Re: class action lawsuit against toshiba? - no purposeful deception.

But it fails the test of "suitability for intended use"; only a small percentage of them fail under normal use. From what I've seen, I'd say it might be a 5% failure rate over a period of many years, and the failures can be pretty much shown to be the result of mechanical abuse in most cases.


Gooey TARBALLS wrote:

"no purposeful deception." Would be immaterial. The UCC provides a warranty of suitability for intended use. Every product carries this implied warranty. If a product is (in effect) constructed in such a way as to fail under normal use, the UCC implied warranty may extend beyond any warranty limit the manufacturer wrote into the agreement.

A "Class Action" is useful where the damages to any one member of the class would not warrant the expense of a suit by the damaged party. If Toshiba sold a million units with the power connector attached to the motherboard causing each end user and expense of two hundred dollars in five (5%) percent of those sales, the damage to the public is rather significant, no? ($10,000,000.00)

Now, if Toshiba can avoid repairing units after 30, 60 or 90 days, they have no incentive to move the power connector off the motherboard. But, if Toshiba fears a ten million dollar lawsuit plus costs, their incentive picture changes somewhat - no?

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"Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:4409B1B4.7080602@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

There is no purposeful deception.

I repair laptops and specialize in Toshiba; I also buy broken laptops and repair them. About 5% of them have a problem with the power receptical. The problem is almost always a bad solder joint where the receptical attaches to the motherboard. There is nothing wrong with the quality of the part or the design itself, although I do prefer the design (used in some models) where the power jack is not on the motherboard but rather attaches to the case, and has a short pigtail lead to the motherboard.

The cause of the problem is either poor workmanship (the socket was not well soldered to begin with) or excessive mechanical stress that caused the solder joint to fail (such as someone tripping over the wire from the AC adapter to the laptop while the laptop was plugged in, or someone tilting the laptop up putting the entire weight of the laptop on the power plug sticking out of the back of the machine).

[unfortunately, the power jack is a component that is always going to be subject to mechanical stress and, occasionally, accidental abuse.]

A good technician who knows how to solder can fix this in about 1 minute once the motherboard is removed from the computer (only very rarely is the jack itself actually broken). However, removing the motherboard from the computer and reinstalling it can be a very, very major operation (on some models it can take more than an hour, although in some other models it can be done in 15-20 minutes).

You do have a valid warranty claim (and Toshiba covers this when it happens in-warranty), but there is no real grounds for a class action lawsuit. Getting it dealt with out-of-warranty is more problematic, but that's what warranties and extended warranties are for.


hbe123@xxxxxxxxx wrote:


yeah -- I don't view a lawsuit as frivolous when a company purposefully
deceives and lies to the customer, when they put in terms like "quality
construction" when they know it to be a lie. The New American
Capitalism is sad.

Gooey TARBALLS wrote:


Sorry. that would be a frivolous suit. Congress has recently passed new
legislation to make it much more difficult to bring such suits - new world
order and all that. So suck it up an buy a new laptop, you lost the lottery
that is the New American Capitalism.

<hbe123@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1141432733.810612.323390@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


This is the second toshiba laptop I've owned that developed the same
problem: within less than a year, a part inside that hooked up the
power chord to some other part inside jiggled out of place, requiring a
couple of weeks in the factory to fix. My first computer was fixed,
just to break down in the same way less than six months later.

I know I'm not the only one with this problem. Is there anything on a
grand scale going on to address the problem? I believe that Toshiba
knowingly shipped faulty computers in order to make more of a profit.



.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: class action lawsuit against toshiba? - no purposeful deception.
    ... warranty of suitability for intended use. ... Toshiba sold a million units with the power connector attached to the ... have no incentive to move the power connector off the motherboard. ... AC adapter to the laptop while the laptop was plugged in, ...
    (comp.sys.laptops)
  • Re: class action lawsuit against toshiba? - no purposeful deception.
    ... The UCC provides a warranty ... no incentive to move the power connector off the motherboard. ... AC adapter to the laptop while the laptop was plugged in, ...
    (comp.sys.laptops)
  • Toshiba M35x-S109 Screwed.
    ... The power supply connector on the back of the laptop is loose ... Change the motherboard ...
    (comp.sys.laptops)
  • Re: Toshiba M35x-S109 Screwed.
    ... the m35x-s149s were known to have weak power inputs and if yours is a 19VDC ... > resulted in a strong pull at an angle on the female connector on the ... > back of the laptop. ... > 1) Change the motherboard ...
    (comp.sys.laptops)
  • Re: class action lawsuit against toshiba? - no purposeful deception.
    ... ALL Toshiba laptops are under warranty for at least one full year, and many for 3 years. ... Certainly power connector failure does happen, but it's not THAT common, and it's usually do to applying mechanical stress to the plug while the unit is plugged in, which is arguably abuse to begin with. ... AC adapter to the laptop while the laptop was plugged in, ...
    (comp.sys.laptops)
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