Last July I had a hard drive replaced in my son's laptop,

two months later I had a "north bridge chip" replaced in the same laptop, and

just three days ago the computer crashed again,

after a half hour conversation with one of the KNOWHOW people he said that the hard drive had crashed again

but that they would replace it free of charge,

when I asked him about the data on it he said it would be no problem for them to put the data on a flash drive and save it.

When I went to PC WORLD I was told that I would have to pay £80 for the data recovery.

When I queried this with them I was told that if I wanted the data I had no option but to pay.

I asked to be shown this policy and he printed the relevant page and it states..

."if you accidently delete important files, photos or home videos we can help.

our state of the art technology can recover your lost or deleted files etc, etc,"

My point is that "I" have not lost or deleted any files, the files are still on the three month old hard drive that they put in

and are only under threat because it is faulty and must be replaced.

I phoned trading standards and was told that I should use "Supply of goods and services act"..

Can anyone advise me on this please.

Hi conchy _ joe

What T/S are saying is that when you initially spoke to KnowHow, they hadn't mentioned the £80 charge.

So under the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, which implies into all contracts of work or services that the work will be carried out:

• with reasonable care and skill
  
• in a reasonable time (if there is no specific time agreed); and
  
• for a reasonable charge (if no fixed price was set in advance)
  

There is a tempate (scroll down) you can amend and send Recorded Delivery.

http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/supply-of-goods-and-services-act-1982

When did you buy the laptop and how did you pay for it?

hi rebel11, The laptop is a Toshiba and is approx. 5yrs old. When I was speaking to the KNOWHOW tech' at no time did he mention a charge, however when the man in PC WORLD checked the notes that had been left by the "tech" there was no record of what he had said, it seems that they only record certain calls at the direction of a manager.

sorry I forgot...I paid cash for it.

Hi conchy_joe

Write a Formal Letter of Complaint, mark it as such. Explain what's happened (second hardrive fault, third fault with laptop within 15 months), how they have let you down (when you spoke to KnowHow team, Tech said 'no problem we can replace hardrive, we can recover data, no mention whatsoever of £80 charge, not until you went into the store, you feel misled, the KnowHow tech should have told you at the time, the tech had a good half hour to tell you about the charge but failed to do so) and what you want them to do (waive the £80 charge).

Send it to:-

Mr Sebastian James

Chief Executive

Dixons Carphone

[email protected]

Let us know how you get on.

In future it's best to pay for high value items on a Credit Card, it offers you a quite a bit of protection.

sorry I forgot...I paid cash for it.

hi rebell11, Thanks a lot, I'll follow your advice, should I quote the Supply of goods act ? and if so which part.

'No', not at the moment, all about customer service and information they should provide, remember they are the KnowHow Team.

hi rebell11, Thanks a lot, I'll follow your advice, should I quote the Supply of goods act? and if so which part.

Thanks rebel11, I'll send off a recorded delivery letter. I'm guessing that Sebastian James would be at the Dixons Carphone head office is that correct.

You can e-mail it to him, that's why I posted the details.

Thanks rebel11, I'll send off a recorded delivery letter. I'm guessing that Sebastian James would be at the Dixons Carphone head office is that correct.

thanks I can do that now.

Let us know what they say.

thanks I can do that now.

The suggestions made so far are fine – except through it will all lead to what you might find to be an unacceptable delay in getting your computer back.

It seems to me to be quite reasonable to say that the hard disk should be covered under your statutory protection. It is only 15 months old. I don't think that modern day describes pack up in this way.

However, if you stand your ground now, you will find the whole thing been delayed and delayed with an uncertain outcome.

My advice would be to pay in order to get the matter sorted out and then to go back for it when you have the computer returned to you. At least then you would have the use of the machine. I would not get into protracted correspondence. I would do no more than write one or two letters and then go to legal action. I think the chances of you getting your money back in a County Court action a very high – and I expect that they would bottle out anyway.

By the way, I have to say why aren't you securing your data correctly? You shouldn't be in this position.

Hi rebel11, I've just sent off an email so we'll see what happens, Thanks again for your help.

Hi BankFodder, I still have the machine as the only way that I could have a new hard drive

and retain the data would be to pay the£80 and I baulked at this.

As to backing up and making sure that data is stored safely

my son usually transfers his work from the laptop to our PC

but unless you do this every single day there will always be a chance you could get caught out.

Being without the laptop for a while is no problem as he can do his work on the PC.

As I explained to rebel11

I have sent an email to Mr James, not terse,

simply giving him all the facts and finally saying that I think the charge should be waived,

and yes I think County Court action would be a success as the policy is quite ambiguous.

ask them to just send the old hard drive back, its still your property and contains your data.

if your laptop is covered by the service agreement, data recovery is included.

go down maplin or pcword [haha]

and get a USB cradle for the Hard drive.

then pop it out the laptop

into the cradle

and treat it just like a USB stick in your laptop.

I bet your files are OK

and you can transfer them off ok yourself.

can I ask what is not happening on the lappy?

blue screen, not starting?

dx

hi dx100uk,

The screen starts with the usual, Toshiba innovations and at the bottom there is what looks like a task bar,

it gives you the option to click F2 which takes you into Bios, Set Up and Utilities etc.

The other option is F12 can't remember what that offers.

Regardless of what you do you end up with a black screen,

then it starts to print a message which rolls up endlessly repeating itself, part of the message says..."media cable missing" or something like that.

SUCCESS...I received a phone call yesterday afternoon from a man who said that Sebastian James had received my email and whilst the company do charge for data recovery there would be no charge in this instance.

Thank you all for your help and advice....VBR.

Well Done Conchy_joe and Dixons.