Authorized Warranty Repair LIED -- what to do?

[*rain.drops*]

I strongly suspect that an Authorized Toshiba Repair center lied to
me, and replaced a nonfunctioning part in my laptop under warranty
with a different part, when they were supposed to use the same part.

Below I'm asking a couple of QUESTIONS, and I am trying to give enough
information for you to decide if I'm right, and to suggest what I
should do.

I lost money and time -- 6 hours of driving, $$$$ on gas, and $25 on
DVD media -- at a time when I was very busy at school, just before
finals -- because of what the Warranty Center did.

I have a Toshiba Satellite notebook with an internal DVD-RAM recorder.
From day one, I was not able to burn either CD's or DVD's with it. I
called the nearest Authorized Toshiba repair place -- 90 miles away.
They told me I had to physically bring the computer in so they could
test it and confirm that the drive wasn't working. They couldn't take
my word for it, and they couldn't let me just give them the part
number.

I made the trip. I handed the laptop to the repairman; he returned 5
minutes later and said he would order the replacement drive. I asked
if he had confirmed that the drive was bad, and he said YES. I
figured he must have used some software to do that, since 5 minutes
was fast, and I wanted to know what software it was. He got a funny
look on his face and said, "Actually, I lied; I didn't test it and I
can't, because I'm not the repairman and the repairman is gone today;
I just wrote down the part number to order. If that doesn't fix it
when it arrives, then we'll reconfigure the drivers."

I said, let's test the drivers now so maybe I can save myself another
trip. He said that wasn't possible.

I drove home. Two weeks later when the replacement part arrived, I
drove back. The real tech replaced it and gave me my laptop. I went
home and burned a CD.

But I cannot burn DVD's. I had tried to burn DVD's on the earlier
broken recorder, and the burning quit after about 15 seconds. But
now, when I tried to burn a DVD, it didn't even try to burn; it
immediately gave me a message that I had the wrong kind of DVD.

Now, I see in the Registry that there are TWO keys for CD-DVD burners.
One is for a Matshita UJ-850S. The other is for a Matshita UJ-841S.
The one I have now is a Matshita UJ-841S.

QUESTION: Does the other key indicate that at some time, this machine
was fitted with the UJ-850S? If so, and if the repair place was
supposed to replace with an identical burner, why do I have a UJ-841S?
Do othe UJ-850S and UJ-841S use different kinds of DVD media? If so,
did I waste $25.00 on DVD media that is now useless to me?

If the repair place substituted a different internal CD/DVD burner,
instead of using an identical replacement part, then why couldn't they
have saved me one 3-hour trip? Why did I have to make TWO trips, to
"confirm" that the drive was not functioning, and to extract the
precise burner model number? I could have given them that information
over the telephone.

I don't like to be lied to. I think the Authorized Toshiba Repair
place was unprofessional, at best. I'm mad at them.

QUESTION: How would you feel? What would you do? What do you think
I should do?

*rain.drops*

 

[Ghostrider]

I strongly suspect that an Authorized Toshiba Repair center lied to
me, and replaced a nonfunctioning part in my laptop under warranty
with a different part, when they were supposed to use the same part.

Below I'm asking a couple of QUESTIONS, and I am trying to give enough
information for you to decide if I'm right, and to suggest what I
should do.

I drove home. Two weeks later when the replacement part arrived, I
drove back. The real tech replaced it and gave me my laptop. I went
home and burned a CD.

But I cannot burn DVD's. I had tried to burn DVD's on the earlier
broken recorder, and the burning quit after about 15 seconds. But
now, when I tried to burn a DVD, it didn't even try to burn; it
immediately gave me a message that I had the wrong kind of DVD.

Now, I see in the Registry that there are TWO keys for CD-DVD burners.
One is for a Matshita UJ-850S. The other is for a Matshita UJ-841S.
The one I have now is a Matshita UJ-841S.

QUESTION: Does the other key indicate that at some time, this machine
was fitted with the UJ-850S? If so, and if the repair place was
supposed to replace with an identical burner, why do I have a UJ-841S?
Do othe UJ-850S and UJ-841S use different kinds of DVD media? If so,
did I waste $25.00 on DVD media that is now useless to me?

