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At the beginning of August I broke the screen on my Acer Aspire laptop, however having brought insurance when I purchased this in January 07 I was covered for the repair.
I took my laptop along to my local store where it was to be collected and taken to PC worlds workshop for repair, I was given an approx repair time of 7 days. When I never heard anything in this time, I phoned to find out how much longer it would take. I was told my laptop was still in the workshop as they were awaiting the new screen to arrive and it would be approx another 14 days.
Again I did not hear anything in this time so phoned again, this time however I was told that my laptop had never reached the workshop and had been lost in transit. Obviously I was very upset about this and asked to speak to a manager, the person I spoke to was very unprofessional and had an attitude of well it's not our fault its our courier company and you'll have to speak to them. This I refused to do as I pointed out my business was with PC world not any 3rd party they wished to employ. I was told that a search was being carried out and if they could not find the laptop a claim would be put in for another computer of the same specification.
I was very unhappy about this as I just wanted my computer returned to me, my husband and son are both self employed and this laptop contained all their accounts etc ( luckily I had all information backed up) but having just been seconded for a year in my job to retail fraud ( I work for a large bank) I am only too aware of how information falling into the wrong hands can be used.
Having visited the store, who told me I had to speak to consumer relations who told me that they did not deal with good will compensation ( I asked that if my laptop was not found that they better the specification and offered a laptop bag as way of compensating inconvenience caused to me as I am having to manually do my husband and son's invoices etc)
I have now been without my computer for 5 weeks and still have no definate information about what is happening. I have asked to be supplied with a crime number as I was told by consumer relations that the courier has put on its files that my laptop was stolen from one of their van's on it's way to the workshop on the 5th August, (and if this is the case I would like to involve the police for my own peace of mind and incase of id fraud due to lose of data) yet I was not informed at that point,however before the courier can issue a claim they have to conduct a search??????? confused yes so am I.
I would like to write to their chief executive but cannot find an address can anyone help with this or give me some much needed advise of what I can expect
Well the contract that you entered into when you brought the coverplan from pcworld states that they have upto 6 weeks to repair your machine and return it now chance are this is not going to happen as someone has lost.
Therefore what should happen is that you ring the call centre, i wouldnt normally advise going to the shop as my experience is that pcw staff are not great but in this case i would go to the shop and get them to call the centre as they can speak to people a level or 2 higher in the call centre than the average person gets through to.
Then i believe the procedure is for the agent you/pcw speak to is to escalate to their team leader to get the machine written off and then vouchers should be sent to yourself to buy an equivalent spec/brand machine but they will take at least another week or two to arrive.
As for a crime number well you will have to speak to customer relations again and get them to speak to the courier company you would imagine the courier company would have one if the delivery driver is telling the truth, you would hope they report it to the police.
Hi thanks for your response, I understand that thier policy is to give vouchers to allow you to replace your computer for one of the same spec but at the end of the day this is down to pure negligence on the part of the 3rd party whom they have employed. Due to this I have suffered great inconvenience as well as distress (worring about fraud etc) all of which is no fault of my own, so I don't think I'm being unfair asking for an upgrade of computer etc.
So need the address of chief exec so I can write or email his office
if that machine has been stolen than i would not say that this is "pure negligence" but this is going have to be someone that you find out for sure, if they have plain lost it then i would agree it negligence.
As for the inconvenience of you being without your machine for 5 weeks like i said before you signed a contract that states you could be without your machine for upto 6 weeks and if it takes longer than they will replace it and as long as you get vouchers to replace it they will have kept their side of the contract. If you did not except those terms you should never have signed the contract and got a warrenty from somewhere else
Also in the contract you signed it states that pcw are not responsible for any data on the machine. If its customer data that was stored on the machine then the data protection act states you have to keep it secured to a reasonable level and therefore should have at least been password protected if not encrypted and if and if it was personal data such as accounts then it not hard to password protect them. sorry to say that but the you agreed to those terms when you signed the contract
Folders are password protected but once someone has access to your hard drive a fraudster would have no problem getting past this, I learnt this in my job.
Regardless of whether or not it is lost or stolen I have no computer they may be covered by the 6 week rule but they do have a responsibility to take adequate care of my laptop and this has clearly not been the case. Why was I told on 14th that it was in their workshop awaiting a part when it was "lost, stolen" or what ever on the 5th August. If information has fallen into wrong hands then time is precious as you need to protect against fraudlent use of this information as quickly as possible
that not necessarily true is it? there a plenty of password encrypting algorithms that are almost impossible to crack unless unless you have the decryption algorithm and only the people that made it and law enforcemnts are meant to have those.
