Laptop repair complaint query..

Wynnester

Hi, Just looking for a bit of advice really about a recent laptop repair that was carried out by a local repair shop to see where I stand on a couple of points.
Firstly I took the laptop in for repair and was told it was a motherboard problem which would cost anywhere from £120 depending on the problem. I asked them not to carry out the work as I wanted to check my options. I then got a call to say the work had been done and it'd be £120!!! As the laptop was fixed I took the path of least resistance and forked out the £120 but made it v clear how miffed I was that the work was done. HOWEVER, the work done didn't fix the problem. Apparently they's swapped my NVIDEA graphics chip for another one (recovered from an old laptop they had onsite) as they thought mine was broken but it turns out it's a problem with the type of NVIDEA chip so the new one didn't work either. The repair shop eventually realised this and sent the laptop off to Sony for them to repair for free, which they did. In light of the fact that the repair I paid for a) wasn't authorised and b) didn't actually fix the problem (something they'd have noticed if they'd bothered to load the drivers and test it before taking my money!) and a free repair from Sony DID fix it - should I be entitled to a refund of the £120?

Sorry if this is going on a bit but the second bit of advice I need is that when the laptop first went in the repair man said they'd try just reinstalling Windows Vista. As I told him I didn't have everything backed up he put everything on an external hard drive and then put everything back on once windows was back on. However, somewhere along the way it looks as though windows was reinstalled again and nothing was backed up so I've lost everything. There has never been a problem with the laptop that meant a backup wasn't possible so it seems it just wasn't done even though they new I needed things to be kept. Does the repair shop have a duty of care to either let me know that windows was going to be reset or automatically back stuff up in light of the fact that I'd already told them that it needed to be done?
Any advice would be massively appreciated.

JasX

Unfortunately its your responsibility to keep your data backed up so you have no claim there.

If anyone ever tells you your laptop needs a new motherboard you should run a mile.

I'd be reporting them to trading standards and trying to get my money back, if you have written evidence of what you describe above you stand a very good chance -> unauthorised work etc etc.

if you have no evidence and its just a case of I told them this they said that you haven't a hope as it'll boil down in court to a he said/she said your word against theirs.

Hammyman

Wynnester wrote: »

the second bit of advice I need is that when the laptop first went in the repair man said they'd try just reinstalling Windows Vista. As I told him I didn't have everything backed up he put everything on an external hard drive and then put everything back on once windows was back on. However, somewhere along the way it looks as though windows was reinstalled again and nothing was backed up so I've lost everything.

Thats your tough luck. My business, like every other IT business, has a "there is no guarantee your data won't be lost" policy. It is up to you the owner to back it up. If the hard drive had died you'd be in the same boat. Your chance of recompense for that is a big fat zero. As you may have deduced, I have little time for people who don't back up and whinge they've lost data which is apparently so important they couldn't be bothered to spend 20p on a DVD-R and burn the files to disc.

You obviously had a nVidia 8000 series graphics chip (8400,8600,8800) - a well known fault in the IT industry and one nVidia acknowledges they caused due to poor materials being used. Whenever I have a customer with a dead laptop with one of those chipsets I tell them to contact the manufacturer as virtually all of them have recalls or give extended cover for that fault or failing that, invoke their rights under SOGA as it is a recognised manufacturing fault. I don't even bother doing any with a nVidia 8000 series chipset save power socket faults.

However, the work wasn't authorised so shouldn't have been done. Whether or not you get your £120 back depends on what they charge for diagnosis.

Hammyman

JasX wrote: »

If anyone ever tells you your laptop needs a new motherboard you should run a mile.

Why? Nowadays it is no longer economical to fault find to component level. I can do it but nobody wants to pay £40+ per hour for this and the equipment needed ain't cheap - you're not going to be doing it with a £10 multimeter or a £30 25MHz scope you picked up at a radio rally.

JasX

Hammyman wrote: »

Why? Nowadays it is no longer economical .

because unless it was very recently purchased high spec laptop for 'normal' use i'd say you're much better off in new laptop territory... £120 will get you around half way towards a brand new laptop from the likes of dell outlet or DMXdimension that'll likely last at least twice as long as the repaired laptop and be a markedly higher spec too.

plus for an extra £10 you can salvage the HDD from your old machine as a portable HDD in caddy.

in the event it was a new machine i'd be looking towards a warranty claim up to 12 months.

Wynnester

Thanks for all the feedback. You're right, it was an 8600 chip - shame my repair man wasn't as clued up as you are! They only charge £15 for diagnostic work which was paid on top of the £120 - which was solely for labour to replace the chip. I guess if you don't ask, you won't get so I'll give it a go writing to them to try and get the £120 back. I know what you mean about customer's backing up their own stuff - the reason it's so annoying is that I bought a Buffalo Duo NAS drive about 2 months back but the laptop broke before it arrived. The laptop was then in with the repairman for the next 6 weeks so I didn't have chance to use it. If they'd said there was any chance the data would have been lost I might have been able to do something about it myself but after windows was reloaded they said that replacing the chip wouldn't affect the operating system but at some point someone decided to reload windows again - not sure why this would be needed when the laptop was in it's "raw" state already but ho hum....

Hammyman

JasX wrote: »

because unless it was very recently purchased high spec laptop for 'normal' use i'd say you're much better off in new laptop territory... £120 will get you around half way towards a brand new laptop from the likes of dell outlet or DMXdimension that'll likely last at least twice as long as the repaired laptop and be a markedly higher spec too.
.

Please tell me where I can get a brand new laptop for £240 - I'll buy them all.

£330 will get you a bargain basement Celeron/Pentium Dual Core one which will be slower than the Core 2 Duo one that packed up. Also judging by the amount of repairs I have and parts I sell, the budget ones barely survive warranty. Keyboards, hinges and motherboards dying seem to be the common faults on the sub-£350 ones nowadays. They certainly wouldn't outlast the Toshiba Tecra I have which was £1k retail when new.