a receipt is not required. most retailers with high priced goods take customer details for warrenty and delivery purposes. because you bought the product online then they have your delivery details. businesses are suppose to keep records for upt five years. i would suggest contacting the customer services number of thier websales department. the local stores may not have access to this system as they usually dont do delivery services to have access to the database. use your postcode of when the item was delivered and ask them to email or atleast inform you of the exact day or receipt details to use for future reference. retail store staff are untrained with SOGA issues. and just going by others responses on this website proves that store staff simply dont care about customers and consumers rights. just about how to get through the day without getting stressed out by managers or customers. i would suggest getting a independant report to use as evidence that there was no malicious damage. but this will be hard seeing as: 1) its a laptop which alone means it gets moved and tossed about alot. 2) its two years old which means it only your word that says it broke after 3 months. if you have called the company after the initial faults then keeping records could help you with number (2). contact the complaints department or repairs department. or if that fails the managing director with the sale details and independant report. i personally would say that lid switches were just wear and tear. i personally seen it where customer in my little shop dont fully pull the switch across before trying to lift the lid causing it to buckle and break. they dont this infront of me and suggested it was a fault that it does not open when they only pull it 25% of the way across. yes its not caused by aggressive hitting or by children but it is still classed as excessive use/malicious damage. the recovery would prove that it is not software related. so yes that a genuine fault. most probaly power issue. so get this assessed by the independant repairer. the hinges can also be linked to the laptop lid locking switch. where it has not be unlocked properly and the screen has been pulled open. causing twists and damage. again aggression or children are not needed to cause this. but not fully opening the switch and lifting the lid from a even and central location can cause damage. id forget about getting the screen/lid issues fixed as this can easily be proven as neglect/mis-use. but the power/shut down issues can and should be sorted. even if it is a refund to the amount of the cost to repair it. you may require you going to small claims so get a independant report about the power issue and send that to the head office of the company with a letter asking for a remedy.

with all retailers these days, they are not commision based and are pretty much all on minimum wage with little to no training. this is how laptops are now retailing for £299. yes you may not see why this is relevent but keep reading. retail staff are only trained with company guidelines and policies. they are not law graduates or engineers to be able to assess the cost or repair and compair it to the cost of a replacements to be able to fully offer a remedy which by SOGA is remedied within a reasonable time and without extra costs in comparison to other remedies. the companies legal team, head office, engineers can asses this. this is why store staff canot be very helpful for anything SOGA related. with their lack of wages and training and the fact that they are personally not legally accountable for SOGA issues they do not care about consumers soga rights. advice to you. write to the highest department you can. above the call center stock checking phoneline. try the complaints department or writing a letter to the chief executive. under SOGA you have allowed them the opertunity to remedy the issue and they have repaired or replaced it already atleast once. this is enough to now request a partial or full refund/recission. store staff will be unhelpful. so dont stress yourself out with them. it has only been proven to get action out of store level staff if you word your grievance loud enough for other customers to hear and make them rethink their purchases, without being insulting or abusive enough to get banned. this is hard to acheive so going the legal route by contacting trained staff or staff that are accountable to deal with your SOGA rights.

would you say dell, Apple and sony are high quality companies in comparison? if so read on. ACER has not hit the news with big batch problems. the only reason why there is some forum responses is because so many ACERs have been sold. they are one of UK's highest selling brands. not internationally, but in UK. so yep they are going to have a few posts about it. just like anything 1 in 10,000 being faulty is an acceptable loss.. when they make millions of laptops thats alot of acceptable faults. but still legally acceptable. now back to Apple, Dell and Sony. they have hit the news. they are internationally high selling makes but even they have bad issues. never assume a company should not be used because of one experience and never bad mouth a company because you personally are not happy. life is unfair. but dont tell people all their products are faulty or have issues just because of your bad experience.

