very angry :)

psychresearch

VERY long story

In october i bought a laptop from a large retail chain. I also spent 125 euro on an extended warrenty. So in the last week in march my shiney new laptop started acting the maggot. The backlight kept blinking out and i had to move the screen to get it to work again. Now this was bugging me (even though its a small thing) and since i have my fancy dancy extended warrenty i thought i could just get it fixed. So i call the place (they actually have NO number you can call that gets you through to Ireland) and arrange for the laptop to be collected. This is Monday and they say since its Ireland they can only tell me that someone will come to pick it up on either Wednesday or Thursday between 9.30 and 3.30 (so we all take turns hanging around untill 4pm on thursday when the thing is picked up). Then the following weds i call to see how my darling laptop is and they say oohh its fixed and its been sent to birmingham... call birmingham they will tell you where it is. So i call B'ham and they tell me its been sent to dublin...happy days and they give me the number of a dublin parcel company who have it. I call them and they say yup its on a trailer it will be dropped in on thurs betwen 10 and 3.30 so i wait .... and wait ... yup you guessed it ... no laptop. So i call and dublin are now denying ever having my laptop as are birmingham Long story short after several hours on the phone (seriously) they tell me my laptop has been pinched from its box between the workshop and the parcel company. So by way of compensation within the next 28 days from the time of lss of my laptop they will give me a laptop of similar specs. Apparantly they need to resolve the dispute btween them an the pacel company about where it went missing then fill in some paperwork then they will eventually post me some vouchers. so that means that i am laptop less for a month not because of anything I did but because they lost my laptop and all of the accompanying data. Now it seems to me that they should just issue the voucher by fax to my local store and deal with all that mess themselves but apparantly not

TestTransmission

what brand is the laptop?

mikemac

Welcome to boards, know what a paragraph is?

I'm no grammer nazi but I'm not even going to attempt to read that

damnyanks

psycheresearch I'd get back onto them. It's nothing to do with you as they lost it. You werent involved what so ever.

Shelli

Is the warranty held by the chain? i.e was it that company who sent your laptop away? If so I'd go down to the local store and refuse to leave until they give you a new laptop and compensation for the data lost.

Small claims court is another option.

psychresearch

I called in to the shop (PC world and yes i realise that was a mistake to begin with ) . They called customer service. When I asked customer service they said that it would take several days for the information to be transferred to the claims department but told me to call them next week at a given number which is the same number both I and PC world in liffey valley had called. Clearly the claims dept is in the same buidling so why it would take that long for them to get the information I dont know.

I asked then if there was someone higher up I could speak to but was told there wasnt ... oh the Lies. So I called back the customer service/claims dept and asked to be put through to the claims dept only to be told there was in fact no such department and I should call head office. All of these are UK numbers and I have been on hold a VERY long time.

I called head office and they said that all i needed to do was to call into my local PC world store with the claim number and they will sort me out.

I called into my local PC world store which is not in fact that local and they said ... "no thats not how it works you need to call the claims department to get a voucher number and that could take a while to be processed".

I have now had to make two trips to PC world, I will have to make another, I have spend a grand total of 3 hours on the phone to the UK, I have had to have someone sit at home and wait for the courriers for two and a half days and I still have no laptop nor do I have the promise of a laptop anytime soon

The two things that are bugging me most are the fact that No-one seems to have any idea whats going on or what the procedure is for all of this or even it seems what departments their company does or doesnt have. Also I cant get through to Ireland at all and it seems he Irish stores are lame ducks as regards getting anything done, everything needs to go through the UK but they are on separate systems so its apparalty very difficult to get information accross between DSG in the UK and PC world in Irleand. Oh and yes the fact that all of this is the service i recieved after spending €125 on an extended warrenty ... i shudder to think what would have happened otherwise.

Its a compaq by they way

masterwriter

psychresearch wrote: »

I called in to the shop (PC world and yes i realise that was a mistake to begin with ) . They called customer service. When I asked customer service they said that it would take several days for the information to be transferred to the claims department but told me to call them next week at a given number which is the same number both I and PC world in liffey valley had called. Clearly the claims dept is in the same buidling so why it would take that long for them to get the information I dont know.

I asked then if there was someone higher up I could speak to but was told there wasnt ... oh the Lies. So I called back the customer service/claims dept and asked to be put through to the claims dept only to be told there was in fact no such department and I should call head office. All of these are UK numbers and I have been on hold a VERY long time.

I called head office and they said that all i needed to do was to call into my local PC world store with the claim number and they will sort me out.

