5 September 2015
Proof of deceptive, unfair, and arguably illegal trade practices by Toshiba
in the marketing and support of its Windows-based “Encore 2 Write” tablets
Background:
As of the date of this complaint, Toshiba has marketed its Encore 2 Write tablets in two USA versions, the 8-inch model WT8PE-B264 with MSRP of $349.99, and the 10-inch model WT10PE-A264 with MSRP of $399.99, both sold with 32-bit Windows 8.1 Home/Bing. Included with the tablets is Toshiba's “TruPen” digital stylus, as well as three pre-installed programs or “apps”, called “TruNote”, “TruCapture”, and “TruRecorder.” Taking full advantage of the stylus and of other special hardware, these powerful and exclusive “TruApps” are major selling points for the two tablets, as indicated by the Toshiba advertisement below:
Toshiba-published specifications for the two tablets can be found at
http://support.toshiba.com/support/staticContentDetail?contentId=4007166&isFromTOCLink=false
and at
http://support.toshiba.com/support/staticContentDetail?contentId=4007168&isFromTOCLink=false.
Details of complaint:
Except for the three TruApps, Toshiba provides downloadable installation packages for every driver and for every software app originally installed on the Encore 2 Write tablets. In purchasing one of these tablets, a buyer has also purchased the three TruApps, but for any scenario in which the TruApps are lost, whether due to drive failure, file corruption, or because of any “clean” re-installation of Windows, Toshiba provides no straightforward method for re-installing the apps. This amounts to theft, since without the TruApps the tablets lose significant usefulness and value.
Windows system reset/refresh recovery options on the tablets will not restore the TruApps. For owners who lose the apps and who have not made a “full system backup” of the tablet to an external drive or to other media, the only way in which to recover the TruApps is to purchase special, $39.95 “recovery media” from Toshiba, the use of which will return the tablets to their OEM configurations with Windows 8.1 Home. Owners who have upgraded their Encore 2 Write tablets to Windows 10 Home or to Windows 10 Pro will thus be returned to square one, and with an additional expenditure roughly equal to 10% of what they paid for their tablets.
Owners who contact Toshiba Technical Support will be denied installation files for the TruApps, although Toshiba makes no disclaimer on any website about not replacing the TruApps if they are lost. Therefore, based on the proofs that follow, this complaint asserts that Toshiba Corporation is guilty of deceptive, unfair, and arguably illegal trade practices in the marketing and support of its Encore 2 Write tablets.
Proofs that the complaint is valid:
That the three TruApps are purchased with the tablets is self-evident from the Toshiba website at
http://www.toshiba.com/us/tablets/encore2-write
as well as from the Amazon websites at
and at
That the owner of either tablet has a non-forfeitable right to the use of all Toshiba-developed software purchased with the tablet is proved by the Toshiba End User License Agreement at
https://support.toshiba.com/support/navShell?cf=su_eula&pf=true.
That the TruApps purchased with the tablets are Toshiba-developed software is proved at
http://www.toshiba.com/us/press-release/101225
and at
https://www.toshiba.co.jp/tech/review/2015/07/70_07pdf/f02.pdf.
That Toshiba provides no method to replace the TruApps is proved by their absence from lists at
http://support.toshiba.com/support/driversResults?freeText=1200009370and at
http://support.toshiba.com/support/driversResults?freeText=1200009368.
That Toshiba makes no disclaimers about any of the items listed in this complaint is proved at
https://support.toshiba.com/support/navShell?cf=Consumer_Notices
and by the lack of any such disclaimer on any of the other webpages listed in this complaint or on any webpage linked to from any of the other webpages listed in this complaint.
Supporting discussion:
The Toshiba Encore 2 Write tablets are relatively new to the market. Free or purchased Windows 10 upgrades are also only a recent development. Because of these factors, few owners of the tablets may have thus far experienced the loss of the TruApps. However, the submitter of this complaint is not the only victim of the “dirty little secret” regarding these tablets, as can be verified for example at
and at
The submitter of this complaint has tried to resolve the problems described by contacting Toshiba Sales and Technical Support. He has received a great deal of misinformation for his efforts. In the course of the discussions he was told that the three TruApps can only be obtained from the Microsoft Store. On another occasion he was was told that the apps are available from the Toshiba store. He was even told to seek the apps from the Google store, where of course all of the apps are Android-based, not Windows-based. The TruApps are not available from any of these stores. Even if they were, whether in the past or in the future, they would only be obtained through purchase. Since they are already purchased with the Tablet, buying them again would amount to double payment, yet another form of theft.
Further, the TruApps are Toshiba programs, wholly developed and owned by Toshiba, not by Microsoft or by any other third party, as indicated by the “about” information on the following page, captured from actual running TruApps:
The TruApps are therefore in the complete possession and control of Toshiba. The submitter has been told that Toshiba repair technicians do in fact have the ability to re-install the TruApps onto Encore Write 2 tablets, but he has been refused all his requests to be provided with the installation files used by those technicians. He has also been told that the tablets are to be discontinued, but that is irrelevant, because even if the tablets are being discontinued, the TruApps are not. In any event, Toshiba is legally obligated to support the tablets and all of their OEM-installed drivers and software for many years to come.
Toshiba representatives say Microsoft has determined that the TruApps are incompatible with Windows 10. There is no such incompatibility. When the tablets are upgraded to Windows 10 Home or to Windows 10 Pro, the TruApps continue to function correctly unless they are lost through some other mechanism than the upgrade. The “about” images above were captured from actual TruApps running on Windows 10 Pro. Therefore claims of Windows 10 incompatibility are false, and in any event such claims cannot excuse Toshiba for withholding the installation files for the Windows 8.1 versions of the apps.
As a footnote, Toshiba formally claims that all of the OEM-installed apps on the Encore 2 Write tablets are fully compatible with Windows 10 upgrades, as proved at the bottom of the webpage at
http://win10upgrade.toshiba.com/swupdate/modellist.aspx?region=TAIS&lang=en&country=US
and further when the tablet part numbers, PDW0CU-001002 and PDW0DU-004004, are entered at
http://win10upgrade.toshiba.com/swupdate/input.aspx?region=TAIS&lang=en&country=US
and by the absence of any TruApp being listed at
http://win10upgrade.toshiba.com/swupdate/Limitation.aspx?region=TAIS&lang=en&country=US.
Summary:
Toshiba representatives have repeatedly refused to provide installation files for the three TruApps, even the original, OEM, Windows 8.1 versions of the apps. As a result, owners who have paid for the apps but who later lose them cannot recover them through any other means than by purchasing $39.95 recovery media from Toshiba and by returning their tablets to their original, OEM condition. Promises by Toshiba representatives to address this issue have not been kept as of the date of this complaint. Therefore Toshiba Corporation is guilty of deceptive, unfair, and arguably illegal trade practices in both the marketing of its Windows-based Encore 2 Write tablets and in its lack of full and proper support for those tablets.
