This topic was closed on 03/07/19. If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support there. If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened. - Consumer Action Group

This topic was closed on 03/06/19. If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support there. If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened. - Consumer Action Group

Hi Surfer, thanks - do I chase the manufacturer or retailer on this directive. Also do you have any info about the EU directive? Thanks in advance.

It could be, It seems like a power issue - the laptop switched itself off, then stayed on for a couple of minutes after reboot. Then failed again. From time to time it does light up briefly when you start it up, but goes off again before it has time to load up BIOS and stays dead for a day or so. Why? is this a common problem with these?

Thanks folks for all your help, I will contact Acerdirect now and keep you posted. Cheers!

Hi, thanks for your reply - I paid with a debit card but unfortunately the card doesn't cover extended warranty on electrical goods. Thanks anyway.

Hi, I bought a laptop in June 2010 online from a well known manufacturer and it failed 2 months out of warranty. I got a local repair centre to take a look and they diagnosed a motherboard failure. I was told the cost of the repair could approach the original cost of the laptop and therefore would be uneconomical to repair. They suggested I spoke with the manufacturer to see if they would be prepared to offer a 'good will' gesture to help toward the cost of repair since it has only just gone out of warranty and the failure was a major event. I spoke with their escalations team who've kindly agreed to waive the £55.15 courier and assessment fee, but I'm told the repair will be fully charegable. This doesn't help me much as I know already what the fault is and what the costs' likely to be. I understand the manufacturer is perfectly within their rights to charge the full amount for the repair once it's outside the warranty period, but for the price I've paid and the fact it's failed just outside, plus the fact that the motherboard should last a lot longer that this and in my (and the repair company's) opinion is not 'fit for purpose' I paid £550 for the laptop and as a consumer don't expect to pay another £550 every 14 months or so to replace it 'ad nauseum'. I was hoping for a bit more help toward the cost of the repair something like 50% of the cost would be nice. What's your opinions, am I asking too much, Is it worth pursuing, or do I just chuck the thing away and chalk it up to experience. Cheers in advance

18.5V @ 3.5A gives you 65W. Enough to melt the thin insulation on the lead over a peroid of time granted, but to spontaneously combust a laptop, given the density of the materials used in it's manufacture? I could go on about specific heat capacity and heat sinks etc. but I won't bore you. Perhaps electrocution then. At that current there may be the faintest tingle - at least if your name's Derek Acora. My lad's not using it in the bath, nor is he using in in an explosive atmosphere (unless you count curry night!) So to say the laptop could cause harm is tall order to say the least. I don't think your analogy is quite that sound. If you want to ensure your customers won't sue you you'll have to start making them out of foam so they cant drop them on their feet, hit each other over the heads with it, etc. etc. Never mind, we're splitting hairs here, I can see where you're coming from that you need to protect yourselves from all Acts of God, no matter how tenuous they may be, and I hope that you can see where I'm coming from in that all I wanted was my bl**dy charger exchanged without any fuss, and without some pretentious little git with a goatee beard telling me I'd got no rights. Like I said originally, its ended up with me procuring another charger because you've (not you personally mate!) made it so damn difficult and time consuming to get it sorted that it's just easier to sort it out myself! Cheers for the insight anyroad into the mechanisms of PC world, I'll ensure I steer well clear in future!

You're missing the point. For a start, I don't want your help. I'm posting this to show other people the shoddy service you can expect from PC World if you don't make a fuss. Yes, the issue has been resolved now because I resolved it. Secondly what you call a 'quick check' has been quoted at 14 working days, thats 3 weeks to replace a charger. Speaking as an engineer myself, and also one that has built many PC systems in the past starting back in the days of the 486's and encompassing many different OS's, (I'm using an Ubuntu machine to type this as we speak) I can categorically tell you that the laptop is NOT damaged, or I'd also be asking for another one. Maybe you yourself aren't a 'box shifter' or an 'ignorant kid' I've read some of your other posts and you seem fairly well informed technically, if perhaps just a little partisan. But believe me, from my past experience you're in the minority at that store. When you're self employed and your PC's gone down on the Saturday, and you have to complete work for Monday morning you ring PC World in desperation to see if they have any motherboards in stock only to be asked 'whats a motherboard?' that don't instill confidence. All I'm saying is that I was a fool for going there in the first place, knowing what I already knew about them. But the price seemed reasonable for the machine, and common sense deserted me. It was nothing more than a warning to folks that even the simplest fault will be dealt with discourteously and convolutedly. Sorry that you misunderstood.

