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Toshiba Trade-In Credit Disappears

By Ed Foster, Section Gripes
Posted on Sun Mar 07, 2004 at 01:58:58 PM PDT

A reader writes:

In January of this year I purchased a new Toshiba Tecra S1 and docking station to use in my growing IT consulting business. I purchased a Toshiba rather than an IBM ThinkPad as Toshiba advertised an attractive TradeUps program whereby they would give you a cash amount for your old notebook in trade once you purchased a new Toshiba notebook and sent back your old notebook to them. To get your money, you would also need to send in proof of purchase of a new Toshiba notebook. I had no problem with this. As I said, I purchased the new notebook and dutifully packed-up and sent in my old Toshiba notebook. The notebook was working perfectly and booted-up fine when it left me. Toshiba indicated my unit was worth about $375.00 in trade-in value.
I had been waiting for about a month with no word, so I decided to call the Toshiba TradeUps program to get a status report. After two weeks of telling me the notebook was in the inspection queue, today I was told that my notebook had arrived DOA, would not boot-up and so the unit was trashed. No emails were sent to me informing me of this problem, no phone calls. The supervisor I eventually demanded to speak to only quoted company policy that DOA notebooks received are worthless and are trashed. What happened to the notification I should have received informing me of this problem? She could not answer that question. The notebook was fine when it left here. So, what happened? All I know is I am out the $375 trade-in allowance for my old notebook. I still don't have an answer and I don't accept the explanation that it arrived DOA.


< The Worst Sneakwrap Agreement | Reader Voices: Dongle Defenders >


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Toshiba Trade-In Credit Disappears | 13 comments (13 topical) | Post A Comment
Toshiba's Customer Service[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#1)
by tscoff on Wed Mar 10, 2004 at 07:15:51 AM PDT

A few years ago I used to work at a computer reseller/service center.  We were authorized to perform warranty repairs on Toshiba laptops.  One customer came in with a Toshiba laptop that had a defective hard drive which was replaced under warranty.  The customer did not have the original software to restore onto the laptop and it took us weeks of fighting with Toshiba in order to get the software to restore onto the hard drive.

It seems that their customer service hasn't improved any with time.

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77777777[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#15)
by Anonymous User on Sat Aug 16, 2008 at 06:50:32 AM PDT

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They should have to send it back[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#2)
by microbee on Thu Mar 11, 2004 at 09:36:22 AM PDT

How dare they trash YOUR property if they aren't going to pay you for it? Seems like a good way to deny your trade-in value and hide the evidence. If they sent it back, you could at least verify that it's DOA. I don't trust 'em.

I think under common law you have a valid claim against them for conversion (more commonly known as theft). I'd estimate the value of your conversion claim at $375. That's before punitive damages. Take them to small claims for the max your jurisdiction allows.

[ Reply to This ]



WTF?[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#3)
by kamnet on Thu Mar 11, 2004 at 10:09:18 AM PDT

They took your notebook, they threw it away, they're not giving your cash OR your notebook back?

I agree, this isn't just negligence, this is THEFT. Hopefully you got your package receipt and you sent it insured or with some other indiciation of who signed for that laptop and I'd start filing complaints everyplace - the police, the DA, the BBS, your state attorney general's office, the postal service or whichever carrier delivered it ...

And at this point I wouldn't be demanding the trade-in value. I'd be demanding the FULL PRICE of a new laptop, since this unit was working when you sent it in.

[ Parent | Reply to This ]



Claim[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#4)
by Anonymous User on Wed Mar 17, 2004 at 06:56:53 PM PDT

You do have a legitimate claim againts them, however, you can't get punitive damages in Small Claims ... and it generally isn't worth the money to hire a lawyer. So, the best you'll get is probably the $375 you bargained for, plus court costs. Neither can you demand more than you bargained for.

[ Parent | Reply to This ]


Not punative, but ...[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#5)
by kamnet on Thu Mar 18, 2004 at 11:35:21 AM PDT

You can always sue for the maximum cap under the law in your state. If the small claims court judge feels that your amount is too much, they can always reduce it down.

This works in your favor in the very likely chance that a big company is not going to bother even sending a lawyer to small claims court to defend itself over what it thinks is a few hundred bucks. If they don't show up, you win your judgement by default, and if you went for the max then you automatically win that. If the defendant DOES show up, then the judge gets to decide what your claims actually merit.

I had a friend who went through this with Ameritech several years ago. She made a payment in an overnight deposit box at an office that was shut down the next day with no announcement. They didn't clear the deposit box for 3 weeks, so her payment was never received and they shut her account off. They finally got to the box, cashed the check, and then neither credited her with it nor restored her service. After jumping through several hoops to recover either, she took them into court. Sure enough, Ameritech didn't bother to show and when the judge's secretary finally go through to them, they basically told the judge he could go screw himself (but in not as nice terms. The lawyers actually did this! Shameful, isn't it?). So the judge ruled in her favor by default, a $200 phone bill turned into a $5000 award.

[ Parent | Reply to This ]



in your favor[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#14)
by Anonymous User on Mon Jul 14, 2008 at 07:16:30 AM PDT

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[ Parent | Reply to This ]


Similar to my Dell experience[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#6)
by Anonymous User on Tue Mar 30, 2004 at 12:29:32 PM PDT

I had a similar experience with Dell. I sent in a notebook computer for repair, under warranty, and long story short -- they somehow got "confused" even with a valid RMA, and they trashed my notebook. It was only about a year old. They were "very sorry" and didn't know how that could have happened. So I escalated my problem, very politely, to higher management until I negotiated a brand new replacement notebook, which was a newer/better/faster model, and they added more memory too. The moral of the story is: Don't give up! Look up the corporate officers, including VPs of sales and public relations, of Toshiba, contact them directly in writing, with a carbon copy to your county's District Attorney's consumer protection division as well as your state Attorney General's office. Make waves and do not give up until you have negotiated something to your satisfaction. Be polite but firm, and be specific as to the remedy you expect from Toshiba. This method has worked for me with many companies, so try it.

[ Reply to This ]


Toshiba Steal-ing Program[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#7)
by KVerd on Tue Dec 18, 2007 at 06:59:38 PM PDT

I just sent three perfectly functioning computers to Toshiba, my eyes gleaming with the promised dollar signs on my quote. Sadly, I've been taken. The first laptop, they are giving us $50 less because it has a few stickers on it. Please. The second laptop (a $2500 10" Vaio two years ago), they said is worth nothing, is broken, and has no operating system. None of this was true when I carefully packed it in the manufacturers packaging and mailed it to them. They basically stole it. The third was a desktop that functioned perfectly, was in immaculate condition, but was taking up space in my tiny home. Today they let me know that they'd only give me half because they say there are scratches on the case. THERE WERE NO SCRATCHES! Of course, they prepaid the shipping, so maybe I was unaware that they shipped it Overnight WBS (WE BREAK STUFF). Do not send anything to Toshiba. Do not be fooled by promises of big bucks for your computers. Just take the extra hassle of EBay, but do not trust the thiefs of Toshiba. THEY WILL RIP YOU OFF!!! They did it to me.

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Toshiba Trade-In Credit Disappears | 13 comments (13 topical) | Post A Comment
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