Faulty Vaio

liquidhalo

Hi there

I hope someone can help me out here, last may (2007) i purchased a Sony vaio laptop for the price of £1250 from a Sony shop, it came with the standard 12 month guarantee, however last month the screen started going faulty, slight flicker at first but now it is completely unusable for sometimes 4 or 5 hours a day (it goes white and starts flashing IE: acid trip) also the rubber feet on the bottom of the case are starting to fall out and 1 of the screws came out last week. I contacted Sony about it and they said they as it is older than 12 months i will have to pay an engineer £145 to look at it and pay additional costs for repairs. I remember once reading that i have rights as a consumer to expect expensive items to last beyond the guarantee period.

Could someone please help to educate me on my rights and what procedures i can follow to have my laptop repaired for free by Sony because i it should have lasted much longer.

maninthestreet

Your contract is with the branch of Sony Shop from which you bought the laptop, not Sony. You would nornmally expect a laptop screen to last longer than 12 months, assuming the laptop has not been subject accidental damage, e.g by dropping it.

liquidhalo

maninthestreet wrote: »

Your contract is with the branch of Sony Shop from which you bought the laptop, not Sony. You would nornmally expect a laptop screen to last longer than 12 months, assuming the laptop has not been subject accidental damage, e.g by dropping it.

thank you for your reply.

No its not been dropped, what are my rights? what should i say to the sales advisor at the sony shop, i would like to go armed with as much knowledge as possible so im not taken for a ride

hollydays

You ae best to deal with the Manager.

pulliptears

A Uni friend has a vaio and the rubber feet on his dropped out as well. I believe its quite a common occurance.

ben500

Not much help but I've been having problems with a faulty Vaio recently, poor memory and low capacity being the main thing. Seems to churn out a load of tosh at times too. I think it must just be from a duff batch though. Tried making a few adjustments but I'm not really sure it's worth the time and effort really.

libra10

Sorry to hear about your problems with the Vaio. The first Vaio I purchased needed a replacement hard drive. This wasn't a problem as it was still under guarantee. One Vaio I clumsily dropped on a marble hearth and although the screen hinge became damaged, the PC still worked! I'm currently using my third Vaio as I find them to be usually of good, reliable quality.

However, under the terms of the Sale of Goods Act, goods need to be 'fit for purpose' for which they were intended. You would reasonably expect the laptop to work for much more than 18 months before needing such an expensive repair.

There may be some relevant information here -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/consumer_advice/consumer_law_sale_of_goods_emp.shtml

The relevant paragraph states -

'If goods which are expected to last six months don't, it'll be presumed that the goods didn't conform to the contract at the time they were bought, unless the seller can prove to the contrary.'

There is also a video available at the above link, haven't watched it though.

Posting a message at the Sony forums might also help -

http://club.vaio.sony.co.uk/clubvaio/gb/en/forum/listforums

Hope that is some help, good luck