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Less than a year ago, we bought a television set. We had our last one for a very long time. It was a 13 incher with a built in VCR and it was almost indestructable. Well, I managed to destroy it, but that’s another story. So we started looking for a reasonably priced television and we settled on a 26″ Toshiba LCD HD television. At the beginning of this month it crapped out. The picture was replaced by horizontal broad gray pulsating lines. I called up Toshiba customer service. They told me I would have to bring the television into my local Toshiba authorized repair shop. I was talking to a help desk person from Iowa (I asked – her accent was one I couldn’t quite figure out). The nice person on the phone had the address of the closest one to me and it was reasonably close indeed, so I took it in on August 7.
It turned out they needed to order a part from Toshiba. It was on back order. It wasn’t an obscure little part though. It seems televisions these days have two basic parts, the panel and the guts. The problem in this case was the guts. After a week or so I phoned the repair shop – still waiting for the part. After two weeks I called Toshiba. I suggested to them that two weeks was a long time to wait for a warranty repair for a product under a year old and that I thought they ought to simply give me a new television and be done with it. No, they weren’t going to give me a new television. The nice, understanding fellow on the phone told me that he understood how I would think two weeks was a long time but really they wouldn’t give me a new television after a two week wait. Perhaps if it was over a month they would consider it. He then instructed me. You see, it was under warranty and the warranty stated that they would repair the television for no charge if it were a factory defect. Well, I’m glad he straightened me out on that point.
Has anyone suggested to me, even for a minute, that Toshiba was not going to live up to it’s commitment to fix the unit? No. Well then, perhaps I can try to expedite delivery of the part. Would you like me to follow up with you tomorrow? I said I didn’t need a follow up; I needed a working television. The fellow explained to me that it was impossible to predict when a television might break so the fact that the unit was under a year old was not a factor. He couldn’t seen to understand why I might not be satisfied.
So what was I expecting? I was expecting the company to be surprised that one of their units would break after such a short period of use. I really thought they would simply replace the television, make me happy off the top and be done with it.
A couple days later, the repair shop reported that they received the part and tested it but there was still a problem with the television. The other main component of the unit, the panel, had to be replaced and they were waiting for Toshiba to send them a new part. I ended up picking up the television today, 20 days later. The lady at the repair shop said that in the end, they had to replace everything in the television except for the plastic case.
What do you think? Was I being overly demanding? Should I have been satisfied that the company was living up to its warranty no matter how much time it took? Was 20 days a reasonable wait? Or was I right to feel dis-satisfied? Is it normal these days for televisions to break that quickly?
27th Street 
I am not at all surprised that a new tv would last only a year. Once upon a time in a place long removed from today’s reality companies which made stuff took pride in making quality products at reasonable prices and products of all sorts lasted a long time. In the early ’80’s I bought an RCA tv . The salesman went to great lengths to explain how this was a quality product built with durable components. The thing lasted pretty close to 30 years without ever needing repair. When it finally died I went out to talk to some more salesmen. None of them talked durability or quality. They talked price, weight, spiffy features, and how thin the screen was. I thought about that for a bit and elected to buy a used tv at a garage sale for $4. Works fine and is still running without need of repair.
The problem now in my opinion is globalization. These days there arent companies who make a thousand of a product, there are companies who make a million of a product to sell all over the world and this has led to a phenomenon called value engineering. The idea here is to examine each component of a product to see if there is some way to make it cheaper. They look at every single part, no exceptions. Lets say for example that you make televisions and have designed one with plans to make a million of them. You designed a nice sturdy frame to hold the whole thing together. Your value engineer notes that you designed in screws to hold the thing together that were 3/8 of an inch long and decides that really if he was clever he could do it with 1/4 inch screws. It wouldnt be as sturdy but folks dont move televisions around much anyways and it would save 10 cents per television. Woah that is a savings of $100,000 for your company. Big bucks. Then he turns to the on/off switch and notes that this is a 30 cent part. He could get you a switch that would work for only 20 cents another savings of $100,000 but the switch wouldnt much last past a year. Now you have a decision. How long does an on/off switch actually have to last. Well you think the warranty is 6 months so if they all break it wont be at your expense. And technology is changing fast so the thing will be sort of obsolete in a year or two anyways so yes you go with the cheap switch and pocket the $100k. Now to the speakers… The thing is that every product made goes through this process to make sure that each component is produced as cheaply as humanly possible while still lasting long enough to barely survive the warranty period.
There are pretty much no products these days which are produced with any sort of extra value built in. The main selling points of cars is not durability it is zoom zoom zoom. Watch the car commercials. Zero of them talk about the quality of their product or why their models are actually better than those of their competitors. Actually you can look at almost any product made and see that it was made to be sold not to be used. The very worst offenders seem to me to come from China. Why put protein in a food product when we can use melamine instead and still pass the protein tests? Wallboard is sort of gypsum sandwiched between layers of paper. Some Chinese company discovered that all the coal fired generating stations over there produced a toxic waste ash that looked just like gypsum and was available for free so lets just mix the toxic ash with the gypsum and pocket the savings. Big bucks. My first microwave oven lasted 25 years. Replacements have been hard pressed to last 2 years. Junk. The problem is of course that everything in the stores is made with the same approach and you just cant escape it.
Not only cant you escape it, if it breaks you also probably cant get it fixed. Stuff is designed to be sold not to be fixed and manufacturers dont care what becomes of their products in 2 years, they already have your money and if something breaks, well just buy a new one. If you want the zoom zoom zoom you just have to play their game.
Oh Mr. Anchovy, I think that was uncalled for. Could you have returned it to the store where you bought it?
This will come back and bite them in the ass; henceforth, I, personally, will never buy a toshiba anything.
I once bought a rather expensive vacuum that broke after eight months. I packed it into the trunk of my car and took it back to the store. They told me I could not get it replaced but i refused to take it back home with me. I stood there next to the display model of my vacuum and my broken one beside me and refused to budge until they gave me a new one. The manager finally buckled (after refusing my request of a replacement) and gave me what I wanted. They weren’t happy about it but then again, I wasn’t too thrilled with them either when my relatively new, but expensive vacuum suddenly stopped working.
What idiots, mr. anchovy. They should have at least given you a loaner. Idiots…and I’m glad you posted about this so that I and your other readers would know to steer away from the toshiba products.
This really made my blood boil.