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This is more of a question than an actual problem.
I had a woman into the branch last week, with a broken laptop within the 12 month warantee period. The recovery partition had failed and she had no means of restoring her laptop for us to diognose any other fault. So a colleague proceeded to book the laptop in for repair with thetechguys, the techguys refused to book the laptop in for repair on the basis that the woman had not created any recovery disks for the laptop. Needless to say this annoyed me and I rang them back up, and got their manager on the line and told him that the documentation in the said laptop stated that you could use either a recovery partition OR a set of disks to restore and the customer could use one or the other. And was under no obligation to do both. He told me that I should tell the customer to go to toshiba and buy some disks, and I argued with him that it isn't her problem because we as the shop are responsible for any problems and not the manufactorer. He eventualy agreed to book the laptop in for repair and have it collected from the branch on behalf of the customer but said that they may not be able to repair it fully and would send it back to the customer in such state if the recovery disks were required, saying that they may ghost the system instead (mirror copying the same data on the laptop to another hard drive). Meaning if the problem is with the customers windows or recovery files, it'll just be copied straight over again.
My questions are:
1: Can they legaly refuse to collect goods for repair if customers don't make disks neccissary for repair?
2: By law are they required to keep or buy all the disks and materials neccissary for a repair so long as the repair materials amount to less than the cost of purchasing a new laptop?
3: Can they return a laptop effectively unrepaired due to not having recovery disks?
4: Is there any legal onus at all on the customer to actualy create recovery disks in the event of hard-drive failure?
Many laptops are sold in this state - and most of them have in their documentation the caveat that the user must create recovery disks in case of a hard drive failure.
Having said that I have bought several sets of recovery disks for different machines I have fixed for people and to the end user they cost about £30. I am sure that traders would be able to get them a lot cheaper.
One thing I have noticed about big store tech guys is that although some are knowledgable and experienced, they also seem to employ some people who are not. These guys follow a flow chart to trouble shoot (which in effect we all do) but if the fault goes 1/2 degree off the line they have neither the knowledge nor the experience to deal with it.
Yes the customer should have created some recovery disks (I still think that is diabolical - what would it cost the mfr to bundle these in - maybe £1 in materials a the outside) but sometimes they dont.
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Obviously nobody can argue that making recovery disks is not only good common sense but required if the documentation states it.
But in this case the documentation said use one or the other, it never said you NEED recovery disks, just that they were avalable if you wanted to make them.
toshiba USED to provide disks untill the latest models as well not sure why theyve changed
Probably because people used to moan and break or lose them. And a HDD recovery is quicker.
I don't necessarily see why people should get a free re-image when they should make the discs. My lappy nagged me until I did, as did all the ones I've set up (and I've set up lots). I have an ISO backup of my recovery DVD which is on 2 machines.
The warranty (and SOGA) is likely to cover the hardware of the laptop, surely if the HDD is faulty they are liable to replace that but if the user hasn't made the recovery disc as asked they are running the risk of the HDD failing and losing that facility? It's common sense to me.
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Free re-image ??
Dont you think that people pay enough for computers then??
I would guess that a good percentage of the people that read your post didnt understand it. Not because anything you said was wrong, nor because they are lacking intelligence.
As you said - you have done loads. it is second nature to you and probably takes you very little time.
for some computers are not that clear and while I know that it is not that onerous, believe me there are some who will struggle.
And just as a thought (and I am simply thinking aloud) surely the SOGA covers more than the hardware. If there is no software the computer wont work - therefore not fit for purpose.....
Opinions are offered in good faith based upon personal experience and research. Before making any irreversible decisions the opinion of a qualified, registered and insured legal professional should be sought.
If my advice or information has assisted you in any way - please click my scales.
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The posts here tend to be from people who understand some of the workings of computers and the absolute need to have independent back-ups of both software and data.
However, this is simply not true for the majority of users. The telling point in this particular instance is
the documentation in the said laptop stated that you could use either a recovery partition OR a set of disks to restore and the customer could use one or the other
The non-techie consumer is always going to use the option of least resistance/effort and should not be penalised in any way for that when specifically advised so in the product documentation.
And just as a thought (and I am simply thinking aloud) surely the SOGA covers more than the hardware. If there is no software the computer wont work - therefore not fit for purpose.....
Continuing the thinking aloud bit...
My understanding is that SOGA does not apply to software because you don't purchase it. You only purchase a licence to use a copy of it.
My understanding is that SOGA does not apply to software because you don't purchase it. You only purchase a licence to use a copy of it.
That raises a very good point.
If a company was to sell laptops claiming as most do that they are suitable for basic internet use, music, movies etc. Then the customer gets home and their copy of windows is corrupted, surely this is not fit for the purpose it was sold for as it won't access the internet, music or movies and is to a non-techie, essentialy an expensive brick. When you purchase a laptop, microsoft must be getting something money wise, possibly off the manufactorer, but that doesn't remove the fact that some money will be added to the price of your laptop to cover the costs of your operating system and licence key, theirfor you are paying for a licence to use a pre-installed and working copy of windows.
I believe it's company policy that doesn't cover software, and with the various ways of causing damage to software and it's intricacys and personal data I can understand why, but what about your statuatory rights?
Surely if a customer has followed the documentation, and their system files (the ones supplied with the laptop) are at fault, they should be entitled to a repair.
Recovery Disks.
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Originally Posted by labrat
