Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Dear Toshiba Customer Service

I was initially very happy with my Toshiba Satellite Laptop, but in two years and five months of ownership, I have become extremely disappointed with it.

I purchased my Satellite P105-S6227 (Model No. PSPADU-01C00S; Serial No. 17080####) in March of 2007 from Circuit City. The laptop worked fine until April 2009 when the Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 completely died. I called Toshiba Customer Service and was told, due to the fact that the 1 year manufacturer’s warranty had expired, that I would have to replace it on my own – ordering via National Parts Depot, an ‘official’ Toshiba parts reseller (Invoice No. 770###; Customer No. 54042#####).

I received and successfully replaced the video card, making sure to update the drivers to the latest version on the Nvidia website. This worked fine until two weeks ago when, on July 24, 2009 (after only 3 months of use), the new video card stopped working. As a Web Programmer, Graphic Designer and Digital Artist who relies heavily on his laptop, this is wholly unacceptable.

Thinking the problem might lie with a corrupt or damaged driver, I attempted to reinstall Windows Vista. Failing that, I used the Toshiba Recovery Wizard to restore the laptop to the factory settings. In both instances, the installation could not finish. When trying to boot normally, I would end up with a Blue Screen error (code 0x00000116) telling me the display drivers were damaged.

Additionally, due to an incomplete Windows installation, I no longer have the ability to boot to Safe Mode. The hard disk, when plugged into an external drive bay, can still be read from as an additional drive (I was unable to install to it in this configuration, unfortunately), so it appears to be functional.

Due to this experience and the inability of anyone (myself or the other talented and experienced Information Services personnel I work with at a small university) to find a solution to this problem, I can not, in good conscience, recommend Toshiba products. Additionally, I now find myself in the awkward position of having to warn my family, friends, co-workers and online acquaintances about the faulty hardware that may be lurking in the Toshiba laptops I once recommended.

The graphics card that lasted only three months cost 267.38 to be shipped to my home. I would appreciate either a new card, a refund for the card purchased in April, or a replacement laptop. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
Paul M. King

Email: paul@kingworkscreative.com
Web: kingworkscreative.com
Blog: kingworkscreative.blogspot.com
Twitter: paul_kingworks

1 comment:

  1. Nice post! Glad that you like their service. I believe that treating the customer so politely makes them so comfortable with your services. Anyway, thanks for sharing. Keep posting.

    ReplyDelete