Argos - Laptop why can't I get a replacement?

WarZoneBrother

Hey,

I bought an acer laptop from Argos back in october... Was using it on bus up to college to hand stuff up... Before the battery went dead I powered it off... When I arrived at the college I plugged it in and it would not work constantly got errors tried booting on safe mode aswell then now it just remains on the one screen..

I rang acer and they where booking it for repairs but I do not want a repair, went to Argos also looking for a replacement as I will need a laptop for the summer and 2-3 weeks waiting on it being fixed does not suit..

How am I not entitled to a replacement? Are they allowed to just make you book it for repairs? Also acer want me to ring in the delivery and gave me a list of things to mention like wtf why could they not do this instead? Could barely understand the person talking aswell...

Thanks,
John

MarkR

Have a read of this.

You are entitled to a repair or replacement, the choice is not yours however. If you haven't backed up your files, do it now. If you can't, you will likely lose data. To rule out software issues, they will likely wipe the drive and reinstall the OS.

mdebets

Acer can do whatever they want (or whatever is stated in their Warranty), as your contract is with Argos, not Acer.

Argos can offer you a Repair, Replacement or Refund on their discretion. However, you have also the right to refuse their offer and ask for another of the 3 Rs. However, if Argos wants to go with their original offer, you have to go to the Small Claims Court, where Argos will most likely win, as they offered you one of the 3 Rs, unless you have some very good reasons. However, this will take most likely longer than 1-2 weeks.

Even if Argos were to agree with your Replacement demand, you would be without a laptop for some time, as they have the right to get it checked, to see, that you didn't caused the damage of the laptop.

wmpdd3

Either way, back up and reinstall the OS.it could save you a lot of hassle.

sandin

I bought a new car. After 9 months the exhaust went. Surely I should be entitled to a new car!!??

Basically op, the above is the same as what you aee describing just a different product.

Assuming you are connected to the Internet you could have a virus, the laptop could have been misused, you could have uploaded dodgy software or any of a myriad of things.

Fixing it could be a simple software reload or replacing a component, but unless its rendered unusable due to a manufacturers fault, you will not get nor be entitled in anyway whatsoever to a replacement.

foggy_lad

OP you should bring the laptop back to the Argos store where it was bought and show them the fault. they may tell you that they have to send it for repair first and you should agree with this as it would be reasonable, they might also tell you that they will replace it or refund you what was paid for it. Usually they take electronic items for what they call 24hour testing and will often give a replacement or refund after this.

Acer don't have to do anything for you outside of the very limited warranty they provide as your contract of sale is with Argos.

WarZoneBrother

How can I reinstall the OS they didn't even include a cd for me to do this.. The error that comes up says files are corrupt aswell tried holding alt and fn like the person working for acer was saying but that didn't work either... Their is also one other issue, for some reason their is 7 screws missing out of it... I noticed a few weeks back when I found one of them sitting on my desk and since I found that one I think 2 more have fell out... What would happen here?

I did try however to see if it would boot from my brothers cd but that did not work.. Also it would void my warranty wouldn't it?

LowKeyReturn

Why would trying to boot it from your brothers CD void the warranty?

The missing screws sound fishy to me though. Are you sure you've not been engaging in some DIY upgrading? That would invalidate your warranty if you've not done things properly.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I too think the missing screws will cause you some bother. You really have no choice but to let them have a look at it. I hope you have been making regular backups of any college work.

WarZoneBrother

I have not upgraded anything in the laptop nor has all the screws been opened.. I was just seeing if it would boot from cd to see if that may have been the problem I did not however install the software.. Might get my mate to have a look at it today but as there is no options for me to do anything I don't think he will be fit to fix it..

If I did open my laptop I would not leave 7 screws lying about...

LowKeyReturn

Well never say never as I've seen some weird ones in my time of flogging PCs and Laptops. I've never heard of screws falling out though. Not being there from the beginning, but not falling out spontaneously.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

The screws may have been lost due to continued rough handling - also not good when they check the machine.

LowKeyReturn

Everleigh Limited Toothbrush wrote: »

The screws may have been lost due to continued rough handling - also not good when they check the machine.

Possibly but I've seen a machine a guy took an axe too and the screws where still in place, bar the ones where the housing was shattered.

_Kaiser_

Short version OP is this laptop is 8 months old and from what you describe seems to have a Windows-related error. It's not yet clear if this is a hardware fault (it's hopefully not .. maybe it just didn't shut down properly on the bus)

In either case, standard practise would be a warranty service call, either onsite or Collect and Return (depending on what was included/you paid for when you bought it). A replacement machine wouldn't even enter in to the equation at this point. Even if the machine was faulty they'd likely replace all the innards (motherboard, memory, hard drive etc) before it'd get to that point and even THEN it'd likely be a manufacturer refurbished machine or equivalent (the model you bought may not be made any more).

