Advice on laptop issue

ConsumerIssue1

Hi folks,

Apologies for the long post but I'm hoping for a bit of advice before I take this further.

In late January I bought a €600 laptop from a well-known PC retailer.

When I bought it I specified that it was to be used primarily for online teaching.

In the first couple of weeks after purchasing I had major issues with it. Video and audio when delivering online classes were glitchy, lagging and of poor quality. The laptop also made a huge amount of noise for a new machine and was very slow and constantly freezing.

I had 21 days from the date of purchase to request a refund or exchange. On the 19th day I called customer services. One issue I had was that I could not make it to the shop to return it before the 21 days were up. However I was told that because I had phoned I could bring the laptop back after the 21 days and I'd still be entitled to a refund etc.

When I called to the shop the following week I was told that I could not get a refund or exchange as the staff "inspected the laptop and could not find any issues". They told me to install new drivers and updates and showed me how to do this, then they assured me that there would be no more issues.

As you'd expect these installations made zero difference. In the end I had to borrow a laptop from a relative to do the rest of my online teaching up until the middle of June. I barely even switched on the laptop from February to June as it was basically unusable, like a 10 year old laptop on its last legs. However I couldn't call to the shop due to Covid and being flat out with work etc.

Since things calmed down a bit with regard to Covid at the end of May I sent an email to customer services to see if it would still be possible to get a credit note or exchange and explained the situation in detail, including when I called customer services, details of the purchase, proof of purchase etc. Two weeks later I received a cut and paste response saying to call into the store and that they'd inspect the laptop for issues and decide if I was entitled to get it repaired. I replied saying I wanted the issue forwarded to a supervisor and I have not heard back since.

Since I originally requested a refund within the 21 day grace period after purchase and was denied it, despite the laptop not being fit for purpose, do ye reckon I have any hope of getting any satisfaction here? Or have I left it too late?

Thanks for reading.

ssmith6287

do you have the model number of the laptop

AndrewJRenko

I wonder if any of the problems you are experiencing are due to local network connection rather than the laptop itself?

ConsumerIssue1

ssmith6287 wrote: »

do you have the model number of the laptop

I'd rather not give that out as I'd like to remain anonymous here, would the make of laptop affect how easy it would be to get a refund etc?

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

I wonder if any of the problems you are experiencing are due to local network connection rather than the laptop itself?

Definitely not the issue, had the same issue at multiple locations and no issues with connection on other devices

Xterminator

Hi Op

the shop has carried out tests and told you there are no hardware issues. the warranty covers hardware only. so the ball is in your court a bit here. can you bring the laptop to an independant shop and have them run tests & provide you with a report/ professional opinion.

this could be hardware and you might be entitled to redress. but equally it could be a software issue, and if so the warranty does not cover this. you could still argue the laptop is not of merchantable quality in the small claims court - but perhaps that is an argument for another day.

ps there are a great number of 'known issues' on laptops. By not providing a model number you have restricted anyone from advising you on this score. I do not see how a model number of a laptop sold in a major irish chain would make you identifiable, and if the store did find out you were seeking advice, how that would dis-advantage you. however- it is completely your decision.

ronivek

Does the laptop have a factory system restore or reinstall function? That would be the first thing to try if available.

I would also suggest saving any records you have of contacting the retailer: in particular you'll want to find records of your first contact with them about these issues and note down the dates of any further contact.

CoBo55

It's probably trying to do a shed load of updates from when you took it out of the box. Have you even tried to see what processes are running when it's locking up?

ConsumerIssue1

Thanks to all that have taken the time to respond

Xterminator wrote: »

Hi Op

the shop has carried out tests and told you there are no hardware issues. the warranty covers hardware only. so the ball is in your court a bit here. can you bring the laptop to an independant shop and have them run tests & provide you with a report/ professional opinion.

this could be hardware and you might be entitled to redress. but equally it could be a software issue, and if so the warranty does not cover this. you could still argue the laptop is not of merchantable quality in the small claims court - but perhaps that is an argument for another day.

ps there are a great number of 'known issues' on laptops. By not providing a model number you have restricted anyone from advising you on this score. I do not see how a model number of a laptop sold in a major irish chain would make you identifiable, and if the store did find out you were seeking advice, how that would dis-advantage you. however- it is completely your decision.

Just on the tests the shop carried out, all they did was play two youtube videos in separate tabs and once they they played without glitches or buffering they said the laptop was ok. They then showed me how to access Windows Update and click the "Check for updates" button and I was sent away.

I wasn't aware that software issues aren't covered by warranty so thanks for that.

Point taken RE the model number - it's a HP Pavillion 14-ce3501na. After I initially had the issues I looked this model up and others have had similar problems. The fact that I asked them for a laptop to carry out a specific task (online teaching) and they recommended one which was known to have issues is what annoys me the most.

ronivek wrote: »

Does the laptop have a factory system restore or reinstall function? That would be the first thing to try if available.