my point was you fully knew and understood at the time of purchase that you did not want to buy a high quality, high priced piece of equipment. you just wanted a cheaper model and you not care about quality beause after a couple of years ud just buy another one... so why now complain that it has failed. by taking a 5 year watever happens does not make the product indestructable for 5 years. it just means there is a less hassle route to get it fixed then relying on your SOGA rights which may only be honoured by going to court. hindsight says if you not want the same hassle in 2 years time spend a little more money and buy a higher quality product. yes you do have upto 6 years for a replacement under SOGA. please read the word UPTO. again UPTO. retailers are known to beleive the length of a manufacturers guarantee is the lifespan of the product. thats why some washing machines come with 5 year guarantees as standard and others come with only one. so asking a retailer to repair it under SOGA is hard especially with untrained store staff.. i would advise contacting the complaints department or someone higher up to get action the only way to truly gain your SOGA rights is if you can somehow prove the life expectancy of the product via either a whitepaper or quote from the manufacturer. or by taking the retailer to court. now think about hindsight. maybe its worth spending a little extra for the higher quality product if you dont like it when it fails. warrenties dont make things indestructable. if you dont want things repaired. then you might want to think about looking into a household insurance policy that does straight like for like swaps next day. they are better then warrenties or court cases

should ahould should. comparing argos customer service to curries customer service is not helpful. different retailers have different levels of service. currys have a instore 28 day swap-out deal-with system. after that they just send it to the engineers called techguys. this is the same people that have organised the engineer visit for november... the techguys then assess the damage and repair or send vouchers from their offices. i have actually bothered to question and ask the companies involved their policies and about the aftersales they offer and so i do not mention 'should do's'. i would personally not bother asking the staff to sort it because unless you create a fuss enough for other customers to hear but not enough to get you chucked out of the store. they will simply pass the buck. just use their own policies against them. and if that fails then rely on your soga rights to threaten court action

thank you gyzmo. again you simply presume facts without questioning them. a PSU cable or pin breaking is classed as wear and tear. this is not under SOGA. the metal pin breaking off cant simply happen without someone touching it or pulling it out incorrectly. its metal!!! not paper or plastic. it did not spontaniously combust. get some technical background. ask some questions atleast! if the laptop blew up in a cloud of smoke. or just did not turn on one day then SOGA could apply. but the PSU did not spontaniously break all by itself.

first point advent driver and application disk is not the windows reload disk. your techinical friend should know this. to recover computer to factory settings i believe you have to press either F10 or F11 as it starts up. try pressing them simultaneously until it prompts you to restore it. as for the fan issue. the fan only kicks in when it gets hot. at dos/startup does not require much processing power or graphcs processing so there not going to be much heat production. if recovery completes but still fails to access windows then obviously that there is an issue so contact store to arrange couriour collection or contact techguys direct on 0870 9013000 to arrange pickup from your residence

im only human maybe a more detailed explaination of your point is needed. legally you need a independant report and even retailers prefer an independant report. do yourself a favour and realise over 6 months proof of fault is needed or customer has to accept they may have to pay retailers a inspection fee if no fault found. under guarantee retailers use manufacturer so no cost incurred to retailer. but after guarantee it costs retailer so they may charge customer if not proven faulty

yes well it is under 28days of purchase so the store has to by own policy deal with it. by getting them to admit they have to deal with faults then they cannot denie it when customer brings laptop in. if customer brought laptop in then the store could fob customer off by getting them to call 0870 901 3000 who will just pass them back to the store as the age is under 28 days. but by getting them to say their own policy they cant fob customer off.

ok many arguments here. exactly what does everyone think a branch can do about a laptop. spikeachu. answer this one. laptops dont get repaired instore and zit face steve is not trained on SOGA or can calculate costs repair and weigh it against the financial benefit to replace it. the manager from asking staff is just trained to sound convincing to agree with whatever is said and then pass the buck. more concerned with reducing instore refunds to maximise sales targets. from what i have been reading and asking for laptops its this. under 28days go to store 28days and over call techguys for repair. laptops are not refunded instore unless repair fails or takes too long. as for SOGA after asking the complaints department. they informed me that the techguys have a customer services department that take report and arrange shipping as they have engineers to repair and contacts to get parts. pcworld customer services department is more about stock check, and if their are issues pass it onto the relevant party. customer service department dont repair laptops or diagnose faults. techguys do. customers are getting fobbed off left right and centre. spikeachu your an employee give us some more detail in ur advice spikeachu can u write a detailed guide as to the fastest solution for customers with faulty laptops, printers, etc.

