Aria Technology Returns, Where do I stand?

[juanfran]

Bought a laptop along with a Netgear WPN511 RangeMax Wireless Card. Laptop was, & is brilliant for the price, but every time I inserted the wireless card the Laptop froze. If I inserted the card before booting the Laptop the thing wouldn't boot.

I looked on Netgear forums & other people were saying the same about this particular model. I sent the card back to Aria by courier at my expense. They now say they have tested it & there is nothing wrong with card. I now have 60 days to collect, again at my expense. They are not telling me what the problem might be & how to rectify it. How do I know they have even tested it?

Anyone know where I stand? I would like my money back.

[Skót]

I live just around the corner from Area Technology and never really had a problem.

Returned a CPU once and they said I would be charged a 25% restocking fee. They do this in order to stop people buying things thenreturning them, but when I said that I wanted processor as the original one didnt fit my mother board they waived it and even gave me a credit note as the new one was cheaper.

In youre case, i Assume they will repair or replace it, i doubt money back though.

[thecornflake]

You need to check the options available to the business under the Sale of Goods Act, as I believe they can offer a replacement.

If it is within 7 days you have a cooling off period if bought online under the Distance Selling Act (see other post in this section about Overclockers) anyway.

As you can prove there is a known problem you may well be within your rights to claim a different model or refund, but you'd need to confirm this.

I think you should be able to claim back the cost of returning the item. A 'restocking fee' sounds very dodgy - I'd be surprised if that was even slightly legal.

[thunderpuss2k]

Had nothing but trouble with Aria over my first (and last) order. Monitor wouldn't do above 640x480, they blamed everything - including the fact my graphics card was 'too new' (to disprove that, I tried on two PCs and four graphics cards, ranging from 1998 to 2005). Then they blamed the Windows install - again disproved by having two different machines built by two different people running two different versions of XP.

The monitor got returned, they tested it and claimed there was nothing wrong. After lots of shouting, threats of trading standards, sales of goods act and court action they refunded the money - but not before a lot of hassle.

My advice? Steer well clear of them. Not much use now I know, but thought I'd let you know you're not the only one who's had troubles with returning things to them!

[juanfran]

Hello there and many thanks for all your replies.

I have just phoned Aria & the (untechnically trained) customer service advisor couldn't advise me how to get my Wireless Card working & to find out I would have to contact their technical support dept. on an 0906 no. charged at 60p per minute. He also said I couldn't arrange courier collection myself, I would have to pay them £6.95 + vat to send it back to me.

Surely this whole thing stinks as the only person losing out when all said & done is the consumer (me!).

I bought a USB wireless adapter about a year ago from Misco which didn't work & they re-placed it, no questions asked.

Originally Posted by thecornflake

If it is within 7 days you have a cooling off period if bought online under the Distance Selling Act (see other post in this section about Overclockers) anyway.

Does this mean if I returned it within 7 days I could cancel the order? I would have to double check but I am pretty sure it was within the 7 days.

[Rich44]

Grrrr Aria are complete SCUM for this.

I ordered 2x512MB sticks of PC133 SDRAM from them which turned out DOA I tried them in the Mac they were destined for and 4 other PCs with them in they either wouldnt boot or they wouldnt show the new RAM.

Sent the RAM back a week later got the we have tested it and its fine argument fortunately we ordered it in my partners name and as I am a PC Field Engineer I wrote a nice little report up telling them they were full of it and it DIDNT work and that it was tested in xx many machines and if they didnt refund I would testify against them in court.

I think they routinely say theres nothing wrong with something to try and weasel out of a refund, having said that there is always room for incompatibility issues with PCs and it may work perfectly well in whatever they have tested it in but not in your laptop.

Write back to them stating that it may well work on their test bed but it doesnt work in your laptop and you want an exchange/refund.

If it was under the 7 days under the distance selling regs then go down that route although you will lose the cost of postage in both directions if you do but it may be the quickest way to get a refund.

I wouldnt touch Aria if they were the only people selling what I wanted now they have rather unpleasant business practices in regards to refunds.

To back this up I bought some RAM from Microdirect recently which again was DOA and returned it and within 24 hours of them receiving it got an email to say we have refunded your card.

People who seem to be good with returns etc

http://www.cclonline.com/
www.microdirect.co.uk
www.dabs.com

There are others too but those are the ones I have used in the past and had excellent service from, doesnt help you now but maybe for the next time you want something.

Good luck with it

[juanfran]

I did return the item within the 7 days after I received it so I will hit them with my right to cancel/cooling off period etc & see what happens.

Many thanks for all your comments, & i'll let you know the outcome.

[Skót]

As said above, microdirect are also excelent. I mix and match with who I purchase from as I live 10 mins from both aria and MD. It seems only people who order online have problems with aria

[juanfran]

I have now sent Aria 2 emails, the 1st stating that I sent the item back within 7 days of receiving it so I wanted to cancel the order, & the 2nd email thretening them with Trading Standards & me telling my credit card co. to dispute the payment. The 1st email was sent a week ago & the 2nd one last Thursday.

Still I have heard nothing. I think they are just hoping I will go away. Well I won't.

Anyone got any suggestions as to my next move?

Many thanks in advance.

[Rich44]

I would send them another letter send it special delivery (£3.80) to their registered office saying that they are in breach of the distance selling regulations for one and once again tell them you will go to TS they have 5 days to sort it.

Just in case they try to argue they didnt get the email and then go to TS explain to them and get them to sort it Aria seem to think theyre above the law when it comes to refunds