PC World Rentsmart conned me!!!

Cuenzo

Hi,
Joined up to the forum after seeing that everyone here is in the same boat as me. The sales rep led me to believe that I was taking out HP and that after the 2 year period with Infinity I'd own the laptop, which is not the case. Was handed the final page of contract to sign as we'd "discussed all areas of the terms" so stupidly trusted this rep and signed the agreement. Upon arriving home and scanning through the full document (for the first time) I realised what I had been sold. Went straight back in this morning and while the sales rep says there is "nothing he can do" and it is "outwith his hands", his manager started whistling a different tune when talk of legal action, trading standards etc was brought up by myself. I am awaiting his call back on Monday as RentSmart is closed for the weekend, however I will still be writing to the FOS and all other authorities mentioned above, regardless of his response.
Will keep you all posted.

Stoffy

Theres another thread regarding rentsmart which seems to be attracting attention too:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4082279

rory.rothon

Hi guys, my brother IS a director of his own limited company and has recently signed up to PCWORLD SmartPlan.
However, 2 days ago , he was burgled and all his design equipment was stolen, 4700 punds worth of gear!

Does anyone know what he would need to do now with PC World? He has his police incident number etc.. but is worried that they will not replace the equipment and keep charging him...

Any advice would be great.

Rentafool

Can I start by thanking Mazy-m for having the guts to start this thread and James Turner for his amazing professional advice and to Stoffy for being so constant in his/her support of others.

Here is my story:

In 2010 I went down to my local PC World, by accident really, it was a Saturday morning and I'd had a load of Chemo the day before. The Cancer had returned and I had been given a prognosis of max 2 years to live. So I wondered into the PC World in Maidstone, Kent and thought why not buy a computer and thought the Apples look rather good..but they are not for the likes of me...until the shop boy came over and said, "would you like to purchase this model on finance?"..to which I laughed and said, I don't think that's for me and explained I had Cancer and was an Out-Patient from Maidstone Hospital. Still he persisted in selling me the "Smartplan", not as others have quoted as "RentPlan" but SMARTPLAN; anyway just like you all I had to go through the salesboy's nonsense until he put me on the phone with SmartPlan. I laughed at the girl on the other end of the line and said, "You can't possibly give me Finance...I may be dead before Christmas", I said chuckling down the phone, to which she responded; "So what is your name and address..". I gave her both and my telephone number too and she replied, "You finance has been accepted." I could not believe it..what a world we live in. Not only am I not a business, I am a Cancer patient waiting to die, true deadwood to society yet financial companies see my rotting corpse as worthy of finance. Anyway, I smiled and took the AppleMac Pro 17" away from the shop and the minute I got out of the Industrial Estate I was apprehended by x2 Policemen who then breathalized me and told me that they had had a complaint from PC World that I had alcohol on my breath and would I possibly step out of the vehicle. It was the Chemo coming out of my system that made me smell toxic so I blew into the pipe and was just above the legal limit so had to be taken to the Police Station with my new Apple Mac held proudly under my arm..I had my bloods taken..(No worries there) and had to return to the cells in utter shame and then was told to return to the Police Station in two days for the results...All was fine I was well under the legal limit but only that I smelt horrid that morning but the whole experience was totally out of a horror movie. I have been stupidly paying my way out of debt since it all began and now I see the light.

Thank you all so very much for your advice and your stories. Let us put a stop to these kinds of practices, they are the worst part of our corrupt and greedy Nation. I still have 21 months to pay and if I want to break contract I need to pay £2536.40...thank you all for your marvellous advice. My sight has been altered since the Cancer and I really need to take a reader with me when shopping for all those T's&C's; that is a must...I can see that now! Thank you all.

tinac

Dear all,

I am very sorry for all of you who have been conned into signing a contract. Anyone reading these complaints would say that it is your fault you did not read the contract from A-Z. Well, I did read the contract and in clause 7(a) it says that you cannot take the laptop outside the UK for more then 30 days. Well, my husband's work involves moving from country to country and when we got to clause 7(a) we said that we do not want to take the laptop on contract cause we do not agree with clause 7(a). So the sales man said that he will speak to the floor manager. My husband told me to forget about it and buy the laptop. Being that we have four kids every time we have a problem with one of the computers it is a BIG problem. Infinity offer that if your pc needs repair they will give u a replacement. That was the only reason i liked the idea. So, the sales man came back and said that it would be fine to take the laptop outside the UK for 30 days. We then said that if we leave we leave for longer. To cut the long story short the sales person insisted that it would be fine and my husband told him to write on the contract that clause 7(a) is not part of the contract, which he did.

So now, 9 months after signing that contract, we have to move country and went to Curry's in Fosse Park, Leicester, were i got the laptop from to inform them that i will be moving country and will be taking the laptop with me. First response i got was "We have nothing to do with RentSmart so contact them" At that moment i felt that something was going to go wrong. As soon as i got home i called RentSmart and all i said was that i will be moving country what do i do next and the person on the phone answered "Well you cannot take the laptop outside the uk for more then 30 days, therefore, take the laptop back and pay for the rest of the contract. I tried to explain, but she did not even give me time to say a word, so i ended the call. I looked up the contract and called again. This time i was given time to explain and sent a copy of the contract by email. I got a reply a few days later saying that i will be given flexibility on the 30 days. Well flexibility is not what the sales person wrote on the contract. So, I called Consumer Rights and was told that it is breach of contract and to contact Ombudsman. I did and they sent a letter to Curry's in Fosse Park and one to Rentsmart.

The problem is that the sales person has no right to alter the contract, so reading all the contract from A-Z is still not good enough, you have to study law or take a lawyer with you or take the contract to the lawyer before signing ANYTHING.

