PC World!

Compak

Hey wondering if anyone can advise.

Bought a pc 15 months ago it was a package of monitor and base unit together. The base was compaq and the monitor another brand though i presumed it was part of the unit.
So the package was 800 euro no separate prices just 800 for both and i got insurance. 250 euro for 5 years as young kids around and could easily damage it.
Turns out the insurance was only for the base unit. It was described as for Compaq desktop pc. The monitor has now broken and they wont replace it.

So heres my argument:

When i bought it I was told the insurance was for both. The sales person specifically said I was covered as i asked was i covered if a child physically knocked over the monitor and he said I was.
Under the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1980, anything you buy from a retailer must be: as described, whether the description is part of the advertising or wrapping, on a label, or something said by the salesperson
PC worlds argument is its my word against theirs.

I state I came to them over buying it from the internet as I was not up on computers that much so wanted to ask someone I thought I could trust questions.
I said the whole package was 800 euro and with the monitor being a 19" flat screen and a year warranty 250 euro to cover a depreciated base unit only I would never pay that.
I state the whole thing was sold as a package of one price and though their are two products on the receipt their is only one price and i was led to believe i was being covered for the 800 euro.

So have i a case?

MarkR

If the in store management have refused this i would probably contat the head office explaining the mis-sold insurance.

Check your receipt, see is it listed as a single item or was the monitor noted seperately.

If you still want to pursue it you could try the small claims court.
Clicky

dizzy

PC World has gone to pot lately. They have lost our business this year anyway.

In relation to your problem, there was a guy on TV3 the other week, I only caught a bit of it, but I did catch the bit where he said buying extended warranties is rubbish as your right as a consumer is you have protection for 6 years and not 12 months. He did say this was in reason, so would exclude wear and tear, so if it is a technical problem, then I would contact consumerconnect,ie(?) and get your rights and then approach PC world (management only).

Goodluck!

Compak

MarkR wrote:

If the in store management have refused this i would probably contat the head office explaining the mis-sold insurance.

Check your receipt, see is it listed as a single item or was the monitor noted seperately.

If you still want to pursue it you could try the small claims court.
Clicky

Wait till you hear this. Rang head office customer which you get connected to Uk with. They said they had no jurisdiction over Liffey Valley and to deal with the shop.

Receipt lists single price says pc and monitor on same line but does list 2 products as a sub line but no individual prices ie like a box with two things in it it all cam together as far as i was aware there was no choice to me that was what a pc is.

swingking

I work for Dixons (same company) and this is something that young, new, assisstants are prone to doing. They don't understand that selling coverplan to the customer meanse that the monitor is not covered. If the customer wants the coverplan for the monitor, he/she must pay extra for it.

In my opinion, you were sold bad advice and therefore should be entitled to a repair or relacement of the computer AND the monitor.

I am surprised that head office did not take any action, they normally do. The next step is to take the dispute to the small claims court.

good luck with the dispute;)

catch--22

PC World never sell insurance for both pc and screen together....their reason being that not everyone buys a screen and would be unfair to charge them for insurance for both! Seems odd that their sales person didn't offer you insurance for the screen as well as since it would have meant more money for him.

As regards the 6 year cover as opposed to the six month....this applies to all products you buy...but the time-span changes depending on what you buy...ie shoes are not exected to last 6 years...more likely 1 year. And it doesn't cover accidental damage obviously. I know a friend who got a brand new apple macbook due to the screen going faulty on the old one outside "warrenty". But note: you will HAVE to go to the small claims court with this as no company will do it willingly...it only costs you €15 to make a claim and is worth the effort.

The Roach

I used to worked on the service desk in PC World for about 3 years, and this sort of stuff used to annoy the hell outta me! Some of the sales advisors either didn't really know what was covered by the policy (I severely doubt that considering how many times I tried to beat it into them), or they just didn't really care. I had to deal with quite a few people in your exact situation, and I symaphise fully. If I remember correctly, for all these bundled deals there was usually a seperate insurance plan for the monitor for about €40-€50, which I'd probably take myself on a 19" monitor, but which generally wasn't even mentioned by the sales guys.

