Faulty Acer Aspire - Can I Go Back To Comet??

[PinkGlitterGirl]

I thought I would have a go here, because Im not feeling particularly hopeful about this one.
Back in September 2005 I purchased a £600 Acer Aspire laptop (I forget the model number now, but can get it once I get home) from Comet online. Obviously I dont have a reciept, because it was bought online.

In February 2007 the laptop suddenly decided to start rebooting itself every few minutes. I spent ages trying to sort the problem out, my stepdad who builds computers for a living looked at it. Originally we thought it could be a virus of some sort. But im not so sure.

The next day I went out and bought a new laptop, because I didnt have a choice. I was at Uni at the time, and I was on a study week, with the following monday being the due date for an assignment. As im a parent, I didnt have the option of going the library, as most of my work was spent in the wee hours of the morning! Plus, I didnt have childcare if I was to go in the day. Oh, and all the materiel I needed to do the assignment was online too. With the laptop breaking on my first study day (monday) I felt I had no option but to go out and buy a new one (that I could ill afford) on credit from the dreaded PC World (grr). Otherwise I would have failed the assignment as I didnt have access to the data I needed, and nowhere to type it up.

So, I have this laptop sat at home. What do I do? I have no recipt, and do not know if there is a fault, or if it is some kind of virus. Where should I start? Oh, and to add insult to injury, before this happened I had nothing but trouble with the laptop, the little clips that lock the screen to the keyboard both broke within 3 months of having the laptop. I ignored the problem because I didnt have a recipt. Then as a result of them snapping, one day I set the lap top down, and closed the screen, only to hear a crunch, the plastic outer casing to the screen had cracked in the corner, as it had hit the keyboard part of the laptop. The screen itself had already, over the first few months, became looser and looser on its hinges. I just feel the laptop was built shoddily. I didnt mistreat it, or bang it about, never allowed my child near it etc etc, and it shouldnt have near enough fell apart on me. In retrospect I should have returned it to Comet within a few months. Had I bought it instore I wouldnt of hesitated to take it back.

Ideally I would just like the laptop repairing (the rebooting problem mainly) at no cost to myself. What should I do?

[ForestChav]

You can take it back to Comet, but it remains to be seen whether it will be classed as an inherent fault or whether the laptop has lasted a reasonable time.

The sale of goods act says goods must last for a reasonable time, this isn't defined, in some cases it can be a few days after purchase, in some it can be up to six years. It depends on the items, personally I think a £600 laptop should last around 2-3 years anyway.

If they kick up a fuss and refuse to do anything as I suspect they might then you will need to take them to court to get them to repair it, and you will probably need a full report from a qualified engineer stating that he feels the fault was there when you bought it and where the fault is from.

Rather than arguing with Comet about SoGA, then you could always run a full recovery, wipe the laptop clean and restore it to how it was when you took it out of the box? Obviously that won't fix the casing but chances are that will be classed as wear and tear or damage, which isn't covered by the sale of goods act anyway.

[PinkGlitterGirl]

Hiya Forest, thats one of the things me and my stepdad did - recovered the system. Didnt do anything for it im afraid. Problem was still there afterwards. It would just reboot itself after a random period of time. Ie after 30 seconds, 2 minutes. Longest it ran was for 30 mins when I got some new antivirus softwear and tried to down load it. The other problem was it took us ages to recover the system, as it kept rebooting while we were doing that!!

I did consider making a claim on my house insurance, under accidental damage. But considering I havent damaged it in any way, I dont particularly want to make a false claim. But that still leaves me with a broken laptop

[PinkGlitterGirl]

Any idea's on how to go about having no recipt? I have a letter from them dated sept last year advising me to take out their extended warentee (which I didnt) so they obviously have record of me buying it...

[demon_x_slash]

How did you pay for it? 'Proof of purchase' doesn't equate to 'receipt' - it includes credit/debit card statements, bank statements etc.; also, if you bought it with a credit card, then the credit card company are equally as liable as Comet for the fault, if you can prove that the fault was not caused by you

[PinkGlitterGirl]

I cant remember which account, but I know it was on a card. It could actually be my OH's credit card. Which was closed down by the bank after dp requested his statements. Actually thats a point. I can check his statements.
Where do we stand with an account they shut down? Can we still claim off it?

[ForestChav]

It's shafted. But you will need to prove the unit was faulty when you got it.

[Conniff]

Glitter, when you say 'recovered the system' have you used 'Restore' or have you formatted the drive and reinstalled windows??

The other problem was it took us ages to recover the system, as it kept rebooting while we were doing that!!

This can happen when the processor overheats. As you have nothing to loose, open it up and check that the fan is running or is not full of dirt.