Laptop repair store dumped my laptop

Pompey Magnus

No Pants wrote: »

Did they elaborate on this any further?

No more elaboration, I take it he is suggesting that they contacted me and I refused to collect, not sure though.

Great. They can bring those along to the SCC.

My only concern is that there was one call from their store to me on the 23rd of December, I had been in a few days earlier and they couldn't find the laptop, I requested they look further and phone me back, the staff member phoned on the 23rd to tell me that another employee had taken it home with him and it wouldn't be available until some time in January.

Could they show the record of that call and claim that this was when I was contacted?

No Pants

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

Could they show the record of that call and claim that this was when I was contacted?

Sure, but I doubt that one call would justify them dumping it, especially if there had been communication before and since.

angeldelight

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

No more elaboration, I take it he is suggesting that they contacted me and I refused to collect, not sure though.



My only concern is that there was one call from their store to me on the 23rd of December, I had been in a few days earlier and they couldn't find the laptop, I requested they look further and phone me back, the staff member phoned on the 23rd to tell me that another employee had taken it home with him and it wouldn't be available until some time in January.

Could they show the record of that call and claim that this was when I was contacted?

Yes they can claim that but one phone call would not be sufficient for them to have dumped your property and the judge will see straight through that

hearny

If there was corrosion as stated something would have had to have spilled on it, It was clearly a stalling tactic as I've never seen a laptop with corrosion damage without a spillage.

They would need evidence to back up their claim of the corrosion etc.

The one phone call would not be enough to justify throwing the machine out and if you have been phoning them since your records will highlight this.

See if you can find an ebay shop for them, some repair places sell parts online from dead systems, see if any parts from your model number laptop show up in their items / feedback. Not going to prove anything but may cast some doubt.

zenno

What I would do normally is open up the laptop and inspect it for such things as corrosion/spillage of such things as coffee/tea or wine and beer stickiness within the keyboard and mobo. Then I would contact the owner and tell them the case so they understand the procedure that needs to be done.

I find it completely unprofessional that any small or large business would do what was mentioned in the OP's original post. They also dumped the customers laptop only giving back the hard-drive ? that's just astounding. All I can tell you is... tell your friends and the people you know to steer clear of that business, it should not be allowed function, as it is mickey-mouse workmanship.

Unfortunately there are a few of these dodgy repair shops all over the Island. Just make other folk aware of this.

Bloody amateurs.

zenno

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

I received a long text reply to my letter tonight, the highlights include:

"we don't and never do crap jobs"

"You know was your fault as well!"

"that laptop was a write off. same as the hdd you have...i am sure our electronics engineer can testify about the state"

"you know you've been contacted or messages left.phone records will tell if the case may be."

and

"Best we can do is give you a same spec or better laptop for same price you've been quoted for the repair".


So basically their best offer is for me to pay them €120 for one of their laptops. Looks like there isn't much point negotiating further so small claims court it will have to be...

To the small claims court immediately. What drivel. I have never heard of such incompetence as to this before. Even the reply they sent you is below approach.

Don't let this one slide, deal with them in the small claims court. Once they receive the summons they will be quick to offer you a replacement system, but do refuse this under the grounds that they are either 'with-holding' your private Data on hard-disk or have given it to a different person. As you know, everything of your personal information is on that disk, serious stuff. This could turn out very bad indeed for that business, that's a data breach of a customers private information.

there was one call from their store to me on the 23rd to tell me that another employee had taken it home with him

Who's to say this person didn't copy all of the data on your HDD when he brought it home with him, or even looked through it. The job has to be done in-shop, computers should never leave the shop to be given to any employee to take home, that's just crazy.

OP, you need to get your hands on that HDD either way, go into them and demand it be returned immediately, and then have a summons sent to them from the small claims court. You will win hands down, and it will be a kick in the cpu to them to get their business act together, or be shut down.

Small Claims Court: http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/justice/courts_system/small_claims_court.html

metroburgers

Can I come to court? :pac:

Cabaal

I got to say I'd be very deeply concerned about where my data is at this stage, also I'd be contacting the owner of the data on the harddrive and advising him of whats happened and explain he should be going to the data protection commissioner also.

Serious lack of looking after customer's data by this company,

RangeR

Just to add to a few comments. You cannot bring a solicitor into the SCC. Neither can the company. Both of you can, of course, approach a solicitor for legal advice but only you and the company will be attending the SCC. That's if the Company fights the SCC Clerks correspondence first.

Pompey Magnus

RangeR wrote: »

Just to add to a few comments. You cannot bring a solicitor into the SCC. Neither can the company. Both of you can, of course, approach a solicitor for legal advice but only you and the company will be attending the SCC. That's if the Company fights the SCC Clerks correspondence first.

According to the citizensinformation website:

"Under Irish Law should there be court proceedings a business has to be legally represented."

www.citizensinformation.ie/en/justice/courts_system/small_claims_court.html

Roughly how long does the process take between filing the complaint and a Court appearance?

Pompey Magnus

I'm making out my claim now for the small claims court, seems that it has to be a monetary claim, I can't simply request a replacement laptop of similar specs, is that right? How would be the best way of valuing the laptop? A quick look on ebay has the same model going for €250 - €350, would that be a legitimate method of putting a value on the claim?

rovoagho

Yes, just make sure you bring screenshots to support your claim. And make sure you add any costs you incurred. I'm not sure if the SCC allows the cost of your time, but if it does I'd certainly be adding that to the claim. The guy's trying to screw you, screw him right back.

Well done for persisting by the way. Most people in Ireland are happy to bitch about things in the pub, but not to actually follow through and take people to task. If more people did what you're doing, we'd be a lot better off. Herd immunity to incompetents abd scam artists.

Best of luck with it.

Jaggy

Just to answer a few questions about the SCC. I had a case with Meteor from the end of 2012 to the start of 2013. It took four months to the day from the day I lodged the claim to the day I received a cheque in the post.

I was advised by the SCC that I couldn't add any fees for personal expense. I tried to add the €25 small claims fee to the overall cost but was told that this can't be done any more. They used to advise people to do it but that it was being clamped down on now.

The process may have taken longer for me as Meteor never actually replied or responded to any of my claims so I got a ruling by default. There is an amount of days to wait for a ruling by default so like I said, this may have drawn out the process.

If this crowd reply and challenge the claim it may speed up the process but then it comes down to when you can actually set a date in court. Another thing I was told is that it's not actually in a court room, it's a fairly low key affair with you, the company and a judge in one room.

I didn't actually have to go to a court sitting as Meteor didn't respond but after lodging my claim I did have to go to the district court, place my hand on a bible and swear that all the info i'd given was to the best of my knowledge true. This was also very informal and done in some guys office by his desk. (Cork)

As someone else pointed out, there's no need for solicitors, that's the whole idea of the small claims court, to circumvent the need for one. Of course you can go for legal advise but this will incur further cost.

Best of luck!

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Just for clarity, and this was discussed here recently, you may end up in court if it is disputed. There is an initial informal meeting with both parties and the Court Clerk who acts as registrar - he is not a judge. If agreement is not reached then it goes to the judge and is in a public court.

Allyall

My sisters neighbour has just finished going through a similar issue.

After it had gone on for three weeks and the Shop owner became very rude and a small bit aggressive, He proceeded to take further action.

It was on it's way to the small claims court, and they offered him a refurbished laptop of 'similar specs' and he declined.

Then he requested the photographic evidence of the damage to the components that they had claimed to be damaged.
They took 3 days to give him them, which was too long, given that they should have had them ready and itemised.
They had no pictures of the outside of his laptop, only close up oh a mainboard. So he took numbers from the board and cables he could see, and they matched a different laptop/they didn't match his.
He told them the pictures were from a different laptop. That he still had his receipt from Harvey Norman and serial number could be traced (Not sure if that is true).
Without Pictures they would have had to pay up, and a little extra.

In the end they offered him a brand new, lower end laptop, which cost them probably a maximum of €250.

He took that.

I wouldn't have.

Make sure they have pictures both close up, and from a distance, itemised, with the problems highlighted.

Without them, they have nothing (Obviously, along with the hard drive, they're fecked anyway).

Pompey Magnus

Another update:

They texted today to say "We'll have the laptop ready for you on Wednesday morning".

What a complete mess this is becoming. Is there any way for me to confirm that what they give me actually is the laptop I handed in instead of just a load of bits and pieces they have had lying around or do I just have to take their word for it?

Jaggy

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

Another update:

They texted today to say "We'll have the laptop ready for you on Wednesday morning".

What a complete mess this is becoming. Is there any way for me to confirm that what they give me actually is the laptop I handed in instead of just a load of bits and pieces they have had lying around or do I just have to take their word for it?

Bollocks to that, if they admitted to getting rid of it, how are they going to magic all the components back together?

Unless you have serial numbers for everything there probably isn't a way to verify it.

RangeR

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

Another update:

They texted today to say "We'll have the laptop ready for you on Wednesday morning".

What a complete mess this is becoming. Is there any way for me to confirm that what they give me actually is the laptop I handed in instead of just a load of bits and pieces they have had lying around or do I just have to take their word for it?

Regardless, I'd want to boot it up then and there, in front of them and make sure all is ok.

Boot up -> Wait 60 seconds after hitting desktop -> ANY messages or errors pop up?
Control Panel -> System -> Devices -> There should be no errors or warnings.
Windows Explorer -> My Documents -> Are they yours? Although they will probably have re-installed Windows.
Attempt a Windows Update -> Does Windows complain that your copy of Windows is not Genuine?
Did you have Office or other expensive software installed? Is it still there?


Be under no illusions, these guys are cowboys and just want to get rid of you in the quickest, cheapest amount of time. The minute you leave the shop with "your laptop", they will not deal with you anymore. Be 1000% sure.

Pompey Magnus

RangeR wrote: »

Regardless, I'd want to boot it up then and there, in front of them and make sure all is ok.

Boot up -> Wait 60 seconds after hitting desktop -> ANY messages or errors pop up?
Control Panel -> System -> Devices -> There should be no errors or warnings.
Windows Explorer -> My Documents -> Are they yours? Although they will probably have re-installed Windows.
Attempt a Windows Update -> Does Windows complain that your copy of Windows is not Genuine?
Did you have Office or other expensive software installed? Is it still there?


Be under no illusions, these guys are cowboys and just want to get rid of you in the quickest, cheapest amount of time. The minute you leave the shop with "your laptop", they will not deal with you anymore. Be 1000% sure.

They didn't say in the text but I'm pretty sure given their form in this that they will say the corrosion was too bad and it was an obvious write off (despite apparently missing this little problem in the first inspection). So I should only accept it if it works?

RangeR

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

They didn't say in the text but I'm pretty sure given their form in this that they will say the corrosion was too bad and it was an obvious write off (despite apparently missing this little problem in the first inspection). So I should only accept it if it works?

Not going to advise you, either way. Go with your gut. If it was me and there was the slightest bit of doubt... I dunno. They are offering a replacement [or the original]. How will the SCC look on you refusing that if it gets that far? It's a hard one to call.

And how is it your laptop if they claimed that they dumped it?

You've had your laptop a good while. You get to know little visual blemishes. Check to see if this has any? Maybe they aren't giving you back your old unit. Maybe they are giving you a "similar" unit.

runawaybishop

What about your harddrive and what about the hdd that they gave you already? Did you ring the guy who's hdd it was to see what the story was?

Tippex

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

Another update:

They texted today to say "We'll have the laptop ready for you on Wednesday morning".

What a complete mess this is becoming. Is there any way for me to confirm that what they give me actually is the laptop I handed in instead of just a load of bits and pieces they have had lying around or do I just have to take their word for it?

The easiest way would be if you have a record of the Dell service tag and then you should be able to check (though they may remove the tag sticker ) however the Service tag should be displayed when you go into the bios.

My advice would be to take a look at the laptop and confirm that it is yours initially. then hit them with the whole hard-drive thing and the DP issue (make sure you have reported them to the Data Protection commissioner) and thenmake your decision but to be fair if you take the laptop off them I would have 0 confidence in it lasting any length of time. I would also contact the guy whose hard-drive you have and let him know.

Pompey Magnus

runawaybishop wrote: »

What about your harddrive and what about the hdd that they gave you already? Did you ring the guy who's hdd it was to see what the story was?

I found his profile on facebook through his phone number, he is living in Kenya at the minute actually so I sent him a message on facebook and waiting for the reply.

I messaged that crowd back asking if they have my hard drive. They replied:

"What hard drive. I gave you the hard drive".

Obviously the laptop wasn't kept together after being disassembled which is why I am cautious about their claim that what they have is actually mine.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

I found his profile on facebook through his phone number, he is living in Kenya at the minute actually so I sent him a message on facebook and waiting for the reply.

I messaged that crowd back asking if they have my hard drive. They replied:

"What hard drive. I gave you the hard drive".

Obviously the laptop wasn't kept together after being disassembled which is why I am cautious about their claim that what they have is actually mine.

Have you not told them that they gave you somebody else's hard drive?

dilallio

Tippex wrote: »

The easiest way would be if you have a record of the Dell service tag and then you should be able to check (though they may remove the tag sticker ) however the Service tag should be displayed when you go into the bios.