But now for the good(ish) news; about 99% of the time I had to deal with this issue, the managers ended up either repairing or more likely replacing the monitor, as they were aware that sometimes certain sales guys got a little "over-zealous" when trying to get a sale. Technically though, your policy does only cover the base unit, so they will give you the whole "I'm sorry but it's just not covered..." line, but just don't accept that. Ask to speak to the general manager of the store first of all, as sometimes the junior managers don't really know what's going on and often aren't in a position to make that kind of decision. And if you don't get any joy from the GM, ask for the contact details for someone in head office, making sure you're being quite obvious about writing down people's names etc. Usually if you keep making enough fuss the managment will pretty much buckle over anything, but if not do go over their heads to head office (by the way, there is an irish head office, can't remember where, but they do deal with all the DSG Ireland issues if I remember correctly). Hopefully they'll be able to sort you out, as it's obvious you were mis-sold your policy and if it did go to any sort of small-claims court you'd have a decent case.

And I suppose that would be your next step if you get no joy from head office, but I'd be surprised if it went that far at all.

Anyway, good luck with this, hope you get it sorted.

catch--22

Just in regards to the small claims court.....it is there to help the average joe-punter with their problems with the big mean coporations. You'll be surprised how good they are at helping you out!

And as a result....most big companies won't let it get this far as they know the normally lose....and it's cheaper to remedy the problem before it goes this far!

Compak

Thanks for the replies definatly going to stick to my guns.

Rang the consumer association they said if i can find an acceptable source for an industry standard for the life of a 19" tft monitor then this superseded any warranty under goods must be of merchantable quality and will be upheld in small claims so need to find a source.

I am entitled to repair/replacement under insurance asa verbal agreement is binding but much more difficult to prove.

catch--22

Lets us know how you get on!

Gillo

Dizzy & Catch--22 is the 6 year's stated in law?
If so where exactly is it?

jimmycrackcorm

I'd say that unless it is specifically written otherwise somewhere in your insurance documentation or on your receipt, that the insurance must cover your whole pc package.

Solair

That sounds a like the insurance was possibly missold.

If that's the case, you should be able to at least recoup the cost of the insurance premium paid.

You should be able to assume that a member of staff selling insurance knows what they're talking about. Clearly this person didn't.

If they don't know what they're on about, they should be using insurance sales people over the phone or something.

johnnyrotten

Go here and register your compliant

http://www.consumerconnect.ie/eng/Working_With_You/Submit_a_Consumer_Complaint/

or theres always the small claims court

TerrorFirmer

I had a problem once and no matter how much I argued they insisted something similar - at the time, it was a faulty gpu that locked up under stress, but because they 'tested it' without issue i.e just left PC running they claimed it was fine. Despite looking at event logs and everything. They stuck to if we can't find a problem, there is none. The odd time you get a both helpful knowledgable guy in there but its an increasingly rare day.

My father always tells me to stick it to them, but I'm just too nice a guy. So my father went in, took down the managers name and said that he was going to call into some consumer show on the radio and broadcast PC Worlds wonderful support, quoting said name as the mastermind behind it.

Result: New machine, instantly.

Moral: PC World will chance their arm again and again, until you really get a bit hardline. Their ethic to customer 'support' is generally shocking.

Compak

Well Im nearly laughing at them now.
They told me today to bring in the monitor and if they can fix it cheaply they will if not tough luck.
I said that was fine if they could fix it but they have to be joking if they think i will not be demanding a new monitor if they can not fix it. I will also be wanting a good warranty on the repair.

I told them they have no case and they are just wasting my time if i have to bring them to the small claims court.
Turns out the employee who sold it to me no longer works there so as I see it, it is my word against no ones.

jor el

Most companies will chance their arm at doing as little as possible as it's easier for them that way and most people back down when the company says there's nothing they can do about it. However, mentioning something like the Small Claims Court or Joe Duffy can often get a reversal on that.

