Netbook returned for repir under warranty, twice, same problem?

[jotto]

Last July we bought our daughter a netbook from the Argos Ebay clearance shop. It was listed as refurbished with 12 month warranty.

Fast forward to early March and it started to run very slowly as if it had a virus as there were also some annoying pop ups despite having anti virus, firewall and spyware software installed...paranoid? lol.

 

Decided it would be wise to do a factory restore and start again. Done it many times on various PC's, laptops and netbooks for friends. Im a bit of a PC geek.

Anyway, everytime we tried, it would fail at exactly the same point, 52% in to expanding the requitred files therefore showing we had corrupt install files.

I dug out the receipt and contacted the repair firm as listed who were good as gold. Arranged collection of netbook via courier and after about a week, we had the netbook back. So first thing I do is to try a factory restore just to make sure files are working and this time it fails each time at 40%.

 

Contact company who apologise profusely and arrange to have it picked up again. 10 days pass this time even though I was promised it would be urgent as this was the same repair twice and it arrives again with a note saying hard drive has been replaced and that there is a known issue with the factory restore problem.

So I try a restore and you guessed it...fail.

 

My daughter uses her netbook for surfing the net as most kids do but also for home work. We backed everything up but with exams coming, she wanted to do some work over the holidays and it has been a little inconvenient for her to have to share the home PC.

 

I will contact the repair company again but am I within my rights to ask for a replacement this time? I feel I have been fair and have allowed them 2 attempts to fix the unit but obviously, they have not. It would appear that the install files originally on the unit were corrupt and so right from the outset it could have been deemed as 'faulty' even though my daughter was able to use it. It only came to light when we needed to do a clean reinstall of the operating system.

 

What would you advise me to do?

TIA and sorry if this is in the wrong part of the forum.

[raydetinu]

yep I would say so, under SOGA, have you asked them to wipe it ( industrial standard ) before they return it!

I think SOGA says they can do repair unless it causes unreasonable inconvenience to the consumer; I would say you have been inconvenienced enough!

but check out actual wording.

[jotto]

Well it looks like they are going to do an exchange for me. They have agreed to pick it up on Monday and then send out a replacement when they get this one back. I did ask why they couldnt just send a replacement out with the courier and do a swap as they have had the machine twice but the lady on the phone said that wasnt an option.

 

We shall see......

[raydetinu]

Hope all goes ok; watch those bugs tho.! microsoft security essentials is good and free.

[jotto]

On my PC I run Ubuntu as it does everything I want it to and is more secure than windows.....and its free! lol.