Canada-Complaints.com » Electronics and household app. » Complaint / review: Toshiba Satellite A210 - Toshiba Canada claims no responsibility | #6923

Toshiba Satellite A210
Toshiba Canada claims no responsibility

These products cost us too much money to simply "write them off". You would also think that in our current economic crisis, companies as big as Toshiba would be pushing their customer service representatives to strive harder for satisfied customers. Large companies have just as much fear these days of bankruptcy as smaller ones do.

My husband and I both purchased new Satellite laptops last year. His worked out of the box, mine didn't. His was missing a pixel, and occassionaly the screen goes black and shuts itself off, but generally, he is satisfied with the machine. We also convinced his father and brother that these laptops were awesome and they purchased similar models as well. My Toshiba Satelitte is an A210 model, I opened the box and it couldn't load the preloaded software. I called Toshiba and they told me "it happens sometimes" and they told me to return it for a replacement at Futureshop - which I did. I was quite happy with the replacement purchased in November 2007. It worked out of the box, all the pixels functioned and the screen didn't go black. In fact, I was sure I had the best one of the bunch that our family purchased. I didn't use the machine very much, but when I did, I was very satisfied with it's performance. Then... the warranty expired in October 2008. I had always noticed it got really hot but then it started overheating and shutting itself off. In January 2009 I went to the Toshiba website to see if there were any manufacturer's recalls, etc. etc. There weren't any recalls, however, the problem with the A210's was listed and there was a program that could be downloaded to fix same. The "program" was going to update my bios and make the fan work better and at different intervals. There was a warning on the website telling me to make sure my computer was plugged in before attempting the update. I did, I ran the update and I flashed my drive. A message appeared on my screen that my computer was about to shut off. It did, but it never came on again. After 15 minutes I called Toshiba Tech support and was basically advised I was "lucky" they weren't charging me for the call and was told that I had a "bad flash" and to take it into futureshop to have them look at it - at my expense. The computer couldn't even "post" so the only solution that Futureshop could come up with - they couldn't perform (which was to perform a re-install). I left FutureShop and went seeking other help. I was told by virtually every computer shop in Town that my computer is now an expensive paperweight. One place pulled the battery off the motherboard for me - hoping that this would erase the memory of the bad flash on my bios chip - but to no avail. I called Toshiba, hoping to get coupons towards my next laptop purchase. I figure they could at least give me a discount or something, considering it was a "known" problem and their solution is what cooked my machine. I called them twice and spoke at length with their customer service reps. Apparently my issue doesn't warrant a supervisor escalation. I'm not very happy with this. I truly feel it should have been a manufacturer's recall. Many people with this model have overheating machines. Toshiba knows this - otherwise they wouldn't be offering a fix. Many people are successfully downloading a bios update that works. However, I'm sure that I cannot be the only person that cooked my computer with their "fix". Regardless, my computer that used to occasionally shut off from overheating, can never be turned back on again because the manufacturer offered a fix that fried my computer. There was no negligence on my part... except my warranty was 3 months outdated. Please, if you are going to purchase a computer, buy the extended warranty - as customer satisfaction is no longer a priority with big business. [email protected]

PS I feel better that this website is here to "share" our experiences. With sincerity, THANKS!

Date:

Company: Toshiba Satellite A210

Country: Canada

Category: Electronics and household app.

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