So it all depends on how you password protected your folders and what sort of encryption it uses on the passwords and it also depends on what your password is as if it something simple that can broken by brute force attack well you might as well not password protected it.
and you are right they do have responsibilty to look after your machine but at the end of the day crimes do happen and things are stolen that just life, the machine quite easily could have been stolen from your house but no in this case it was stolen from the van so all pcw can do is keep there side of the contract and supply you with another machine which it sounds like they will do and then they have to claim their money back off DCP insurance (assuming that who the courier was) just as you would claim the money off your own insurance if it was stolen from your house.
yeah i know it all very inconvenient for you but crimes generally are. As for being told it was in the workshop well half the staff in that call centre are less than useless and the ones that are good are being forced out becuase they dont meet targets as they do their job properly
if you didnt notice i also sent you a private message with the address you wanted
never worked for pc world in my life and never would do, cant stand the company. Would never buy anything off them either. Just one company that i would never ever trust.
but i do know what there coverplan states and i do know what their procedures are and i do come from a technical background so i tend to know what i am on about
oh and i would also state that i would never buy an acer laptop, they are good machine until they go wrong and then acer will try and get as much money out of you as possible. I would say make sure you have burnt your recovery disk and then make a copy of it as they will charge £50 to get one sent to you and i know people will say that that it comes with a hard drive based recovery where you dont need the disks but they fail start most of the time
i have been told by pc world today that it is not possible to give me a crime number as it has never been reported to the police. Yet I was told by a member of staff at the courier firm on the 24th August that notes were on my file stating that it had been stolen from one of their van's. I made this call on a work phone which automatically recordered the call so have evidence of this conversation. Iam absorlutely gob smacked that they have such a nonchanlent attitude for security
it doesnt surprise me to be honest that it was never reported as i doubt that it was ever stolen, i would love to know how they claim off their insurers if was never reported stolen but hey thats DPD for you. I have heard that DPD are losing a lot of laptops at the moment so your not the only one.
Btw was it pcworld that told the machine was stolen or DPD? because if it was pcw i would be tempted to ring up DPD themselves and find out what their story is about all of this and also before you ask them about your specific laptop ask them if they report all stolen machine from vans to the police
as for having a record of your call i would also write to pcworld/the techguys (the call cente) and ask for all of your call notes and actually see what has been going on
I made this call on a work phone which automatically recordered the call so have evidence of this conversation.
That evidence is inadmissible unless the tape shows you asked the operator's consent, however. You can use it for yourself but it is illegal to disclose the recording to a third party or use it as evidence in court
Originally Posted by 22margaret
Iam absorlutely gob smacked that they have such a nonchanlent attitude for security
How do you know it was stolen due to negligence? These things do occasionally happen.
Regardless of which they should replace your laptop with one of equal or better spec.
The above post constitutes my personal opinion on the facts in the post compared with my personal knowledge of the applicable legislation. I make no guarantees of its legal accuracy. If you are in doubt seek advice of a legal professional specialising in the area concerned.
That evidence is inadmissible unless the tape shows you asked the operator's consent, however. You can use it for yourself but it is illegal to disclose the recording to a third party or use it as evidence in court.
Not strictly true.
Any image (or voice recording) may be admissable as evidence if it can be shown that there was a reasonable likelihood of belief that a recording (voice or video) was likely to be made [of an incident, or event]. Of course, the data needs to be provably authentic too.
A written statement, notice, or poster advising that calls (or video) are generally recorded suffices as notification that you may be recorded - and continuation (of speech or motion) provides tacit agreement to be recorded in most cases. No CCTV system in the UK would be legal otherwise.
Obviously, in the case of a telephone call this will not work - hence the recorded statement on many call centre telephone systems that your conversation *may* be recorded.
Final note - there are circumstances in which a recording obatined without subject permission can (and is) used in evidence. Clearly, that would be difficult to substantiate in the case of a missing computer, however.
Again I did not hear anything in this time so phoned again, this time however I was told that my laptop had never reached the workshop and had been lost in transit. Obviously I was very upset about this and asked to speak to a manager, the person I spoke to was very unprofessional and had an attitude of well it's not our fault its our courier company and you'll have to speak to them. This I refused to do as I pointed out my business was with PC world not any 3rd party they wished to employ. I was told that a search was being carried out and if they could not find the laptop a claim would be put in for another computer of the same specification.
