Toshiba Sucks
Dean
My Toshiba laptop recently broke down. Good thing I got the extended warranty, right?
So I take it in and they let me know the problem: the processor needs a new fan. Just a little stinking fan, right? Problem: part is on backorder.
I dropped it off on the 27th. Six days later they get back to me and tell me the part won't be available until May 24th! Which means I don't get the laptop back until the 25th at minimum.
By my reckoning, that's a solid month it'll be in the shop, for one measly little fan. And no, we can't find a third party fan, we have to wait on Toshiba.
How is that even excusable, I ask you?
* Update * I see that Captain Ed is having similar problems with his Toshiba.
I'll be interested to see if Toshiba makes him wait a month for a new fan too. Good luck, Ed.
When a company messes up like this, they deserve all the bad publicity they get.
Related Posts (on one page):
- Toshiba Sucks---Less
- Toshiba Sucks
I blame most of it on the fact that it's got a Pentium IV chip, and tends to overheat. I'll be getting a cooling mat soon and hopefully that'll help.
It also bugs me that it requires 19 volts, and thus to use it in my truck I'd have to run some wires directly from the car battery. Some sort of switch or mode that would bring it down to 12 volts would be very welcome.
And, while I'm griping, it's made in China, though I didn't realize it when I bought it. Not only does China make shoddy products, but their human rights record, including their support of genocide in Sudan, has caused me to try and boycott their goods.
I think that when this ultimately dies, I may go for a Sony Vaio.
I used to do warranty service for Toshiba as well as many other consumer electronics manufacturers. They will always flat out refuse to reimburse the repair station, for labor as well as parts if they used a third party vendor for warrantee service.
They may also void the warranty if the manufacturer finds out about it. The repair station is just doing a CYA. All for a fan that costs just a few dollars.
Me, FWIW, I've got an IBM ThinkPad. Which has so far never required any repairs, knock on wood.
Solid performer, beautiful to look at.
Stable, reliable and chic...
ZuDfunck, the CrazyMacDude
So one day I took it apart to look at the fan and apply some thermal grease (found this idea on the internet...sweet). So I get into the naughty bits of the computer and remove what I thought was the little heat shield. Well, the processor came with it. Yup, pulled the whole thing out. So what does that mean? The processor and it's little heat protector are STUCK together. This is, of course, not the way it was supposed to be. That meant no place for the thermal grease to go--which meant no way to fix the overheating problem.
So I can either call Dell (yeah right) and try to work out a way not to have to send my entire computer to them...or I can just suck it up and let the machine run slow and hot. Argh.
About a year ago, my Dell Laptop's HD started failing and the computer wouldn't boot. So I called up Dell tech support and they overnighted a new HD. I was finally able to get the thing to boot one last time, transferred all of my files to an external HD, swapped out the dead drive for the new one, and sent the dead one back. And this was all done in a four-day timespan. W00t!
Jeremy: Sorry to hear about your computer. But take heart, Dell is not Toshiba, or even (shudder) HP/Compaq. Call them up and see what they can do for you.
You do know that most laptops are made by a very few companies, in the same manner as CRTs? I suspect they're all in China today. And I'd be careful about the "shoddy work" charge; remember when "made in Japan" was a joke? :)
They are terrible about intellectual property laws, though, and will reverse-engineer or steal any technology they can lay their hands on, which is why certain companies are hesitant to let the Chinese get their stuff.
O. F. Jay: you are referring to the propellor-milling scandal. Yes, Toshiba liscensed that thechnology to the Soviets, but the improvment (it made for quiter propellors in their subs) was marginal and the USSR had been making strides in quiter sub tech anyway. Besides which their nuke subs are still much louder than American boomers.
While obnoxious, it's not a huge deal.
I'd just get an inverter and plug the AC adapter into that. (Especially since the DC power at your battery isn't likely to be all that clean.)
Jay: How can a Japanese company commit treason in the US? Toshiba's transfer was a violation of policy (and perhaps Japanese law), evidently, under COCOM obligations, but not treason. Foreign bodies cannot commit treason against the US, any more than an American body can commit treason against Japan.
(Also, the link above claims that the technology involved was NOT American-developed. - "Although the lost technology Was not American in origin, U.S. officials projected it would take billions of dollars of American defense spending to repair the damage". I'm willing to take a scholarly War College paper's word on that.)
As you would be the first to advise in other circumstances: don't judge the whole from isolated parts. My Toshiba service has been exemplary. Now I could be the outlier, or you could be the outlier. We can't really tell. But I generally need multiple incidents before I decide a whole company sucks. Everyone screws up on occasion.
I will never buy another Toshiba product again, and I encourage others to stay away from a company that would screw over a customer like this and make no effort at compensation or making it up to him.
Outlier, shmoutlier: they've screwed me over and aren't even sorry about it.
