PC World Rentsmart conned me!!!

beeky

As a student who was conned by PC World and Smartplan, I have made it my mission to tell anyone and everyone who wants to buy anything from PC World/Curry's not to. Up until now I have stopped about fifty or more people buying from this nasty company. If everyone did this then they might re-think the way the sell Smartplan to unsusspecting people, making it sound so easy and in my case not giving me all the paperwork "as the photo-copier was playing up" (sound familiar to anyone). PC World and Smartplan are not to be trusted!!!

thebroons

All

I have posted a few replies regarding my nightmare which started in Feb 2010. In one of my last posts I stated that the FOS wasn't prepared to take my case further as the contract clearly stated the terms and conditions. However, today i received a call from the BBC regarding my story and they want to get more information from me. I am having a telephone chat with them next week. I can only assume that this has come about following my e-mail to Watchdog.

Please - if you have been a victim like so many people on this thread, contact Watchdog. The more people that do it, the more bad publicity these con artists will receive.

I will keep you all posted with any developments

debzyg

My brother has had the EXACT same issue as you guys. He's been into PC world today kicking up a right storm! The guys who sold him the thing were even there!

The fact that so many people have been duped by this just goes to show that PC World are lying scumbags and that unless you sit there for god knows how long reading through every bit of small print - which by the looks of it theyre pinning their sale on the fact that you wont, means you're gonna get conned.

Thing is you don't expect this kind of behaviour from a big name such as PC World, which is why so many people are trusting in the first place when it comes to the paperwork.

moon999

Hi all,

I can understand a lot of the situations on here. I can also tell you that there are some PCW/Rentsmart people who post on here trying to defend the actions of these mis-sold contracts. I can also say that PCW staff were/are given store incentives to sell this contract to as many people as possible irrespective of it being suitable.

While it is of course common sense to read the T&Cs, the retailer has an obligation to make sure the financial product being sold is suitable for the customer. This is not only a legal requirement but also a PC World policy - one which is NOT followed in all cases.

I know of several people who were lied to about this product and were presented as business customers - exactly who this product was aimed at.

How can a student or normally employed person be a business customer? Easy. The sales person asks 'are you using this for ANY work related purpose'.? Thats usually all it takes to 'become a business user'. The reason why? Selling smartplans earns huge amounts of money for the company. Whilst all companies are in it to make money, the methods and deceit used here is astonishing.

I know a lot about this situation, so please ask if you need any further information.

Jinks

I just wanted to correct a couple of incorrect facts brought up on this thread - firstly, it's not correct that Currys/PCW rental schemes are only for business customers. When this thread started in early 2010 that was true, but more recent customers seem to be getting the wrong idea from these older posts, and if you write to Currys/PCW saying that you were mis-sold because you are not a business customer they will just correct you and you will lose credibility.

Smartplan is for business customers.
Infinity is for home users/non-business customers.

So, if you have the Infinity plan, please don't try to use the fact that you are not a business customer as a reason to leave the contract. That will backfire on you.

Secondly, if you are on this plan and your computer is not working, even if it was due to accidental damage or theft, you should be able to get it replaced. You have to have either Currys/PCW or Rentsmart insurance with a rental agreement - you can't take out a rental agreement without one, so all of those eventualities should be covered in the monthly amount you are paying. If any staff tell you otherwise they are incorrect unless you have actually gone in and manually cancelled the insurance part at some point (and this isn't a good idea on a rental contract unless you are certain repairs are covered by something else - laptops are portable items and not always covered by home insurance).

Thirdly, although I'm not defending any salespeople who misrepresent the product, you now have either 21 days to return an unopened product to Currys and cancel the agreement or, alternatively, even if the product is opened, you also legally have 14 days from purchase in which to cancel the contract. So anyone who purchased in the last couple of years should have had adequate time to examine the contract and been able to cancel within that time without issue.

