Toshiba Laptop

[gregfindley]

Hi all,

Just after some advice regarding my position with a breaking laptop!

I bought a brand new Toshiba Satellite laptop from PC World in September 2004, (so its now 2 years old) but have had many problems with it. The power board has gone wrong twice, first time under warranty so was replaced, second time it wasn't so cost nearly £80 to get sorted. Now the CD part of the CD RW/DVD drive has packed up and isn't reading any CD's at all! And also 2 keys have broken on the keyboard.

Normally I would accept its out of warranty and pay to get it fixed, but I think as its only 2 years old and is something which cost me nearly £1000 it should have lasted a bit better, do I have any right to complain and could I expect to get any sort of repair/compensation?

Thanks for any replies
Greg

[Bookworm]

From Trading StandardsWebsite:

The Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended) says that goods should be as follows:

• Of satisfactory quality.

This means the goods must meet the standards that any reasonable person would expect, taking into account the description, the price and all other relevant information. In some circumstances, the retailer may be liable for any statement made by the manufacturer about the goods.

Satisfactory quality includes the appearance and finish of the goods, their safety and durability and whether they are free from defects (including minor faults)

I suggest you have a good read around the TS website, starting here:
Trading Standards Central - Trading Standards and Consumer Protection information for the UK

and take it from there.

[gregfindley]

Thanks for that Bookworm,

Would it be best to go back to the retailer, PC World, or to the manufacturer Toshiba?

There is still no mention of timescales on the TS site, I will be complaining on the basis of the product not meeting the satisfactory quality, but how do I prove what a 'reasonable person would expect'. In my opinion, I think its reasonable to ask for a high value product such as a laptop to last 3-4 years without any major faults? or is that unreasonable!?

Thanks,
Greg

[Bookworm]

That is the 10 dollar question, isn't it....

Well, I am a pretty reasonable person (although a few banks may disagree there, lol), and I don't think it is acceptable that a 1k laptop should fall to pieces after 2 years.

Your contract is with the seller, PC World in this instance. Don't let them fob you off with "it's the manufacturer's responsability", "it's out of warranty", etc... You also shouldn't have paid for the £80 repair last year. If you need to issue claim court against PC World, I would put in for refund of this too, on the grounds that you were not aware at the time that PC World had taken away your statutory rights under SOGA, and that you had since found out that they should in fact have carried out the repair FOC, as per the same "satisfactory quality" argument. If PC World agrees to repair this time FOC without trouble (yeah right ), push them for refund on previous repair.

[gregfindley]

Hi,

Sorry just found some more info, from the BBC Watchdog site (BBC - Consumer - Guides to - If things go wrong)

"You have up to six years to claim compensation from a retailer for a faulty product, far longer than you have under most guarantees. Also, rights under guarantees are only as stated in any particular guarantee. For example, it may only be a right to repair and involve you paying the cost of the carriage, which means it isn't cost-effective."

Would I be able to make a claim for a refund against PC World on this basis?

Thanks in advance for replies!
Greg

[Bookworm]

The BBC is only interpreting SOGA in laymen terms, so when you claim, you would have to quote SOGA, not Watchdog...

You can NOT claim a refund (well, you can for the previous repair, sorry, we're typing at the same time, so I'm getting confused) , but you can ask for the laptop to be fixed FOC.

To sum up: a) Ask for laptop to be repaired FOC, b) Ask for refund on cost of previous repairs.

[gregfindley]

Thanks Bookworm,

Looking back I realise I should have got the £80 repair sorted FOC, but it was something I needed repairing there and then and just didn't have the time/knowledge of this site to be able to complain to them.

I will get a letter over to PC World about this, and will let you know on this thread how I get on,

Thanks for all your help,
Greg

[Bookworm]

Cool.

If you have a look around, you will see that quite a few peeps on here have had problems with PCW, took them on, and won. Bankfodder's thread in particular makes good preparatory reading.