After saving hard last year and with a little help from us at Christmas, my 14 yr old son (and I) was able to go down to PC World first thing Boxing day morning and buy himself a laptop which we'd specced out earlier on the internet. The laptop itself is fine, but the charger at the jack end recently started becoming hot then melted the wire insulation at the jack. I've inspected it and found that there was a short between the +ve & -ve wires inside resulting in the outer -ve sheath burning away and rendering the charger useless. So I took a quick trip down to the Kidderminster branch expecting a simple exchange since the laptop is still under 12 m warranty. LOL. Guess what I was told by the young lad at the desk? 'The charger is not covered since it's classed as a peripheral' Taken somewhat aback I quoted the SoGA and 'fit for purpose' to which he replied 'would you expect us to replace it if your dog had chewed through it?' I told him it was a design fault since there are stresses built up in the cable at the point where the cable meets the jack, and at that point demanded to see the manager. To his credit, the manager was not so belligerent, but told me that they could do nothing there and to ring the 'Tech' Guys instead who'd try to sort it out (bearing in mind that at no time at all in this conversation did he imply any responsibility on behalf of PC World, and also dropped in the conversation that I might have to prove via an engineer's report that the owness is on them) Still, I gave them a ring and having spoken to a nice lady, she then told me that the charger WAS covered and she'd pass me on to someone who could sort it out. This guy seems to be the dispatcher he asked all the usual, address, date of purchase, model etc, then told me a courier will come and fetch the laptop. I asked why he wanted the laptop and he told me some cock and bull about the charger might've damaged the laptop and they'd need to 'upload' the entire contents of the PC in order to determine if any damage had been done. I told him it hadn't been damaged since it's still running OK on the battery and I was not prepared to send the laptop. He told me 'it's the laptop or nothing' and so I grudgingly agreed, AND then he told me it would be up to 14 working days before it's return! Now tell me if I'm paranoid here please but I can't see the point of uploading the contents of a PC onto a database in order to swap the charger. My wife does her internet banking on there sometimes as well as there's my son's passwords to facebook etc. I'm not even suggesting for a minute that PC World would be anything other than professional with any personal information they had at their disposal, but this now becomes another corporation that could have access to data not intended for them. Anyway, to cut this rather long story short, a friend of the family has been able to procure a new charger from the 'net for the princely sum of £5.60 so I've gone for that option rather than my lad being without for his laptop for 3 weeks. Still it shows how these places make it so hard for you to get anything out of them that you give up. Anyway Xmas is coming and this time my daughter's saving up for a laptop, and this time, rather than taking her to the McDonalds of the PC retail industry I'm going to try a local independent retailer who I'm sure will be far more grateful for our custom than these Box Shifters staffed with ignorant kids who only want the sale.

I've since been told by A&L that a standing order can take anything up to 5 working days - although curiously, they also told me that if the sum was below £250 it would be same day. But the fact remains that if we take 26, 27, [28 & 01 weekend] 02 and finally 03 at presumably 1 minute past midnight - it's actually taken 4 working days - within the time limit, but causing the situation above. My problem was with the same bank group having my money for 5 days and still charging me a cool £130 without it ever leaving their mucky little paws, and additionally in this age of electric wizardry I still fail to see how come it takes 5 days for one bank to confirm to the other bank that the funds are available particularly as you'd expect the parent company to have integrated or synchronised their systems to a greater or lesser extent.

Wardrobe

Ship

Sandy Tosvig?! I never knew. All those wasted tissues....

Oh dear, I've had me donny slapped!! I think the first [Edit] that got removed was 'wonderous', and the second [Edit] that got removed was 'lovely, caring ¬ankers'

Yeah, there's good fishing to be had here - I've aready had 3 bites today luv....

I didn't notice anything you said was slanderous or libelous darlin' - perhaps no-one else noticed either - I think you may just have got away with it

LOL Thanks for that dear. At least you've bought a smile to my face with that inane statement!

