How long should laptop components last?

AlmightyCushion

I've had my laptop about 15 months and the ac adapter has packed up. After some searching about on the internet it appears to be a short in the wiring. I've emailed dell tech support and they've told me that because it is out of warranty that I'd have to buy a new one.

The sale of goods and supply of services act says that goods must be fit for the purpose intended. Personally I think something like a laptop (well everything except the battery) should last at least 3 years for it to be considered fit for it's purpose. Now my opinion could be completely different to that of the law so how long legally should a laptop last?

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

there isn't a legal timeframe. Fit for purpose will vary from product-to-product, and even from laptop-to-laptop. I'd personally view 3 years as being about right for a laptop, but you'd probably be best buying a replacement adaptor from ebay and saving yourself the hassle of the back and forward with customer service.

Dell quality seems to have gone downhill over the last few years imo

seamus

Yeah, I'd certainly go with the three-year figure myself as the "accepted" timeframe, but legally there's nothing written down which says that an electronic component must live X months.

Manufacturer's warranties usually involve a bit of testing of the component so that most of the manufactured items (99%) will fail outside of the warranty period. The Act in question doesn't give a timeframe but it obviously implies that if an item fails after two weeks, that's not acceptable.

For some reason I have a figure of six months in my head, outside of which it's just bad luck if the component fails. I don't know where I'm getting it from though
Perhaps give the ODCA a bell - chances are they see this kind of thing every week, so they can give some experienced advice.

AlmightyCushion

Maybe you're right RoundTower. A new ac adapter would only cost €50 but it's more the principle of the matter. The laptop cost me €1700 which is a lot of money so I don't like the idea of having to spend more on it when it should be something covered by dell. I can use my mums ac adapter in the mean time so I don't mind waiting a while to get it sorted.

I might try ringing tech support tomorrow and ask them to put me through to a manager or supervisor or something. Failing that I'll get inc contact with the odca. I really wish someone would update that law and replace the "fit for the purpose intended" bit with something a little less ambiguous.

Sponge Bob

Chinese copies are €20 on ebay . pa-12 or pa-10 are the usual model numbers for recent Dells .

axer

It will take a fair bit of arguing with dell but stick by your rights - not enough people do. A component such as that should last longer than 15 months anyway thus because it failed as early as that then it was not of merchantable quality (granted the damage was not caused by abuse or misuse).

Bring them to the small claims court if you have to as it will only cost you 9 euro - worst case scenario you are down 9 euro and you have learned how the small claims court works but I cannot imagine that Dell can successfully argue that the part was expected to only last 15 months considering you paid 1,700 for the laptop.

I would say assert your rights on the phone then if no luck write them a letter asserting your rights then follow the small claims court route. With the small claims court route, the respondant has 15 calender days to respond to the notice of claim sent by the small claims court registrar and if they don't respond then you automatically win.

Read more about the small claims court here:
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/justice/courts-system/small_claims_court

Spud83

Are you sure the fault is being caused by a manufacturing problem. Was it protected by a surge protector?

bmaxi

I have a Dell laptop and the HDD went belly up after 15 months. Dell say they can't be held responsible for materials not manufactured by them. I'd say this would cover about 90% of the components in the laptop, but try to argue that with some goon in Bombay. They haven't heard the last of it.

axer

bmaxi wrote: »

Dell say they can't be held responsible for materials not manufactured by them.

That is actually illegal for them to say as they are attempting to limit your statutory rights. They *are* responsibly for all items they sell. Again just send them a letter (keeping all copies of correspondence) and if they do not rectify the problem that way then take them to the small claims court and produce the letter they give stating that they are not responsible (which I doubt they would actually send you as the legal department would know it is illegal) but at least you can show that you have tried to rectify the problem yourself first before going down the legal route.

bmaxi

axer wrote: »

That is actually illegal for them to say as they are attempting to limit your statutory rights. They *are* responsibly for all items they sell.

I would imagine so, and as soon as I can get to speak to someone who speaks English, I'll tell them.

AlmightyCushion

alanmurphy83 wrote: »

Are you sure the fault is being caused by a manufacturing problem. Was it protected by a surge protector?

It wasn't protected by a surge protector just a standard 4-way extension plug. There has been a tv connected in to the same extension plug everytime I have been using it and that's still going fine.

If you do a check on the dell forums for ac adapter beep you get a lot of threads so it looks like it's a common enough problem.

axer

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

It wasn't protected by a surge protector just a standard 4-way extension plug. There has been a tv connected in to the same extension plug everytime I have been using it and that's still going fine.

If you do a check on the dell forums for ac adapter beep you get a lot of threads so it looks like it's a common enough problem.

You should then print out some of those pages to show it is a common problem to both dell (via a letter asserting your rights) and the small claims court (if it goes that far).