[edited].. you are not thinking. by proving it was not caused by malicious damage rules out human factor such as destructive, agressive use and wear and tear. if you have the qualifications and experience of diagnosing faults and have to write reports for a living then you will know when testing for malicious damage you automatically do checks which would come under the wear and tear tests. also checking lifespan of product such as checking seagate HD website for lifespan facts if HD is a seagate. professionals who write reports dont just breathe on the product and say "yep its classed as hardware from production" they do test it fully. a independant report is unbiased and informative and shows true cause of issue. it vital if retailers have to deal with SOGA issues as after some time (year manufacturers guarantee) it starts costing them mega bucks to repair products so they want it properly verified as fault before they start spending money on courior services engineers etc. and if it goes to court then a independant report is very good evidence to use against retailer who refuses to act

sorry spikeachu but techguys are DSGI employees right?, you know the company entity. isnt a agent someone subcontracted. like a external company contracted in. they are not a separate entity under contract of DSGI they actually are employee's of DSGI, just trying to get my head more around the DSGI infrustructure. ok so maybe calling the complaints department may get some action too. but would highly recommend getting a engineers report to co-oberate the fault. so if zit face steve not trained and techguys only deal with guarantee faults. who do pcworld use for SOGA issues. spikeachu. your an employee of DSGI so advice us all. tell us all who we should be calling if it is not techguys. your an employee so you should have the answers.

[personal comments removed.] anything over 6 months from puchase requires the customer to prove fault. going to zit face steve is not proving it as he is not qualified to examine. get an independant report made out and contact techguys engineers on 0870 901 3000. that number will give you options about in guarantee or out of guarantee. i would suggest you give the 'in guarantee' option a try. state that you have an independant report which proves its not software or maliciously caused. then they should act including refundung the independant report costs. spikeachu if you know of a better number to call to get swifter action i suggest you reply to help out

sorry but you do not understand. if you decided to put bars of gold in it or as you would dream of doing.. my chopped up remains squeezed into the bag exceeding its recommended weight load then you have maliciously damaged it yourself and deserve no refund. yes it is only a short time from purchase but it only takes 2 seconds to maliciously damage it. they have the right to inspect it and you have to legally give them the opertunity to inspect it. yes it is obvious that it is faulty by seeing the rip. but you still have to give them the opertunity to prove it fault from purchase and not malicious. by you not giving them the opertunity you have forced their hand and got aggeessive by saying you wont leave without your money. this IS a unreasonable demand on your part!! you are a kind of person that may already have pictures of you in many companies staff rooms with the word "banned" beside it. you are not a considerate shopper and think you are perfect and correct 100% of the time. be considerate to others on here atleast. give them advice about what legally they can do. and if you want to add advice about pushing their luck state that the advice is not their legal right but by doing so may get action under a customer satisfaction / goodwill reason

not fit for purpose means you asked it to do a certain task and the technical specifications said it will do it. or the sales advisor said it would do it. but it does not. software issues are not included in such matters. Only hardware like if you said will that basic laptop play the top chart games for the next 5 years. and they said yes. jeejack best thing i can suggest. go into store and pick a guy who does not know of your issue and simply ask this question before even mentioning the laptop in question. "what is your 28day returns policy about" when they tell you the answer say "fine i got my laptop in my car, ill be back in a minute." they have a 28day returns policy for satisfaction and for faults which they can and are authorised to refund or replace instore as long as it is within 28 days of purchase. play them at their own game. gyzmo. read soga 10 times before replying. acceptance of goods is about delivery items, there is no timescales given either. so dont you dare suggest that there is a acceptance period on store bought products. look into your education and learn why they added the acceptance of goods period into SOGA in the first place. so that people can inspect and ensure all parts are delivered undamaged. retailers do not have to legally have a satisfaction period. it is just a customer service thing