It's strange really, since if the product is faulty then the company will get a refund from the manufacturer too so it's not as if they're going to be out of pocket or anything. I guess the retailers fear is that if the manufacturer can't find a problem then there'll be no refund and the retailer gets stuck with a used item that they then can't sell.

catch--22

gillo wrote:

Dizzy & Catch--22 is the 6 year's stated in law?
If so where exactly is it?

yeah, but the time frame changes per item. I'm not sure where you'll find this...there is a consumer awarness hotline that I rang (they gave me this information) they also have a website. Somebody reading this might know it.

Compak

~Can anyone say worst service ever.!!!!!!!!!

Dropped in the monitor to be looked at.

Told IF they do fix it there is no warranty for the repair as it is a favor


2 days later get a phone call and what i type now is not a misprint.
Told we have checked your monitor and found that it is faulty so we will not be fixing it!

So onto someone else today.
After a consultation with the store manager I got told by a staff member.
the sales person who sold it to me does not work there anymore but it would not be in his interest not to sell separate insurance on the monitor so therefore we will not be replacing/ fixing it.

Told I was wrong about the industry standard and the mechantable qaulity the only protection you have outside the warranty is by getting insurance.

Got told the manufacturer has an extended warranty but I would have to deal with them and not through the store.

So I told them I would see them in court to which the reply is that they have been in court 5 times in the last year and won all 5.

So onto head office again and aked them to directly deal with it as i would not be dealing with the store anymore.

If nothing by Monday will be filing small claims case.

I am aghast and will ensure no one I know buys any hardware products from the PC store chain again. I will personally find them a better offer on the internet as a result of this shambles.
I have just been led on for 2 weeks and I told them when the case is over I would be on the radioo about them when I won.

catch--22

Compak wrote:

Told I was wrong about the industry standard and the mechantable qaulity the only protection you have outside the warranty is by getting insurance.

Wrong wrong wrong!

Best of luck with the claim! And enjoy the refund when you get it!

haz

I went in to PC World a couple of weeks ago and they had no prices on the goods, no price on the shelf and no list of prices anywhere. A little man followed me around and begged to take anything I wanted to the tills and scan them to check the price for me - turned out he claimed to be a manager. I don't enjoy shopping like that.

catch--22

Ha ha! Which store was that?

Red Alert

I have no time whatsoever for the carryon I have seen in PC World. I bought a 17" monitor there about four years ago, and some dude agressively tried to sell me a policy for it.

Another time I bought a 1Gb memory stick, and unfortunately had to ask the staff there to show it to me. I was shown one and then noticed that there was one beside where he took it from which cost about half the price. I then asked to see the other one and was told "no, it's from a different manufacturer, bad performance". This really left me with a sour taste about the shop.

DonkeyStyle \o/

haz wrote:

I went in to PC World a couple of weeks ago and they had no prices on the goods, no price on the shelf and no list of prices anywhere.

I find they're quite good at displaying prices for most things, but their (what I like to call) 'components-corner' of the Blanch store is often terribly badly looked after... several items have no prices displayed at all.
I thought there was some law or other that required retailers to list prices on everything?

DonkeyStyle \o/

Red Alert wrote:

Another time I bought a 1Gb memory stick, and unfortunately had to ask the staff there to show it to me. I was shown one and then noticed that there was one beside where he took it from which cost about half the price.

I don't get it... was he going to take it to the till and get commission on your sale or something?
Usually I could just ask one of them where something is... I'd get pointed towards an aisle, and that'd be the end of it.
I'm not sure I see the motivation on his part.
Unless they're instructed to try'n shift certain items that aren't selling well.
I've never worked in retail, so I don't know what's going on in their heads... I'd love to know.

Red Alert wrote:

I then asked to see the other one and was told "no, it's from a different manufacturer, bad performance". This really left me with a sour taste about the shop.

