BEWARE of Toshiba and the 3950 DVD Player -- a piece of junk

Author's Rating:

Pros: Features & cost

Cons: Common problem - "no disc". Hard to watch a DVD with this problem.

The Bottom Line: 
DON'T BUY THIS PIECE OF CRAP -- OR THE 3960 EITHER.

Author's Review
Our Toshiba 3950, purchased from Best Buy, broke after very light use within 3 months. The machine one day simply refused to recognize when a DVD was inserted into the machine. The LED message on the machine said "no disc".

So, we called Toshiba. The person on the phone was very nice and said there is a percentage of these machines where this has happened and there was no easy fix -- so they agreed to exchange our 3950 DVD player for a new one - SWEET - but only AFTER they had received the broken one back. In talking to the Toshiba customer service agent, it became abundantly clear that the problem we encountered was a common problem for this DVD machine - THIS WAS THE START OF OUR BAD NEWS...

So, after finding a box big enough for this machine, we packed it up, drove down to UPS and paid the roughly $13.00 to ship the machine to Toshiba in Lebanon Tennessee. After waiting a week to receive a UPS tracking email that said Toshiba received the DVD player, we waited another 2 weeks before calling them to find out what was happening with our exchange. The customer service rep said they would expedite our order and try and get it out in roughly 2 weeks (this after having the broken machine for 2 weeks already).

So -- now after 6+ weeks from identifying the problem and going through the exchange process, ta-da, the Toshiba 3960 finally shows up at our door. We set it up, plug it in and --- (drum roll) -- the new machine LED comes up with the words "no disc". A brand spanking new Toshiba 3960 -- DOA! In a word, OUCH!

So we call Toshiba immediately -- and guess what they tell us? We must begin the exchange process all over again -- pack up the player, ship it back to them and then they will send us another player. Only this time after refusing to pay for postage (we're now up to half the cost of the DVD player in postage), they agree to mail us a postage paid label -- that they estimate will take 2 weeks to get to us.

When we asked them to ship a new player via overnight delivery, they flatly refused, only agreeing to ship a new machine when they had a UPS tracking number from us for the useless 3960. And the only shipping method they agreed to use was FedEx Ground. When we explained that by the time we got the new player, DVD technology might be obsolete -- and then asked for our money back, they flatly refused. When we asked for a supervisor, we were stonewalled. When we asked for the supervisor's email and telephone number, we were denied. When we asked to speak to someone higher up in the organization -- they told us they were out and would not be coming back anytime soon.

SO BOTTOM LINE, we will send the machine back to Toshiba, get another DVD 3960 from Toshiba in about 6-8 weeks (hopefully it might work) -- AND THEN WE WILL SELL IT ON EBAY. In the meantime, we are going to go buy a Sony or Panasonic or JVC or some other brand -- and begin enjoying DVDs again this millennium.

NOTE: If you see a new Toshiba DVD 3960 on EBAY in the next 2-3 months from a private party -- won't you please have pity on us. Otherwise, don't bother with Toshiba and their crappy DVD players...