Incompatible PC component

flmdu

This week I bought a tv tuner card from CCL (https://www.cclonline.com) for my Dell PC but found out when I put it in the PC that Windows would no longer load. I contacted the card manufacturer and was told that this was a known incompatibility with their card with Dell PCs and that although they are working on a fix they don't know how long this will take. Therefore they suggested I should return the card to CCL.

I contacted CCL to arrange this but they are refusing to refund the shipping costs. They claim that Dell PCs contain non-standard hardware and therefore it is not their problem that the card is not compatible with them. To my mind, as Dell are one of the largest PC vendors in the world it is fair for a consumer to expect that third-party components should work in a non-modified Dell PC unless there is some warning on the vendor's product page to indicate that this is not the case.

Is there anything I can do to get my money back including shipping costs? Are there any consumer rights or trading standards organisations that anybody would recommend as worth contacting? The amount of money involved is fairly small but CCL's lack of regard for customer satisfaction is unacceptable and therefore I don't just want to give up on this.

JohalaReewi

You don't mention which TV card you bought but, the one I have just looked on the CCL website does not say anywhere that it is not compatible with Dell PCs. So there should be no problems returning the item as "not suitable for purpose" and getting a full refund including shipping costs. You even have proof from the manufacturer that the item is not suitable for purpose so CCL shouldn't really argue.

Your contract with is with the supplier CCL and so it IS thier problem if what they sell doesn't work, and they should give you a full refund. The only time they don't have to refund shipping costs is if you return the item under the distance selling regulations.

If you paid by credit card and CCL won't refund, chat to your CC provider about getting a refund from them. They often have internet shopping protection or similar. Might also be worth contacting trading standards.

flmdu

The card is a Terratec Cinergy 2400i (http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=5653&category_id=76&manufacturer_id=0). There's definitely nothing on the CCL product page about this being incompatible with any type of PC. In their email to me CCL state "As far as the refund of the shipping charges, we are unable to refund these as we offer no guarantee that the item will work on anything but standard hardware, Dell computers do quite often use non-standard components in their systems". So effectively they are saying that none of the PC components they sell are guarenteed to work in Dell PCs. I would presume that any PC component from any vendor should work in any non-modified PC unless stated otherwise. I would imagine most consumers would expect this.

I think I will pursue this with Trading Standards... has anybody had experience of doing this before? Is it reasonably straightforward or am I likely to be on a hiding to nothing?

brunlea99

Personally, I think you are having a go at the wrong company here. CCL are merely a reseller of the card - they don't manufacture it and therefore have no responsibility to say which if any PC it will work with. As you state in your initial post, the manufacturer have agreed it won't so I don't think you can blame CCL for this. You could argue that they should refund your postage but conversly they could (and I suppose are) argue that they shouldn't be out of pocket for posting what is probably (in anything other than a Dell) a perfectly working card. I am not agreeing with them here - just looking at it from their side.

The other option is possibly to have a go at Dell. One would hope that when they sold you the PC they would have had given you some documentation on the installed components and compatibility (or otherwise) of additional components the customer is likely to add/change/upgrade.

Jnelhams

The issue is with Dell not CCL I am afraid. Consider Dunlop tyres, they make lots and lots of tyres to a standard size and fit, now if they dont fit your Fiesta because Ford wheels are the wrong size, that's hardly Dunlops fault if Fiesta claim it takes a 13" Tyre and the 13" Dunlop does not fit.

It's the same with the TV card, this thing will be a mass produced Chinese card, now they will have produced this to an agreed international standard which assumes that all Motherboards in all pcs will function to the international standard, so for 97% of the time this will work. The problem you have is Dell have moved away from this, and they sadly do this alot, the reason being is that you have to buy your TV card or whatever from them. They will have agreed with the same Chinese producer to knock out cards with a slight tweak to the hardware especially for Dell and call them Dell Gizmos. So while CCL are being a little bloody minded about the P&P it is really DELL who are the badies.

flmdu

I agree that it should probably be Terratec who are ultimately responsible for this but it is not them I have financially dealt with. By selling the card CCL are placing themselves as an intermediary between me and the manufacturer. I would therefore consider it their responsibility to refund me fully and then it is their choice to seek compensation for the cost and inconvenience from Terratec.

However, I will get back in contact with Terratec to let them know the current situation and see what they have to say.

flmdu

Sorry, missed Jnelhams post.... I would at least expect that if probably the largest end user of Dunlop tyres were Fiesta drivers and they didn't fit then they and their resellers would make potential buyers aware of this.

Edit:

Added to this... I've been using Dell PCs for about 12 years now. I've installed a fair number of additional components: PCI cards, hard disks, memory, etc. None of these have been Dell components. I've never had a problem with incompatibility before.

So, to stretch the metaphor even further, if I had had a Fiesta for 12 years and put Michelin, Goodyear, and other 13" tyres in it and they had been fine, then the Dunlops didn't fit, I wouldn't be happy about this, and I would expect a full refund of all costs from the tyre dealer. I wouldn't expect to have to deal with Dunlop or Ford, regardless of whether it is actually their fault.

Jnelhams

flmdu wrote:

Sorry, missed Jnelhams post.... I would at least expect that if probably the largest end user of Dunlop tyres were Fiesta drivers and they didn't fit then they and their resellers would make potential buyers aware of this.

No I disagree, think about it there are at least 6000 other computer companies world wide producing motherboards and PC's and so an agreed international standards are used so that manufacturers can follow that standard, now just because one of them decideds on a particular model at that point in time to deviate from the standard, why should the other 5999 have to change for that 1? It is also just not possible to assume that you as mr two bit tv card guy, can lay his hands on every single model of pc to try his card in nor is it right to think he should, to do that would be impossible or cost thousands, hence the international standard. If Dell can't be bothered I am sure as hell not going to change my procedures, when HP,Olivetti,IBM,Fujitsu,Hewlett Packard, Xerox,ATi, Foxconn,Gateway,Evesham,MSI,Elite,Asus,Abit,Gigabyte,Sapphire,Innovision,Inexa,DFI, can.....do you see my point.???

flmdu

Sorry, it's taken me a long time to respond to this thread, but I just wanted to say thanks to JohalaReewi for the suggestion that I try contacting trading standards. I did this, and they agreed that it was definitely CCL's responsibility to provide me a full refund including all shipping costs. They provided a template letter which I completed and sent off to CCL and received a full refund within a matter of days. This after CCL repeatedly arguing that it wasn't their problem for weeks. So thanks for the advice.