Toshiba Satellite 2435 S255 laptop computer - keyboard stopped working - received laptap back from Toshiba repair center in Memphis, TN and keyboard still didn't work - unable to get any real help from Toshiba

# 8 for September 21, 2003

Complaints.com received the following on September 20, 2003:

From:

RE: Toshiba Satellite 2435 S255 laptop computer - keyboard stopped working - received laptap back from Toshiba repair center in Memphis, TN and keyboard still didn't work - unable to get any real help from Toshiba We're hoping that you can get more of a response that we have been able to from Toshiba computers.

In March, my husband and I made the unfortunate mistake of purchasing a Toshiba laptop for my husband who is a self employed contractor who relies upon his laptop for managing his business.

Approximately two months ago, the keyboard of his laptop seized up and became nonfunctional. No commands could be entered via the function keys. After multiple calls to the technical support center and attempting to reload the operating system and reboot, my husband drove approximately an hour to the nearest service center in Birmingham, AL and was told that it would take ten to fourteen business days for them to diagnose the problem and order any necessary parts.

Because he felt that was an unreasonably long period of time to be left without his computer, he opted to return home with it and ship it out to the repair center in Memphis where it was to be serviced and returned in two to three business days. Prior to shipping the computer to Memphis, my husband had a prolonged conversation with one of the technical support staff (after an even more prolonged period on hold), explaining to them what he thought was likely wrong with the computer. I should also explain that my husband was once with Compaq technical support and has A1 certification.

The computer was returned to us approximately a week later with a form letter extolling the extensive diagnostic testing that was performed and Toshiba's pride in their customer service. Purportedly the keyboard was replaced/serviced and the system BIOS was updated. I will refrain from repeating how my husband characterized their customer service when he turned on the computer and discovered that absolutely nothing had changed! This prompted another phone call to technical support with a prolonged period of being put on hold. After explaining the problem to yet another technical support person, my husband demanded to be connected to customer service.

After more than an hour on hold, my husband grudgingly allowed the customer service representative to convince him to send the computer off to yet another service center, but only with the proviso (which the customer service representative agreed to) that if they were yet unable to fix the problem, Toshiba would replace the laptop with a new one since this is obviously a hardware problem with the keyboard.

Well, to make the long story even longer, the computer was sent off to Atlanta to another service center and returned to us after slightly more than a week. My husband turned the computer on and much to our surprise it seemed to work. That lasted for approximately four minutes. This prompted another phone call to Toshiba in which a seemingly sympathetic tech support representative told my husband that he would be connected to customer service.

Two and a half hours later, I called the toll free number on another phone line and we were told that the customer service center had been closed for the last four hours. We have yet to receive a promised phone call (this is at least the fourth time we have been told this) from customer service and are hoping that you will be able to help us.

Sincerely,

Laura A. Lee, MD

Robert J. Pollock