PCWORLD & Tech guys keep fobbing me off

[bailertwine]

Hi. I bought a new Packard Bell ixtreme x6620uk with Windows 7 home on 07/01/2010.

 

I was told in store that this system would suit me as the pc has the ablity to revert back to xp mode fro programs that Windows 7 won't run properly. I found out in the first day that this was not possable, as windows 7 ultimate and 7 professional only have the ability to run the virtual machine for this.

 

During the first month i had to update the drivers for the video card and the wireless card. After this was done my connection speed dropped form 1.6 mb to 1.1 mb and the video card started messing around as well. I phoned the tech guys and they asked me to do a system restore and that would fix it. Done that and no luck. Called them again and was asked if i had done the system restore backup discs, and i said no, as any other system i had before, didn't really need that done, as i just reinstalled windows again with a reformat and that sorted things out. I had to argue with the guy for nearly 20 mins that it was a hardware problem. Eventually he told me to try the system restore again and uninstall all the programs in case some of them would be causing problems. So i did this and still nothing.

 

I called them about 4 times over the next few weeks and just kept getting silly advice.

 

On 31/03/2010 i called to let them know the screen was flickering so bad and the video card was recovering so often that i was getting the blue screen a lot. The guy booked it in for a new hard drive, video card, motherboard and wireless card and recovery discs... all to be completed within 28 days.

I asked the guy if i could put another windows on it to see if that would help. He said that was no problem as software based problems are not covered anyway. He said that a courier would be out to collect it and bring it to the factory fo fixing the following wednesday. The wednesday came and went, and i called to see where the guy was. I was then told that the previous tech guy who told me that was wrong and someone would be out to fix it as soon as the parts were in.

 

About a few days later i got a call stating that the recovery discs and wireless card weren't in stock and they didn't know when they would be in, but they could split the order and send a guy out to install the other things. So a few days later the guy called and arrived later thta day. He replaced the motherboard and HDD and as the video card wouldn't fit properly, he swapped bits off it and the old one to get it to fit. I told him the backup discs hadn't come yet and he said there wasn't anything more he could do then. I asked him if i installed windows myself, is there a chance it would work. He told me that Packard Bell systems are very fussy and it may not work.

 

When he left, i tried this, and guess what? As soon as the video card updated, the thing blue screened.

 

I took it back into the store where i bought it and the manager told me that without back up discs, there was nothing i could do. I told her all i was told and she looked up the calls on her system, but only 2 or 3 were there. I got her to talk to a tech guy instore, and he let slip that packard bell have a tatoo on their systems. Unless it is reset with the recovery discs, it won't work properly. The manager told me not to call the tech guys again and hope the wirelss card won't arrive within the 28 days.As she may be able to offer me a replacment pc. She also told me that the recovery discs were only a good will gesture from them and not under warenty policy as they are software.

 

Today, is the 28th day and no sign of the wireless card yet. Although the recovery discs did arrive this morning from Packard Bell (well, thats where the tech guys and the manager said they come from). I have tried installing them 3 times and as soon as it has loaded the stuff form the discs and is about to start installing, it stops and i get an error: Restore failed- - Error code = 1392 ( The file or directory is corrupt and unreadable.)

 

I was thinking of bringing it back this evening (as its the 28th day) and tell them whats happened and ask for a replacment on the grounds of no wireless card arriving and recovery discs from packard bell being corrupt. (Basically, they could have said it was my fault if i did the recovery discs and they didn't work, but not as they came form the manufacturer). I hope i'm not wrong on this assumption though.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks

Edited April 28, 2010 by bailertwine

[dx100uk]

any chance you can edit this please and put in a few blank lines..........

 

dx

[bailertwine]

Sorry there were no line breaks. Didn't think at the time how loborious it would be to read what i wrote. hope this helps. Sorry again dx100uk

[dx100uk]

ren might be along soon or you can contact this member by sending him a PM msg

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/member.php?u=246892

 

he is one of the tech guys team and is very helpful here on CAG.

 

but from what i am reading you should get this resloved in your favour ok enough

 

dx

[bailertwine]

Thanks dx100uk. I sent him a pm and await a reply when he comes online. Many thanks for your help.

[bailertwine]

Chris hasn't got back to me yet.

 

Although i did phone consumerline.org and they said that the store is totally responsable for any products they sell. The onus is on the store you buy an item from to prove if it is faulty. I was told not to let them fob me of by passing the buck to The Tech Guys or the manufacturer of the product.

 

They advised me to be as curtious as possable while in the store and don't get into an argument with them. As the staff could try to say you were abusive if your voice is raised. Just need to remember that the law is on my side and i don't need to prove anything to the retailer for the first 6 mths.

 

After the first 6 mths though, it is up to the coustomer to prove the product is faulty.

