After 6 months of hastles, I want to add my story to the list. I had purchased a Satellite 5205-S119 in December 2003. I had an extended warrantee from a previous computer that I applied to this laptop, which expired in April 2005. In January 2005 (coincidently 13 months after purchase, just after the standard warrantee would've run out) the hard drive crashed. From the day I bought the computer the wireless card never worked either. I finally broke down to get both problems fixed.
I received back my laptop but the wireless card was still not working. Also, the computer crashed multiple times an hour. I returned the unit only to have them replace the system board, cpu, memory, hard drive (2nd time), and wifi boards replaced. Upon return, there was no change. The unit continuously crashed and the wifi didn't work at all. So I asked about replacing the unit but was told a "senior engineer" needed to look at it and they needed to verify it was not functioning.
This time they replaced only the system board (2nd time in a row). when I called after this third repair failed to fix any problems, I was given yet another round. By now, I had spent 5 months and my warrantee had expired, wasting multiple months at Toshiba for repair. I had inquired about this situation and was told they would extend my warrantee for the time that my computer was at Toshiba for repair. I was also told that if they failed to fix the problem they would replace the unit. I called after receiving the unit back and was told that they would not replace the unit, that they would not extend my warrantee, and that the managers of the customer service and customer relations departments "do not take calls." Since my unit was within 30 days of repair, they took it back yet again, replaced the wifi again (2nd time for that, 3rd unit that had more than one replacement).
They ran it through tests and found nothing wrong. I spoke with their "engineer" and their test protocols were completely unrealistic and didn't come close to simulating situations that would normally be encountered that could account for any failures. I contacted them after receiving the laptop and was told my warrentee was over and I would have to pay for any service they could provide.
Stay away from Toshiba. The customer support can't fix anything and will give you a run-around. I sent in a complaint and never heard back from them. All I got from them was a faulty computer that still crashes with a completely non-functioning wi-fi card, and 6 months of hastle and run-around from the tech support.
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