Sig: I was at the lack of a better term. The fact that multinational corporations are not bound by allegiance laws with those they engage in trade is a double-edged sword that, for the foreseeable future, has no solution besides non-patronage.
Dean: I'm not about to sell you a Mac just yet but even a Dell business-line laptop is more reliable than a Toshiba. I have my gripes with Windows but I've tried other OSes and their corresponding Desktop Environments and I'm sticking to windows for now. By the way Dean, is your laptop one of them "Desktop Replacements" or are we talking more on the lines of the traditional roles of laptops?
Sadly, I know it's true that most things seem to be made in Japan. Heck, remember when Wal-Mart used to sell things that were made in the USA? As for the shoddiness, I've heard professionals rail against Chinese goods as different as electronics, pipe fittings, and eyeglasses, praising in contrast those respectively from Japan, Taiwan, and Italy.
Sigivald: I'm not entirely sure. What I do know is that whenever I try and plug the computer into a car AC adapter, the adapter starts screaming and activates its emergency shut-down so as not to drain the battery of the car.
Perhaps I've just been spoiled. While the (typically Compaq or Packard-Bell) computers my family had at home tended to crash all the time, the locally-assembled desktop I got when I went to college has been almost problem-free for almost five years.
The have a small shop on the west side of Madison that sells new and used computer parts. Among these parts are all kinds of OEM and replacement market parts for computers of all kinds of computers and computer-related anciliary hardware. Fans, big, medium and little, for example.
If Madison, a ratty little (but pretentious) community of under 200,000 people, has such a store, than what must I assume you should be able to find around metro Detroit?
I own nothing built by Toshiba. Maybe some hard drives, but I don't check out who makes these until they burn out or otherwise cease functioning. At which point I just replace them, typically with something newer and with higher data storage capacity but at less price than its predecessor had cost.
But even if I know nothing about Toshiba computers, I know for a fact that most of the components and their hook-ups are quite standardized. Otherwise, nobody in the now fully componentized computer world would by them.
So why the hell haven't you looked up the new/used computer parts place in your part of metro Detroit, taken your laptop over there, and seen if the counter guy could find you a good-as-the-factory replacement fan? Probably at real low cost, because fans tend to be cheap items.
Instead of foolishly suffering for a month without your laptop computer?
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Servicing it myself would void the warranty. I'm not prepared to throw a way a three year parts-and-labor warranty.
Although frankly, if I have to have this long for a fucking fan maybe I should.
So what's so good about Toshiba that caused you to get involved this kind of dogmeat to begin with? To me, computers are throw-away consumables, so I have no particular attachment to anything except to the extent that it is part of a long chain of interrelated systemware that helps me make money.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
I'm not sure if it's Toshiba or the fact that laptops aren't built to sit on your lap (and fall off every once in awhile).
As for putting in the fan myself: uh, well, laptops are a whole different animal from desktops. All laptops, all of them, use almost all custom parts and construction.
Bill
Laptops/notebooks are no where near as reliable as desktops. The demands of heat removal, miniaturization, low power consumption, and physical and environmental shock all conspire to make laptops much more prone to failure than “normal” pcs. You must expect problems. Therefore, warranty and customer support issues are very important.
Currently, the vast majority of laptops are built in Taiwan. This is one of the few manufacturing niches that Taiwan has managed to hold onto versus Korea and China. In the Taiwanese pecking order, US companies maintain the top positions (after Taiwanese companies, of course). Dell, HP, Apple, and IBM get first dibs on support. Japanese or Korean companies (Sony, Toshiba) have to wait. So buy US/Taiwan, not Japan/Taiwan. Or go super cheap and buy Taiwan/Taiwan. You’ll get quicker support.
And as for the Toshiba “treason” thing, I am familiar with that too. One of my favorite professors in college was involved in the incident. A team of US researchers developed a supper silent submarine propeller, which was just about undetectable at the time. But the manufacturing process for that propeller required a milling machine that only Toshiba could provide. As I understand it, various and sundry non disclosure/secret agreements were signed concerning those particular milling machines and specific propeller data.
But a Toshiba employee apparently sold out and provided the USSR with info on the propeller design. A few months later, Toshiba followed up by selling the machining equipment. Not a good thing. I avoided Toshiba products for a long time because of this.
But apparently, within a year or so, detection capabilities improved to the point where the entire situation became moot. I am also convinced that Toshiba have since seen the light, and have made amends. So I wouldn’t consider the prop thing to be a factor in any current purchasing decisions.
But I still wouldn’t buy Toshiba or Sony laptops because I know the Taiwanese won’t support them.
For me it is a local company, so it makes it easier, still, they are incredible.
The cure for me was this bad boy: Here
I might end up with wrists problems until I can get a lower desk or a taller chair...but this little plastic fan thingy has made a huge difference.
This post is being typed on a HP laptop. It's a wonderful piece of work. I love it. And it was cheap, too. Even Linux-compatible, which is a trick in laptops these days.