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this since it involves 2 different banks Abbey & Alliance & Leicester, but I'm wondering if it can be used for anectdotal evidence, somewhere, against these (Edit) establishments. This has just happened to me - it seems that these places are making hay while the sun shines before the outcome of the test case. Some number of years ago I was hit hard by these charges, - although I am in the process of claiming those costs back - quite often, these charges would be incurred if creditors took out DD's or payments late, resulting in me thinking I had more in my account that I actually did have. As a consequence I revised the way that I conducted my account business. My salary would be paid into one account, a lump sum from that account would then be transferred every month by standing order into another bank account. That lump sum would then be used to pay all my DD's with. The advantage of this was that whatever was left in my salary account would be a true reflection of what I had left to play with for the rest of the month, i.e. for petrol, food, etc. So here's exactly what I did. I set up my salary account with the Alliance & Leicester. This was a new account. My salary gets paid into it on the 25th of every month - sometimes earlier but never later. My DD account is with Abbey, this was an account I held with Abbey before I opened the A&L. My standing order goes out on 26th of every month. I've instructed all the creditors not to take out any DD's before the 2nd of every month. This has worked fantastically for the last 4 and half years and I have incurred no charges whatsoever until this February. In February the money went out of my A&L account as normal on Thursday 26th. However it did not arrive in my Abbey account until Tues 3rd March, due to 28th Feb & 1st March being the weekend. Meanwhile 3 DD's were presented on Monday 2nd. Of these 3, 2 large ones were refused, but a small DD was granted, them crediting it by about £5 or so - thereby - you've guessed it - tipping that account into OD status. Statement for this month; 3x DD returns @ £35 each, plus an unauthorised OD charge of £25. Grand Total £130 for one day. It can be argued, perhaps understandably that the charges were levied because there was no money in the account on the day some DD's were presented, it could also be argued that maybe I should have asked all creditors not to present any DD's until 3rd or 4th of month. In the first case I would answer that the charges are not just prohibitive they're obscene. I dont mind paying a fair charge to cover the Bank's administration costs since technically I'm in breach of contract. On the second point I'd say that I wish I had the benefit of foresight and to have been able to predict this happening nearly five years into the future. These are moots points though really because following is the major problem I have and the one I just can't seem to justify no matter how I look at it. The Money leaves my account on the 26th of every month. It will not appear in the other account until up to 6 days later. That means someone will have the benefit of that money for upto 6 days and will be making a tidy sum on it (along with millions of other customers') with whatever arcane schemes they're up to. And I don't believe for a minute it will be not working for them on a weekend. I've heard that in other countries i.e. USA that standing orders are instantaneous, how come ours aren't? The Abbey representative I spoke to could not answer that question satisfactorily, muttering something about channels and appropriate procedures. I think I've already answered that question in the above. But here's the piece du resistance, the icing on the cake, the absolute brilliance, sleight of hand, the naked cheek of these (Edit) in whom we trust our money; it may not have escaped your attention that both the A&L and the Abbey are owned by Santander. So, folks here's the bottom line. I've lent my money interest free for Santander to invest for 5 days, and for the priviledge I've been charged £130. Sheer Brilliance! As a post script, in fairness to the Abbey they did offer me a 'one off' good will gesture of one £35 charge being dropped since I'd been a very good boy previously. I thought that was very nice, but it's now left me feeling very guilty and something of a parasite for eating into their profits. It brings a tear to my eye that some hard working fund manager's £250,000 bonus will be slashed to a mere £249,965 this year. I'm not sure how I'll cope with that weight on my shoulders. Anyway, that's all, thanks to those who've stuck with me this far through this rant, I'm sure you've all seen this before but I just wanted a place to vent my frustration and to lend another voice to the already many thousands who through no fault of their own have been systematically and cynically mugged by these sharks helping themselves to everyday decent people's hard earned money. May they all rot in hell.

Hi, My wife has recently had an attempted theft of her car. As it is it a fairly old car we're expecting it to be written off as it's worth just a few hundred pounds. However we'll probably not be able to buy another as money's tight at the moment and with the little we're expecting from the insurance plus the 100 excess we have to pay I don't think we'll be able to stretch to another too easily. Luckily I work in the same town as I live so we'll car share. However, when she popped into Swinton yesterday and enquired if the car was written off could she get a refund on her policy, she was told that there would be no refund as the "insurance company [Fortis] needs to reclaim it's losses". Since the policy is only 3 months old today this means that of the original 200 pounds price they should be really be refunding about 150 ish, which to us is a lot of money. I'm aware that there is probably an administration fee involved in cancelling a policy but surely they still can't withold the full value on such a tentative excuse? With an expected offer of only 350 pounds and having to shell out 100 excess, plus the loss of her no-claims bonus we'll be the ones losing, but it sounds to me we're expected to buoy up the poor insurance company's losses even more by having to forfeit the rest of the policy money. Can anyone shed any light on our rights here? Thanks in advance

Hi, Everyone - great site thanks very much. Like a lot of others here I have had an authorised OD with Abbey, and like a lot of others also its been increased to pay charges so you find it spiralling out of control. I too, in the past have been through the same crap with them when they've wanted the money back in one go without pre warning me first, leaving me with no alternative to get a loan to pay them back amid threats of defaulting me. Anyway, because of financial difficulties I did something I swore I'd never do again and I accepted a 200 pounds OD, which has now swelled again due to being back on the merry go round to 700 pounds. I've pulled my belt in and it means the family going without for a few months but I'm trying to reduce it month by month by 100 pounds. In January I was stung for 280pounds charges for a few purchases (none being over a tenner) made over xmas when I thought there was a few more quid in the account than there really was. I rang my local branch in India who informed me they were prepared to take off 80 pounds as a "gesture of goodwill" leaving me with 200 still to pay. Money which would have gone to paying of the OD. I went to Abbey here and was told the usual computerised etc and she couldn't do anything. Thats when I mentioned it to a friend and they told me about this site. Now armed with half a plan to reclaim whats mine and get retribution off these b****ds that have put me and my family through so much unecessary stress, I'm still a little reticent because I'm still in their hands. If I was to send the letter now would they say give us the 600 you still owe us? Do I wait six months and the hit them, but in that six months will they have closed some of the gaps to stop us reclaiming our money back, or at least make it harder, because I reckon now that customers are starting to fight back they're going to start taking this very seriously and find some way of stopping the haemorrhaging of their ill gotton wealth claiming to the courts that this will drive them out of business. I'm determined to get back whats mine because that 200 quid is only the tip of the iceberg, they must have had thousands off me over the years and to find out that this was illegal coupled with the way in which they made me feel like a criminal and the hardship and near breakdown of my family, I want to take a little bite out of THEM for a change. Should I send the letter now or do I wait? Thanks in advance