You should have asked him what the peak throughput was for each... that would probably have shut him up.
I've had the same kind of 'advice' from PC World floor-staff as well (not so much in the past few years though)... luckily I'm in a position where I can tell them to talk to the hand, but I sometimes worry about the newbies who take this stuff as gospel.

Lex_Diamonds

That's some story, I hope you win!

So I guess the slogan for PC World should be: "What in the world? PC World"

Actually, the original slogan is weird enough as it is...

ROVER

haz wrote:

I went in to PC World a couple of weeks ago and they had no prices on the goods, no price on the shelf and no list of prices anywhere. A little man followed me around and begged to take anything I wanted to the tills and scan them to check the price for me - turned out he claimed to be a manager. I don't enjoy shopping like that.

I was in the new Carrickmines store same story 50% of stock no prices. Too frustrating to shop there.

the_syco

You can bring them to court for being mis-selled the insurance, apart from that, tough. 12 months is the "standard" apart from laptop batteries (its 3 months for them), so at 15 months, you have little to stand on.

Finally, if they think that it was caused by accidental damage, they don't have to do anything.

So if you're bringing a case against them, centre it on the mis-selling of insurance, as you may get it, but based solely on the machine, you won't have much of a leg to stand on.

catch--22

the_syco wrote:

You can bring them to court for being mis-selled the insurance, apart from that, tough. 12 months is the "standard" apart from laptop batteries (its 3 months for them), so at 15 months, you have little to stand on.

That's not true at all! Electrical products will should last up to 6 years (depending on product) and if it doesn't you are protected by consumer law!! If you don't believe this give a call to the consumer advice line (sorry, don't have the number)!

vms7ply9t6dw4b

I seem to remember reading somwhere that theres a €3,000 fine for every product not priced. I'd love to make a complaint but cant for the life of me remember who polices this though.:rolleyes:

eth0_

catch--22 wrote:

That's not true at all! Electrical products will should last up to 6 years (depending on product) and if it doesn't you are protected by consumer law!! If you don't believe this give a call to the consumer advice line (sorry, don't have the number)!

So there's not much point to their Coverplan? Apart from accidental damage?
I seem to remember from my part time job I had in PC world while at college many years ago, they don't cover things like cracked LCD's on a PDA, for instance.

My friend bought an iPod in PC World in Dec 05, it died literally a week or two after the one year warranty was up. "No problem, sure you bought a coverplan with it didn't you?". So she went into them and even though she had the receipt for it, with the policy number, they couldn't find it on the system. Turned out she HAD bought it, but they had forgotten to put it on the direct debit (think she took the interest free payment). After threatening to take them to the small claims court, they replaced the iPod without making her pay for the coverplan. Which is pretty amazing for pc world!

I notice the Liffey Valley branch is terrible for not displaying prices. Possibly because so much of their stock is mis-priced, from what i've read on here!

catch--22

eth0_ wrote:

So there's not much point to their Coverplan? Apart from accidental damage?

More or less...it will stop you from having to go to the small claims court though if you have it!

But if you're spending €2000 on a new laptop...you might want to think about it....it's amazing how easy it is to break them! It covers theft as well for 12 months....which is not too bad! But it really boils down to if you want peace of mind or not!

Compak

Question,
with 665 views and all bad comments about the store would it be a good idea to send a link to the DSG head office to show the longer this lasts the more bad publicity they are getting among computer users the. Im sure by now they will have lost sales in their insurance alone to cover a 180 euro sale price monitor.

Saruman

Should his fight actually be with PC world though? Is it up to the retailer still or is it up to the manufacturer (compaq) to replace?
Fair enough PC world staff are muppets a lot of the time and shopping there is a trial! I went in to 3 different PC worlds looking for wireless keyboard/mous special. all gone but i noticed that only half of the actual products had prices and most of them had a different product on the shelf than was on the price!!! So i walked out.

miju

Saruman wrote:

i noticed that only half of the actual products had prices and most of them had a different product on the shelf than was on the price!!! So i walked out.