If the repair place substituted a different internal CD/DVD burner,
instead of using an identical replacement part, then why couldn't they
have saved me one 3-hour trip? Why did I have to make TWO trips, to
"confirm" that the drive was not functioning, and to extract the
precise burner model number? I could have given them that information
over the telephone.

I don't like to be lied to. I think the Authorized Toshiba Repair
place was unprofessional, at best. I'm mad at them.

QUESTION: How would you feel? What would you do? What do you think
I should do?

And just application was used to burn DVD's? Windows XP does not have
a DVD-burning program. A third-party application needs to be obtained
and used. Answer this question first.

 

[*rain.drops*]

Ah -- I see you suspect me of something ...

Windows MCE DOES come with a DVD burning application.

ppppppppppppppppppppppf

 

[*rain.drops*]

What difference does it make which application I was using to try to
burn the DVD?

JESUS

 

[Ghostrider]

Ah -- I see you suspect me of something ...

Windows MCE DOES come with a DVD burning application.

ppppppppppppppppppppppf

And why didn't you write that in the original post? Besides, you should
be concentrating on your school, prepping for your finals, etc., instead
of worrying about the DVD unit and spending 6 hours of driving, $$$$ on
gas, and $25 on DVD media. Unless, of course, being able to burn a DVD was
important to completing one course or another.

I sympathize. If warranty service is wanted, then the options are limited
to what are the terms for such service. Getting a replacement is not the
limiting step. If you are located in North America, then the Matshita 841S
version is probably the right version for this market. Note that there was
a recent firmware update for it. It might be needed to burn DVD's. Check
it out.

 

[friesian]

I strongly suspect that an Authorized Toshiba Repair center lied to
me, and replaced a nonfunctioning part in my laptop under warranty
with a different part, when they were supposed to use the same part.

They sure don't make warranties like they used to.

About 15 years ago, I bought a laptop, and the battery would not hold
a charge. I called Epson's service line, and the decided that either
th ebattery was defective, or the charger was. They shipped a new one
of each to me, and called a few days later to confirm that the parts
had arrived. Then they scheduled an appointment, and a local repairman
arrived at my house the next day, and installed the new charger. A few
days later, they called back to ask if the repair had been successful,
and if the repairman had been prompt, did good work, etc.

I was very impressed with the service.


I would either be calling or writing letters to see about getting it
working properly at *their* expense. You shouldn't have to drive hours
out of your way to get it fixed. If they stand by their product, they
should fix it or replace it.

 

[Jim Fisher]

out of your way to get it fixed. If they stand by their product, they
should fix it or replace it.

Bullsquat.

The original moron who posted this could have sent the product in for replacement via FedEx like everyone else. HE chose to drive instead, had an attitude with the repair shop so they didn't do him any favors. Ya reap what ya sow.

It sounds to me like they DID repalce the defective unit (which was probably not defective to begin with). The only problem here is a loose nut behind the keyboard.

 

[*rain.drops*]

What a great story. Sadly, the Toshiba Warranty Repair Center was
sorely lacking in technical skills and customer service. The first
"tech" even told me that to burn a CD, the burner starts at the
outside edge and works in toward the middle.

Back to my question:
DO the two registry entries I found, indicating two different models
of CD burner, mean that the Toshiba Warranty Repair Center did indeed
replace burner #850 with burner #841?

I'm not sure it matters much, except they made such a big deal out of
it and insisted I drive to their center so they could ID the part # to
replace it with the "exact*same*thing". If they did substitute a
different part, they should have told me.

Oh, BTW, I prefer newsgroups to internet forums. One reason is
because with newsgroups the KILLFILTERS work really well. I love
them. ;-)

Rain

 

[Pete Stavrakoglou]

What difference does it make which application I was using to try to
burn the DVD?

JESUS

Jesus:

I like your name.

 

[Jim Fisher]

What a great story. Sadly, the Toshiba Warranty Repair Center was
sorely lacking in technical skills and customer service. The first
"tech" even told me that to burn a CD, the burner starts at the
outside edge and works in toward the middle.

Back to my question:
DO the two registry entries I found, indicating two different models
of CD burner, mean that the Toshiba Warranty Repair Center did indeed
replace burner #850 with burner #841?

No, that is NOT what that means.

Moron.