Faulty PC 'not repaired' by retailer

[Deano1982]

Hi all, It is a bit of a long story so please forgive me if I paste what I sent to trading standards.

If you can answer the questions I ask in the following email I sent then that would be very much appreciated...

 

Hello, I have been having a problem with a company that I bought a £690 Gaming PC from.

 

I bought a PC from this company for my brother who has severe depression.

It was to help him as he never leaves the house.

It was to enable him to play online games with other people.

 

I went to see my brother 10 months after purchasing the PC and ask him how it is and he informs me it has never been any good.

I did ask why he did not tell me sooner and the fact is it made him more depressed and he doesn't like confrontation.

 

I realize that this would be classed as accepting the goods but I read on the citizens advice site

that there would still be a case for the PC not lasting as long as it should.

It was even still under warranty.

 

I contact the company and they tell me I have to ship it to them but I will be liable for damage.

I then decided to do a 5 hour round trip to drop it off to them in person to avoid any damage.

 

Fast forward a few weeks later...

 

They email me saying the cannot find a fault with it.

I reply telling them which games it was struggling to run (I gave them a list)

and I offered them my password to an account which had all the games on

so they could test them on my PC as the repair place may not have these games to hand.

 

They replied saying they would test the games and never asked for the password.

 

Weeks pass without any update so I contact them.

They say no faults.

I ask if they have been testing those games.

They say yes they have been testing them all this time and no faults were found.

 

In the end they take over 2 months claiming they were testing my PC.

They finally send it back and

 

when it arrives it turns out they didn't even screw the side panel to the PC.

Not exactly a good way to ship a near £700 PC.

The side panel had bent considerably in transit and was dented.

The CD drive also wasn't even connected to the power supply.

They simply chucked my PC into a box without it being fully assembled.

 

I phone them up to complain and they insist they screwed the side panel on before dispatching it.

There is no way that could have come loose in transit.

They say the screws must be in the box to prove this..

You guessed it there were no screws.

 

I have witnesses who saw me open the box.

This was the first lie I was told by this company.

 

I complain and they say a new side panel will be with me shortly.

 

I contact them 12 days later asking where it is and they tell me they don't know.

I ask for the companies contact details who they ordered it from as I highly suspected they hadn't even ordered it to begin with.

They ignore my request and say they will chase it up.

Miraculously the side panel is then due to be with me one day later.

 

After this I sat down and went through over 40 emails between me and the company as I knew something wasn't right.

No PC company keeps a PC and tests it non stop for 2 months if they think it doesn't have a fault.

It would be a huge waste of time and money.

 

I remembered the email I sent them about halfway through the time of it being in their possession which I described above somewhere.

It was the one where I asked if they had tested the list of games I had given them.

They replied "Yes, they have been running all this time".

 

Now I knew something was fishy here so

 

I emailed them yesterday asking them to confirm what games they had tested on my PC.

They replied Battlefield 4.

The problem with this is that Battlefield 4 was not on my original list and that is just one game

and not GAMES as they told me they had been testing.

 

Seeing as they lied and they were not actually testing my games all that time then they could not have been testing anything.

They only mentioned Battlefield 4 towards the end of the 2 months it was in their possession.

 

When I received the PC there was no evidence of Battlefield 4 ever being on my system

and the case of the PC was extremely dusty like it had just been left sitting in the corner or in storage.

I check my games to see if they had been run and they hadn't.

 

As you can see they have lied to me twice so far!

 

Another concern I have is that in one of their emails to me they say the PC must just be full up with data and to give it a format.

The problem here is the PC was still in their possession and this is a very simple thing to check for.

As they were meant to be testing and repairing my PC they should obviously have known this.

It was about 2 months in when they said this to me.

This to me suggests that they had never actually tested the PC as they would have known that it was a freshly formatted hard drive

with a fresh copy of Windows on.

 

It has now been 3 months and 1 day and I still cannot use my PC as it is dangerous to do so without the side panel.

It was in their possession for just over 2 months and has been in mine without a side panel since.

 

The questions I need you guys to answer are:

 

1) Do I have a right to seek compensation for loss of use caused by a significant inconvenience caused by this company.

They obviously were not testing the PC all that time and I have emails showing they were lying.

 

2) Seeing as I have already suffered a significant inconvenience do I have the right to reject another long repair?