These sales persons are not trained to sell the products in their shops but TRAINED to con people like you and me. So if you think you know it all beware as they are trained to find out what u do not know and take as much as they can from you.

thebroons

All - i have now received a reply from the FOS regarding my complaint against PCW and Rentsmart - unfortunately it's not good news.
I have been told that my complaint has not been upheld because I signed an agreement that clearly stated a contract for 48 months and not 24 months as per the salespersons pitch.
I am now stuck with a laptop that has broken (repairs too expensive to warrant fixing) and will be paying in excess of £1500 for an item that cost £600. I still have 17 months to go before this dreadful nightmare ends but as soon as it does, Rentsmart will be getting the laptop back and will be told to stick it were the sun don't shine.

ALL PLEASE READ ANY CONTRACT FULLY BEFORE SIGNING.

I will never shop in PC World, Curry's etc ever again:mad:

Cuenzo

Hi guys, sorry it's been a while, I've been busy working out the country but I wanted to let you all know, success! I was mis-sold the infinite plan on a Friday, and as I realised the mistake that night I went back on the Saturday to lodge a complaint. By Tuesday my contract had been cancelled and my first payment refunded. DO NOT be afraid to let them know they are in the wrong. They gave me the runaround for a few days as the manager said he had to "discuss the matter" with the lending company, however after I informed him (or perhaps called his bluff) that I would be issuing a letter from my lawyer he quickly invited me into the store on the Tuesday night, and they suddenly became very cooperative. The best part is this:

I was told he would need to contact the leasing company etc etc, NOT TRUE. When I went in on the Tuesday night I was sat at a senior sales assistants desk and watched him simply enter the transaction number into the system, and choose the "CANCEL" option. Simple as that.

BE VIGILANT they will be vague and give promises of "calling back" which they never do. Take it upon yourself to keep calling back and make it clear you will not give up despite their best efforts to palm you off. When I called the third time (on the third day after my visit, at around noon) I was passed between three call centres who all said they (conveniently) could not get in touch with the store I was dealing with. They assured me they would leave a message with the store with my details, at which point I made it clear that if I had not been contacted by 5pm that day I would take further legal action. At 12:15 I received my call back which led to the matter being resolved.

Best of luck to all of you, remember, don't give up, be persistent and let them know you're not messing around.
(Also, while the FOS, CAB etc may take a long time to contact etc, I'd point out that BBC Watchdog takes all but 5 minutes to complete the online form. If they get enough complaints about it something WILL be done.)

CozmoCreepers

Jeez! I am in the same boat guys! I have been trying for months to get out of my contract after I discovered exactly what I had got myself into earlier this year when my playful puppy knocked a pint of beer over my MacBook, worth £799 at time of "purchase", only to be told I was responsible for fixing it. Which I did on my Contents insurance!! When this all cropped up earlier this year, I remember a VAT increase happening not too long (if I remember rightly) after I signed up, and not thinking too much into it, but after agreeing to pay £33.73 and then it increasing to just over £42, WITHOUT at least writing to me first I found this annoying. With finding out my 3 year contract was actually 4, and they wouldn't fix my laptop, but I was paying them for insurance...I was livid to say the least!

I was never made aware it was a business contract as I am in no way a business and never have been. I requested a 3 year plan but was given a 4 year one, and no didn't read the terms and conditions properly, but who does in those situations...I mean...really! It has taught me to make sure I do from now on of course!

I have had a solicitor write to them, which they have ignored, even after the second letter was sent recorded delivery. I have cancelled my direct debit and actually thought about paying it off in bigger instalments to reduce the term, as I was told on the phone by a customer service advisor the other night, however after being sent this thread by my mother who found it after I told her my issues, I feel I must fight and get my justice over it!

I have written to Watchdog, I will be emailing Trading Standards and every body else I can think of tomorrow.

If anyone can PM me emails they have sent, with success or advice on how I can be rid of this agreement or ways in which I can back them into a corner so I can send the bloody thing back, I would be most grateful!!

Regards
Cozmo

smalli21

Hi all,

New member so not sure whether this is new thread material or not but my issue is with being potentially mis-sold Whatever Happens insurance through PC World. I've hired 2 items through Rentsmart - no complaints there as I knew what I was doing - couldn't afford the full price so rented instead. My laptop (item 1) has now been purchased as the 4 years expired. Every time I had a problem I got it fixed / updated / replaced etc. by Rentsmart. However item 2 (LG Television) was sold to me under Rentsmart rules but I was also sold Whatever Happens Insurance. Bearing in mind my laptop was covered against any form of damage, accidental or not, should I need to take out the extra £7.99 on top of the £25 I pay for the Rentsmart deal which I thought already included insurance? In fact I know it does! Cancelled whatever happens today as I was updating my bank account and getting rid of any rubbish. Should/could I claim against all this Whatever Happens business that I've been paying unnecessarily since 2009? Many thanks, smalli21

Ketceo

Hello All -

I have thoroughly read this e-forum / thread with particular interest, and am shocked to read the negativity reflected wrt The PC World Business Smartplan+ scheme.

However, from what I can understand majority of the unfortunate complaints are due to being described as a potential "business owner" via PC World ( sales ) representatives FIRSTLY. I am happy to be corrected - if I am wrong in any shape or form, etc.

Moving forward - what I would like to fully understand - in particular from James Turner ( I think that is his name ) - is, is the Smartplan+ worth pursuing on behalf of a real business owner?

Asking, because I am seeking to buy between 10-13 PC work-stations for a new Training Center, and before entering into a potential deal with PC World Business, I would like to understand if:-

1. It is worthwhile? - in terms of a 3-4 Lease Agreement; and
2. The FACTS about the scheme stand-up? - especially about the overall tax deductible nature of the Smartplan+ scheme, etc.

Looking forward to a set of "positive" responses in reply please ( if any )...