My advice, back-up what you can from this machine (easiest way is to pull the hard drive and slave it to a working machine which if your mate knows about this stuff shouldn't be too hard) and then call Argos/Acer for support.

MarkR

Newer laptops often don't come with recovery cd's. The instructions, and sometimes prompts on screen advise you to make recovery dvd's after purchase. If you haven't, you may be able to recover / reinstall using the recovery partition. Doing this though will put everything back to it's original factory settings. All your data will be gone. If you want to try to retrieve your data, it's not difficult to try. Let me know if you need help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmVT0Z9r6_Q

seems to show you how to access the recovery partition on your computer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpSSOkp1fYE

one too.

If it fails during this, it's a hardware issue, or your recovery partition is faulty.

Missing screws may not be a problem, unless there is a physical fault found behind those screws.

WarZoneBrother

Don't really need anything that's on the hard drive... I was lucky that I emailed my mate my presentation for college the day before laptop messed up..

Will take a look at them videos now..

In the email I got from acer they say I could be charged 71.50 pound if the problem is software related hence why I am holding back on getting it repaired, I don't want to send it to them then get charged over 100euro and the laptop only cost 499

Thanks

Would I be right in thinking that missing screws could be a sign of overheating? Possibly due to use on a lap/bed or other environment where vents are blocked, or possibly due to improper heat-sink placement. The vibrations of the fans mixed with the loosening of tension due to a rise in heat may have helped them work their way out, or something along those lines?

The sudden loss of battery power may have seen the fans die before they were able to properly cool the internals and may in turn have burned out one of your ram chips. If they're easy to access, try both ram chips separately and see if it works.


Of course, I'm basing this off my own past experiences so do proceed with caution!

WarZoneBrother

Rojomcdojo wrote: »

Would I be right in thinking that missing screws could be a sign of overheating? Possibly due to use on a lap/bed or other environment where vents are blocked, or possibly due to improper heat-sink placement. The vibrations of the fans mixed with the loosening of tension due to a rise in heat may have helped them work their way out, or something along those lines?

The sudden loss of battery power may have seen the fans die before they were able to properly cool the internals and may in turn have burned out one of your ram chips. If they're easy to access, try both ram chips separately and see if it works.


Of course, I'm basing this off my own past experiences so do proceed with caution!

It is showing 8gb ram which is what's on it.. Unless it would just show that even if one burned out?... Doing the erecovery now, think I tried this at the college and it failed so just going to wipe it completely and hope for the best..


EDIT: restore seems to have froze at 17% this was the case the first time I tried also... Would this be a hardware fault... Yep it failed again

WarZoneBrother

WarZoneBrother wrote: »

It is showing 8gb ram which is what's on it.. Unless it would just show that even if one burned out?... Doing the erecovery now, think I tried this at the college and it failed so just going to wipe it completely and hope for the best..

I'm really unfamiliar with windows at this point, but in the circumstances that you were using the laptop on a bus, and then the battery died leading to errors the next time you booted just jumps out at me as being an overheating issue. The screws falling out do, also. Was it a particularly warm day when the failure first occurred?

Have you googled the specific error codes you were seeing to see what component they relate to? It could be a HDD error, in which place the HDD will need to be replaced. But if the HDD error is due to overheating then the new HDD could possibly go the same route.

At 8 months in there's no harm in sending it for repair. Make sure you list every fault with it, such as screws falling out randomly. A few weeks of inconvenience will save you a ton of hassle in the long run.

WarZoneBrother

WarZoneBrother wrote: »

It is showing 8gb ram which is what's on it.. Unless it would just show that even if one burned out?... Doing the erecovery now, think I tried this at the college and it failed so just going to wipe it completely and hope for the best..


EDIT: restore seems to have froze at 17% this was the case the first time I tried also... Would this be a hardware fault... Yep it failed again

Sounds like the HDD is corrupted...

WarZoneBrother

Yeah it must be a HDD fault, I would rather get a replacement though than sending it for repairs... I have a feeling they will probably try and charge me for something..

WarZoneBrother

WarZoneBrother wrote: »

Yeah it must be a HDD fault, I would rather get a replacement though than sending it for repairs... I have a feeling they will probably try and charge me for something..

The problem is, this issue could be from misuse as much as from a hardware fault. There's no way they'll issue a replacement before attempting to fix it, you just don't have any leverage in this situation. Meanwhile, your warranty ticks down. Don't worry though, under EU consumer law you've essentially got 2 years, so my advice would be to send for repair, and if anything else goes wrong down the road you can insist that the laptop is obviously not fit for use.