i noticed the same thing too and correct me if i'm wrong but is this not illegal

haz

miju wrote:

i noticed the same thing too and correct me if i'm wrong but is this not illegal

Yes, it certainly is illegal: "European Communities (Requirement to Indicate Product Prices) Regulations, 2002, from the 1st March 2003, will require that consumers be protected by the indication of product prices offered to consumers. These regulations will transpose Directive 98/6/EC, of February 1998, into Irish Law."
http://www.odca.ie/cfmdocs/c_query/retail.cfm

catch--22

I'm not sure though if the tickets which has the price on it must also have the product name/specs....if not then anyone could walk into a shop and pick up something expensive....walk around and put it on a shelf with a cheaper price and make a claim to the lower amount!

But if a shop is showing a price, with a product spec and model number etc on it, but actually selling it at a higher price than you may have a point! Don't forget however, that a price tag is only an inviatation to treat and not a contract, so a shop doesn't have any legal obligation to sell it to you at all!

Saying that....have you ever walked into a shop, found a product with a price tag, and went to the till to pay to find out it had gone DOWN in price? Happens to me every now and again.....funny though nobody ever mentions those incidents!

philologos

catch--22 wrote:

More or less...it will stop you from having to go to the small claims court though if you have it!

But if you're spending €2000 on a new laptop...you might want to think about it....it's amazing how easy it is to break them! It covers theft as well for 12 months....which is not too bad! But it really boils down to if you want peace of mind or not!

insure it on your household insurance policy.

heggie

catch-22 i've never heard of that 6 year thing before, and used to work in retail with pc's, so i really think thats bad advice, another story tho- apparently (and i've seen it argued) monitors of merchantable qualtiy should last x thousand hours, and if yours didnt you may be in look. cant remember how many hours it is, but try researching maybe?

Nody

heggie wrote:

catch-22 i've never heard of that 6 year thing befor

The reason being the dear poster of it decided to go on a very unique understanding of it. It has to do with having electronics (which includes the like of fridges and washing machines) working for a normal expected time of such a product (so a fridge that breaks out of the blue in 2 years is to be repaired etc.). This would not cover PCs, mobile phones etc. for six years as they are not expected to work for such a long time with out problems.

catch--22

Sorry, let me clarify....I used to work in retail (electronics/PC's). I was on the same understanding of anybody else...you have a warrenty....it will be repaired but not outside of it unless you purchased and extension!

We even used to laugh at the stupidity of people coming in with their rceipt that was 13 months old with their broken PC and looking for a repair!

Then one day a woman came in with a broken PC (funny one with a built in moniter) and claimed a full refund as it had broken. It was 5 months old and the company policy was to repair it, not refund or replace.....unless the repair went on for (i think) 4 weeks. I told her this, she wasn't too happy and left. Came back in a few hours later claiming that in fact her bit of kit should have life expectancy of 6 years. And she was fully entitled to a refund or a replacement. She was a very nice lady and very detirmed about this information. So I said I'd look into it and get back to her.

ui rang up the office of consumer affairs on 1890 220 229 (where she claimed to get this information) and pretended to be in the same situation as the woman. A very nice lady gave me the same information back....saying that really i would be covered on an electronic item for up to 6 years. She mentioned that this would be dependant on the judge in the small claims court and so varies slightly...but also mentioned that most large retailers won't let it go that far....she said the nearly always lose and pay up before hand!

Have to say I was a bit shocked (thought back to all the people we had turned away over the years) and went and told my manager. It was news to her as well but said that company policy wouldn't allow her to give a refund. So called the woman back and told her that she prob have to go to the small claims court with it and wished her luck!

She never got back to me on how she got on....but I have been preaching this to a lot of people since. I mentioned it to a work colegue of mine (she owned a Macbook Pro, 2 months outside of warrenty) and she was having problems with a faulty screen! She sent a letter to Apple about the problem...they ignored her....laid a claim in the small claims court (cost her €15) and a few weeks down the line she was issued and new replacement.

Danno

Six years!!! LOL!!! No wonder prices are so high in Ireland if stores have to cover products outside of manufacturers warranty!