Has anyone taken Dell or a big manufaturer to the small claims court?

_Whimsical_

I bought an expensive laptop from Dell slightly over a year ago and now the hinge joint between the screen and base is literally falling apart. I am very careful with my stuff, my laptop is rarely moved not to mention that it has never been out of the house or received any rough handling. However the plastic housing has busted open from within and is bulging, the lid no long will close flush with the base and a hinge within has clearly cracked, small pieces are falling out. I've checked online and this is a known issue with the laptop I have, there are hundreds of people in the same position so I'm confident this is easily provable to be a manufacturing defect.

My first interaction with Dell has been that as it's a month out of warranty I'm on my own and may need to replace the hinges and LCD to the tune of 300ish. Some reports online from those who've had it fixed say it breaks again after time.

I'm thinking Small Claims might be a better option. Has anyone had any positive experience with something like this?

Gooser14

Who & where did you purchase the laptop from? If it was purchased from an EU supplier then you have certain protections under Irish & EU consumer rights that go beyond the item warranty.

_Whimsical_

Gooser14 wrote: »

Who & where did you purchase the laptop from? If it was purchased from an EU supplier then you have certain protections under Irish & EU consumer rights that go beyond the item warranty.

Thank you.
I purchased it from Dell Ireland... I would hope that give me some extra rights, but so far they're refusing to help.

Chris_5339762

I think you have to go through their complaints process first, whatever that is.

SupaCat95

My friends mom is taking on LG Ireland at the moment. They bought a massive TV from them and now its failing after 3 years. Here is what most people dont know, Electrical goods are guaranteed for 6 years under EU law. She loves playing with the big boys and she has no qualifications. Half her fun is playing their game and then winning. The easiest thing would be for them to offer no argument and just replace the television. She is seeing them in the small claims court.

The Oort Cloud

Yes, I had a problem before with a faulty Alienware laptop that was past its warranty. It doesn't matter if the laptop is past the warranty stage, but the only way to remedy your situation is to do as follows...

You have to write a letter, (No email). Write a letter explaining the fault very clearly and then tell them at the end of your letter that they have 10 working days to contact you. Do not mention small claims court. Like I already said, an email to them is no good for this situation. In your letter, give them your phone number, home address and any other details of your laptop like serial number and service tag number. Then you wait for a phone-call from them and they will remedy your problem. Send letter to below address.

Best of luck.


Loughlinstown
Cherrywood Science & Technology Park
Dublin
Leinster
Dublin 18

Gooser14

_Whimsical_ wrote:

Thank you. I purchased it from Dell Ireland... I would hope that give me some extra rights, but so far they're refusing to help.

If you go to the CCPC.ie website you will find a letter of complaint template which you can use to make your complaint to Dell. If that fails you can then consider using the Small Claims Court.

The Oort Cloud

Here is the list by county in Ireland to send your letter to.... They will have your computer repaired or replaced. Give them a few days to call you.

_Whimsical_

Thanks very much everyone!

I decided I'd try ask them on Twitter and after another initial no they've now agreed to set up a service appointment to fix it!

Samuel T. Cogley

SupaCat95 wrote: »

My friends mom is taking on LG Ireland at the moment. They bought a massive TV from them and now its failing after 3 years. Here is what most people dont know, Electrical goods are guaranteed for 6 years under EU law. She loves playing with the big boys and she has no qualifications. Half her fun is playing their game and then winning. The easiest thing would be for them to offer no argument and just replace the television. She is seeing them in the small claims court.

No they're not. Irish law allows a claim for upto 6 years but that's not the same as a guarantee.

Trigger Happy

The difficulty here will be proving that the issue is a manufacturing fault and not user negligence.
I hear what you are saying OP about been careful user but on first hearing of the issue Dell probably assumed that it was user abuse (ie - someone dropped the laptop) like 99% of other cases they get with laptop chassis issues.

SupaCat95

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

No they're not. Irish law allows a claim for upto 6 years but that's not the same as a guarantee.

Not doubting you but please explain?

Dav010

SupaCat95 wrote: »

Not doubting you but please explain?

The Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1980 allows you to make a claim against a retailer or service supplier for up to 6 yrs after you receive the goods/service, but that does not guarantee the goods/service for 6 yrs.