i would ask the customer services department to look into that days transactions. they can see when it was refunded, and by which method. if it was an exchange. then you can use new receipt details to get a replacement/repair. i know you may not have exchanged it personally. but commission staff tend to return item from one colleagues sales and put it on their own log-in. thus making them look better. if there wasa refund ask them to investigate the payment method. if card they will have card holders details. if cash then they need to speakk to instore staff who dealt with refund to explain further. a refund without receipt or atleast some way to narrow it down to your purchase does not usually happen. so if you have your receipt in your hand then you have to wonder how/why it got refunded/exchanged

tattybear. in the sales process where they sat you down did they take your details including your bank details. on the three copies that you signed on the HFC copy did you remember signing two places. if so this is because the first place which you signed on all three is to agree to the amounts. the second place which is only signed on the HFC copy is to accept the direct debit payments. all HFC will send you when they received the signed paperwork is a letter telling you payment dates. did you remember the staff member either themselves or a manager signing part of the 3 forms. if so then this ties you to the contract. dont waste time going to court in the hope that you might be right. just photo copy the paper you have and send them it. the store staff lied to you. HFC wont contact you with letter about the agreement and direct debit form. you have already given them your direct debit details. they only thing you will receive is payment dates which will only happen when they receive a signature from yourself. so send it or curry's will class it as theft. you admit you have the paper and you admit to refusing to show it. again these people on here advice going to court on hopes and maybe's. go ahead risk it. for one piece of paper you have to pay for the TV anyway so why waste time delaying it.. because you are refusing to send them details of purchase it is classed as theft and also means you have no SOGA rights for a repair/replacement if anything has gone wrong becasue you are refusing to show proof of purchase, you have no bank statement to show payment taken. go to court and hope that these guys who admit they are not legal experts or insured are right. not supplying one piece of paper can lead to criminal record, black listed on credit reference reports, stressed. its a piece of paper. they want a copy of it. simple

rosey contact there helpine who deal with computer repairs. curry's know less about computers then comet and pcworld combined. they know about washing machines. they definetly wont be able to inspect, repair instore. so only use them as a delivery point not as a remedy. their helpines can arrange a repair man to come out if it is a desktop PC or a courier collection if it is a notebook PC. you did not state which, PC means personal computer which can be either. even PDA's are classed as personal computers. which would also be a courier service.

a the usual sales tactics. what they really mean is. if it becomes faulty and a repair cannot be made then they will either send you a replacement TV. which after 3 years generally would be a better model seeing as things have moved on abit and i would think they would no longer sale the exact same model no more. or they would send you vouchers to use against new one. but i think under their guarantees a repair would be the first option. i dont think you can choose whatever model you want. i think they make the decision on the closest match which does atleast the same things the original TV did. so expect it to be CRT not LCD as they still sell CRT's instore if you had the sales guy write down and sign a piece of paper to state you get an instant swap for a upgrade then great, but goodluck proving what he vocally told you at time of purchase, especially after 3 years it is hard to prove.

also ask for the original description sent to the engineers. make sure when you called whatever happens that they wrote down a proper description of events. some call centres listen to customers say it dropped off the shelf and fell screen first onto a sharp corner of a vacuum handle. which would leave a circular effect impact crack from a central point. but if the call centre just wrote down "it dropped" then the engineers would be looking for a few scuffs on the side of the tv frame beleiving that it fell flat on a floor so there would be no impact crack from a centralised point. maybe a shatter crack but not an impact crack if the call centre wrote that it impacted an object then great use that to help you. if not then you have to argue that the call centre not write down the correct description. its better to go to court with too much information knowing the call centre is to blame and having a response when asked about the evidence that there are no notes to say there was an impact with object as it fell. then to not be wiser and realise it was the call centre not writing notes and not the engineers lying.

and as for bookworm. you all say that you dont advise demanding refunds but you would accept them to deal with it. so they would deal with it by inspecting it and proving it. they not request you to send off to manufacturer personally they did not ask for a independant report. they would deal with it and send you the money. but no you demanded instant action. that is not your right. read SOGA again bookworm you have to give the company reasonable time to inspect the fault!!!