I read on the citizens advice site that I can reject a repair or replacement if it would cause me a significant inconvenience.

Surely the 3 months so far are of significant inconvenience enough to reject another repair and ask for a replacement PC instead?

 

I did ask them this and they said they will not replace the PC and that seeing as it has been more than 6 months

the law allows them to replace parts inside with second hand ones.

.. is this correct?

 

From what I have read I can request a repair or replacement up to 6 years after purchase.

 

Do you think I have reasonable grounds here to request compensation due to the loss of use for 3 months and also the depreciation of the goods?

 

I have asked for a partial refund and they can take the PC back but they refuse.

They keep insisting they will repair it and say they can do so with second hand parts.

I have no idea why they mentioned second hand parts other than to scare me as I never asked if the parts would be new or not.

 

This time they have said they will send the parts back to the manufacturers which can takes months.

Surely they should have done this during the 3 months I have waited so far??

Surely I can refuse them to take away the PC for months on end again

when they lied to me and didn't test it all that time the first time around

and caused me a significant inconvenience and loss of use and ask for a replacement?

 

Surely I can ask for compensation due to the lies of which I have proof which caused the long delays

as well as the negligence when they didn't bother to even assemble the PC before sending it back to me

which ended up causing another 2 week delay on top of the months they had it?

 

I still have all the emails between me and the company as proof.

I also have the photos of the PC from when I received it back damaged.

I also have witnesses from when I opened the box.

 

Also is there any way I can request from the company they ordered the side panel from the order date of the side panel?

Going by past performance and how it miraculously is turning up one day after my phone call when the same morning

they informed me they didn't know how long it would be suggests to me they did not order it nearly two weeks ago

like they said in an email to me.

If I could get proof of this that would be lie number 3.

 

Sorry for the long explanation. I actually tried to keep it as brief as possible.

I would appreciate any help you can offer on this matter.

 

I did go to the citizens advice building but they seemed to know less than I did about their own website.

I went in there quoting stuff from their site and they disagreed with it until I told them it was on their site

which they then changed their mind and agreed with me.

 

I assume you guys are experts in consumer law so it would be great if you could clear this up for me.

I do not mind putting my complaint in writing to them which will include my compensation request.

If that fails I do not mind going to the small claims court seeing as I have evidence of them lying on more than one occasion

to their customer which surely would not look good on their part.

 

Do you think I have a case here?

[dx100uk]

take it to an independent PC repair place

 

get a report done on it

then fwd the PC and the report back to them.

 

this is what you should have done in the first place

 

the item is outside of 6mts old

so it is your responsibility to prove the faults first under SOGA.

 

dx

[Deano1982]

Thanks for your reply.

 

It was still within warranty when sent back to them. They ran down the warranty without testing it (they lied to me that they were testing it). It had 2 months warranty left when I dropped it off with them.

 

What I am asking is seeing as they were lying to me and not actually testing it for all of that time then do I have a right to seek compensation from them?

 

I basically have lost 3 months use due to them lying and sending the PC back to me in an unsafe manner.

 

I can prove a few of these lies as I kept all the emails. I would post them here but there are far too many.

 

Can I seek a replacement if it does not work seeing as they have caused me significant inconvenience already? It is not like they had it for a reasonable amount of time seeing as they lied about testing it for at least the first month.

 

Surely over 2 months is not reasonable? Especially when they lie about what they are doing. Surely there is some law against telling lies to the customer when it involves repairing their goods? Then lie to them about how the sent the PC back too.

 

They claimed they were testing those games on my PC the entire time and thats why they were keeping it so long. Turns out it was all lies.

[dx100uk]

forget the warranty it means nothing

 

under soga outside of 6mts

its down to you to prove the fault.

 

yes its not right you were messed around true.

 

but all this 'focus' on them lying, will, get you no-where at present

 

if you are entitled to any compensation due to this

is something you need to either take up with them

or forget about.

 

third option is to get it repaired and bill them.

 

dx

[Deano1982]

I will be looking to have a shop take a look at it when the side panel eventually turns up (should be tomorrow).

 

I only ask about the whole loss of use things because I am sure I read somewhere that you can get compensation for this.

I wouldn't mind if they had been genuinely testing but they were not.