I called into my local PC world store which is not in fact that local and they said ... "no thats not how it works you need to call the claims department to get a voucher number and that could take a while to be processed".

I have now had to make two trips to PC world, I will have to make another, I have spend a grand total of 3 hours on the phone to the UK, I have had to have someone sit at home and wait for the courriers for two and a half days and I still have no laptop nor do I have the promise of a laptop anytime soon

The two things that are bugging me most are the fact that No-one seems to have any idea whats going on or what the procedure is for all of this or even it seems what departments their company does or doesnt have. Also I cant get through to Ireland at all and it seems he Irish stores are lame ducks as regards getting anything done, everything needs to go through the UK but they are on separate systems so its apparalty very difficult to get information accross between DSG in the UK and PC world in Irleand. Oh and yes the fact that all of this is the service i recieved after spending €125 on an extended warrenty ... i shudder to think what would have happened otherwise.

Its a compaq by they way

http://www.consumerassociation.ie/rights_knowrights.html

http://www.consumerassociation.ie/rights_complaint.html Send by regd mail and you can track when it was delivered

swingking

psychresearch wrote: »

I called in to the shop (PC world and yes i realise that was a mistake to begin with ) . They called customer service. When I asked customer service they said that it would take several days for the information to be transferred to the claims department but told me to call them next week at a given number which is the same number both I and PC world in liffey valley had called. Clearly the claims dept is in the same buidling so why it would take that long for them to get the information I dont know.

I asked then if there was someone higher up I could speak to but was told there wasnt ... oh the Lies. So I called back the customer service/claims dept and asked to be put through to the claims dept only to be told there was in fact no such department and I should call head office. All of these are UK numbers and I have been on hold a VERY long time.

I called head office and they said that all i needed to do was to call into my local PC world store with the claim number and they will sort me out.

I called into my local PC world store which is not in fact that local and they said ... "no thats not how it works you need to call the claims department to get a voucher number and that could take a while to be processed".

I have now had to make two trips to PC world, I will have to make another, I have spend a grand total of 3 hours on the phone to the UK, I have had to have someone sit at home and wait for the courriers for two and a half days and I still have no laptop nor do I have the promise of a laptop anytime soon

The two things that are bugging me most are the fact that No-one seems to have any idea whats going on or what the procedure is for all of this or even it seems what departments their company does or doesnt have. Also I cant get through to Ireland at all and it seems he Irish stores are lame ducks as regards getting anything done, everything needs to go through the UK but they are on separate systems so its apparalty very difficult to get information accross between DSG in the UK and PC world in Irleand. Oh and yes the fact that all of this is the service i recieved after spending €125 on an extended warrenty ... i shudder to think what would have happened otherwise.

Its a compaq by they way

you need to go to the Pc World store and make a stand. Do not leave without a new laptop.

Companies like Pc World, use this bullsh1t to make the customer give up.

I used to work as a customer service representative and the professionalism associated with these cases are laughable.

Be firm, but don't get angry.

Take it to the small claims court if no further action is taken.

psychresearch

so i called into my local PC world store who will not issue a new laptop without a voucher. The voucher will not be issiued by DSG untill the tech guys a subsidiary of DSG pay up. The tech guys will not pay up untill the parcel company pay up. All of this will talke 10 working days. When i phoe DSG they say i need to talk to the tech guys. When i phone the tech guys they say its the parcel company ... no one will take responsibility

I am apoplectic.

i have spent well over two hours on the phone and a further hour in PC world. I WILL NOT take this lying down

Am i being unreasonable do you think? I think since they lost my laptop they should be falling over themselves to compensate me not leaving me for another two weeks with no computer..

rejkin

wow,sorry to heat about that OP,I got a warranty on my computer from PC world and for some reason the computer wouldnt turn on after a week so brought it back to liffey valley PC world,they said come back in an hour,turns out they couldnt fix it so gave me a new computer right there and then,guess its different with laptops.

masterwriter

psychresearch wrote: »

so i called into my local PC world store who will not issue a new laptop without a voucher. The voucher will not be issiued by DSG untill the tech guys a subsidiary of DSG pay up. The tech guys will not pay up untill the parcel company pay up. All of this will talke 10 working days. When i phoe DSG they say i need to talk to the tech guys. When i phone the tech guys they say its the parcel company ... no one will take responsibility

I am apoplectic.

i have spent well over two hours on the phone and a further hour in PC world. I WILL NOT take this lying down

Am i being unreasonable do you think? I think since they lost my laptop they should be falling over themselves to compensate me not leaving me for another two weeks with no computer..

