Can you make a small claims appeal without a receipt?

cathpa

In 2006 i bought a acer laptop for 800 euro from these guys http://www.compuworld.ie/contact-us.html in dun laoghaire.

Yesterday the screen went black and now the laptop does not boot up at all. I think the graphics card failed-its a aspire 3692WLMi - a low end model but still all i use it for is to browse the web.

Ive lost the receipt-can i still make a claim without this?

whippet

I would imagine you will need proof that you actually bought the item from them first and foremost.

Secondly, as you say, a low-end note book, 5 years old you will be doing well to get anything from either SCC or the retailer.

In our business we normally assign a 3 year useful life to notebooks, 5 years is stretching it for a consumer.

davo10

Did you go back to the shop before you waste your time and your money in the small claims court?. Also you are talking about five years after the purchase, what do you expect the vendor to be legally responcible for?, is it still in warranty?. I'm no computer expert but 5 years trouble free use seems reasonable to me for an electrical item and as you said you have no reciept, you can get a new graphics card for about €70.

RachaelVO

Sorry, but after 5 years you don't have a leg to stand on, whether you have the receipt of not.

kirving

Altough the law is deliberately ambiguous in reference to the acceptable life of a product, I think 5 years is pushing it for an €800 laptop. It it cost €5k, then you might(or might not!) be in a better situation with making a claim, if you had the receipt.

dudara

Firstly you would need *some* proof that you purchased the goods from them. It doesn't have to be a receipt (although that would be best).

However, I see a bigger problem here. The laptop is over 4 years old (and heading for 5 years, depending on when you purchased it). That is probably approaching what most people would consider to be the useful life of a laptop, so I doubt your claim would be entertained.

Have you approached the shop at all to deal with them first?

watty

More than 3 years is pushing it for a laptop.
Mines nearly 9 years old, but I've replaced battery pack twice, keyboard once, PSU once.
It cost over €2,500 in April 2002, in fact nearly €3,000 when software was included. I've been careful, but I assumed I was on my own after April 2005.

At that age (nearly 5) you either fix it yourself, pay someone to fix it or get a new one. You probably get something better for €450, or if it's just for documents, web and email then a €250 model with no optical drive will do. You can get External USB DVD reader for under €15!

cathpa

dudara wrote: »

Firstly you would need *some* proof that you purchased the goods from them. It doesn't have to be a receipt (although that would be best).

However, I see a bigger problem here. The laptop is over 4 years old (and heading for 5 years, depending on when you purchased it). That is probably approaching what most people would consider to be the useful life of a laptop, so I doubt your claim would be entertained.

Have you approached the shop at all to deal with them first?

I dont have a receipt no but i do have the original packaging that the laptop came in-furthermore theres a sticker on the box with numerous barcodes-would these count as identification?

I bought the laptop on September 2006-yes its been 5 years but still im think im going present my case to small claims. You cant really replace a graphics card in a laptop easily like the way you can in a desktop-id sad it would cost me less just to buy a new pc!!

Greenmachine

box doesn't mean a thing. even if it was under warranty still. It would apply only to the original purchaser. So for argument sake the store could imply you were not the original purchaser. If you had a credit card bill, this would be considered proof of purchase. However like other have said five years is a long time.

dudara

cathpa wrote: »

still im think im going present my case to small claims. You cant really replace a graphics card in a laptop easily like the way you can in a desktop-id sad it would cost me less just to buy a new pc!!

Have you approached the shop at all? A judge will laugh you out of it if you haven't attempted to deal with the retailer and be reasonable

cathpa wrote:

You cant really replace a graphics card in a laptop easily like the way you can in a desktop-id sad it would cost me less just to buy a new pc!!

And therein lies part of the problem. I think that after 4 years of use, it's going to be hard to argue a case. The law is all about items having a "reasonable" lifetime. Given the very nature of how laptops are used, it's hard for anyone to say that the useful lifetime of laptop extends that far.

oneweb

Even if you do manage to pull a receipt out of somewhere, do yourself a favour and forget about the laptop. The worst possible scenario that could come of this would be having to deal with the incompetent twats of Acer repair centre*, weeks and weeks of hassle for a fix that'll only last 2 weeks the first time around. There's no way in hell you'd be entitled to a refund nor an exchange. And you'll never be able to claim your sanity back.

You've gotten value for money from the machine over the years, let it go!

(*unless they've sorted out all of their problems since I' had the misfortune of dealing with them)