It looks like they were running down the warranty in the hope it would make me give up.

 

Don't get me wrong I do not want a full refund.

 

I just want compensating for the unreasonable amount of time I was without the PC due to their lies and negligence.

They have refused this and I am willing to go to court over it.

I just want to know if I can prove they were lying (easy enough) that the court would see the time they had the PC

and their blatant fabrication of the truth as unreasonable?

 

Also if the PC is shown as faulty by the shop that I could request a replacement?

 

I have already given them months to repair it and they didn't even bother turning it on by the looks of it.

 

If I send it back and they keep it for months again then where does it end?

 

Surely the consumer must have some protection from this sort of thing?

Otherwise it could end up going on for years.

 

Lastly can they replace the parts inside with second hand parts like they told me?

 

They said there was a law allowing this as it had been 6 months.

I need to know if that is true or another lie.

[SabreSheep]

Wonder if its worth throwing the company name into google and seeing if others have had similar issues.

[dx100uk]

I will be looking to have a shop take a look at it when the side panel eventually turns up (should be tomorrow).

 

I only ask about the whole loss of use things because I am sure I read somewhere that you can get compensation for this.

I wouldn't mind if they had been genuinely testing but they were not.

It looks like they were running down the warranty in the hope it would make me give up.

 

Don't get me wrong I do not want a full refund.

 

I just want compensating for the unreasonable amount of time I was without the PC due to their lies and negligence.

They have refused this and I am willing to go to court over it.

I just want to know if I can prove they were lying (easy enough) that the court would see the time they had the PC

and their blatant fabrication of the truth as unreasonable?

 

Also if the PC is shown as faulty by the shop that I could request a replacement?

 

I have already given them months to repair it and they didn't even bother turning it on by the looks of it.

 

If I send it back and they keep it for months again then where does it end?

 

Surely the consumer must have some protection from this sort of thing?

Otherwise it could end up going on for years.

 

Lastly can they replace the parts inside with second hand parts like they told me?

 

They said there was a law allowing this as it had been 6 months.

I need to know if that is true or another lie.

 

it appears to me that the company is p'haps

a wee bit lacking in how they deal with faulty units

and what they should and need to be doing under SOGA.

 

sadly we find this time and time again.

 

the way we always find best to deal with these issues do things properly

 

from your side, then deal with the outstanding issues they have caused by their previous actions.

 

there are no rules/laws that say they can/cannot use 2nd hand parts to repair a PC

or infact any product.

 

however, that does not detract from the fact that,

even if they do so, it negates any further redress under soga.

 

first port of call is to [sadly]

 

have to pay for a report on what is exactly faulty with the product

as it outside of 6mts from purchase

 

under SOGA this is YOUR responsibility.

 

again I stress, forget your/their reliance on any warranty

 

any warranty is IN ADDITION to your statutory rights under SOGA

and does NOT replace them.

 

if / if not a warranty is in place MAKE NO ODDS at all under SOGA.

 

as for the time this 'repair' might now take

typically it is 28days going by what the major retailers say like PCworld run by.

 

sadly again, its not for you to decide what they do

 

they can, repair, replace or refund as they think fit.

 

also how did you pay for it please

 

dx

[Deano1982]

I paid by credit card.

 

It is interesting that you say there is no law about the second hand parts. Stating laws that don't exist will not look good on them either.

 

The following is from trading standards. This seems to suggest I can choose an alternative method if one has failed. I have already experienced the significant inconvenience it mentions.

 

When am I entitled to a replacement?If you have 'accepted' the goods and you discover a fault, you can ask the trader to replace them within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to you. For example, if the sofa you have purchased develops extensive structural faults, repairs may be costly when comparedto thecost of replacing it. If a trader states that replacement will be disproportionately costly, then you could allow them to carry out a repair, remembering that you still have the remedies of replacement, or partial refund if repair does not resolve theproblem.

 

Repair/replacement did not resolve the problem - what am I entitled to?If the repair/replacement takes too long, causes you significant inconvenience or cannot be carried out, you are entitled to a reduction in the purchase price, a full refund or more likely, a partial refund based on the use you have had out of the goods since you bought them. It is worth noting that the law does not require you to accept three repairs as some traders may say before claiming another remedy. The nature and number of repairs are determined by the facts of the individual case.

