Heya,
Now we come to the second part of my notebook misadventures, this time with a Toshiba Satellite.
After I managed to get to refund for my defective HP dv6000, some friends of mine suggested that I should get a Toshiba Satellite. I have had found one with a decent price and a good configuration on a local shop here called KG Info. It was an A250, not sure about the exact model, but it was 46-something. It had 250gb of HD (4200 rpm), 4GB of Ram, C2D 1,66 processor, 15″ wide screen, fingerprint reader, memory stick reader and a 1.3 mp webcam. All nice and dandy.
So, I went to the shop to pickup the notebook and they bought it to me, it was a little odd, instead of the regular blue top with the Toshiba logo, it had a plain dark purple top, which was odd so I asked if there was anything wrong with the Notebook and the vendor told me Toshiba ships some of those like that, but since I tested it and it seemed to be ok (and had a good price) I bought it.
Now, when I got back to use it, I was amazed by their recovery system, which even included the recovery DVD (nowadays you have to record them yourself so the big manufacturer can save a few pennies) that allowed you to set the partition size you want to install the default system, perfect if you also want to install Linux or some other OS.
The system was working perfectly, besides a little something, the Webcam, which I did not tested on the store. So, it turns out the web cam was either “not connected” nor broken. By looking through the USB bus where it was supposed to appear and found nothing. Then a guy at the office arrived with a notebook he bought that was refurbished, and well, it had the same purple top cover, so I called KG Info asking if the notebook they sold me was refurbished, which they denied, saying that they don’t deal with refurbished notebooks and all that. So I decided to call Toshiba to check it, and they told me how to spot a refurbished notebook.
1 – Below the notebook, there’s a sticker with the Serial and Part numbers. It’s supposed to have a sticker on top of it saying it’s a refurbished notebook and the part number is supposed to end with a “b” chracter. Mine didn’t, but there were clearly glue marks on the serial parts, indicating that something was removed.
2 – In case of doubt, go to http://gedb.toshiba.com and enter your Part Number and Serial Number, if it says it doesn’t exist, add a “b” character in the end of your part number
3 – If you had to put a “b” for it to work, you will notice that the manufacturer warranty is only 90d, as in opposed to the 365 day warranty of an actual new one. Therefore your notebook is a refurbished one.
Well, so it was bullshit, I checked and my notebook was refurbished, and they sold me as a new one, they even removed the sticker saying it was refurbished! Plain dishonest if you ask me. So I returned it and they said they would try to get me a new one in 30d, which they didn’t, so they gave me the money back. The reason they couldn’t was clear, the price they were selling was low because it was a refurbished, so if they were to get a real new one to give me by the same price I paid for the refurbished one, they would loose money.
So, to make it short. I KG Info in Curitiba, Brazil (www.kginfo.com.br) sold me a refurbished notebook as a new one, and they refused to admit the fact, saying that it was probably an “error” with their suplier. I don’t buy it, I think they do stuff like that on purpouse, afterall not everyone knows how to differ a refurbished notebook from an actual new one. Not that refurbished notebooks are bad, mine had a problem, yes, but I think they tend to have less problems since they had to be re-reviewed, and people can return notebooks for all sorts of reasons, my problem was KG Info trying to sell one as a new! Which is a bad bad bad bad thing in my book.
I won’t be buying more from this vendor and I do suggest that others don’t unless they are really sure their notebook “is for real”.
