Laptop warrenty issues

Cwen

I bought my laptop back in Feb' 08. I won’t name the brand but they one of the big laptop providers.
With the laptop i purchased a 2 year warranty for parts and labor. I had one or two issues within the two years and these were promptly resolved.

My warranty expired in Feb' 10. I had enquired about extending it at the time it expired but i never got round to it. Surprise, surprise on Monday everything dies on me. The laptop looses all power and wont turn on. After trawling through the web i found the potential problem was that the motherboard might have overheated, which is about £200+ to replace.

So i called the laptop company on Monday and was told by a member of staff that they could re-instate my warranty at a cost of £90 which would just run from the date the warranty originally expired, back in Feb. I was then advised that this would cover the problems with the laptop and any damaged parts would be replace for an engineer’s callout charge of £30.

After hearing this i was quite pleased but surprised. I re-confirmed this with the member of staff and asked, in clear English "if i take this warranty now this will cover the new motherboard or anything causing the problems I’ve just advised you?" This answer to this was a confident "Yes".

I was told to call back a few days later as it takes about 24-48 hours for the warranty to go onto their systems again. So on Wednesday i called back only to find that what i was told was not correct and the part would not be covered. I was told they could refund the money i paid for the warranty but that was all i was getting. As you can understand i was a bit unhappy with this and asked for a manager. I was told they would call me back within the hour. That was yesterday and im still waiting.

Although i do understand the laptop was out of warranty, i do believe they have a duty of service to uphold what they have promised me. From my past experience of working in call centres i know it can be difficult for call centre staff to have all the information but if we promised something we couldn’t uphold we always had to honor what the customer was told.

Is there anything in consumer law that could back me up here?

xyz123

do you have any proof of the conversation?

whilst blaming the company is easy and hoping for "duty of care" but aren't you breaking any laws yourself by getting an insurance on a damaged product. I doubt if there is any insurance company which will cover repair of an already broken equipment. did they not ask you regarding T&Cs of warranty contract? if so did you say yes to everything? have you been fully truthful to them before expecting the same in return?

Cwen

Thanks for your reply.

I recieved a call from a customer service manager a few days later and after a lengthy discussion i was denied the warrenty.

As i didnt want to argue over the phone i have requested a copy of the call recording to be sent out to me and i'll see where i can go from there. As of yet im still waiting for re-embursement for the £90 premium they charged me to reinstate the warrenty.

I doubt i'll get anywhere, and i've already bought a new laptop anyway but i'm willing to push it a little further. I was surprised when they said they could offer a new warrenty to cover it, (i had originally called them to try get some techy advise) so im hoping everything is clear on the call recordings.

If i get anywhere with it i'll post my success. If not, i'll at least remember to renew my warrenties.