Video Asylum

Posted by Ran on September 25, 2000 at 07:23:44:

I sent my Toshiba SD 3109 DVD player only 8 months after its purchase and barely used (since I bought another DVD changer within a month of initial purchase) for repair since it ceased to work. It kept saying "loading" without being able to load. I also learnt that Toshiba warranty is only 90 days after which the warranty excludes labour. In any event, after being at service for three weeks, my service guys call to tell me that EVEN THE NEW motherboard (which they just received as a replacement THREE WEEKS after I sent it in for repair), WAS FAULTY!!! So they are hoping (!!) for Toshiba to ship them a new one on a priority type mailing rather than whatever the regular mail option is (even this seems like a favour or something). I would think that they should just send a new player. In fact, I found that Pioneer had come out with the DVD changer in January 2000 and was contemplating cancelling the Toshiba order but stuck with it anyway since I thought that I would keep the Pioneer changer more for own movies and the Toshiba for blockbuster rental DVD watching. I guess I should have cancelled my order right away. Is faulty motherboard a common problem or is it the authorised service centre misdiagnosing the problem since even the just shipped motherboard does not work??? And is Toshiba really this slow to respond????

Thanks for any input. Anyone know the email at Toshiba so that i can request Toshiba to just send another DVD player to me.

Thanks. I really dont intend this as a flame on Toshiba but just wanted to get the quickest input / opinion into a minor item. I even debated throwing the player out or donating it since it was $350 plus shipping and it will cost me a minimum of $89 plus aggravation and calling toshiba etc. Probably just an extra $200 to buy a new non-Toshiba one with more features if I just saved the $89 and waited 3 months since prices keep dropping. So is this a common problem? Is Toshiba hard in general to deal with? Is this a piece of junk???

Let me know your opinions. Thanks.

PS.: everthing in my home theatre is brand new with monster cables, surge protector etc. since i built it all in Jan 2000. So it is not my stuff that caused it to stop working.