Forced Under Duress To Cancel Warranty In Order To Claim My [Still Faulty] PC Back!

Marv02

Hi, I want to keep this as short as possible, so please bare with me.

A friend from Scotland purchased a machine from a small company called DinoPC (www.dinopc.com) located in London. Shortly after he purchased it, the PC failed on him, and wouldn't boot. He told me he didn't want to hassle with it and pointed out, that seen as I live in London, he would let me have it for half the price, so I could take it back to them an get it repaired, and bag a bargain in the process. I couldn't refuse such an offer so that's exactly what I did.

Now here's where the problems begin. I am a computer technician myself, and took a quick inspection of the PC, ran a few tests like trying an alternate power-supply, RAM, GPU and CPU. All led to the same outcome... The system wouldn't post BIOS, and would shut itself off after a few seconds. So it doesn't need a rocket scientist the figure out that the motherboard was faulty. I went as far as trying all the other components in a secondary machine, just to make sure it wasn't any of the additional hardware causing the failure.

I contacted DinoPC, and I explained the situation to them, I pointed out that I ran some tests of my own, and my conclusion is that the motherboard is faulty. They said to my not to worry, and to send it in to them and they'd take a look and replace and faulty parts. So this is exactly what I did. I packaged the PC up, and sent it on its way (with my expense.)

A few days go by, and I got a call from one of the staff, they told me that after running some tests, no fault was found with hardware, and that the problem was with software. At first I was a little baffled as when I was conducting my tests, the HDD was not present inside the PC. I didn't question it, as they now claim its magically fixed itself and that they'd be sending it back just as soon as I... (wait for it...) pay a fee of £38 for the labour of reinstalling the O.S.

- I was furious. For starters, I knew, as a fact, the the problem was hardware related, I've been fixing and repairing PC's my whole life to know basic symptoms of hardware failure, and for them to come out and say, no, it was software related, is an insult on my intelligence. They told me that they would not release the PC to me unless I pay this fee, an argument started, so I hung up.

Now, a few things to point out before we go on.

- For starters, in no way, did they consult to me before reinstalling the entire O.S. They even admitted that they made no back up of the data on the HDD. I may have had very inportant files stored on the harddrive, and they couldn't care less.

- Secondly, the did not in anyway acknowledge me that an extra fee was going to be charged in order to carry out, what they are calling, "labour." [Sticking in a Vista CD and hitting enter is hardly labour, let alone £38 worth of it.]

- And lastly... I know as a fact that they where trying to scam me. They most probbally thought I was a complete newbie to technology and that I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between hardware and software issues. My belief is, they switch out the faulty motherboard for a new one, and in order to cover the costs, lied and said it was software related. [which is not covered by the warranty, so service charges would be added. - How clever.]

Now, getting back to the situation in hand. After long stressful days, going back and forth over the phone, they finally decided to settle this by not charging me for their "services" and that they would send the machine back to me... Under one condition... If I canceled out the remaining 2 year warranty with them. They said it's either I accept this offer, or I pay the £38 charge.

- Now for a moment I wanted to rip the phone apart, for having the nerve to even make me choose between something like that, but under strict pressure of duress to goods I accepted their offer. I thought it would be the end of it, and would never have to deal with them again.

Now here's the worse part of all. A few days go by and I receive the PC back. I unpacked it, and hook it up. I press the power button and BAM! The system switches itself off again. I couldn't believe this was happening. The same problem that I sent in to be repaired, was still there, and the even worse part of this is, they forcefully made me cancel my warranty, making it in no way possible for me to send it back to them to replace the faulty part.

I furiously got back to them, telling that the system is still broken, and wouldn't start... You know what they said to me? "Your warranty is void. I’m sorry there is nothing more we can do."

My conclusion of the events are. They replaced the faulty motherboard, and in order to cover the costs of the new motherboard, created these mystery faults in the O.S and told me I had to pay a fee. When I refused to pay for their "services" for software faults, they switched back the faulty motherboard and forced me to cancel my warranty in order to get my PC back. [NOTE: In working order.] Just so I wouldn't be able to claim it as faulty, seen as the warrenty is now viod.