again gyzmo wrong. ok so its £1000 ok its a DVD player. but its over 6 months. just stating it is over £1000 and it should last over a year is not enough. what you should say is that with all human issues ruled out that it should last over 12 months. like the possibility that your kid stuck something in the dvd tray to cause the issue or problems with your electricity supply blew it up. all you state is it being a £1000 dvd player thats the be-all and end-all. NO its over 6 months so you should show proof that it should be repaired. again you have responsibilites and yet you lack to inform people. offer more detailed advice and examples. if you said Top spec DVD player, cost £1 000 and conks out after 1 year AND PROVEN WITH INDEPENDANT REPORT THAT IT FAULT FROM PRODUCTION. It is sufficient in court to say that expectations are that the product should last longer given the price and quality of it. It is then for the seller to counter this. i would not be here correcting you. it is for the consumer to prove it before the seller counters it!!!

again instead of slagging me off gyzmo. dont reply by saying all a consumer needs to state when approaching a simple shelf stacker is "i have my soga rights" and then believe the shelf stacker will imediatly know what to do and act there and then write some real world advise advising the consumer that the retailer may have to send it off, may need time to inspect the product so how about you write a guide that is in more detail then "all you need is SOGA" how about write "you have SOGA rights, but be aware they may have to send it away or inspect it for a few days so ask them the fastest course of action dont demand imediate action" try that atleast many people believe they get a straight swap while they wait if they mention SOGA because you people dont explain the details. then because they dont get imediate action they get frustrated and believe their rights are being violated and start writing to HQ of companies threading them with small claims. and the bit about the bank charges. the chap did not know all the facts he just knew to say "i know my rights" which is all you seem to advise. he did not know the little piece of information contained in the rights that asked him to prove something. because he did not bring the proof, they denied the claim. saying "i know my rights" is not enough without actually realising that consumers have responsibilities like allowing companies time to repair or even contacting/talking to a trained expert who can sort it out. again going to unskilled shelf stackers demanding action is not good. asking the untrained shelf stacker what they can do or what the fastest route to remedy the fault is atleast helpful be helpful.

great pat now instead of insulting my grammer and lack of capital letters and fall stops realise that this forum needs a perfect english explaination of what rights AND responsibilities the consumer has. explained so that the non intellectual people can understand it. take conniff for example. the facts are simple the company which purchase was made from has a legal obligation. not the shelf stacker. the shelf stacker can give you options. to send away for repair, to replace or to refund Another contradiction. Your saying that you the customer HAS the choice of send away, repair or replacement. No one knows whats wrong with it yet, but no matter, thank you, I will take the replacement. Did you notice that you have admitted the company has a legal obligation at last. i have always said the company were responsible. but the shelf stacker personally is not. all the shelf stacker can do is tell you the options available. he can give you the information about the options that the company have. conniff read what i have said as being that the unskilled/untrained shop worker has the legal ability to give the consumer the choice. NO what is meant to be said was that the shelf stacker can simply give them the information. they dont repair items themselves. this forum needs a broken down in detail english explained, using proper grammar to make you happy version of SOGA. SO shut me up and make it. stating "all you need to say is SOGA" is not good enough explain the benefits of it over guarantee's and the fastest course of action. taylor it to individual posts such as for ink cartridges which are consumables have little to no chance of a remedy once used. for keyboards which seem too expensive to repair suggest taking instore as the fastest solution. and for laptops calling the techguys or comets one care service for assistance. dragging customers into a shop demanding actions which you know wont happen that day. because big items get sent off. then informing them to write to HQ because they aint happy that it is not immediately repaired demanding action or small claims is rediculous. advise customers of the many routes the consumer has. somedont realise that lapttops dont get repaired instore and are dealt with outside of store. they dont realise the company has to inspect it which takes time. many posts i have seen are involving your band of legal cough experts cough to go into store demanding action because of SOGA. not telling the customer atleast to go to store and ask the shelf stacker to atleast book it in for techguys to look at. under soga the company are responsible come store workers in all three major computer retailers know that by the customer calling the repair guys themselves which are entities of the company still comes under soga. also it is faster then the item sitting on shelf for a week. so when customer comes in demanding action and the store staff ask the customer to call the repair number the customer then gets frustrated because they believe all they have to say is "SOGA" to get instant action. yes the store staff should know to say "yes we will book a collection for you" but they know with a 20 minute wait while they on phone it will leave a huge queue instore of people they are not serving. they cannot refuse customers who ask for the store to ask for a collection to be booked by the store. but if the customer does not ask for the store to book it. then the store can ask the customer to call the repair centre themselves because it IS least inconvenient to both parties. meaning the item will get fixed faster if picked up couple days after call rather then sitting instore for a week and the number they are trained to give customers under their policies is a company entity so it still comes under SOGA. so please write a proper english guide and atleast taylor it with real world advice like "oh its a laptop is it well legally you got two routes. one go to store and ask them to organise a repair colection for you. or two call the repair centre yourself on 08..... if they refuse THEN state SOGA" not "go to store demand action while you wait stating SOGA"