There is no such EU law guaranteeing electrical goods for 6 yrs. There is an EU law which stipulates that electronics be guaranteed for 2 years, but as your friend’s TV is 3 yrs old, that does not apply.

SupaCat95

Dav010 wrote: »

The Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1980 allows you to make a claim against a retailer or service supplier for up to 6 yrs after you receive the goods/service, but that does not guarantee the goods/service for 6 yrs.

There is no such EU law guaranteeing electrical goods for 6 yrs. There is an EU law which stipulates that electronics be guaranteed for 2 years, but as your friend’s TV is 3 yrs old, that does not apply.

I dont claim to be a lawyer or am even quoting the woman, it is how I remember it being said. This is a lady who enjoys her day in court and has a history of winning. I believe she will win as she loves her law. I will keep you posted.

katiek102010

I have taken on a few of the big boys over the years, never had to take them to small claims though as they always cave prior.

There is a little thing callee the sale of goods act. Anything sold in any EU member state has to be fit for the purpose it was sold for and has to last a reasonable period of time.


Your contract is with the retailer also not the manufacturer, however if the failure is due to a recalled part by the manufacturer, then the manufacturer is liable over the retailer.

I would file a formal complaint to dell Ireland as they are the retailer. I would give them 14 days to reply. ( follow their complaints process)

If they fail to respond I would then send them a reminder allowing 7 days.

Then send a letter before claim prior to commencing the small claims process.

At all times act as if you are going to go to court. The rlcourtd do favour written contact evidenced by recorded delivery.

Best of luck with it

katiek102010

Dav010 wrote: »

The Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1980 allows you to make a claim against a retailer or service supplier for up to 6 yrs after you receive the goods/service, but that does not guarantee the goods/service for 6 yrs.

There is no such EU law guaranteeing electrical goods for 6 yrs. There is an EU law which stipulates that electronics be guaranteed for 2 years, but as your friend’s TV is 3 yrs old, that does not apply.

It doesn't actually specify a specific time frame and compensation is usually deducted for depreciation.

General accepted guidance would be that large household appliances would be expected to last circa 5 years.
It would be reasonable to expect a TV to last over 3 years.

_Whimsical_

Trigger Happy wrote: »

The difficulty here will be proving that the issue is a manufacturing fault and not user negligence.
I hear what you are saying OP about been careful user but on first hearing of the issue Dell probably assumed that it was user abuse (ie - someone dropped the laptop) like 99% of other cases they get with laptop chassis issues.

That would ordinarily be true but there are hundreds of cases of the exact same issue online with photos that look just like mine. Actually just as I tweeted them last night another person tweeted with the exact same problem with my model.

It's a lesson learned for me, I couldn't understand what had happened until someone suggested I google it. I was shocked to find threads of 7 and 8 pages on Dells own forums/reddit/other forums with photos and experiences just like mine, opened the laptop one day and this happened.

So a good take away from this conversation for everyone is google and see if it's just you or if it is a fault in order to support any action you need to take!

The other lesson is don't take no for an answer from an email. Social media and twitter seem to be where consumers get to exercise some power these days. I was both relieved and disappointed to see that I was taken seriously once I tweeted their account, the particulars of my problem were the same in both descriptions but once it was aired on social media they felt it was their problem too and wanted to shut me up.

Samuel T. Cogley

The six year limit actually comes from the Statute of Limitations and is a shield not a sword. I.e. a retailer can choose not to rely on it if they're offering a longer warranty.

_Whimsical_

Just thought I'd update this for anyone in the same boat.

Last summer I got Dell to fix my laptop despite being 13 months old. However this year when it was 25 months old the fault occurred again!

I have a video and pictures from last year before it was fixed so I put the vid on youtube, printed off my pics, printed off current pictures of the fault, printed off pages from Dell forums of people complaining about the same issue who had pics that looked just like mine and sent them with a letter explaining my issue, detailing how it was a known fault and informing them of my intention to take it to the Small Claims Court and seek a full refund.

Sent it off via registered post, it arrived there at 8am, by 11am they rang me, by 1pm that had agreed to issue me a full refund!

So it's well worth digging in and fighting the good fight with this stuff.

I'd say the more supplementary info you can provide in the form of pics, evidence etc the better.