Toshiba
Toshiba's deceptions - Satellite Laptop

I purchased a L640 laptop on 1/31 for $579 base price. Three days later I noticed that Toshiba had it on sale for $549 so I called and emailed the rep to receive it at this sale price. He never responded so I called the following Monday 2/7. I knew he was being deceptive when he said he was just talking to his manager about it and to hold on for a few minutes.

In returning to the phone, he said that I had two choices: he could cancel the order and start a new order where I’d have to wait another week for the company to build a new one and ship it to me for the $30 off, or I could have the one that is ready to ship for the $579. I wondered why Toshiba would dump the one they just built and not just adjust the price. I asked what would be done with the initial laptop, and he said maybe used for parts or sold to someone else…he obviously didn’t know. Again I realized he was being deceptive. I said I could wait until next week as I was in no hurry.

He emailed me the new order invoice and said he'd cancel the old one. A finance person was quickly put on the phone to verify I wanted the laptop and to charge my card. This had not happened the week before when I placed the initial order.in fact, my card had not even been charged up until this point so adjusting the price of the invoice would have been very simple.

Lo-and-behold, the laptop came 4 days later… from China, no less. AND two days later in checking my credit card, I found out I was charged not only the $579 base price, but there were pending charges for the order that was $549 base price. I would have been charged for 2 laptops so my credit card company stopped the charges putting into it into dispute. I'm grateful that I kept looking at my charge statement to catch this since I sense something like this would happen.

I wrote and called the rep on 2/13, but he didn’t respond (being a Sunday) nor did he respond on 2/14. On 2/14, UPS attempted to deliver another computer, the discounted one. I wouldn’t sign for it and called the company sales dept. Speaking with another rep because I knew that the first rep would not respond to me. I explained to this new rep the situation. He was polite, said that he would contact the credit card company and that I would only be charged the lesser price. He agreed to send me a letter verifying this. I saved all correspondence.

I feel that the kind of ordeal, communication and service I received from the first rep and his manager (who I was told to write) was very disrespectful and dishonest. With the hours and stress it took to correspond, call and deal with UPS, credit cards, and Toshiba, all because I asked for the $30 less price, any big corporation would have handled this with supportive assistance knowing that they had a satisfied, possibly repeat customer. I will never be a customer of Toshiba again and have written on several blogs about my experience. I’m owed not only an apology (not from the second rep) but more than a $30 discount for what I went through.

Company: Toshiba
Country: USA

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