HP Pavillion Laptop

[Pen]

Hi Everyone.

I bought a HP Pavilion laptop from Comet 6 months ago, last week it started to overheat really badly and just shutting down. The last time I used it, it had started to heat really badly it was burning my knee and again it shut down on me and I could not get it back on so I left it for a few hours hoping to try again once it had cooled but when I tried to turn it on there was a large crack in the inside screen.

 

The next day I called the service centre maintenance section for the store and told them what had happened they told me it had probably cracked whilst cooling down and could not be repaired and to just return it to the shop for a refund.

 

I returned it to the store that evening only to be informed by a customer service assistant that it was impacted damaged so was not covered under the warranty. I asked her if she was a engineer and she said no but she has seen loads of this type of damage so she know it would not be covered.

 

I informed her that I would take it home and have an independent assessment done on it but if they confirmed it was caused by over heating then I would be suing the company for the laptop the cost of the assessment and court costs. She then asked me to wait to speak with her manager, I explained to the manager what had happen and what I proposed to do about it, he said there was no need for an independent assessor as they would send it to their repair centre I explained what would be the point of this if according to the assistant it would just be returned as contact damage.

Anyway to cut a long story short they have sent it away to see what has caused the damage and it will take 28 days. I am a mature student and I need the laptop for my course work.

 

I know it was not caused by contact damaged but I have a feeling that they will try and pass it off as this also I think 28 days is too long to wait. I could go and buy a new one whilst I wait for them to inspect it and give me a full refund but they may not do this so I will have to claim it off my insurence but I cannot do that untill I get the laptop back

 

what can I do.

 

Thanks

 

Pen

[ForestChav]

Nothing.

 

The retailer is entitled to inspect the fault with the unit to see if it is cooling, as you allege, or impact damage which it usually is. This is so they can see if they are liable to resolve the fault.

 

Though I suppose they can't take too long doing this, it is likely they will have to pass the unit to an expert as the shop staff themselves are unlikely to have the technical expertise to look at it, in this case it will probably go back to HP for them to assess the damage. If they think it is a manufacturing fault they will probably fix it under the warranty.

 

If HP think it is impact damage (which doesn't always show straight away) they will have evidence to prove that, internally at least, and if Comet use that as a reason not to repair the unit then you will need to get an expert report proving it was and be prepared to slog it out with them...

 

You probably won't get a refund especially if they adjudge it to be your fault, if it isn't they'll fix it so you won't anyway, if it's six months old you have been judged to accept the goods by most reasonable people, and once you have done that then the retailer is entitled to repair or replace initially and if that is not successful then rescind taking into account the use you have had of the goods (ie a pro-rata basis).

 

As for the inconvenience I suppose you could claim the "undue inconvenience" clause but I would tend to disagree - you have computers at uni, and could use those to do any work so a machine yourself isnt essential. As for your work, it's your responsibility to back this up, my laptop containing coursework is backed up nightly, and even when I was a first year undergraduate we were told in no uncertain terms that you need to plan for IT failure including taking backups etc as it will not be taken as an excuse.

[Pen]

Phoned the store today as they have had it for a week , apparently it missed the last repair delivery load so it's still in the store no wonder it takes 28 days 2 weeks to send it way, a quick no chance! and 2 weeks to send it back to the store.....