I was very unhappy about this as I just wanted my computer returned to me, my husband and son are both self employed and this laptop contained all their accounts etc ( luckily I had all information backed up) but having just been seconded for a year in my job to retail fraud ( I work for a large bank) I am only too aware of how information falling into the wrong hands can be used.
Having visited the store, who told me I had to speak to consumer relations who told me that they did not deal with good will compensation ( I asked that if my laptop was not found that they better the specification and offered a laptop bag as way of compensating inconvenience caused to me as I am having to manually do my husband and son's invoices etc)
I have now been without my computer for 5 weeks and still have no definate information about what is happening. I have asked to be supplied with a crime number as I was told by consumer relations that the courier has put on its files that my laptop was stolen from one of their van's on it's way to the workshop on the 5th August, (and if this is the case I would like to involve the police for my own peace of mind and incase of id fraud due to lose of data) yet I was not informed at that point,however before the courier can issue a claim they have to conduct a search??????? confused yes so am I.
I would like to write to their chief executive but cannot find an address can anyone help with this or give me some much needed advise of what I can expect
Hi Margaret
Your contract is probably with the insurer underwriting the cover - not with PC World - they would only act as agent in this case, although they may have sold you the computer.
You probably have a case for failure to perform, for compensation and for damages - so long as the time frame specified in the agreement for repair has passed, and no rememdy has yet been forthcoming (or does not go far enough to satisfy the rights of the agreement.
A lot may depend on the agreement you signed, and requested repair under.
In any case, they cannot argue their liability is limited to nothing - which is what they're trying to do by blaming the courier.
I'd be liaising with this insurer underwriting the policy at this point as a next stage to see what they have to say.
Hi Everyone Thanks for your posts they make interesting reading just would like to say the 6 week mark was passed last monday (8th sept 08) and although I have emailed letters to serveral dept and phoned I feel I am still no further forward, all I'm getting is call centers and a million different operators
A word about the recording I know all about legal aspect of recorded calls but the phone I used was a work turret type phone where all incoming and out going calls are recorded and I did mention to the person I was speaking to about this fact so they were fully aware of the fact which I think would make ok to use in court if need arose
Got home from work today and have recieved a letter from PC world offering £430 (my computer cost me £650 in 18 mths ago) I feel really **** off I have not looked at laptops lately but feel that I'am going to have to add from my own pocket to get another computer. I have already writen again saying that I do not feel this is adequate PLEASE PLEASE some one me some sort of hope
Well pcw only have to give you money to buy and an equivalent spec machine from equivalent manufacturer ie if the only one that you could buy was an advent machine with the same spec that you previously had then you can turn round tell them where to go but also dont expect to get an equivalent spec HP or sony as they are obviously better than acer.
Therefore i would suggest that you should be able to buy a laptop with the same spec as your old one from either acer or toshiba personally i would stay away from advent, compaq of fujitsuSiemens.
If you know the model number of you acer laptop post it and i will take a look at the spec sheet and what pcw have to offer at the moment an see if that is a fair offer in my opinion
Hi personally I would reject the offer of £430.00, I am sure they can do better
this is not an offer of compensation that is the problem so she does not have any right to reject if she can by an equivalent spec and brand of machine with the voucher they have offered.
The vouchers she has been offered are the ones that are stated on the terms of the contract she signed, ie if the machine is not fixed and returned within 6 weeks of the fault first been raised then vouchers to buy an equivalent spec and brand of machine will be sent to her.
if she wants compenstation for what has happened then it will not be in the form of vouchers it will be cheque and pcw customer services will send that out but i doubt she will have much look there becuase i stated before pcw have actually kept there side of the contract if she can buy an equivalent spec and brand of machine with the vouchers they have offered.
I am not saying i agree with what the pcw contact states that she signed or the way all of it has been handled but never the less she did sign it and agree to it
What was the model/specification of the original laptop, the one they lost?
The above post constitutes my personal opinion on the facts in the post compared with my personal knowledge of the applicable legislation. I make no guarantees of its legal accuracy. If you are in doubt seek advice of a legal professional specialising in the area concerned.
It was an Acer aspire 5633 wlm you will possibly say it is not a good machine must admit i'm not up on IT tec - What would you advise is a good solid machine (it was the second time the screen had broken on that computer and i do take care of them dont throw them around etc - this time it broke as I put it down on a table on top of a PEN which caused it to fall backward onto its open lid could not belive that it smashed so easily ) at present I have very limited shared use of my daughters IBM think pad she has had this years and its solid.
PC world help needed
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Originally Posted by 22margaret
