Toshiba's Crappy Quality

[bountyhunter]

Stupidly bought a Toshiba VCR/DVD last month. VCR flaked out about one week past the thirty day window where I could dump it back on the store. No worries... it still has the manufacturer's warranty (?)

I call Toshiba and find the local "authorized" service center and call them and they confirm they will fix it under warranty. Drive across town and try to drop it off.... and the guy says he is not sure if they can repair it. Toshiba does not authorize repair on all models, just some... the others have to be sent back.

So, he says he will have to call them on Monday to see if they can get an authorization to repair it. If they say no, he'll return it to me.... but there is a $15 "processing fee". Now I have already called Toshiba and it is an 800 number. So I ask him:

"So you are saying, you aren't sure if you can fix it, but you will make a toll free call and then charge me $15 for that one minute of your time?"

At that point the guy cops an attitude, so I walk out with the VCR mumbling the famous mantrah: "One of us is an idiot, and the evidence is leaning towards YOU."

So Monday, I call Toshiba and they say that they do not repair any of the DVD players (which any service center would actually know, he was just trying to get $15 to cover the cost of the 30 seconds he spent talking to me). Bottom line, if I package and ship the unit all the way across the US at my own expense, they will generously send me back a used refurbished POS that somebody else sent in because it failed under warranty and they were able to get working by cobbling together enough parts from various machines.

Oh, goody.

Invest that purchase price carefully, it will be the last $$ you ever get from me.