Toshiba: You've Lost A Customer For Life

In March 2011, I bought a Toshiba laptop after reading a glowing review on Which? (for which I'd had to subscribe). 

Nineteen days ago, my 6 month old Toshiba laptop died. 

I was on holiday overseas at the time. It was Friday evening. The Toshiba web site wasn't helpful and I couldn't reach anyone at Toshiba Support. Monday was a holiday in the UK, so it was Tuesday before I could report a critical problem: Day 4. The support person I spoke to said it couldn't possibly be a hard drive failure, as I'd have different error messages, so I should order a recovery disk on the web site - about £20 worth. Delivery was promised within fourteen days.

So, Toshiba think it's okay for a customer to wait at least fourteen days to get access to his laptop. So I went down to the basement and rescuscitated my old Dell laptop.

I began tweeting, using #ToshibaFail.

Toshiba's recovery disk arrived on Day 11. It didn't work. The only option available on the web site and via the telephone was to pay £30 for third party support. I spent over an hour on the phone before the support person said I should call a special number at Toshiba for a hard drive diagnosis. I did, and after trying to suggest my warranty details on the web site weren't valid, they said I should take the machine to a support centre in London, which I did, same day. 

On Day 13, the Toshiba service centre told me the hard drive had failed. They said they'd ordered a new one on the warranty. Estimated delivery time: another 5 business days.

Day 17, the lap top still hadn't surfaced, so I ordered a new Dell - estimated delivery: two days.

Today, Day 19, the new Dell arrived. I also got a call to say the Toshiba was ready, but I don't care. This is being posted via the Dell. I still haven't collected the Toshiba, which I might do tomorrow if I have time.

Toshiba, you've lost a customer for life.