Who NOT to Buy From

Today, I had it verified: never attempt to purchase ANYTHING from ToshibaDirect, not ever again. Avoid otherwise fine Toshiba products simply in order to avoid dealing with Toshiba. Lesson learned.

That’s the short of it.The longer story is, to me, a compelling argument for an exponential coefficient of stupidity, laziness, arrogance and dishonesty as essential to large-scale consumer relations.

On April 15, Son&Heir placed an order for a Toshiba Qosmio gaming laptop with ToshibaDirect. He recieved an email projecting two to four weeks for delivery. All well and good. The next day, I received a call attempting to verify the shipping (physical) address on the order because Toshiba could find no such address. I pointed out that the phone number on the order corresponded to my listed phone number and that I was at the physical address listed–and address ToshibaDirect had already made numerous deliveries to, one for an amount equal to the more than $2K his order amounted to. Not only that, but his order had been placed with a debit card and 1. his bank required a specific time frame to raise the daily limit on his debit card (as do most banks, including the one we have our checking account in) and 2. his bank has his physical address as an address of record as well.

Nevertheless, it was represented that all was well… except the purchase did not go through within the time frame his bank had his limit raised for. Hmmm, since they required him to request the limit raise in person, that meant that if it did–finally–come back in stock, he would… more than likely be at work and unable to travel to the nearest branch office to effect the authorization, and besides, ToshibaDirect wouldn’t notify him before attempting to put the charge through, just attempt it, fail and put up a “Pending Authorization” notice on the web page for order inquiries (as I discovered later).

Not good. OK, so he wrote me a check for the amount, I deposited it in my checking account and personally authorized the raising of the “daily purchase” limit on my debit card (I no longer use regular credit cards–they are strictly for emergencies in our household) for a a business week plus two (businessdays.

Called ToshibaDirect and attempted to substitute MY debit card for his on the order. No go. My debit card was associated with another account already on record at ToshibaDirect–along with my physical address–so we were informed that HIS order had to be canceled and my card number attached to a new order. OK, if that’s the way it had to be, fine. Now, remember: the card I used was already associated with an existing account with ToshibaDirect–one that the company had shipped product to in the past. Order placed and I was assured that according to ToshibaDirect’s warehouse and inventory information that the product would be charged and shipped no later than May 1. Good enough.

A bit later (about an hour), I had received order confirmation via email. Checked the order confirmation page the next day and it showed “Credit Card Confirmation Pending”. “OK,” thought I, “that’s not all that informative, but of course they’ve not charged it yet and won’t until it’s shipped, so perhaps that’s what that means.

A week passed after placing the NEW order and no status change, so I thought it best to call. Nope. That’s not what it meant. Now, mind you, I’d received no calls and no emails after the order confirmation–and I know I hadn’t because I’d received 25 messages on the answering machine attached to the line ToshibaDirect had to contact me, and I’d checked both my own email archives and the email archived on the server for any further messages. Nevertheless, when I called to check, I was told that the “customer service representative” I had last talked to had attempted to contact me several times over a three day period.

A patent lie.

And what had he (NOT) attemopted to contact me about? Verifying my physical address! An address he had already verified from previous orders sent to this address that had been associated with the account my debit card was associated with!

From that point, it took me an hour and a half to get anyone to re-verify what had already been verified by simply looking at the address associated in the past with the same debit card and ToshibaDirect account.

Then I was assured that the product would ship and be received this week. Checked the order verification page a few minutes later and under each of the products (notebook, spare battery, surge suppressor, etc.) the status showed “Shipped”. Antsy, since I had received no email detailing the same, about an hour later I refreshed the page and the status had changed to “Product Shipping Status to Follow”. ?!? From “Shipped” to “Product Shipping Status to Follow”? Not right. Since by that time, it was past TD’s business hours, I thought to meself, “Call tomorrow.”

Called. Nope. Not shipped. All the units that were reported by the TD “supervisor” who corrected TD’s address verification snafu had shipped… to other customers.

I was then assured that there was an additional inventory that would be available for shipping today and that the “supervisor” would call me by 2:00 Pacific time to inform me as to the status of the order.

2:00 Pacific time came and went and NO call. The guy lied. So, I called again and, “No, that will be available on the 15th.”

And I’m supposed to believe that and keep the ceiling raised on my debit card for another two weeks? And then be told another story? And another?

Nope. Never do business with Toshiba again. Never. (Remember, this is from the guy who said when CBS did NOTHING to Dan Rather for his scurrilous lies that he’d never tune in See B.S. again for ANYTHING… and has not, and who still wears one of his four Ra^thergate t-shirts at least once a week…)

That’s the condensed version of the long version. *heh* (BTW, the “supervisor” was not happy to get an email from me reiterating my contact information and reminding him he said he’d call. Perhaps that’s why he stupidly made himself a liar. Yeh, he hadn’t given me his email address. I tracked him down.)