Toshiba Products

Nov. 25/98

I experienced extreme frustration in trying to get through to anyone at Toshiba who could tell me how to have my Toshiba CD-ROM model (T)XM-6201B-S serviced while still under warranty. Apparently Toshiba of Canada does not handle the Toshiba CD-ROM products for non-laptop computers. I phoned the toll free USA 1 800 999-4273 many times & tried to work through their multilevel menus, but could not get the answers I sought & could not get to speak to a person.

Just over a year ago I bought a Toshiba M-770 consumer VCR for family use. It stopped loading tapes just after the warranty. I took it into a local VCR repair shop who told me that a small piece of metal casting had broken inside & that it wouldn’t be worth the cost to fix it because he’d have to order a whole new complete casting. It was the repairman’s opinion that this was a design defect & certainly not anything we could have damaged. Toshiba Canada does handle service for the VCRs but said they were going into their "busy" season & couldn’t touch it for at least 3 weeks. They referred me to another local authorized repair shop. I also tried to get through to anybody at the 1 800 631-3811 USA number but it was equally as frustrating as it was for the CD-ROM computer products.

I’m beginning to come to the conclusion that Toshiba does not want to be bothered with after sales service, that some of their products aren’t very well designed & that it would be best to avoid buying Toshiba products. Apparently many others worldwide are also frustrated with Toshiba. You can check out a web site dedicated to frustrated Toshiba owners at http://home.mpinet.net/sbunker

By Doug Hembruff.
Last updated Jan. 19/99