I wanted to bring a problem to everyone's attention and hope that others will not get duped like me.  Specifically, my complaint concerns a very poor product and total disregard for product warranties.

For everyone's reference, the product in question is the Toshiba Satellite model M30 Laptop Computer.  Here's my problem:

I own an 11 month old Toshiba Satellite M30 Laptop.  The hard drive just burnt out on this, a $2,500 machine!!  That was a very unexpected and disappointing experience to start with.  But, an even more horrid experience awaited me.

After logging 38 calls and being lied to for 5 days straight on the availability of a spare part, I finally went to the Toshiba Service Department and I was told, "We have no hard drives in stock and cannot give you an ETA."

Just like that!  The translation of such a statement is: "You are on your own, now, sucker!"

I had to take immediate action or even more financial loss leading to loss of livelihood would have ensued.  The computer is an indispensable machine in my life, like it or not.  The first independent computer repair shop I went to told me: "Sorry, man, but it's just a well known scam.  I saw it before.   Didn't you hear that Toshiba just paid out $2.1 billion for the very same thing.   Their hard drives are absolute garbage.  They just want you to buy a new drive.  I can get one for you and install it in 1 day, but it will cost you.  I deal with Toshiba New Parts.  They have them over there, but never through the warranty department."

About $3,000 later (travel back and forth out of town to college for the configuration disks, all software, loading the software, labour, intranet configuration software, new drive, data recovery under time constraints, term papers coming up, etc.) I have a new hard drive.

At the same time that I was running around, friends found out through Internet searches that Toshiba had listed my very model, as one with a defective drive installed right at the factory, when new.  As a result, I came to realize that all the Toshiba "service" personnel I had talked to pretended to help me while perpetrating a scam!

Naturally, Toshiba did not inform me of that "deficiency notice" when I took the machine for IN WARRANTY service.

Now, I have a new Toshiba drive, I am out $3,000 and I still fully expect it to burn out again.  More Internet searches further revealed sites are full of lamentations from duped consumers such as I.

Reinhard Heydrich, reinhard_heydrich@walla.com