It is hard to get any where by calling them as there is no record. See links in post 7.

foggy_lad

rejkin wrote: »

wow,sorry to heat about that OP,I got a warranty on my computer from PC world and for some reason the computer wouldnt turn on after a week so brought it back to liffey valley PC world,they said come back in an hour,turns out they couldnt fix it so gave me a new computer right there and then,guess its different with laptops.

read the op's original post his laptop was lost/stolen between the repair centre in the uk and Dublin and nobody is taking responsibility for this so the op is left without laptop and with a useless extended warranty which should cover this mess!

you should go into the store with a flask of tea and sleeping bag and tell them you are not leaving until they sort out this mess and give you a full refund or your laptop!

Kess73

The stolen part I would use if it was me. I would also call the National Consumer Agency. Lo Call 1890 432 432

If you get no joy from DSG, then I would think you have a very strong case for the small claims court. Ring the above number though, you will be giving good information there, and you will be informed of the exact legal standings and not what that Pc World are trying to pass off as their version.



I would want to know if it had been reported to the police, seeing as it was stolen, and I would want copies of anything they have on this, I know they will not have anything, so when they hum and ha over it, inform them that you want the police involved as your property has been stolen whilst in their care, I would even go to the point of reporting it to the police while you are in the store and asking for a garda to come out and take details.

the_syco

Pop into PC World, and ask for the branch that it was reported stolen to, as your lawyer needs the information. Watch their face when you mention lawyer It'll be fun.

psychresearch

well i eventually snapped when the 30th person in a row told me that they felt that it was perfectly resonable that when I sent my laptop off for repair under my nifty €199 repair policy and it got stolen, since it was techincally the parcel company that had it, PC world had no responsibility to replace it until such time as the parcel company had paid for it. Basically they took zero responsibility, refused to escalate my call beyond a call center because anyone who could actualy do anything "doenst answer the phone" in the words of a PC world manager or and i quote is not in a customer facing role.

To ad insult to injury when I went into liffey valley to pick up the laptop i had been told i could get (and didnt) they tried to convince me that even though the machine they were trying to give me had an 80gb hardrive rather than a 120 it had a 2 gh processor rather than a 1 it all sort of averaged out ..eh no it doesnt and i am entitiled to ALL of my specs being met and if this means that some of the specs are higher than the lost ones thats not relaly my proble.

Also the lies i was told i asked since they were so sure they were gonna get paid for the vanished laptop by the parcel company anyway why couldnt the tech guys (the subdivision fixing the laptop) tell coverplan (the insurance company) that i needed a new laptop. Why couldnt they tell DSGI (the parent company) who could in turn tell PC world who could in the end give me my laptop and let them shunt the forms around their giant evil hq in hemmelheampstead to their hearts content without my having to deal with it Apparantly they dont communicate with eachother ... seriously thats what i was told

I was also told that the manager of customer services doesnt deal with customers Not that any of the customer services team actually seems to service any customers either oh and the PC world customer services doenst deal with irish customers so you have to talk to the currys helpline instead. Oh and when your laptop is with the courriers its not actually insured. And my personal favorite was when i was told to contact the claims department... when i was given their number it was the same number i had just dialled and when i dialled it again and asked for the claims dept i was told there wasnt one

Apparantly to PC word this is all reasonable behavior. I think they just set it up so that they have these obtuse procedures and then make sure that the peoople who the customer can speak to cant get around them.

In the end after several days of being bounced around I gave up and got the name of the managing director of coverplan the insurance company (also owned by DSGI aka dixons, aka curries) and miraculously having phoned him at ten past nine this morning by 4pm someone from coverplan had written off my vouchers and phoned PC world liffey valley to authorise giving me my laptop. My advice go all the way up, and threaten soliciters and take names we will see tommorrow if i have actually won my battle with the evil empire that is the Dixons Sales group international and if i will get my shiney new laptop

thanks for your advice . I spoke to the consumer advice people and they suggested i go to small claims .... i just might

311

I've been told that DSG makes a huge profit by selling these warranties.

Hard to believe how easy they'll take money off people ,for nothing.

seagull

Did you hand the PC to someone from PC World, or to someone from the parcel company?

vibe666

seagull wrote: »

Did you hand the PC to someone from PC World, or to someone from the parcel company?

the OP said it was stolen on the way back to her, after it was repaired. she didn't hand it to anyone, PC world did.

