MAPLINs,no refund but sent me an old pc filled with piracy & pornography

fwor

No Maplin employee would be stupid or insane enough to do that, would they? It just seems such an unlikely explanation, when a more likely one is that they have sent you the wrong thing by mistake.

The sticker on the side has codes on it, one of which is an RTX code, which is probably a returns code. The best approach IMHO is to recognise that Maplin have made a mistake, and use that in a subtle way to get what you want. Phone them up, give them the info on the sticker and give them a chance to make amends.

Once you start involving Trading Standards, Maplin will get their act together and start treating the two separate parts of your complaint separately (1. allegedly faulty board and 2. wrong item sent in error), and then I reckon you'll stand much less chance of getting what you want.

Forget the police. One of the basics of computer forensics is that the disk in question must not have been modified. The fact that you've had a poke around with its contents means that numerous timestamps and other data will have been altered, and it will be useless as forensic evidence.

biscuitboy11

fwor wrote: »

No Maplin employee would be stupid or insane enough to do that, would they? It just seems such an unlikely explanation, when a more likely one is that they have sent you the wrong thing by mistake.

The sticker on the side has codes on it, one of which is an RTX code, which is probably a returns code. The best approach IMHO is to recognise that Maplin have made a mistake, and use that in a subtle way to get what you want. Phone them up, give them the info on the sticker and give them a chance to make amends.

Once you start involving Trading Standards, Maplin will get their act together and start treating the two separate parts of your complaint separately (1. allegedly faulty board and 2. wrong item sent in error), and then I reckon you'll stand much less chance of getting what you want.

Forget the police. One of the basics of computer forensics is that the disk in question must not have been modified. The fact that you've had a poke around with its contents means that numerous timestamps and other data will have been altered, and it will be useless as forensic evidence.

To say that there wouldn't be anyone as stupid as that surely,is something that's just baffling to say,this is a company afterall who employs people from the human race,who as we know can be some of the most gullable ,violent,sickening , plain stupid and child like members of it and just as in recent continuing events , members of our own government have been shown that they too come under one or more of those titles.

All the data leaks,cash for questions,cash for honours etc etc etc ,you can't have missed all this !

R.e phoning up the people (maplin's),i'd rather not send them the item in question back and hope everything goes tickity boo,based off of their say so,then find out it doesn't (for the 3rd time)and they deny all knowledge of anything wrong being on what i've sent them,back to square one and i might be the little man in this ,but i'm surley not prepared to go the the subtle route just because it might get their backs up ,this isn't school and some bully saying "don't tell are i'll bash you"(something which i ignored then as a child and they ended up worse off)

You'd have to be stupid to believe a liar don't you think,i hold all the cards!


R.e Police and data checking and me looking on the drive, it has harmed it in no way,what you (they) can find is where,when i how that data came to find it's way on that hard disc,most of that is still locked away safely in parts of the disc that are locked by the windows installation i believe ,that (has been put )is on that drive,.So all web access,by site,date ,provider,the i.p address they were using , firefox/internet explorer,temp folders and all other important stuff is not accessable by joe public,it's a feature i believe ,to stop someone from stealing and plugin in the stolen hard disc into another computer to view most of the important things on it.

A few years back, DSGi (dixons, pc world ,currys, tech guys) and a few others were selling stuff as new,those customers were finding other people data still on these supposedly "new" goods,they looked on the hard drives and found things from previous owners ( like myself),some a lot more serious and harmful than what i have,they then hit the headlines,and none of them were disuaded by "it's useless now you've poked about in it".How were they to inform who needed to be contacted ,without looking.

This kind of Technology isn't as easy to destroy as one may think!


And i'm sure if you saw this dirty old,battered,bent case with parts falling off and missing,i'm sure you'd come to the conclusion that it's no customer's,as maplin's don't sell complete Desktop pc's (cd drive and dvd light scribe drives and hard disc drives included) but minus the motherboard!

fwor

biscuitboy11 wrote: »

R.e Police and data checking and me looking on the drive, it has harmed it in no way,what you (they) can find is where,when i how that data came to find it's way on that hard disc,most of that is still locked away safely in parts of the disc that are locked by the windows installation i believe ,that (has been put )is on that drive,.So all web access,by site,date ,provider,the i.p address they were using , firefox/internet explorer,temp folders and all other important stuff is not accessable by joe public,it's a feature i believe ,to stop someone from stealing and plugin in the stolen hard disc into another computer to view most of the important things on it.

Fair enough, you obviously know a lot more about computer forensics than I do. The operating system will be making changes to file attributes many times a second, and many of these changes will be to system files that the average user never sees - but you must have found a way to prevent those changes from happening.

Feel free to take your own path. If you take the confrontational approach, be aware that you won't be able to undo that and take the subtle approach later.

Personally, I believe that Trading Standards and the police should be the measure of last resort for people that face conmen and scammers, rather than an (in my experience) honest, reputable company that has made a mistake.

Jakg

Why would Maplin use a case for a testbed?

Whenever i've seen a mobo test station it's always been a CPU glued to a heatsink with a PSU / HDD laying on a desk with the mobo just laying on the desk with everything plugged in.

Cases will add another 5 mins to putting it in and out with no gain.

stratty

Are there pictures of these broken clips? I dont see any in the images you put up.

scullster

I'd approach your local trading standards about this before doing anymore with Maplins themselves, or even going down the plod route and see what they advise.