GarIT

Seems most likely that it's the Hard Drive. That's what happens when you use it on a bus. Don't tell them you used it on a bus or there is no chance they will fix it.

WarZoneBrother

Right going to organise the pickup for the laptop then so... If they try charging me anything for this my head will go... Yeah I was thinking it might be a hard drive fault myself.. Thanks everyone

LowKeyReturn

Rojomcdojo wrote: »

Don't worry though, under EU consumer law you've essentially got 2 years, so my advice would be to send for repair, and if anything else goes wrong down the road you can insist that the laptop is obviously not fit for use.

There was a directive issued in 1999 which was given statutory effect in Ireland in 2003. The directive called for a 2 year limitation period as a minimum. Ireland has had a six year period since the 1950s. Neither period is a warranty period. It's a period within which someone can make a claim in court* at which point a judge will decide case by case. If there was a blanket period you could claim that everything should last two years which is completely unworkable.

Anecdotal evidence from this forum suggests that the practice in Ireland is to expect things to work for five years and award proportionately. For example if you have a 4 year old laptop you'll get 1/5th it's purchase value in the small claims court. If it's 2 years old 3/5ths.

*Actually it's only a shield - the defendant party must raise the limitation as a complete defense, but this is getting overly technical.

foggy_lad

LowKeyReturn wrote: »

There was a directive issued in 1999 which was given statutory effect in Ireland in 2003. The directive called for a 2 year limitation period as a minimum. Ireland has had a six year period since the 1950s. Neither period is a warranty period. It's a period within which someone can make a claim in court* at which point a judge will decide case by case. If there was a blanket period you could claim that everything should last two years which is completely unworkable.

Anecdotal evidence from this forum suggests that the practice in Ireland is to expect things to work for five years and award proportionately. For example if you have a 4 year old laptop you'll get 1/5th it's purchase value in the small claims court. If it's 2 years old 3/5ths.

*Actually it's only a shield - the defendant party must raise the limitation as a complete defense, but this is getting overly technical.

That directive and the 2 year timeframe was not adopted by reland as we already have better protection from our sale of goods act.

OP if you want to avoid paying acer you can and should deal directly with Argos where you bought the laptop.

LowKeyReturn

foggy_lad wrote: »

That directive and the 2 year timeframe was not adopted by reland as we already have better protection from our sale of goods act.

OP if you want to avoid paying acer you can and should deal directly with Argos where you bought the laptop.

Essentially correct but a couple of corrections: The directive was adopted in Ireland. The sale of Goods Act doesn't define time-frames the Statute of limitations does.

foggy_lad

LowKeyReturn wrote: »

Essentially correct but a couple of corrections: The directive was adopted in Ireland. The sale of Goods Act doesn't define time-frames the Statute of limitations does.

Afaik the direct was not adoptes in ireland due to the superior protection offered by the sale of goods act in conjunction with the statute of limitations. There's no 2 year rule here for taking a case against a retailer for gooda which fall foul of the sale of goods act.

mcmoustache

If you want to check to see if it's a hardware fault, i'd recommend downloading ubuntu, burn it to a cd and start you laptop with the cd in the drive.

If it all works fine, it reduces the problem to either a Windows or a hard-drive problem.

It won't fix your problem but at least it will help to tell you where the problem lies*.

*There are ways to run a disk check running ubuntu but I can't remember if they would hang if your disk was banjaxed or not.

LowKeyReturn

foggy_lad wrote: »

Afaik the direct was not adoptes in ireland due to the superior protection offered by the sale of goods act in conjunction with the statute of limitations. There's no 2 year rule here for taking a case against a retailer for gooda which fall foul of the sale of goods act.

No but the majority of the directive was adopted it has some useful protections in it. Interestingly, and this is where people get confused, the directive is worded in such a way as to indicate a two year warranty period. It was interpreted as a limitation period though.

Here is the Irish SI - worth a read as it does give additional protections.

WarZoneBrother

mcmoustache wrote: »

If you want to check to see if it's a hardware fault, i'd recommend downloading ubuntu, burn it to a cd and start you laptop with the cd in the drive.

If it all works fine, it reduces the problem to either a Windows or a hard-drive problem.

It won't fix your problem but at least it will help to tell you where the problem lies*.

*There are ways to run a disk check running ubuntu but I can't remember if they would hang if your disk was banjaxed or not.

Thanks, but already organised the repair.. Instead of acer taking my details and forwarding it on to ups they had me to contact them with all the info I had giving acer when I was on the phone I didn't know what to say have the time... I felt it was a joke that they don't organise collection of the item themselves I think even the collection point they put down was even wrong.. Poor customer service IMO