Okay, this is a long rant about Future Shop and the PSP.  I purchased my Toshiba laptop in February of 2003 and this is how the repair history (and rollercoaster ride ‘o stupidity) goes.  — it’s fair to mention this time that I work directly with computer hardware for a living and that my minor (I’m a University student) is in applied computing.February 2005 – laptop gone for 3 weeksMy backlight was working intermittently.  I researched the problem online prior to bringing the computer in for repairs, as it turns out the FL inverter is a common issue in Toshiba laptops (“Toshiba has decided to extend the warranty for the FL Inverter Issue and to provide refunds to customers who paid for certain repairs.” — from Toshiba’s website).   When asked if they (Futureshop’s “tech guys”) could fix this problem in store, they said no, because it was a major repair.   When it came back the FL Inverter had been reseated, rather than replaced, as is the common solution to this problem.Second repairOctober 2005 – laptop gone for nearly 3 weeksBacklight began malfunctioning again back in the summer, but it had been so intermittent and seemed to fix itself with a restart that I hesitated to take it in.  Eventually it became quite persistent and I called upon the PSP again, which thankfully, came to my rescue.  Laptop was sent away, this time the LCD was replaced.  (Not quite the FL Inverter, but who am I to ask, right?) Third repairDecember 6 – 19.DVD drive was no longer reading anything.    Tried data CDs, audio CDs and DVDs…nothing.  For this repair, the DVD drive, FL inverter and the fan were replaced.  When I picked it up I discovered that the computer would not start up at all.  As per the “technician’s” suggestions I tried it both with and without the battery in place and oddly enough, that didn’t help any… When the computer was turned on, there was power going to the DVD drive and monitor, but the motherboard did  not beep at all during the power on self test.  This point, though a tad technical, is crucial in my upcoming argument.  The link will take you to Wikipedia if you’re curious…Fourth repair – December 20-January 18So yeah, since the computer is not working at all, I take it back in the next day.   I ask them if they check the computers before calling the customer to pick them up.  Some rude asshole in the back interrupts telling me that yes, they check them every time, and that my computer had been checked.  In retrospect, I should’ve asked him to tell me what my desktop wallpaper was.  Any real geek would’ve known Samus from Metroid…I was told that if I do qualify for the No Lemon Guarantee, only the head supervisor of this department can approve it.  I agree to come back and talk with him.  Well, the head supervisor’s best guess, we’ll call him Mark, was that my motherboard needed to be replaced (obviously, since the computer wasn’t’ posting).  I was told that should it take more than 30 days for Toshiba to find a compatible motherboard that a replacement unit would be given to me  under the product service plan.  I ask him why my laptop wasn’t checked before I was called in to pick it up after the 3rd repair (hmm, laptop’s  not posting…maybe she won’t notice?).  He says that 9 out of 10 times they are checked…This is the fourth repair, and under the lemon policy, the computer should have been replaced.    When I call them on it, Mark goes in the back and 5 minutes later comes out with a piece of paper that states the first major repair is a minor one…  Wish I had that paper in my records… The store manager, we’ll call him Darryl, is nice enough to meet with me.  He gets involved with the following issue:**HARD DRIVE ISSUE (coupled with repair number 4): I informed Scott that although I regularly back-up vital information, should the unit need to be replaced permanently I would like to copy the laptop’s hard drive onto my home desktop computer.  He said “Of course, absolutely”  My boyfriend (a computer scientist currently in a masters program) witnessed this.  On December 21st, Mark tells me that should it be sent away and come back as unfixable, I would not have this option.  According to him, after I send it this last time I can not request my own hard drive back, not even the hard drive itself for the purpose of backing up the data which is my own intellectual property.  Apparently, the unit may not be taken apart.  If I wished for my data to be backed up I had 2 options:1.    pay them between $130 to $160 (they wouldn’t be specific as to the actual amount) for their technicians to do it for me or2.    