how about you do this. stop copying and pasting in SOGA and thinking thats all that consumers need. if they knew the meaning of SOGA they would not be registering to forums and asking about it. explain it. in plain 2007 english. no legal technical jargon. no opinions. just facts. the facts are simple the company which purchase was made from has a legal obligation. not the shelf stacker. the shelf stacker can give you options. to send away for repair, to replace or to refund. al three options are only available to the buyer within reasonable time of purchase, or if the option the company chose has became too inconvenient by taking too long. within first 6 months of purchase the consumer has to allow the company time to inspect and test the equipment before a remedy can be made. after the 6 months the consumer has to prove it was not their causing either by showing its obviously faulty to the company representatives or by getting an independant report. yes independant so no asking best mate to check it out. shelf stackers are not qualified to inspect or diagnose faults unless its easy to diagnose. shelf stackers do not repair faults. companies have legal departments and policies which calculate costs and work out least inconvenient routes for both consumer and company to remedy faults. IE replacing a laptop is more costly then repairing it. repairing a printer is more costly then replacing it. shelf stackers are untrained and dont care if they push a customer out of the shop. they are not personally legally responsible for the product. my advice is simple if its cheap or seems irrepairable then it will simply be replaced so going into store maybe the fastest route. if its expensive or can be repaired then that is obviously what wil happen do not demand remedies as the options are only available to you at the companies descretion or with good reason (short time from purchase) (long time for repair) get some facts like proving that the item meant to last the length you have owned it. get a expert report made if its value is high. and find out what their remedy is and ask if their is a faster solution. comet, currys and pcworld all have after sales leaflets which all have call centre numbers for assistance. these call teams are trained to deal with repair issues. store staff are trained to use barcode readers and trolleys. my simple advise was to call the CUSTOMER SERVICS DEPARTMENT which is based in sheffield.. you know english accent people. not the branch helpline which is foreign staff. ask them for the fastest remedy. atleast when you buy the next product from a retailer take the aftersales leaflet. stop demanding repairs from untrained staff then trying to sue the company. you cannot demand a remedy. there are set procedures. proving the fault is step one. approaching the store and asking the unskilled shelf stacker to prove it infront of you is not enough. the company legally has to be given time to inspect the fault. meaning it will get sent off if not instantly visible that it is faulty. do not demand replacements while you wait do not demand a timescale. do not set a timescale either. do not use staff unskilled training as a reason to go to small claims. simply ask them who will deal with it and what is a alternative if you want it done sooner. such as in case of latops calling the techguys repair centre yourself to arrange the pickup. demanding unskilled and non-repsonsible staff to remdy it while you wait will be met back with a "NO!" this is not the company saying no this is the staff saying no. ask them who can/will deal with it. if you want to leave it with the store staff then so be it. but you will have to wait for action. plus if inspection by tecchguys is found to be human related fault then you will be charged for the inspection and the delivery charges. most companies dont charge as its a goodwill issue and a customer retention issue. but dont think you have the right to just force faulty products into staff if you have not done any of the parts of SOGGA which the consumer is responsible for. consumer responsibilites: give company enough time to inspect equiptment and find a remedy. do not force solutions via unjustified timescales or abuse. if over 6 months YOU prove fault