OP, make a point of getting them (with written confirmation, again take names) to reimburse or otherwise compensate you for your hours of UK calls and trips to PC world (not to mention your mental anguish) trying to get this sorted.

they've put you a long way out and have done very little to put things right.

you need a replacement laptop of equal or better spec (don't let them skimp) AND something to cover everything else, the time spent waiting for them to collect/return the laptop, time to & from pc world, time on the phone, call costs, petrol costs etc. that's all money out of your pocket and in theirs until they put it right. make sure you get what you're entitled too.

psychresearch

Well after all of my putting my foot down i got a new laptop today retailing at the price i paid on the day plus €300 more so i now have a very pretty 200 gb vaio with windows vista (a poor womans mac book pro ) and I got a refund on my coverplan so not too bad. That said it took days and days of them not seeing any problem with the way they treated me

serioulsy if this happens to anyone my advice is go straight to the top call head office the number is on the web and make sure you dont get transferred to anyone usually in a "customer facing role" they tend to be able to do nothing

masterwriter

psychresearch wrote: »

Well after all of my putting my foot down i got a new laptop today retailing at the price i paid on the day plus €300 more so i now have a very pretty 200 gb vaio with windows vista

Well done

serioulsy if this happens to anyone my advice is go straight to the top

100% correct

swingking

Well done

Hold on to all the documentation and don't hesitate if this laptop turns out faulty too

the_syco

I'd look for scrapes, etc, on the notebook. Signs of wear and tear. They're entitled to give you a refurb if they want.

whiterebel

PC World are a joke, and always have been. They sell Coverplan on Apple Macs, despite not knowing if they have a hardware option for repair (they do in the UK, but try asking PC World/Currys/Dixons who it is) and they can offer NO software support for Mac. The amount off people we used to send back per day to get a refund was beyond belief (99% UK customer). it got so bad PC World contacted Apple and asked them to stop telling the customers about the slight flaws in their plan........:eek:

craichoe

whiterebel wrote: »

PC World are a joke, and always have been. They sell Coverplan on Apple Macs, despite not knowing if they have a hardware option for repair (they do in the UK, but try asking PC World/Currys/Dixons who it is) and they can offer NO software support for Mac. The amount off people we used to send back per day to get a refund was beyond belief (99% UK customer). it got so bad PC World contacted Apple and asked them to stop telling the customers about the slight flaws in their plan........:eek:

Think your information is a bit off there, some overzealous sales people in Apple were selling AppleCare Protection plans as if it was some form of insurance, which it isn't, it technically isnt even a warranty. PC World complained because their Coverplan which is essentially insurance is not the same and some Apple employees were pitching it as just that.

An example:

PC World Coverplan
Dropped on floor - Covered

AppleCare Protection plan
Dropped on floor - entitled to jack sh*t

TerrorFirmer

It's been said already but PC World are a farce. Logic is lost on them; you have to take the hardline approach with them to get anywhere. I had an issue with them before, faulty laptop, and could get nothing out of them. Don't know why, but I went in and out of that place countless times. Print outs from users on other forums experiencing the same problem were ignored; I could have 'made them up'. Exasperated demands were ignored; "look, it BSOD's with every single Nvidia driver I've used, I've tried re-installing, I've tried modded drivers, I've tried various games, I've found 100's of people online with the same problem in this model." Response: "Try another re-format."

I think I'm just too nice. In the end, my father went in (he was as sick of my passiveness as I was of their incompetence), asked for the managers name and said right, I'll mention your name when I contact the local radio wondering if anyone else has ever had problems with PC World.

New machine on the spot.

Sam Vimes

craichoe wrote: »

An example:

PC World Coverplan
Dropped on floor - Covered

AppleCare Protection plan
Dropped on floor - entitled to jack sh*t

so what is the purpose of it

psychresearch

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

It's been said already but PC World are a farce. Logic is lost on them; you have to take the hardline approach with them to get anywhere.

So right every time i spoke to them they kept saying "well you lost your laptop" so ... then when i said eeehh no YOU lost my laptop they kept telling me that it was in fact the parcel company not them so really it wasnt there problem..... for some reason the irrelevance of the laptop being techincally in the hands of the parcel company to the fact that they had lost my lap top was lost on the 20 or so people o spoke to

another gem of logic i got from them was and I quote ... well the tech guys (the repair company) cant just tell coverplan they lost the laptop and expect coverplan to pay for it on faith (the tech guys and coverplan are the SAME company in the same building ) and my personal favorite ...We have to wait to get the money from the parcel company .. we dont have money to go around the place replacing laptops willy nilly tbh i doubt that DSGI dont have the leeway to replace a compaq that cost me €450 (yup i'm a cheapskate )

craichoe

Sam Vimes wrote: »

so what is the purpose of it

http://images.apple.com/legal/applecare/docs/AppleCare_Protect_Plan_EU_en.pdf

Basically covers normal failure, but does not cover refund or replacment.
No Accidental/Cosmetic damage etc.