Although if after the first 6 mths, the store cannot get the product in proper reliable working order, they either have to replace the item, or give a refund based on what you paid for it, and How much use (they think) you had before it got faulty.

 

They don't have to give a replacment before the 6 mths period. But i'm going to go in to the store this morning and see.

 

Watch this space. And wish me luck

[dx100uk]

best idea

 

dx

[Mrs E Blackadder]

My advice would be to take the computer back right now and ask for your money back.

 

I bought computer from PC World last November, which went wrong after just 4 days. Basically it just wouldn't let us do anything with it, not even get it going in safe mode. I rang the tech guys who asked me what error message it had. When I told him what it said, he asked me why I had got that message! As I told him, if I knew that then I wouldn't be phoning him. He said that basically I had to uninstall everything, re-install it all and see if that would make a difference. Having paid PC World to install everything for me, I just put the whole lot back in the box and took it back. They did um and ah a little bit, make suggestions about trying to repair it, but as far as I was concerned if it had gone wrong once there was a good chance it was going to do it again and again and again. I took a friend with me as back up and I stuck to my guns as I was determined not to be fobbed off by them.

 

They did refund me all my money, apart from the £30 they took to install everything I needed.

 

Personally I just wouldn't hang on to the computer you have. It sounds like it will never be much good and you will spend the next X amount of years going back and forth to PC World hoping they will sort the problem out while you get more and more frustrated.

 

Interestingly, I also bought a printer from PC World at the same time I bought the computer, and that went wrong as well! I don't think I will bother shopping there in future as their after care is pretty poor.

 

Don't know if my experience is of any help to you, but thought I would let you know about it anyway

[chris-t-2k7]

Hello,

 

Sorry for the late reply.

 

From reading what you've put, it does seem to of been a long drawn out situation and without seeing the machine its pointless offering advice on possible fixes. (Although the blue screen sounds like it could be a glitch in the driver update)

 

Never the less, Your totally right, the 28 days are up and you are entitled to get a new machine or your money back.

 

If you still have your box, pack it away including all power leads, keyboards etc. If it was bought as a package they may need the monitor back too.

 

Go into your local Pc World and ask for it to be exchanged, if they need any sort of information it will be stored under your telephone records or you could even take down the paper work with you.

 

Hopefully it can be resolved quickly and easily, shouldn't be any problems though.

 

Chris

Tech Guys

[bailertwine]

Sorry guys for the very late reply.

 

But Very good news (in short)

 

I got a TOTAL refund!!!

 

But's lets start from when i entered the store for all who want a printed picture. (I don't mind if you don't)

 

A different manager was on, and the tech guy who let slip about the tatoo was standing beside him dealing with a guy ...as i found out quite quickly as i drew nearer, was very irrate. Although he was finishing off and asking the manager for his last name... which he had to ask for 3 times before getting it (3rd time he did say it was for the "consumer watchdog to contact him if needed, as he will be calling them when he gets home to update them."

 

The manager did reluctingly give his last name after that though, i must say.

 

At that point it noticed 2 things. The tch guy who had let slip about the tatoo nudged him toward my dirrection, and when i got eye contact, i was ready. Although the manager did try to leave site as soon as the irrate coustomer went, but i lifted my voice and called for the manager ( twice as it happened ) before he turned to agnolage that he actually heard me.

 

At this point i had the cinfidence (sorry for any spelling) to start quoating the advice i had earlier got from the Consumerline.org.

 

He tried his best to argue and fob me off from the Recovery discs (that PB sent me) to the fact that they wern't under the warenty, so i can basicly bugger off, to why, if the disc drive button diddn't work earlier didn't i bring it back sooner.

 

That guy did try to grasp at straws.

 

But low and behold.... thank god.... the manager i talked too before arrived in and she took over. SHE WAS ABOVE THAT DIMWITS HEAD... YEEHA.

 

I reminded her about what she said and had promised to do and what i had done about finding out my legal side, with letting her know ( softly ... ie: pretending to not let him get in trouble) about what had just happened between me and her 'understudy' as i put it.

 

She did quietly say to try to keep calm as other members of the floor will be watching though, to which i reminded her that the best her understudy got was a controlled giggle when he tried to tell me that i wasn't covered because the recovery discs were software and they are not under warrenty.

 

I had the pleasure in telling her that due to the 'manufacturer sending them out' (as they repedetly put it) it could at no point be pointed to be my fault for faulty discs, or faulty backup of recovery discs.

 

As i put it " Basically, if the manufacturer who you have bought and sold for can't get it right, then you in no way can blame me. And NO court of law will state otherwise. If you wish to try, please go ahead. But i will say.... After the little time i had testing the pc before it went faulty and the major inconviece caused so far..... if you think for one minute that i won't goto court after the amount it coust and the hassle it cost me, then think again. AS AM FED UP AND NOT TAKING ANY MORE. I have contacted consumerline and know my rights and its up to you to prove ME wrong.... not ME prove YOU wrong.

