Sony 'holding my laptop hostage' - what are my rights?

MuddledOfMiddlesex

Please help if possible, I am unsure what to do.

I bought a premium Sony laptop two years ago for my self-employed work at a cost of nearly £2000 (it was bought from dabs.com). It's been a bit noisy and the key letters wore off very fast, but otherwise OK, until I noticed the underside getting very hot. I then unearthed a recall notice from them saying there was a potentially dangerous manufacturing fault which they would repair. I then contacted them. After some argument - I contacted them about 1 or 2 days after the second anniversary of purchase - they agreed to repair the fault. There were lots of issues with them picking it up but finally they did get DHL to pick it up on September 8 and off it went, with a 5 business day turnaround time estimated. As I am self-employed, I have a back-up netbook that is inferior but has allowed me to continue to work in the meantime.

On the 17 September I received the following email from their German repair people:

I am pleased to inform you that our engineers have now completed a full free of charge re-work on your Sony Vaio in order to rectify the issues you have been experiencing. However, unfortunately following an in-depth diagnosis it has become apparent that your unit's motherboard as well as the hard drive are defective and in need of replacement. As your unit is now out of warranty by date, this work would be chargeable.
Attached I am sending a proforma invoice outlining the potential costs of these repairs. It is completely up to you whether you decide to go ahead with this work. If you are happy to do so, please contact us in order to provide payment. Should you decide to have your unit returned to you with the free of charge repairs only, please let us know and we will do that.

The cost of repairs is nearly 900 euros. I have since emailed to state that the laptop was working before I sent it - and I have a full back up to prove this. I have asked them to clarify whether the laptop is actuallys till working, and if not, when it stopped working.

I have had no replies to my emails and before I call them, I wondered what my rights are? I bought this laptop - and an accidental damage/theft policy for three years at the same time - assuming that by paying nearly £2000 I would have a piece of kit that would last me around three years. I do no video editing or similar, just surf the net and write and watch the odd dvd.

I do not want to spend another 900 euros on a two year old computer when I could buy a new one for that with a full guarantee. I don't feel I should have to either, but I can't be sure it will be working when I get it back. It sounds to me as though there's a significant risk that it won't be.

What are my rights here? Does anyone know whether there has been any ruling on whether a £2000 laptop should be expected to work any longer than say a £300 netbook?

I have been surfing the net and was wondering about joining Which legal advice just to get a sensible answer but I would appreciate any advice here as it would save me having to join. Do I have any kind of claim against Sony if it comes back not working, or against Dabs.com as the original seller as this is a premium product that was sold with a fault but now clearly has very significant defects after two years of medium usage. Or do I simply accept that this is unfortunate, that it was bad luck that I found out about the recall a few days after two years had passed, and swear never to buy a Vaio again? I have owned Vaios for years and am very disappointed at what's happened, not to mention gutted at the fact I spent so much on what may now be a white elephant with a lovely screen and chassis but nothing under the bonnet...

cleo1299

Somebody more knowledgeable than me will probably answer soon, but for what it's worth I certainly think that a £2000 laptop ought to last longer than two years. But that would be under the Sale of Goods Act, not under the Sony warranty. So I think you need to get in touch with dabs.com.

MuddledOfMiddlesex

Thank you, Cleo, for that, I am glad I am not going mad in expecting it to last a bit longer than that...

I am slightly unsure whether I should just get the laptop back from Sony with a report that it's faulty then? Or leave it with Sony while I contact Dabs. It's confusing!

olly300

MuddledOfMiddlesex wrote: »

Thank you, Cleo, for that, I am glad I am not going mad in expecting it to last a bit longer than that...

I am slightly unsure whether I should just get the laptop back from Sony with a report that it's faulty then? Or leave it with Sony while I contact Dabs. It's confusing!

You contract is actually with the retailer by law. However with computers if there are faults they are sent back to the manufacturer, and with Dabs your warranty is such that you have to contact the manufacturer directly.

