Hi, Out of interest, what is the fault? You're absolutely right about wanting to keep the extended 'partial' warranty in place. We're a major refurbisher of laptops in the UK, and we're seeing nVidia graphics chipsets in laptops dying almost universally at some point within 2 years of manufacture. I'm sure you'll be thinking the same thing anyway, but if you do get Comet to cough up the £740 for repairs, you'd be much better off buying a replacement rather than spending the money on a Sony repair, as the unit you have will almost certainly fail in the not so distant future anyway.

Hi all, If anyone is still having issues with Dell support or refunds (after trying all the usual avenues), then please PM me with the details. We purchase from Dell in very large quantities, and I'm quite happy to gently ask our sales reps at Dell to look into individual cases. Most of the team in Ireland are actually very decent and helpful - it's a case of how to get through to them in the first place!! Daniel.

As far as I was aware, those terms in business-to-business T&Cs are widely considered to be unenforceable, as there has to be just cause as to why it is reasonable to exclude SoGA. In some business cases this would be entirely valid - say an engineering company supplying specialist tooling to a factory. I can't see how it could ever be justified for a simple retail sale. Either way, March 2008 is going back too far to argue the case. If you want to reply or PM me with more details of the fault, I'll happily try and advise on a technical basis. Daniel.

Hi, This sounds like a very standard Dell response, and whilst it doesn't seem that they've communicated very efficiently, I think the end response is fair - they're offering to repair the fault. Your rights under the Sale and Supply of Goods Act only entitle you to a repair or replacement at this point, as you'd have been deemed to have 'accepted the goods' - by using them for a period and 'making them your own'. By the time you've paid the postage sending the laptop back, waited for the repair to be completed, and factored in the inconvenience of losing the data on the hard drive, you might want to consider taking the laptop to a local company for a repair. The part would cost a dealer approximately £30, and I'd expect a labour charge in the region of £30-£50 depending on the firm. Dell will also be quite happy for you to send them just the faulty hard drive, and they will send you a new one. Hope something amongst that is of assistance! Daniel.