 

After this she tapped away at her control panel while i said nothing, until she said she could'nt find a suitable replacement. She kept looking for about 5 mins afer which the other dwebe came over and asked what was going on.

 

When she told him that she was trying to find a replacment under the failure of replacing and fixing all the goods ie: the wireless card which hadn't arived yet and replaced.... He replied that he didn't know anything about the wireless card.

 

At this point, Jayne decided to ask me if i wanted a FULL refund as she couldn't find any suitable replacement (Mind you i didn't bring the keyboard or mouse.. just the base unit). At this point i was as you would think... very glad to say YES PLEASE.

 

I did recieve £580 in full as i had 1p to make it up to £580.

 

But that little arse of and understudy didn't get away so easy. It may not have been the best of manager skills toward staff, but he was getting a thrashing as i left the store.

 

NOTE: The manager did let me into a .... "BIG SECRET"....

 

If you remimber... Packard Bell have a tatoo in their pc's

Well, about 4 or 5 mths ago, Acer bought over them. So far, if you buy an Acer pc, there is no tatoo to worry about.

But within the next 2 yrs, all Major makes of pcs (from Dell to HP) will have tatoos. And as PCWORLD, Currys and Dixons are all part of the one "Dixons" group, i think you may agree now to buy a pc from them as they will cause you serious problems.

 

I have went to a tech guy that i have trusted for years and asked about the tatoo. He said that basically it is a money gimmic. If you don't like the version of windows that you are on and want to upgrade, then fine, that shouldn't be a problem. But if you do have a crash/virus prob/system failure/ etc, then all you recovery discs will do is bring your pc back to factory settings again causing more inconvience.. Basically, if something goes wrong, you cannot symply do as you used to do before. And that is reformat the HDD and reinstall whatever version of windows again and just do the normal updates and go on with pc life as usual.

 

I got away VERY VERY VERY WELL here guys and gals. But please head my warning from the last part of my post.... unless Chris or another tech guy can advise us otherwise.

 

I'm not trying to test you chris ( i mean that)

It's just i'm sure not only myself, but others will appreciate a professionals input about what you may know about this.

Edited April 30, 2010 by bailertwine

[chris-t-2k7]

Hello again,

 

Glad to see you came out with a good solution.

 

With regards to tattoos, Packard Bells have had there machines tattoo'd for around about 8 years, it was actually something dixons introduced when they had a part in there business, but when they went there separate ways they continued with the tattoo idea.

 

To clear any confusion about them up, at the moment Packard Bell still use them and i was under the impression hp and compaq were considering it. It does only apply to desktop pcs.

 

Now every pc comes shipped with the option to burn recovery cds. Just most people don't know what they are or never get round to them. Dell actually ship the discs with the machine. You should burn them straight away, because if the hdd does need replacing your gonna need them.

 

Again its not the end of the world if you don't have recovery discs, again you can order them from the manufacture or you do have a licence key on the side of the machine which will allow you to relaod windows, but you'll have to install all the drivers manually.

 

Hope this helps

Chris

Tech Guys

[labrat]

to clear up further.

 

hps and compaqs use dmi information, they will not recover if they do not have the wrong information

 

this includes several details such as the serial number and the model, this can be viewed in the bios and has been used for several years.

 

the newer models also use a PCID code to determine the model this is ussually found under the battery.

 

 

as chris stated packard bells do use a tattoo process, if anyone has trouble with a vista/7 tattoo its extremely easy to do and i am quite willing to guide through as much as possible over the forum.

 

for previous versions of windows it is slightly harder and not something that can really be done without the BOM (build of materials).

 

The recovery disks can be made quite easly and many new models allow you to use a pen drive to make the recovery media if you do not wish to use dvds.

 

labrat...

[wmc123]

how to tattoo the hard drive, can you guide me threw the forum please

[labrat]

Start off the recovery disks

 

if it is a vista/windows 7 then it will bring up a window automaticly to enter the hardware build, if it does not do this then click options and reload hardware build

 

this brings up a list of hardware to choose from, most of these will have a mainboard name after them (e.g. ares gp2, minos etc) your mainboard name is on the label on the reverse or the underside of the computer.

 

at the end for software you need to choose both windows 7/vista and operating system x86

 

then click export and it will ask for a code use PB1337 (dont ask why)

 

should then recover

 

 

windows xp is alot harder i will try but it needs alot more details and time

[extechguy1969]

hi, if you read the first half, he states that a motherbaord and hdd was replaced, thus destroying the tattoo dmi info. a full tattoo should have been done by the engineer before leaving the house or a enginner with the recovery should have visited the house and done the tattoo then the system would have loaded windows, but sounds like the graphics card if separate was the problem, if not the motherboard if onboard.