There are two issues and it would be best to treat them as 2 issues:

• one unresolved product quality issues and poor retailer service - SOGA will be your successful defense if your account is verbatim. You didn't mention whether the original purchase was with your credit card as you'd have the Section 75 protection tool
• the second issue is the item you have received. Maplin may decide that this account is just way too far fetched and is sensationalism gone mad. That being said, the potential repercussions would likely focus their interest and would warrant internal investigation - the "data" may have been downloaded by an employee, worse still downloaded by an employee in company premises. Maplin may in turn take the PC to the police themselves.

It all depends on the outcome, if you simply want the quality goods you paid for, and second issue investigated by the company - do the above.

I would add though - Why take the photos of the motherboard in the first place (what caused you to expect trouble)? Why go straight in for the refund?

Apples2

Maplins don't build motherboards.
These would simply be bought in and sold on. Those plastic clips are industry standard.

I can accept one broke, but they would break pulling the cable OUT, not inserting a cable, unless you are completely ham fisted.

To say the same clip broke on TWO motherboards....... nah!!

I think the OP needs to stop messing with computers and pay someone who knows what they are doing to to do it for him.

These clips are going to continue to break until the OP changes the way he is using it, otherwise there is no end to the amount of brand new motherboards the OP is going to destroy (should Maplins continue to replace them as many times as required until the OP learns how to remove a cable without destroying the plug??)

scullster

Apples2 wrote: »

I can accept one broke, but they would break pulling the cable OUT, not inserting a cable, unless you are completely ham fisted.

To say the same clip broke on TWO motherboards....... nah!!

It could be a problem with the plugs he is plugging in of course. We can't advise how to plug things in, or whether the fists are too hammy though - we inform of his rights in the event the retailer is supplying substandard goods.

biscuitboy11

scullster wrote: »

I'd approach your local trading standards about this before doing anymore with Maplins themselves, or even going down the plod route and see what they advise.

There are two issues and it would be best to treat them as 2 issues:

• one unresolved product quality issues and poor retailer service - SOGA will be your successful defense if your account is verbatim. You didn't mention whether the original purchase was with your credit card as you'd have the Section 75 protection tool
• the second issue is the item you have received. Maplin may decide that this account is just way too far fetched and is sensationalism gone mad. That being said, the potential repercussions would likely focus their interest and would warrant internal investigation - the "data" may have been downloaded by an employee, worse still downloaded by an employee in company premises. Maplin may in turn take the PC to the police themselves.

It all depends on the outcome, if you simply want the quality goods you paid for, and second issue investigated by the company - do the above.

I would add though - Why take the photos of the motherboard in the first place (what caused you to expect trouble)? Why go straight in for the refund?

Hi,

The need for the first set of photo's (on the first free post return)was something that i decided to do after reading various stories of other customer complaints ,regarding maplin's and faulty goods and their problems in trying to get a refund for good which were damaged,faulty and even where there was a good will guesture in place by the company(return for any reason within the short timescale they had in place)and they give you your money back,no questions asked! *Usual t&c apply*,even this was not easy to do said one customer's account.

So as it was a freepost item,these photos would be my proof of each and every item what was returned to maplins,in the event that anything may go wrong and if maplins tried to dispute a refund on the basis that i had not followed their t&c by returning everything that was in the goods purchased,what better proof, as many people on the many many consumer help forums know only too well,keep proof of things!

And it's here that i should also state one thing that i should have included at the start,the motherboard bundle was one of their grade B items( not new),for whatever reason ,maybe a prevoius customer bought this and returned it,maybe because it was faulty and returned for this reason,i'll never know the reason,but it's a practise other retailers do,.But as it was ,for some reason it was not sold new.

This is the thought i had before i bought the item off their website,do i take the chance and get a bloody good bargain ,or what if it's had a fault with it,so once those SATA sockets came away "as the cables were removed"(not when inserted)i knew i had made a mistake with this purchase,go and ask for the refund,as per maplins t&c!



This is just to show the other poster what came off the motherboard and remains as is .

img527.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sd530539.jpg

Even this second replacement board( minus the driver cd ,manuals,SATA cable,IDE cable,and the metal I/O backplate that Maplin's never sent back to me,no driver cd means the boards is usless )


Item was purchased with a debit card,and as i'm completely unsatisfied with this product,a refund is what any normal person would ask for,no, demand to have,and whatever trading standards advise,i shall follow in order for this frankly sickening ordeal to be over (i should also note,the first board had this white limescale type residue all round the back edges on the underside,this faulty replacement has the same !

I hope that didn't come across as being nasty or aimed at you,but as other seem to believe, faults just don't happen more than once,and stuff that's been on other peoples hard drives ,has some how been discovered by mind meld,as looking and finding these types of materials makes what has been found totally useless ,null and void. madness complete madness!

pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=3779

Just to show that there are real stories of people discovering things like what i have .

biscuitboy11

fwor wrote: »

Fair enough, you obviously know a lot more about computer forensics than I do. The operating system will be making changes to file attributes many times a second, and many of these changes will be to system files that the average user never sees - but you must have found a way to prevent those changes from happening.

Feel free to take your own path. If you take the confrontational approach, be aware that you won't be able to undo that and take the subtle approach later.

Personally, I believe that Trading Standards and the police should be the measure of last resort for people that face conmen and scammers, rather than an (in my experience) honest, reputable company that has made a mistake.

No ,your claim of you touched it,it's worthless now, is bunkem,how do you think others have discovered content like this,it's not that simple to erase or destroy content on a compuer than what you seem to think ,traces will always be there?

So based off of your "experience" then ?