Because of some of these changes, the difficulties encountered by some of you who took out Smartplan a few years ago shouldn't be encountered to the same extreme these days. I'm sorry so many people have had bad experiences and hope those of you who are contending the contracts are successful.

Stoffy

Hi guys,

Sorry its been a while since I responded on here. Anyway I have received a response from the F.O.S regarding my complaint and its good news.

DSG have agreed to pay me back the full amount I have paid minus the cash price of the laptop (£899.00). I have paid in total over £1700 so a nice £800+ back for me.

Response email received from FOS :


Dear Mr *******l,

I am writing to update you on your above complaint. I would explain that following my correspondence with the business, it has offered to:

[*]Refund the difference between the cash price of the goods and the amount you paid under the Rentsmart agreement, less the insurance payments you paid under the rental agreement as Rentsmart has previously refunded this to you.

Please find attached a copy of my assessment of your complaint and a settlement form you should date, sign and return to me if you are happy to proceed on this basis.

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible and in any event by 11 March 2013.

I would explain that I have also sent you copies of the attached documents through the post.

Yours sincerely,


Along with this email was a document going into a lot more detail but I'm made up my persistence has paid off and have to thank people on here as I used a lot of your examples to add to my evidence against DSG as miss-selling.

Hope everyone who still has a dispute with them gets a similar resolution.

Cheers

:beer:

thebroons

STOFFY- if you see this message can you please get in touch as I am interested to know what evidence you provided for your case to be successful with the FOS.
After reading your post I contacted the FOS again asking for my complaint to be re-considered. They have replied saying they are not prepared to take it forward based on the evidence i provided them with. I sent my agreement together with my e-mails from Rentsmart and PC World. Not sure what else I am supposed to send.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

Rusty_G_2

Hi all

I never post of forums but after my wife had the same nightmare situation with pc world / rentsmart miss selling "finance deals" I had to write.

We complained to our local Trading standards in Hampshire who are referring complaint to heartfordshire trading standards as that is where PC world head office is based.

If everyone who has had an issue of miss selling rental agreements complains to trading standards action can be taken. We all need to stop complaining on the Internet and take action and really suggest doing this.

After we closed our direct debit we were told to pay £80 or return laptop. We payed the agreed amount of instalments and assumed the laptop was ours. Rent smart threatened legal procedures and bailiffs. However after emailing complaint and iforming trading standards are involved due to miss selling and to be honest fraud, they have closed our account. No more payment, we keep laptop and we win.

However we are still following through with complaint about both PCM world and rent smart and are aiming to claim back money as well.

If all take action with TS we can expose both companies

AZZ0211

hi, i am hoping anyone can help? i have a laptop i have had for nearly 3 yrs and have been paying Rentsmart all that time! it turns out i have paid nearly 3 times as much as the laptop is worth, can anyone give me any tips to get out of this contract? as i dont have my own business nor have i ever had, but i have read that you need your own business to even get a laptop with Rentsmart!!

vicr76

I bought a Samsung Smart Tv from Currys for £900 in Jan 2013, which was having problem connecting to my network devices from starting so I waited for firmware update but even after latest firmware upgrade the problem still continues. Other than that the the tele is really slow, Smart hub don't connect, there is lag between changing channels, lag when accessing channel menu and the list goes on. When I called Samsung they send a engineer who said the main board of the tv need to change and ordered the part but I am really not happy with this repair as the tele is only 5 month old and I don't want a repaired one for the amount I paid for it. So when I contacted Curry's customer care regarding this and mentioned the SALE GOODS ACT as it not as its described at the time of sale and don't fit for purpose, the representative asked me to go to shop and speak to Manager which I did yesterday but he was not helpful at all not interested in me and keep saying its not their company policy. If its not then why the Customer Care representative asked me to speak to Manager at shop.... Do they have different policies in all stores and customer care??????? I'm going to complain this to consumer court in few days as I wrote a lettyer to them and head office... Lets see what they reply.
This is not the first issue I'm having with them, had problem with them before with my laptop as well. :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: