company demanding my hard disk after I paid for a replacement??

colm_ei

Hi guys..

My toshiba laptop which is under a yr old shut down on me recently. Through the telephone support, I was instructed I needed to purchase a new hard disk and operating system set up disk, a total of approx 80yoyos, which I did..

Anyway, this didn't fix the problem whatsoever, so I had to send the laptop away to get repaired, and sure it came back to me in fine working order once more. Because it was under warranty, I paid no more - and was very happy with the speed of the fix.. (That said I'm not all that impressed they instructed me to spend the 80 on parts that were of no use, before asking me to send it in)..

Since then however, I've been getting phonecalls on a weekly basis from Toshiba, and recently they've began sending me emails, demanding my old hard disk be sent to them. I've no idea why they want this? I mean I've paid about 50 for a replacement one, so why should I give them my old one? It has my banking details on it, (but it's also the laptop I use for my own business, so has info on clients - the nature of my work is in sport, analysis/strength&conditioning etc., so there's going to be personal data about individual athletes on it - some well known (international level), some not known outside their towns - but they're all entitled to me protecting their data).

My question is, does anybody know can Toshiba demand my old harddisk be posted to them? They seem pretty adamant I must return it.

Does anyone have any experience of this? And anyway, why is this important to them??? Are they just looking to see what went wrong with it? Surely they're not looking for replacement parts ha.. I know well they're v.v.v. unlikely to bother having a peak at player scouting/performance reports and the like, but then I'm a lil grumpy over having to purchase items that were not required and which they won't take back

Thanks

Alanstrainor

Your machine was under warranty, the warranty covers all hardware, so unless they charged you 80 euro for the disk:eek:

Do you have the invoice? Does it outline what you actually bought?

Under no circumstances would I send back the old disk. And if you bought the new one, then they have no grounds to request anything.

colm_ei

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Your machine was under warranty, the warranty covers all hardware, so unless they charged you 80 euro for the disk:eek:

Do you have the invoice? Does it outline what you actually bought?

Under no circumstances would I send back the old disk. And if you bought the new one, then they have no grounds to request anything.

wow - thanks for the quick reply..

I can't remember the exact prices, but it was about 40-50 for the drive and about 40 for the disk.. all those times I turned on the laptop and simply ignored the 'make a system restore disk'.

I have the purchase confirmation and delivery emails alright. I actually was instructed I needed to buy the drive, so I did. When it arrived and didn't work, upon contacting them again, they said I needed a disk to go with it.. GAH.. So that was about 2weeks wasted where I was out of work ha.

But I'd no intention of getting on to them about the stuff I paid for.. I was simply relieved I got the laptop back. (Although after my fourth call from them, and seeing the email from them today I think I'll call them up myself and sort it out)..

again, thanks for the quick reply.. If they put up a fight sure I'll post the updates

Alanstrainor

colm_ei wrote: »

wow - thanks for the quick reply..

I can't remember the exact prices, but it was about 40-50 for the drive and about 40 for the disk.. all those times I turned on the laptop and simply ignored the 'make a system restore disk'.

I have the purchase confirmation and delivery emails alright. I actually was instructed I needed to buy the drive, so I did. When it arrived and didn't work, upon contacting them again, they said I needed a disk to go with it.. GAH.. So that was about 2weeks wasted where I was out of work ha.

But I'd no intention of getting on to them about the stuff I paid for.. I was simply relieved I got the laptop back. (Although after my fourth call from them, and seeing the email from them today I think I'll call them up myself and sort it out)..

again, thanks for the quick reply.. If they put up a fight sure I'll post the updates

Well I certainly wouldn't put up with any more of that nonsense from Toshiba.

Tell them in no uncertain terms that the disk is yours and that is that.

duckysauce

alot of the companies do this, if you pay for the warranty they want the old part back I agree with this part

-- the part I do not agree with is if like the op you pay for a replacement part, be it a hd or lcd etc it's yours end of , tell tosh to go get fcked ph consumer rights and see what they say and mention court and lawyers to tosh and see what the reaction is .

johneire31

You paid for the laptop and everything in it, on it, plugged into or stored on it is yours.

You paid for the replacement HD, it too is yours, however, you purchased something you did not need after receiving their advice which was the condition that made you make the sale. You did not need the HD therefore, you are the one who needs a refund. Ask for a refund.

write a email/letter and mention the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act, 2005 and the mention the part relating to warranty (google it) and I'm thinking that they will start agreeing with you pretty soon.

Never, never send a HD to anybody, no matter who they are or what purpose they may have with it.

j

BostonB

colm_ei wrote: »

Hi guys..

My toshiba laptop which is under a yr old shut down on me recently. Through the telephone support, I was instructed I needed to purchase a new hard disk and operating system set up disk, a total of approx 80yoyos, which I did.....

Sorry but that makes no sense. Why did you spend €80 on something under warranty?

Alanstrainor

BostonB wrote: »

Sorry but that makes no sense. Why did you spend €80 on something under warranty?

Just to stress this point...you shouldn't have had to pay for anything with a machine under warranty.

Vertakill

Firstly, you shouldn't have had to pay 80 euro for the harddrive - end of story.

If the laptop is under warranty and it breaks, they're obliged to replace the parts free of charge.

Now, maybe Toshiba have their wires crossed, but if they're adament on getting a harddrive back, maybe they think that they sent you out a harddrive free of charge and since it didn't work (and they repaired it by other means), they want you to return it.

This would make perfect sense to Toshiba provided that you HADN'T paid for the harddrive.... seeing as you have, they have no right to look for anything from you.

Just clarify with Toshiba what harddrive they want from you ... the one you paid 80 euro for or the one you were using when the laptop failed on you.

BostonB

I think you need to post the general idea of the email they sent. Because we're baffled what they are looking for.

FSL

With regards paying for a replacement disk when still under warranty. The op has client data on the disk. The data is confidential and most likely subject to a confidentiality agreement (or should be!).

Regardless of the fact that the manufacturers state that no data is extracted any decent business with confidential client data on a disk would never return it.

Paddyo

Were you dealing directly with Toshiba?

Did they charge you for the hard disk or for the recovery media?

FSL - if you dont want to send the disk back to them under their warranty agreement, you can simply buy a replacement disk and not invoke the warranty.

It all sounds very strange. If a repair is to be carried out under warranty, they would usually arrange a collection, diagnose, repair it and return it when it is fixed.

Paddyo

teddy b123

Please send this back to them: