Laptop Hard Drive Failure

Mushy

Hi,

I am in contact with Pc World with this issue, but I feel I'm being short changed. Bought a laptop in March 14, intended use was primarily for returning to college so nothing more than internet and Office use.

Roll on to November 15, hard drive failed. They didn't want to repair until the good old Sales of Goods Act was spouted. Eventually got fixed, happy days, roll on to do a thesis.

Fast forward to June 17, hard drive is in process of failing again (I did attempt a factory reset but was of no use ultimately). I have been in to a store to check for a solution, they said their CS team would call back within 72 hours, which they didn't.

I started contact through Facebook Messenger, was able to get the details of receipt (from when they sneakily added extended warranty to the purchase), and their Rep has offered depreciated credit of £180 (original purchase was €500).

As this is a second failure, does this come across as going against the legislation (refund/repair/exchange)? Also, does a new merchantible quality date start from receiving the repaired laptop? I doubt it does myself but was told it should. It can be proved the laptop wasn't fit for purpose, is this something that should just be accepted or taken further? Not that I've ever any intention of going near them again.

Thank you

beauf

There really isn't rule (legislation) that I'm aware of the number of times a retail can attempt a repair. When dealing with mobiles I refused to accept a phone after a 3rd repair but it was an uphill battle to get them to accept that.

Do you know is the hard drive the same model. Have you done health checks on the hard drive.

njs030

beauf wrote: »

There really isn't rule (legislation) that I'm aware of the number of times a retail can attempt a repair. When dealing with mobiles I refused to accept a phone after a 3rd repair but it was an uphill battle to get them to accept that.

Do you know is the hard drive the same model. Have you done health checks on the hard drive.

A repair has to be permanent so they get one chance. After that it's replace or refund.

Op in your case after over three years of use a partial refund is reasonable.

seagull

You say they sneakily added extended warranty to the purchase. How long was the extended warranty for? Or did you get that refunded?

Mushy

notjustsweet wrote: »

beauf wrote: »

There really isn't rule (legislation) that I'm aware of the number of times a retail can attempt a repair. When dealing with mobiles I refused to accept a phone after a 3rd repair but it was an uphill battle to get them to accept that.

Do you know is the hard drive the same model. Have you done health checks on the hard drive.

A repair has to be permanent so they get one chance. After that it's replace or refund.

Op in your case after over three years of use a partial refund is reasonable.

Would it not be a case of after a year and a half use though? As that is when the first repair was done?

Mushy

seagull wrote: »

You say they sneakily added extended warranty to the purchase. How long was the extended warranty for? Or did you get that refunded?

It was a pay monthly thing. Manager added it on for free for one month and said if I don't sign up it'll run out. Got that refunded within 4 months of purchase

beauf

notjustsweet wrote: »

A repair has to be permanent so they get one chance. After that it's replace or refund.

Op in your case after over three years of use a partial refund is reasonable.

How do we know its the same issue? Its likely a different hard drive. It might not even be the hard drive. Might have been the hard drive the first time, the hard drive controller the second time. Or even a software fault.

Perhaps you are implying they are only allowed one repair of any kind on a laptop. Thus far they have fixed it once. The OP has nothing to lose arguing his case for sure. For me I would let them fix it a 2nd time and if that failed then, ask for a replacement unit or a refund.

Xterminator

Hi Op

you got 18 months; so a refund with depreciation is fair. Wouldn't you agree?

the amount of depreciation is arguable & you look like you have changed from sterling to euros in your original post, so that makes the calculation a little unclear. they have made you an offer, now you make counter offer.

if you put a 3 year lifespan on a laptop that cost €500 then i would be expecting €250 back. if you put a 4 year lifespan on it then id be expecting €312 back.

IMO you should be asking for a refund in that range if your laptop was €500. If you laptop and optional extra warranty and possibly case and mouse and antivirus package etv was €500 then that's different and calculation would have to be amended. give them your calculation in writing, and see what they come back with.

if you dont accept their offer you can go to SCC instead.

Be smart here. if SCC awards 250 and you subtract the €25 fee, you would get 225 net. If you are offered close to that by vendor, i would be accepting.

whippet

Mushy wrote: »

I started contact through Facebook Messenger, was able to get the details of receipt (from when they sneakily added extended warranty to the purchase), and their Rep has offered depreciated credit of £180 (original purchase was €500).

As this is a second failure, does this come across as going against the legislation (refund/repair/exchange)? Also, does a new merchantible quality date start from receiving the repaired laptop? I doubt it does myself but was told it should. It can be proved the laptop wasn't fit for purpose, is this something that should just be accepted or taken further? Not that I've ever any intention of going near them again.

Thank you

this is the best outcome you could possibly expect.

You have over 3 years use out of a low end laptop and you are being offered almost 50% credit (assuming the credit is in sterling).

Hard Drives fail .. its a fact of life; a spinning drive will die after 10 mins or 10 years or any time in between. This is why servers and storage units have multiple drives to allow for redundancy when a drive fails.

Your credit note with a couple of quid added to it would buy you a better machine new than what your current one is or alternatively you could just buy a SSD drive and replace it yourself (you tube would be you mate here)

But .. insisting on anything more than what they have offered at this stage is well beyond any reasonable expectation.

beauf

Xterminator wrote: »

...Be smart here. if SCC awards 250 and you subtract the €25 fee, you would get 225 net. If you are offered close to that by vendor, i would be accepting.

Same here.

Mushy

Xterminator wrote: »

Hi Op

you got 18 months; so a refund with depreciation is fair. Wouldn't you agree?

the amount of depreciation is arguable & you look like you have changed from sterling to euros in your original post, so that makes the calculation a little unclear. they have made you an offer, now you make counter offer.

if you put a 3 year lifespan on a laptop that cost €500 then i would be expecting €250 back. if you put a 4 year lifespan on it then id be expecting €312 back.

IMO you should be asking for a refund in that range if your laptop was €500. If you laptop and optional extra warranty and possibly case and mouse and antivirus package etv was €500 then that's different and calculation would have to be amended. give them your calculation in writing, and see what they come back with.

if you dont accept their offer you can go to SCC instead.

Be smart here. if SCC awards 250 and you subtract the €25 fee, you would get 225 net. If you are offered close to that by vendor, i would be accepting.

Their rep offered the 180 pounds sterling, I bought it in euros.

Do I find it fair? Not really tbh, it was a faulty product that I happened to be able to use for a short period of time (relative to expectations). Two other family members have bought same laptop as mine within a month after and they have no issues.

They say they can't take it back for repair, which contradicts what I was told in store at weekend (that CS would return a call to me to arrange repair).

whippet

Mushy wrote: »

Their rep offered the 180 pounds sterling, I bought it in euros.

Do I find it fair? Not really tbh, it was a faulty product that I happened to be able to use for a short period of time (relative to expectations). Two other family members have bought same laptop as mine within a month after and they have no issues.

They say they can't take it back for repair, which contradicts what I was told in store at weekend (that CS would return a call to me to arrange repair).

it wasn't a faulty product. It was a product that developed a fault in one of it's components after usage.

As I mentioned before Hard Drive fail .. it is a fact of life; hence why people need to have backups and multiple backup is the best practice.

Your machine is over 3 years old; a cheap laptop realistically has a usable life span of about 4 years - although you can keep them creaking along for a couple of more years.

By offering you 50% credit they are being really generous - they don't want to repair again as the cost of parts, sending it somewhere to be repaired, admin etc .. its just better to offer credit and get you out of their hair.

My advice, grab the offer with two hands and get yourself a new machine.

L1011

Unless you find others saying online that the model of drive in it is known to have high failure rates, you may be harder on drives than the average user. Have had a few people who would have otherwise immaculate condition laptops but move around with them on light standby if even off at all and go through a disk in 18 months easy.

Mushy

whippet wrote: »

Mushy wrote: »

Their rep offered the 180 pounds sterling, I bought it in euros.

Do I find it fair? Not really tbh, it was a faulty product that I happened to be able to use for a short period of time (relative to expectations). Two other family members have bought same laptop as mine within a month after and they have no issues.

They say they can't take it back for repair, which contradicts what I was told in store at weekend (that CS would return a call to me to arrange repair).

it wasn't a faulty product. It was a product that developed a fault in one of it's components after usage.

As I mentioned before Hard Drive fail .. it is a fact of life; hence why people need to have backups and multiple backup is the best practice.

Your machine is over 3 years old; a cheap laptop realistically has a usable life span of about 4 years - although you can keep them creaking along for a couple of more years.

By offering you 50% credit they are being really generous - they don't want to repair again as the cost of parts, sending it somewhere to be repaired, admin etc .. its just better to offer credit and get you out of their hair.

My advice, grab the offer with two hands and get yourself a new machine.

I've just had it confirmed that it's 180e that the credit note will be for.

From my experience in retail, company I used to work for would refund the full value. Was that just a case of them being too nice? It was footwear though.

I'd be happier if was 250e.

njs030

Mushy wrote: »

I've just had it confirmed that it's 180e that the credit note will be for.

From my experience in retail, company I used to work for would refund the full value. Was that just a case of them being too nice? It was footwear though.

I'd be happier if was 250e.

A refund of the full value over 3 years later isnt likely.

Mushy

Cheers for the info folks, I will see if I can get a refund that isn't a credit note as I've little expectation to want to use pc world again.

Vic_08

Mushy wrote: »

Cheers for the info folks, I will see if I can get a refund that isn't a credit note as I've little expectation to want to use pc world again.

http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/sandisk-ultra-ii-25-internal-ssd-480-gb/329706/402.2.2

A 480GB SSD for €170, get your laptop back working and it will be considerably faster than it was with a mechanical HDD.

I am no fan of PC World but in this case I don't think their offer is unreasonable at all. Expecting a full refund on a PC that you have used for 3 years is not reasonable, not withstanding the fact that a lot of HDD failures are down to user damage, especially in laptops.

A cheap HDD would probably cost them no more than €30 so it is probably down to their incompetence that they aren't insisting on repairing the thing for a lot less than their cash offer.

beauf

...might be cheaper to pay the cash offer than maintain a repair facility...

Mushy

Getting the refund and it won't be a credit note thankfully. Will use he money for something else.

Cheers for the advice though folks!