My advice would be to take a look at the laptop and confirm that it is yours initially. then hit them with the whole hard-drive thing and the DP issue (make sure you have reported them to the Data Protection commissioner) and thenmake your decision but to be fair if you take the laptop off them I would have 0 confidence in it lasting any length of time. I would also contact the guy whose hard-drive you have and let him know.

It's very easy to change the Dell Service Tag in the BIOS, so even if it matches, there's no guarantee that it's the same laptop.

Pompey Magnus

Andrew Creamy Priestess wrote: »

Have you not told them that they gave you somebody else's hard drive?

I mentioned it on the letter I sent. However they didn't bother to read the letter fully so must have missed that part:

"I could not even finish reading it. why the need for that no-sense threatening letter."

Not sure if I should tell them again or leave it as a surprise in case it did go to court.

I'm just after getting a reply from the owner of the hard disk confirming that he did leave a laptop into them.

Pompey Magnus

They just texted back again:

"Found your laptop! Under a pile of boxes with other damaged laptops.has a hdd in the box as well. Is an unfortunate mix up. Bring the other hdd back. We can have your one put together or we leave it in the box?"

username123

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

They just texted back again:

"Found your laptop! Under a pile of boxes with other damaged laptops.has a hdd in the box as well. Is an unfortunate mix up. Bring the other hdd back. We can have your one put together or we leave it in the box?"

How do they know its yours?

Is this place in D24?

miss no stars

wow

Firstly, with the laptop you're getting back, the first question I'd ask them is "how do you know that this laptop is mine? You told me that you told me you dumped mine." Be interesting to find out the response to it.

Fire it up and check for ANYTHING wrong with it. Bring a camera. Take pictures of it and it's serial number. Check all the documents. Go into the BIOS and make sure everything in there is correct and corresponds to YOUR laptop. Find out what model motherboard and RAM would be in the laptop you had and ask them to open the back of the laptop and show you so that you can verify. Is there corrosion there? If not, how did your "severely corrosion damaged" laptop that was rendered unsalvageable with corrosion suddenly end up fixed and corrosion free? Take pictures of ANYTHING that looks even a little bit off. Do all the components look to be the same age or are some a lot older/newer than others? If anything is off and they can't explain to your satisfaction don't accept it. If your documents aren't there, don't accept it - it's clearly not yours and criminal damage is defined as

(b) in relation to data—


(i) to add to, alter, corrupt, erase or move to another storage medium or to a different location in the storage medium in which they are kept (whether or not property other than data is damaged thereby), or

(ii) to do any act that contributes towards causing such addition, alteration, corruption, erasure or movement,

If you're not accepting it, tell them they might want to hang on to it as evidence for their upcoming court date.

My gut instinct on this is that it's not your laptop. You'll be handed something very like your laptop and told that the documents aren't there because the HDD was corrupted and they had to wipe it and all your software is also gone.

Secondly, get on to the data protection commissioners. They've given you personal information relating to a private individual and, if you don't get your laptop back complete with all your documents, have lost track of your data. Here's what my worry about this would be - people do things with their laptops. Deleting files doesn't really make them irrecoverable. What might be on the laptop they give you or the HDD they already gave you? Also, where are your files? Who has them? They might be able to get all kinds of personal information about you.

Thirdly, if you don't believe that the laptop you're offered is yours and you get nowhere in the SCC; I'd tell them that you're going to go to the gardai and register a theft/criminal damage and then do. You left your laptop and data with them for repair. They disposed of it without permission and handed you someone else's HDD and data (presumably without their permission). That's criminal damage surely? http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1991/en/act/pub/0031/sec0001.html They haven't given you any proof of the supposed corrosion causing it to be worthless and there's no proof that you ever consented to its disposal. I don't know if you would get anywhere with it to be honest, and I seriously doubt the gardai will bother to get involved but they might give you a PULSE number and get in touch with the shop. I'm sure you could opt to press charges?

miss no stars

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

They just texted back again:

"Found your laptop! Under a pile of boxes with other damaged laptops.has a hdd in the box as well. Is an unfortunate mix up. Bring the other hdd back. We can have your one put together or we leave it in the box?"

I thought they had already found yours and told you that it would be assembled and ready for you to pick up?

Ask them about that..

This one could very well be yours. I'd be inclined to get down there and have a good bloody look at it and bring down your HDD reader and have a look at what's on it before they start sticking things together with blue tack.