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Toshiba says they made a mistake but they still cannot help me

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Re: Toshiba says they made a mistake but they still cannot help me

#81

Post by bentcorner »

sillysaurus2 wrote: post #68
lambda wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people do abuse this to rip companies off, to varying degrees; I know some people who treat returns as free rentals, buying something, using it without ever intending to keep it, and then returning it. Some people go even further and steal things and then return them for cash. But I guess that on the whole, the good customer experience for the honest customers outweighs the cost of fraud.

EDIT: My apologies. It looks like I'll need to have a discussion with my friend about this.

> This seems impossible. Returns require a receipt. I don't know what you're talking about.

1. Buy item #1, obtain receipt, take it home

2. Go back into store, find identical item #2, take it past checkout counter and up to return counter

3. "Return" item #2 using receipt for item #1

4. Profit

For big ticket items there's usually a unique serial the store will scan to prevent this sort of thing, but not always. Pretty deplorable.

Re: Toshiba says they made a mistake but they still cannot help me

#82

Post by Crito »

sillysaurus2 wrote: post #68
lambda wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people do abuse this to rip companies off, to varying degrees; I know some people who treat returns as free rentals, buying something, using it without ever intending to keep it, and then returning it. Some people go even further and steal things and then return them for cash. But I guess that on the whole, the good customer experience for the honest customers outweighs the cost of fraud.

EDIT: My apologies. It looks like I'll need to have a discussion with my friend about this.

> "If the companies didn't want you to do this, then they wouldn't let you do this."

That is a poor assumption that is likely incorrect more often than not.

A Chinese restaurant that I go to occasionally has a bowl of mints by the register. I could take a handful of them, they would not stop me, but that would be a dick move. I could go hang out at library and pass the time by taking their books off the shelves and building castles with them on the desks, but that would be a dick move. I could go to the shoe store and try on every single pair of shoes that they have, leaving them all in a massive pile in the middle of the store, but that would be a dick move.

Generous customer-friendly policies like this can exist, for the benefit of the customer, because there is an understanding that most people will be respectful and not abuse the privilege. If everybody acted like your friend, then we would not be able to have nice things.

Re: Toshiba says they made a mistake but they still cannot help me

#83

Post by mdmarra »

sillysaurus2 wrote: post #68
lambda wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people do abuse this to rip companies off, to varying degrees; I know some people who treat returns as free rentals, buying something, using it without ever intending to keep it, and then returning it. Some people go even further and steal things and then return them for cash. But I guess that on the whole, the good customer experience for the honest customers outweighs the cost of fraud.

EDIT: My apologies. It looks like I'll need to have a discussion with my friend about this.

> If the companies didn't want you to do this, then they wouldn't let you do this.

This is the kind of behavior and attitude that ruin nice things for everyone.

My car can go 100 MPH in a residential neighborhood, did the manufacturer intend for it to be used like that just because it can?

Re: Toshiba says they made a mistake but they still cannot help me

#84

Post by thatthatis »

sillysaurus2 wrote: post #68
lambda wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people do abuse this to rip companies off, to varying degrees; I know some people who treat returns as free rentals, buying something, using it without ever intending to keep it, and then returning it. Some people go even further and steal things and then return them for cash. But I guess that on the whole, the good customer experience for the honest customers outweighs the cost of fraud.

EDIT: My apologies. It looks like I'll need to have a discussion with my friend about this.

You are wrong, using return policies to get test devices is morally wrong. Your friend is stealing the cost of discounting the returned item + the cost of processing the return.

Buying something that might work, trying it and returning it if it doesn't isn't morally wrong.

The difference is your friend is buying with no actual intent to keep and own.

Re: Toshiba says they made a mistake but they still cannot help me

#86

Post by bentcorner »

hayksaakian wrote: post #48
barhum wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon has always been good with me but I am past the 30 day policy to return it them. Anyways it is Toshiba's reponsibility...

Like others mentioned, Amazon customer service is (anecdotally) good. You L never know if you don't ask.

I've been really pleasantly surprised by Amazon. Once I accidentally ordered two copies of a book, they refunded me the extra book and allowed me to keep the extra copy (don't know what I'm going to do with two, but that was nice). I've refunded a digital download game as well, which was unexpected.

Haven't needed to do it with anything pricey though, but again it doesn't hurt to ask.

Re: Toshiba says they made a mistake but they still cannot help me

#87

Post by samsquire »

w1ntermute wrote: post #41
cududa wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? They consistently seem, in my experience, to have thew worst build quality, and parts die regularly. Ive never seen a single one that had a solid hinge on it after 6 months of use.

I know a guy who's still using a 7 year old Toshiba laptop. He installed an SSD, added some RAM, and upgraded Vista to 7. It still runs like new.

I'm still actively using a low end 6 year Toshiba laptop. (All original components, no ssd.)

Runs 24/7. Super reliable. You just have to keep it cool - I underclock.

Re: Toshiba says they made a mistake but they still cannot help me

#88

Post by monkeyspaw »

anigbrowl wrote: post #2

Manuel Diaz is the head of Toshiba Sales & Marketing for Latin America: https://plus.google.com/105717227635873644097/about http://www.linkedin.com/pub/manuel-diaz/4/862/644 Make a nice polite blog post with all of your documentation (including your sales receipt) and then send the link to him.

This seems like an immensely useful service (looking up executive level social media accounts). Are there companies out there who provide this service?

Re: Toshiba says they made a mistake but they still cannot help me

#89

Post by tombrossman »

barhum wrote: post #15
JoshTriplett wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried contacting Amazon's customer service about this? Get them to either enforce the warranty or replace the laptop themselves.

Amazon has always been good with me but I am past the 30 day policy to return it them. Anyways it is Toshiba's reponsibility...

TL/DR: Have Amazon handle this for you, they are awesome at customer service.

I had a one year old HTC Desire which malfunctioned under warranty (Europe here = 2yrs mandatory) and sought to return it to them for repair. They were a huge pain in the ass, refusing to pay shipping to the repair depot despite this being explicitly covered, and so I asked Amazon (from whom I bought it) for assistance dealing with HTC. Totally shocked when Amazon told me 'No problem, here's a free shipping label, send it back to us for a full refund. The price was hundreds of pounds less by then and they refunded the original price. It was in pretty good shape but not at all in 'like new' condition. I immediately bought another from them and kept the difference - they weren't interested in just exchanging it.

Fast forward to now, and it's pretty much the same deal with LG and a defective Nexus 4. LG agreed in writing to reimburse shipping prior to me sending it, but now want to change the terms & added an NDA and are illegally withholding payment[1] of their debt. I contacted Amazon again and they told me the same deal: 'Send it in for a full refund any time, no problem'.

Needless to say, I now buy all electronics on Amazon. This is probably their goal and we're both okay with it. As for HTC and LG, at least in the UK, they are bastards and I'll keep hoping for better support from other manufacturers when I can.

[https://twitter.com/tombrossman/status/418003090059448322]

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