I would also suggest saving any records you have of contacting the retailer: in particular you'll want to find records of your first contact with them about these issues and note down the dates of any further contact.

Factory reset has been attempted and did not make a difference.

All correspondence is documented so I'm ok from that point of view.

CoBo55 wrote: »

It's probably trying to do a shed load of updates from when you took it out of the box. Have you even tried to see what processes are running when it's locking up?

I've tried every solution under the sun - disabling startup processes, msconfig, all that jazz. Nothing has worked.

ronivek

Have you tried contacting the manufacturer directly? You're not obliged to do so under the law but sometimes they can be more helpful than the retailer.

Since it sounds like you've tried everything reasonably asked of you by the retailer I would suggest writing a relatively brief letter with emphasis on the following:

• Timeline of contact with the retailer and summary of the steps they asked you to take; try to add names of individuals if you can.
• Emphasise that you asked for a refund after 19 days and were explicitly told by a representative of the company that you could have one even if you couldn't make it to the store until after the 21 days expired.
• Emphasise that you carried out a factory system restore and followed the steps to update the software on the laptop as per the advice received in store and that neither of these attempts worked.
• Emphasise that you were denied the use of a functioning laptop for an extended period of time and that you had to secure the use of a laptop from someone else.
• Emphasise that you are not looking for a refund and that a credit note or exchange or repair would suit you fine.

Send a physical copy by mail to the store for the attention of the General Manager, send a copy by e-mail to the store's/chain's Customer Service and Head Office addresses if you can find them.

I would be very surprised if you don't get it sorted off the back of that. You could also just try going directly to the manager in the store and chatting to them but the letter route would tend to be more successful in my experience.

In failing all of that I would expect if you went down the Small Claims route that you would get some satisfaction there too; but may as well try to avoid the €25 fee by dealing directly with the store.

ConsumerIssue1

ronivek wrote: »

Have you tried contacting the manufacturer directly? You're not obliged to do so under the law but sometimes they can be more helpful than the retailer.

Since it sounds like you've tried everything reasonably asked of you by the retailer I would suggest writing a relatively brief letter with emphasis on the following:

• Timeline of contact with the retailer and summary of the steps they asked you to take; try to add names of individuals if you can.
• Emphasise that you asked for a refund after 19 days and were explicitly told by a representative of the company that you could have one even if you couldn't make it to the store until after the 21 days expired.
• Emphasise that you carried out a factory system restore and followed the steps to update the software on the laptop as per the advice received in store and that neither of these attempts worked.
• Emphasise that you were denied the use of a functioning laptop for an extended period of time and that you had to secure the use of a laptop from someone else.
• Emphasise that you are not looking for a refund and that a credit note or exchange or repair would suit you fine.

Send a physical copy by mail to the store for the attention of the General Manager, send a copy by e-mail to the store's/chain's Customer Service and Head Office addresses if you can find them.

I would be very surprised if you don't get it sorted off the back of that. You could also just try going directly to the manager in the store and chatting to them but the letter route would tend to be more successful in my experience.

In failing all of that I would expect if you went down the Small Claims route that you would get some satisfaction there too; but may as well try to avoid the €25 fee by dealing directly with the store.

Thanks a million for the advice. Believe it or not the email I sent to them at the end of May hit every bullet point you've listed there. All they sent back was a generic copy and paste email but I'll send a physical copy for the attention of the manager also.

If those fail I'm happy to pay the small claims fee. It's either that or buy a brand new laptop so the €25 isn't bad in comparison.

ronivek

ConsumerIssue1 wrote: »

Thanks a million for the advice. Believe it or not the email I sent to them at the end of May hit every bullet point you've listed there. All they sent back was a generic copy and paste email but I'll send a physical copy for the attention of the manager also.

If those fail I'm happy to pay the small claims fee. It's either that or buy a brand new laptop so the €25 isn't bad in comparison.

Yeah I think the key is to find someone with a bit of cop on to read the e-mail; unfortunately a lot of Customer Service people tend to just try and fob people off to someone else or just follow the written policy to the letter.

You could also try mentioning your intention to go to Small Claims; but I would suggest waiting to see what the store's manager might say in response to your letter first.

ssmith6287

14-ce3501na should be more than capable of running software like Zoom, Teams etc

1 thing I used to always find was people would install a secularist package without uninstalling the trial one that would come built in. Apart from that its very strange. a simple indicator to check your hardware is to check your device manager, if there are any yellow caution signs it narrows down the issue. Another thing you could do is run a program called heavy load, although maybe leave that 1 for the engineer as it could crash the machine altogether

eusap

You are wasting your time trying to deal with the retailer, i would go straight to the manufacture and they will resolve it much quicker than the Retailer.

Yes i know the Retailer should fix it, but who has time to jump through hoops.

The spec of the laptop is good and well suited to what you want it for, but i guess you got a monday morning one