[dx100uk]

aha credit card

 

that make things very diff.

 

under section 75 the card company are equally liable.

 

get them involved.

 

go ring them.

 

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/31/creditcards-31.htm

[Deano1982]

Thanks you I will get in touch with them. Isn't there a time limit to get in touch with the credit card company?

 

UPDATE:

 

Side panel just turned up. I filmed myself opening the box. The side panel was bent in one corner, has scratches over it and where the bolt go at the back the black paint is completely worn away. This is obviously some old second hand side panel and not the one they claimed to be "ordering in" two weeks ago.

 

It seems that when I contacted them 2 weeks later and they claimed they were waiting for the order to come in that in fact that was a load of rubbish. They obviously forgot to order anything. I have requested the contact details of the company they were ordering from so I can confirm the order date but they ignore me.

 

Obviously when I contacted them they realized it was once again their fault for the delays being so long so they grabbed an old bent one and sent it to me.

 

Oh and that is not all...

 

There are NO BOLTS to connect it to my PC. I never received any bolts back from them at any point. I filmed myself searching the box as proof. There was ONE tiny black pointy screw underneath a flap at the bottom of the box (not in plastic packaging) and it is wayyyyyyyy too small to fit the holes on the panel.

 

So yeah.. the significant delay caused by their company continues. It is now over 3 months since I can use this PC.

[Deano1982]

OK I was on the phone to Citizens Advice Consumer service as told to do by trading standards and another email from them appeared..

 

 

 

 

1:49 PM (26 minutes ago)

 

 

 

to me

 

Hello, that is the only panel we have been able get in.

When you returned the PC, you had very little time left on your warranty, I cannot issue any form of partial refund or compensation for the delays, you've had an upgraded part as it was the only thing we could not fully test.

The rest was tested to the highest possible standard, this involved the following

Battlefield 4

Prime 95

Furmark

3D Mark

WD Disk Lifecheck

memtestx86

All of these ran and passed as expected.

However, we kept the PC for such a prolonged period of time trying to find the fault you specified, we could not find a fault during the warranty period. Regarding the side panel, as far as I am aware, which it is under the Trading Standards Act, we are entitled to provide a B-Grade item as a replacement after the first 6 months, the side panel falls under B-Grade.

If you wish to go down the route you have chosen, you may do so.

We cannot get any more side panels in for you, that was the last one we can get, that Reaper case has been end of life for a long time.

We have offered to get it off to Gigabyte, you declined.

You may send it to them yourself, you can access their RMA service via there website.

We have tried to resolve this however trying to repair a machine we cannot find the fault on is not the quickest task to undertake.

Under the law it does state "You must repair or replace an item if a customer returns it within 6 months", this means the item was proved to yourself in a full working state, unless proven otherwise.

It does also state, that if you enter the actual machine, we do not need to provide a refund as this falls under "modifications" to the unit.

We have tried to resolve this for you, in the best manner possible. The delays between the emails were down to us testing the product, again, testing for the fault you mentioned, running it on Battlefield 4 which is one of the most intensive programs to test graphics, CPU and memory.

However, if you wish to go down these routes, you may do so.

Thank you.

 

I read it to the people on the phone and they said the grade B part was not the actual law? It has to be like for like.

 

They also say there that they will not get me another panel. No offer of the bolts that I informed them they were missing.

 

They even point out I had little of my warranty left... it was 2 months inside the warranty period when I dropped it off to them.

 

I have been informed that I should request a replacement PC due to their failed multiple attempts to allow me to use this one.

 

I have been told to do so in writing and give 14 days. If they decline I was then told to request a partial refund considering the amount of time it was in my possession.

 

If that fails I was told to take them to the small claims court.

 

I think I have more than enough evidence to win my case.

 

Also the part about if I enter the machine... It has been wide open since I received it. They asked me to swap parts out but I didn't as I have none spare to test. I have evidence of them asking this in an email.

 

 

[Deano1982]

Found the email of them asking this...

 

 

 

May 19 (11 days ago)

 

 

 

to me

 

Hello, yes we installed it on your PC.

It ran fine, honestly we are stuck as to what it could be.

We fitted the new PSU are it seemed to run perfectly as expected, have you got any other parts you can replace in this PC, like hard drive or memory?