I was hoping today, maybe you kind folk at MSE would be able to help me, to point me in the right direction. I was going to appeal in a small claims court, but before I did anything drastic, I though I'd come here and seek my rights I may have in a situation like this. I'm sure this is against some sort of trading act, and a violation of my consumer rights.

With regards,

gordikin

You have no rights. You didn't buy the PC from DinoPC, you bought it from your friend knowing it was faulty.

closed

Call trading standards.

Marv02

gordikin wrote: »

You have no rights. You didn't buy the PC from DinoPC, you bought it from your friend knowing it was faulty.

I don't think this is true. For starters, they knew perfectly well that the system originally belonged to another person. They happily updated the information on file. I purchased it knowing it was faulty, true, but the system still had a full 2 years warranty. I don't see the crime in that.

somethingcorporate

closed wrote: »

Call trading standards.

Pointless, Gordikin is absolutely correct. The OP has no rights at all, they are all with the person that bought the original PC.

Edit: Was it in the original contract that the warranty is transferable?

pimento

My son bought a PC from Dino a couple of years ago and the motherboard failed. He paid to send it back and they replaced the part. They were very professional and apart from the carriage costs he had no complaints.

The PC has worked fine ever since and my son is always adding things and re-building it.

Marv02

somethingcorporate wrote: »

Pointless, Gordikin is absolutely correct. The OP has no rights at all, they are all with the person that bought the original PC.

Edit: Was it in the original contract that the warranty is transferable?

They actually pointed out to me in the email they just sent "There is also the fact that our warranties are non transferable.."

Again, they happily updated the owner infomation from my friend, to me. So I no problems there. And even if the warranty was not trasnferable, why did they happily accept to take in the PC from a second person? Full knowing well that I was not the original owner? Who's fault is this really?

somethingcorporate

Marv02 wrote: »

They actually pointed out to me in the email they just sent "There is also the fact that our warranties are non transferable.."

Again, they happily updated the owner infomation from my friend, to me. So I no problems there. And even if the warranty was not trasnferable, why did they happily accept to take in the PC from a second person? Full knowing well that I was not the original owner? Who's fault is this really?

Just because they update some details about who currently owns an item doesnt mean that any of the rights that the purchaser had transfer to you.

Probably just add you to a mailing list or something for future marketing purposes. I don't see that there is much here that you can do. You could give it back to the person that bought it for them to have it repaired?

Marv02

somethingcorporate wrote: »

Just because they update some details about who currently owns an item doesnt mean that any of the rights that the purchaser had transfer to you.

Probably just add you to a mailing list or something for future marketing purposes. I don't see that there is much here that you can do. You could give it back to the person that bought it for them to have it repaired?

See this is where it gets all odd. If the warranty did not cover me in the first place, then why did they accept it back to be repaired? Knowing full well that my name was not under the warranty. Secondly, if the warranty did not cover me... In what way did they have the right to revoke someone else's warranty, and class it as void, if it didn't cover me in the first place?

I actually thought of letting my friend know, so he would send it back, but as you can see... The warranty is now void. [Again, for reasons not concerning the original owner, who's name is under the warranty, and no one elses.] This is surely been a cok-up by Dino PC, and not me. There must be something that could be done about this, if it was part of their T&S, they should have warned me that the warranty does not cover any claims made by me. But they didn't.

somethingcorporate

Marv02 wrote: »

See this is where it gets all odd. If the warranty did not cover me in the first place, then why did they accept it back to be repaired? Knowing full well that my name was not under the warranty. Secondly, if the warranty did not cover me... In what way did they have the right to revoke someone else's warranty, and class it as void, if it didn't cover me in the first place?

I actually thought of letting my friend know, so he would send it back, but as you can see... The warranty is now void. [Again, for reasons not concerning the original owner, who's name is under the warranty, and no one elses.] This is surely been a cok-up by Dino PC, and not me. There must be something that could be done about this, if it was part of their T&S, they should have warned me that the warranty does not cover any claims made by me. But they didn't.

I have just reread your post and you do have a very valid point. Sorry I have no better advice especially since they have your PC as well and appear to be holding it to ransom.

gordikin

You are not their customer...they owe you nothing.