[Resolved]  Toshiba Laptop — Awful response from the company for more than a year

Dear Sir/Madam,

I would like to bring to your notice that I bought a Toshiba laptop on 25th January 2008, from Pentacle Systems (Dealer) in Lucknow. It is just been a year and I have already run to 3 different service centres for the problem that I was facing. The warranty has already expired on 23rd January 2009 but my machine hasn’t been repaired till now.

The issue in the purchased machine was with its Wi-fi and Battery. Wi-fi was not working and the Battery was not charging sometimes, even when plugged in. The error message was ‘Plugged in, not charging’. I called the service station of HCL in Noida. They asked me to completely discharge and charge the battery several times. I finally took the machine to the Service station and they said they would have to keep the machine with them to examine what the problem was. They received my machine on 26th June 2008 (Call ID no. 25245). I kept calling them for days and weeks, but they would say ‘We have ordered a battery for you, whenever we get it, we would inform you’. I finally went to their office after a month again, to take my machine back. They returned me the machine after Replacing the battery and PCB set on 18th July 2008. I checked the battery there and it was charging normally, also Wi-fi was working. So according to the complaints that I had given them the machine for, they got solved but 2 other problems popped up. One, Bluetooth wasn’t working now, and secondly, Battery wasn’t giving backup more than 20 minutes. A completely charged battery would last me only 15-20 minutes. I kept calling them, speaking to Mr. Beni (head, HCL customer service station) but nothing happened.

Then I took the machine to the Dealer I bought it from, in Lucknow. This was in December 2008. They sent my machine to the service station in Lucknow and returned it after a week saying it would take more time to order the Battery, format the machine for Bluetooth, etc. (Complaint ID:[protected] So I got the machine back to Bombay (I am currently studying at IIT Bombay) which is still not fixed. Not losing hope I still took the machine to the HCL service centre in Andheri, Bombay (Job card no.: 312). This was on 6th January 2009, thinking that my laptop warranty is about to expire. They kept my machine for a week and when I called them on 12th January 2009, they said ‘Madam, the Bluetooth issue is solved, we have formatted your computer and we have raised demand for a new battery for you, you can come and collect your machine anytime and whenever we receive the battery, we’ll inform you and you can come and take that’. Firstly, no customer care can format the machine without the prior consent of the owner. Secondly, even if there is need to do that, they’re supposed to call and ask the owner, keeping him in loop for whatever they’re doing. I mean, what are phone numbers written on the Receipts for? When I went to take my machine on 12th, I found that they had not done anything to my machine. It was as it was. The same condition I had given them in. No formatting happened, no Bluetooth worked. Battery wasn’t replaced either. Nothing happened in that one week.

I got my machine back and while coming back, I called the Manager/ Head at the HCL main office (just adjacent to the Toshiba/ HCL service station). He sent me to Mr. Jitendra at the service station and asked me to come back after a week and said he would take care of it. Nothing happened then too.
How long can one keep running to customer care and service stations? At the end of it, work doesn’t get done either. It is till today that I haven’t received a battery. The service station guys keep telling me it will take longer (keep pushing it by a week every time I call them) but haven’t specified how much time it would take.

Well, it is indeed very surprising and sad to note Toshiba's insensitive, deplorable and awful response towards customer grievance. It's beyond my reasonable understanding that how an enterprise of this stature could allow such serious dereliction of duties on the part of its employees.

Is this the kind/ quality of service they render to the customers and expect them to pay 50 thousand bucks for a piece of machinery which that they don’t take care of? I seriously doubt!!!

I did write to the Head quarter of Toshiba in Japan, there were a couple of mails exchanged, I did send them all the valid documents to prove the authenticity of my machine. Nothing happened after that.

People you could cross check with -
Mr. Beni (Noida): [protected]
Tilak Raj Ratra (Lucknow)
Mr. Jitendra Mishra (Bombay): [protected]

Details of the machine:
Laptop: Toshiba Satellite M 100
Model number: PSMADL00N008
Serial number: 37252171K

Expecting an early response,

Sakshi Gambhir
IIT Bombay
M: [protected]
E: [protected]@gmail.com