my business. 

This is where the saga sets put on hold, waiting for a call from "Al"

From Toshiba's website - "Toshiba is committed to being a long term business partner and invests in customer satisfaction" - if so, why can no customer call into customer service? Why also is Toshiba refusing to look at the long term effect of their decisions towards customers?

"Toshiba is committed to highest standards of customer service and support on a global basis. Toshibas International Limited Warranty and global call center infrastructure mean customers can be assured of high quality service wherever in the world they take their notebook computer." - I have been told one thing, and another happened on multiple occasions. I have waited 2 weeks for a call I was promised in 3 days. When I did speak to someone from their "high quality customer service" I was refused help.

This is just a small list of other posters I have found who seem to have had similar issues.