Quality of electronics now

I brought a Toshiba Encore Mini Tablet on 29DEC2014 for $99. By 9JAN2015 the combined MicroUSB/Charge port began to fail most likely due to a bad solder joint. This caused the tablet not to charge or detect USB devices when attached. I had a temp fix by applying slight upward pressure on the cord did allow it to charge but after 2 days that even failed to work.

I contacted toshiba 12JAN2015, and I was told it was most likely going to be ruled "physical damage but they would submit it as a warranty claim. If it did turn out to be physical damage they would call and ask how to proceed. They did confirm a out of warranty repair would $252 or 2.5x the retail of a new unit. So I said okay, then in the email they send directs me to getting the ball rolling I find out they expect me to pay to have it shipped to them either using their custom padded box $29 or I could risk it and use my own packaging. I have done several warranty repairs over the years and this is the first company that has asked me to pay for shipping! Not Motorola, Dell, Apple all of them have paid for shipping the item to them and back to me.

I was on the fence about continuing to buy Toshiba products chalking this tablet up to a fluke but charging to ship a item for a warranty repair really speaks volumes about what type of company they are. I know the reason for it, they hope people won't bother sending devices in for repair due to the cost of shipping. This little tablet wouldn't cost much but larger higher cost item would cost quite a bit more. They hope people say screw it and just buy a replacement Toshiba product.

Toshiba does not care about they quality of their products, nor do they care about customers by what amounts to charging them for a Warranty Repair. So I hope Toshiba enjoys my $99 it will be the last of my money you will get directly from me, and I will do everything I can to avoid other products containing Toshiba IC's

I have various electronics that are many years old and some even pushing into their Third decade, It seems today that companies don't really care about quality or reliably of their products and hope people just junk whatever they have and buy new.

send them an E-Mail and tell them it`s not worth spending another dime on their POS product and that you`re just going to trash it and buy another tablet from a competitor,then thank them for letting you know that they don`t stand behind their products so you won`t waste anymore money buying a Toshiba product in the future.

You guys haven't even noticed that NWO is already here. Get rid of American life style of living. Even countries in Europe is living better than you. American Ancestors had a better life than your life. People need/want jobs so quality is lowered for them to have something to do, just to pay taxes for their land. Want good quality?

Then get rid of people land grabbing(land sales people) and trying to sell houses to other people. All these marketing scheme is what is ruining everyone lives.

Heck my neighbor house is on sale. Since they are gone I would've been living there maybe with another trust worthy neighbor because of the extra rooms.

Live like the old way of being villagers(as in living with your children) and farming for food in windmill farm fields.

a reply to: jholt5638

I don't think it matters what brand you buy, it is all made in China.

That is true, but atleast I can dilute myself in thinking they won't get my money by buying another brand

We have the same problems with connectors in Europe as you have. Ever heard of SCART - this was some whack-a-doodle connector where the cable was at an angle to the socket, that guaranteeing that gravity would always try and pull apart the pins. If the cable had just been perpendicular to the connector, no problem.

Regular sized USB was fairly good, except for USB dongles which always had the risk of being snapped off due to the way they stuck out at the back, side or front of a laptop or desktop. Mini-USB, the itty-bitty little USB connectors were the worst, since the spring clip connector pins could easily snap off. This has been fixed with the new flatter micro-USB as well as HDMI connectors.

I'm glad to say that the glass on my smartphone has lasted longer than the LCD displays of my earlier mobile phones, though having your mobile phone "bricked" due to as OS upgrade as soon as you arrive in a new country is not a pleasure.

Where did you buy it from in the uk most stores will accept it back for 30 days and only then tell you to contact the manufacturer either way the device is not fit FOR PURPOSE threaten them with a small claims court and loads of bad pr .

Show them that you will easy spend $$$ proving your point and write bad reviews if they do not cough up


good luck

originally posted by: jholt5638
I brought a Toshiba ... Tablet ... for $99.

There's your problem -- $99.

Tablets less than $250 new, are a quality gamble at best.

It sucks, but it's true.

I know that but I would expect them to last longer than two weeks. I have a few Chinese knockoff electronics that have lasted atleast a year. No matter if the tablet only cost $99 I would expect to get more than 2 weeks of use out of the product

a reply to: douglas5

I got it from Best Buy which has only a 15 Day return policy which I was outside of by the time the problem appeared

USB charging will always be a problem since the connections are so fragile yet convenient. The other problem is you're trying to be cheap about it. It doesn't matter what you buy cheap you get what you pay for. You got lucky with the other "cheap" things you bought that you say lasted a year. Hell even 2 years is good. Most corporations don't want their products to last longer than even 5 years simply because that is how they make profit, by selling you new products/warranties or from repairs. My vehicle is from 2007 and I've repaired it numerous times and some is just typical up keep from use, but I paid almost $20,000 for it. I expect a product costing $20,000 to last reasonably a long time. If I spent $500 on a used car then I know It will most likely nickel and dime me. I purchased a $200 pair of triton gaming head phones. The mic then the inline volume control went. They replaced it after the year warranty no questions asked. I'm sure it was luck that they chose to do that, but even though I cared for the headphones tenderly they still had a problem. You have more weight behind your complaint when you purchase something more expensive.

a reply to: jholt5638

Buy another one there and take the broken one back with the new receipt then sell the other one as unwanted gift you might lose $ 10 or 20 bucks but it is better than $ 99

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

...love the Avatar.

I hear you. People like to hack on Apple, but my daughter was able to get a totally new phone when it quit charging 23 months after purchase. My wife went in to the Apple Store and they gave her a new phone when her phone was simply 'acting up'. Cost to me and my family for brand new phones within warranty period? ZERO.

I will stick with Apple. They stand behind their product.

a reply to: jholt5638
Ever since China became the world's premier manufacturer quality of goods has diminished considerably.

But that's the price you pay for cheap goods and shareholder profits. Bring manufacturing back to the west and maybe we'll see better quality and after sales service. You may pay a little more for your goods but the benefits will be worth the extra cost.

At least that's what I believe.

Toshiba is a Japanese company and used to have some of the Best electronics out there.

Now they have operations worldwide and are probably contracting with China and other countries.