take it home and do it myself, returning it within 48 hours.  I opted for the second choice, because the price quoted was utterly ridiculous (Best Buy confirms this, their fee for the same service was $59)  Guess what else?  Do you know what the cost of a 2.5″ to 3.5″ Hard Drive Adapter is?  $25 at Best Buy.  Once you have one of those, your laptop hard drive can be plugged into a desktop computer as an external USB drive.I called futureshop back to inform them that I would not be able to get my laptop back to them within 48 hours (hey, I’m in school still, I had exams and stuff).  I would bring it back once I had copied the contents of the hard drive onto my desktop computer.  When I asked the associate on the phone, just for shits and giggles, why I would not have access to my own hard drive after it is shipped he said it was because Toshiba would send it back to them wiped.  (WTF!?)Fifth repair – January 31 – wheneverthehelligetmylaptopbackMy product service plan expires in about a month.  It would appear as though they’re just riding it out until then.  Now their records state that repair 4 did not involve replacing the motherboard and that no hardware was replaced during that repair.  My video card has mysteriously lost its ability to send signals via the monitor output and Svideo output, something that could only be a result of a different motherboard being put in there (the video card is integrated).  I used this feature the day that the DVD drive stopped working, so I know it was working fine before.  They now claim that they only reseated the CPU and RAM on repair 4.  Let’s forget the fact that I know that the motherboard would have beeped an error code to notify me of this, I’ve had 2 technicians (who oddly enough don’t work for futureshop, and one of whom works for Toshiba) confirm my understanding of computer hardware (hey, I could’ve been guilty of applying desktop hardware knowledge to laptop hardware and been incorrect in doing so).  When I called to speak with Mark (let’s not forget, he’s the guy who approves replacements under the ‘no lemon guarantee’) he said that it looked like I would be getting a replacement, he was just waiting for it to be okayed (by who?  God?).  Then, after his shift is over, he has another technician, we’ll call him Scott  call me with this fabricated bullshit about the CPU being reseated.  He also gets the pleasure of being the bearer of bad news: Futureshop is still not holding to their policy.  Since Scott is someone who I went to highschool with and they know I would not stand my ground against him, this is why he is asked to call me.**Even better still:  After all of that crap I called the PSP directly to see if I could make a claim with them and skip out on the store.  The PSP associate has only 2 repairs on file, and according to her records, the FL Inverter has been replaced twice, so why do my work orders not reflect this?  Who the hell is paying for these repairs if the PSP isn’t being billed for them?  The biggest issue now, it seems, is the fabrication and disappearance of repair records.  Current debate: Now that we’re on repair 5, I think it’s time I get my replacement unit.  The manager (Darryl) is happy enough to tell me over the phone about a 30 day clause that states: any computer brought back to the technicians within 30 days of a previous repair is actually a continuation of that previous repair.  What does this mean?  That Since I had my laptop for 24 hours between repairs 3 and 4, and 12 days between repairs 4 and 5, all 3 count as 1 even though they are separate hardware failures…I asked to meet with him so that he could show me where it says that in the contract and he said that people have made that request before and he exercises his right to decline that meeting.  He said that I was welcome to come down and pick up a brochure.  The terms & conditions conflict with much of what he was saying to me.  He said that if I wanted to discuss the repairs with Mark I was more than welcome to, but surprisingly enough, Mark doesn’t really want to talk with me.I will never buy anything from futureshop ever again. ‘, ‘Major PSP rant regarding my Toshiba Satellite, the PSP and St Catharines Futureshop’, 0, ‘Okay, this is a long rant about Future Shop and the PSP.  I purchased my Toshiba laptop in February of 2003 and this is how the repair history (and rollercoaster ride ‘o stupidity) goes.  — it’s fair to mention this time that I work directly with computer hardware for a living and that my minor (I’m a University student) is in applied computing

Posted by Admin on Tuesday, February 7th, 2006 at 2:34 am.