Regardless of whether the laptop cost £300 or £2000 if the laptop had a defect that caused it to have a problem then it wasn't fit for purpose, and that should be repaired free.

The hard disc and mother board if they are not related to the problem should not be repaired free. (However if you can find an independent repairer it should be cheaper for them to repair it for you.)

Also I know with computer equipment price is no guarantee of quality.

I know people who have had more expensive equipment from some manufacturers including a Sony Vaio that have died completely in under 3 years while others have had cheaper equipment that has lasted a much longer time including from the same manufacturer. The difference is that the spec of the more expensive equipment is better i.e. more memory, better graphics card, better screen, better design.

So you are unlikely to find any computer expert who will say that a £2000 laptop will last longer than a £300 one.

I suggest you contact both of them with same letter just change who the letter is addressed to and make sure you indicate by cc'ing that you are sending it to the other party, as:
1. Dabs is responsible by law under the SOGA
2. Sony did the repairs and screwed up so is also legally responsible.

I suggest when you contact them you do it by letter sending them by recorded delivery so they cannot claim they didn't receive the letters. I know that large computer companies don't have systems in place for dealing with queries about repairs that don't fit a normal pattern so will ignore your emails. (This has happened to me though in my case my PC and laptop where both under warranty.)

In your first letters to both companies make sure you state at the end that unfortunately you will take them to the small claims court and they will be liable for all costs if the issue is not resolved shortly.

If you have to send them both a repeated letter as you haven't received your laptop, and you should do this even if one of the companies denies they are responsible, then give a 28 day limit for starting legal proceedings. In this letter make clear how much you are going to claim from them in total before costs.

And finally 7 days before that time limit expires send them both another letter giving them 7 days warning that you are going to start court action with the same costs as mentioned before.

This may be long winded but you need to be seen as acting reasonably in front of any judge if your case gets that far.

Sony is probably more likely to give you your laptop back quickly. However unless you have some proof that it was working fully you are likely to have problems arguing that Sony broke it as they have already told you that there are "problems" with the motherboard and hard disc.

MuddledOfMiddlesex

Thank you, Olly, that's very useful. I agree that the life of electronics seems to be in the lap of the cyber Gods, but I do think they should last a reasonable time.

The only proof I have of the Sony working is that I did a full back up and a restore back up before allowing it to go off to have the free repair of the manufacturing defect - but I guess all that proves is that it was functioning. Though that would be part of my argument - that it's not what one would expect for a motherboard and hard drive to be failing after two years of reasonable use.

Then I guess it would be for the small claims court to decide.

Thanks again,
MofM xx

The_Pedant

If the hard drive was failing, then typically I would expect a whole bunch of entries in the System Event log (assuming you're running Windows), recording errors reading/wrting to/from the drive. A lot of modern system also have built in monitoring (SMART monitoring) that can warn of possible errors, again, these are often recorded. If you were able to restore the data then looking at those logs would show if any error was apparrent.

That information (assuming no errors are found) and the fact the system appeared to be working fine apart from the 'known recall issue', and working well enough to take that backup should be adequate evidence that the system was fully functional when it was dispatched.

If that was the case, then I would expect Sony to be liable for any fault that may be present now which was not before.

Stephb1986_2

My old laptop is a Toshiba has done me 4 years already without 1 problem at all,

I recently bought a vaio fingers crossed nothing goes wrong!


I hope you get it sorted soon

Steph xx

MuddledOfMiddlesex

Thanks to the Pedant for that information - I did get a blue screen about twice in my ownership, but to be honest, as a Windows user (never been a fan of a Mac), I didn't see that as all that shocking. And it was running slower than when I bought it, but again I just deleted some stuff and it perked up.

Dreading writing this letter, and also despite repeated requests, don't know where to send it, and to find out, I have to call a premium rate number as laptop is out of warranty. Grrr.

Steph, I hope your Vaio has a long and happy life...