The Plan does not cover:
(i) Installation, removal or disposal of the Covered Equipment, or installation, removal, repair, or
maintenance of non-Covered Equipment (including accessories, attachments, or other devices
such as external modems) or electrical service external to the Covered Equipment;
(ii) Damage to the Covered Equipment caused by accident, abuse, neglect, misuse (including
faulty installation, repair, or maintenance by anyone other than Apple or an Apple Authorized
Service Provider), unauthorized modification, extreme environment (including extreme
temperature or humidity), extreme physical or electrical stress or interference, fluctuation or
surges of electrical power, lightning, static electricity, fire, acts of God or other external causes;
(iii) Covered Equipment with a serial number that has been altered, defaced or removed;
(iv) Problems caused by a device that is not the Covered Equipment, including equipment that
is not Apple-branded, whether or not purchased at the same time as the Covered Equipment;
(v) Service necessary to comply with the regulations of any government body or agency arising
after the date of this Plan;
(vi) The provision of replacement equipment during the period when the Covered Equipment is
being repaired;
(vii) Covered Equipment that has been lost or stolen. This Plan only covers Covered Equipment
that is returned to Apple in its entirety;
(viii) Cosmetic damage to the Covered Equipment including but not limited to scratches, dents
and broken plastic on ports, that does not otherwise affect its functionality or materially impair
your use;
(ix) Consumable parts, such as batteries, except in respect of battery coverage under APP for
iPod or unless failure has occurred due to a defect in materials and workmanship;
(x) Preventative maintenance on the Covered Equipment;
(xi) Damage to, or loss of any software or data residing or recorded in the Covered Equipment.
When providing repair or replacement service, Apple will use reasonable efforts to reinstall the
Covered Equipment’s original software configuration and subsequent update releases, but will
not provide any recovery or transfer of software or data contained on the serviced unit not
originally included in the Covered Equipment; or
xii) Defects caused by normal wear and tear or otherwise due to normal aging of the product.

tomred1

I had the same story with a laptop before. I would never buy from them again. I wrote to hte General Manager of DSG group for a refund of my phone bill

the_syco

psychresearch wrote: »

my personal favorite ...We have to wait to get the money from the parcel company .. we dont have money to go around the place replacing laptops willy nilly tbh i doubt that DSGI dont have the leeway to replace a compaq that cost me €450 (yup i'm a cheapskate )

Welcome to the real world. As much as I hate the DSG group, it's what my past employer did as well. Why? To ensure that the laptop is not a)actually delivered b)never left the postal warehouse c)sent to the wrong postal warehouse d)got lost or e)got nicked. Believe the customer? Ye got to be kidding:D Dealt with a number of schemers who didn't understand their warranty (we fix their notebook, not give them a new one). Saying that though, the Tech Guys never upheld their part of the bargain, so meh, f**k 'em. Oh, and another thing, f**k the tech guys, your contract was with the shop. All this bullsh|t about the Tech Guys losing your laptop... who gives a f**k.

Your contract is with the shop. The warranty states it goes off to get fixed if it's broken (usually to the manufacture, but in the case of the DSG group, the Tech Guys do all their own repairs). The warranty says that if your laptop they'll fix it in a reasonable timeframe (which can be up to a month), free of charge, unless we think you've damaged it (it's broken in half, and the screen has a hole through it? deffo not a "manufacturing fault").

But here's the thing: check the small print of the contract (also known as the Terms & Conditions) from the shop, and it may say something like "if it takes X amount of days, we'll refund you" (some shops had that written, always fun when the customer rang us, demanding a replacement, when in fact it was the shops contract, not our warranty that stated the replacement)...

[/rant]

Oh, and by "us", and "we", I was talking about a previous employer. Our customers loved us, and kept buying our sh|te. True, a few people hated us, but mainly they were the "I didn't throw my laptop from the 3rd floor into the swimming pool" types who thought the warranty meant that for their stupidity, they'd get a brand new laptop (even though they only had 3 days left of their warranty).

The customer is always wrong. If they were right, they wouldn't be ringing tech support:D

Sam Vimes

craichoe wrote: »

http://images.apple.com/legal/applecare/docs/AppleCare_Protect_Plan_EU_en.pdf
.....

i didn't read the whole thing but as i understand it, it covers defects that aren't caused by accident or neglect etc, ie manufacturing faults. how is that different to a regular warranty?

do yo uhave to pay for this plan?