Try it with different ones.

Let me know

[Deano1982]

I informed them I would be using the above as evidence of them trying to get out of a refund by something they told me to do.

 

Seems they now want to be helpful..

 

 

to me

 

 

If you are to request a replacement, we are happy to take it back again, we will forward your parts on to Gigabyte immediately, your hard drive will be replaced with your memory, please back up your data, we will swap everything in that unit with replacements from our supplier or Gigabyte.

[Migster]

I'm unclear from reading your posts what the actual problem is with the PC. Does it not work at all or does it work OK, other than it struggles to play certain games? If it is the latter then the PC may not be faulty per se, but simply not powerful enough to play the games you want to play. That said, if they’ve tested it with Battlefield 4, it should be able to play anything.

 

Could you perhaps post up the specs i.e. processor, RAM and graphics card?

[havinastella]

WHO is the company?

 

What spec is the PC?

 

How much was it and exactly when did you buy it?

[Deano1982]

3570k and 7950 HD. It was one of the most popular gaming combos when purchased. Struggled to run Dayz, APB reloaded, Lord of the rings online, Skyrim and a few others. Tried on all graphical settings and resolutions and it would still stutter or be like you were experiencing severe lag (even in offline games). As you can see a few of those games were released long before this PC was built. That CPU and GPU should run all of those games flawlessly on the highest settings. I know this as I have the exact same spec PC and it runs them all without issue. I tried all of the latest drivers and older ones included with the PC and nothing worked.

 

They have now agreed to replace all the parts inside the PC and within a month. I have accepted this replacement with the hope it finally works. If not then I will be seeking a partial refund as I have then allowed them to attempt a repair and a replacement.

 

Still doesn't make up for the past 3 months and yet another month I will now have to wait because of the lies and negligence but I am giving them a chance one last time.

 

Oh and I forgot the RAM is 8gb Corsair Vengeance.

 

Anyway I will leave it for the next month and see if they keep their word and then will come back to update.

[Migster]

Yeah, those specs should definitely be OK, unless you are using a 2560 x 1440 monitor with all the quality setting maxed out, in which case it might struggle on some games. Out of interest, which company supplied the PC?

[Deano1982]

OK so here is an update:

 

The PC arrives back and the side panel is dented significantly in 2 places and snaps in and out when touched. It sounds like the wobble board Rolf Harris used to use. I turned it on and it hung on the first reboot and my monitor said no signal. I ignore this and think it is just a one off. I then twice try to watch youtube videos and get a BSOD after a few minutes each time. This is supposed to have been tested for 2 weeks before they sent it back! Next time I started it up it had lines going up the screen.

 

Looking above you may remember they agreed to replace the parts inside apart from the CPU. I specifically requested a replacement of the parts as they had already had two attempts to repair the PC. They agreed to this. Well luckily for me I took photos of the serial numbers on the parts before I sent the PC back to them. I am sure you can all guess what comes next.. some of the parts are exactly the same! Even though they sent me this:

 

 

Hello Dean,

 

This is to let you know your parts are off to Gigabyte and everything else put the CPU, case and PSU have been replaced.

The GPU and Motherboard are on their way to Gigabyte, they will be in touch with me, I will keep you informed this time.

I hope we can come to some form of conclusion to this.

 

Thank you

 

 

As you can see they have once again lied to me. How can they say they replaced the parts and then send it back with the same parts? They even admit they didn't replace some of the parts now.

 

I also found out that the hard drive that came with the "NEW" PC I bought was in fact a seagate repaired hard drive. This suggests to me that this is false advertising as at no point was this mentioned apart from the system being new! Are they allowed to do this? I wouldn't have bought it had I known!

 

Anyway I send them an email stating my displeasure at all of the above and tell them the next step is to seek a partial refund. They have point blank refused to refund even though I have piles of evidence that proves they have been lying to me non stop fior the past 5 months and to be honest 5 months is a joke by itself. You cannot get more significantly inconvenienced than that!

 

I informed citizens advice as well as trading standards and they both say I have a case.

 

What are my next steps here? Do I write a letter of complaint with all of the evidence attached and state that I want a partial refund? Then do I write a letter before action after?

 

Also could someone confirm if they are allowed to sell a repaired item in a new system?

 

Thanks for any help you can offer.