Thread: Distance selling - to but a laptop

Hi everyone, this is my first post so be gentle (Great website BTW and some facsinating threads I'm already subbed to)

I'm looking to buy a high spec laptop online next week (over £1,000)

Anyway, I'm concerned about pixel policies of various manufacturers that means I could end up paying that sort of money for a duff laptop without being able to do anything about it.

Under the distance selling act would I be able to simply return it if I find out it's got some dead pixels?

Are there any restrictions - does turning the laptop on and accepting the windows agreement mean I've used/opened the software?

I do have a bootable CD with a display checker to get around that anyway but was just interested

The company in question is one that's seen fit to charge £30 if I want to get the pixels checked beforehand to ensure I get a fully working one!!!

The problem is I resent paying this to ensure I get a working product and also, if I don't pay then surely I'm more than likely to get one with faulty pixels (because if they find faulty ones doing the £30 check they're unable to return them and can only send them out to those customers who refuse to pay for the check)


If you see what I mean

You can return the item under the DSRs "cooling off period" without any reason needing to be given. You may however be responsible or paying return costs (you will need to check T&Cs to see if this is the case).

If the item is not of satisfactory quality, then you have the right to reject the item under Sale of Goods Act (s. 14), in which case the seller is responsible for paying return costs.

s. 14 is automatically inserted into a contract, so the item is automatically deemed to be of satisfactory quality, free from defects etc. You should not therefore really need to pay to determine if an item has any (as these should be specifically pointed out to you).

The question is though, are dead pixels defects?

Over to the geeks to sort that one

Thanks - I realise most of that

Regarding Pixels - according to standards it's acceptable so therefore not a fault (although I doubt I'd ever find a consumer that agrees)

However, I'd have thought technology has moved on somewhat in the last ten years and pixel policies should be reviewed.

My main concern what whether there were any getout clauses relating to an item such as a laptop, as there is if software has been opened.

And whether agreeing to the windows agreement that you have to do when turning the laptop on for the first time would come under the software clause or not?

as far as im aware most pixel policies are out of date, alot ive seen relies on where the pixel is and what colour it is

You should have to activate the OS yourself when you start to use it, so I can't see that booting it up and seeing if there are any dead uns will be classed as opening the software.

Those regs are there so you can't order software, copy it and then send it back, copying the OS from one machine in the hope of installing it on another is practically impossible and it will probably not run either.

Thanks all for the comments

Just to say it eventually arrived (the first one supposedly lost in transit) and all was OK

GazBe, did you pay for the pixel check or just take a chance?

I'm in the same boat and like you, do not want to end up with a wrong'un either. As you say for £1k, it should not be something people should expect to find!

gyzmo, what would be your take on SOGA, s.14, when you take into account the general statement made by vendors regarding the 'possibility' that dead pixels, although rare, may exist?

Do you think this would constitute satisfaction of s.14(2C)(a), in that the buyer is made aware of the defect beforehand.

I'm 50:50 on this. Part of me feels 'you have been warned' and part of me feels such a statement of effectively graded goods could only be declared against a specific known item.

It's difficult. One judge in a case on s. 14 advised "the owner of a rolls royce would not tolerate even the slightest blemish on the car" (can't remember case name).

I personally am of the mind that, if there are faults, it must be specifically pointed out. The law is quite clear on that. I do not think it's good enough saying "there may be pixels missing". But I'm not a judge....

Originally Posted by Turtle1000

GazBe, did you pay for the pixel check or just take a chance?

I'm in the same boat and like you, do not want to end up with a wrong'un either. As you say for £1k, it should not be something people should expect to find!.

I took a chance - the problem for me is that companies that advertise these checks find a faulty item - they don't send it out to the person requesting a check, they're unable to do anything with it which means those not paying for checks are more likely to get a faulty item aren't they?

Regarding making people aware of pixel policies, from what I saw, spending around 3 weeks looking online very very few companies mentioned pixel policies, even fewer actually stated what they were or gave links for specific manufacturers.

There are very few things nowadays where it's deemed that a faulty item is acceptable. I used to work in a PC shop 10 years ago and I really felt sorry for some of the customers who'd just paid dafy amounts of money for faulty equipment they were stuck with and had no legal grounds to get replacements.

I know if I even had one faulty pixel I couldn't use a screen as I'd constantly be distracted and drawn to that pixel.

The only item I've ever brought with a faulty LCD was a Nintendo DS for my son, dixons refused to accept it back spouting pixel policies, I asked they to state what the pixel policy was for Nintendo and they didn't know, then provided them with a print-off from the Nintendo DS website stating they abide will replace any item, no matter what size or how many pixels may be faulty and it was then promptly replaced

Anyway, back to the laptop, I took a chance, first thing I did was go into the bios (before allowing it to boot fully and accept the windows terms & Contditions) - everything looked OK on that screen.

I'd also got a couple of bootable CDroms which I booted into and they looked OK too.

Needless to say everything was OK

ISO 13406-2 European Standard for Monitors.



There are 3 Classes of monitor. Class 1 = no faults, Class 2 = above table, Class 3 = Useless.
It's the manufacturer who decides which class they are in and companies put the majority of their monitors into class 2

Can that be made a sticky?