Scan.co.uk - Problem with laptop and blackmail

drspa44

The problem is definitely not an overheating issue. As my last laptop suffered from overheating, which reached temperatures of ~80C from day one, I used software to monitor the temperatures and they were reasonable. Even if I tried covering up the vents for a couple of minutes on load, the i5 would never get hotter than about 65C. The first laptop I had for about a month.

If I get Scan to send the laptop back, they will not accept me sending it back to them (even if I wiped the hard disk). What I want from Scan is a refund, but they seem to think that a few downloaded games would damage the hardware beyond repair which isn't true in any way.

Of course there is a higher chance of getting viruses on your PC when you download unofficial versions of software. I totally agree with you on that. If I had started noticing issues only after I started testing the graphics chip with games and benchmark suites, I would not have blamed the hardware. You say I have a lot to learn about computers because I don't think a virus can affect hardware. Please tell me the name of any virus that will damage hardware connected to the computer. The worst it would be able to do is mess up the drivers or change system files to make it unbootable. The general nature of viruses anyway is not random vandalism, but the creation of botnets and data harvesting.

Tbh, I did not think there would be any problem with Scan diagnosing the fault as I'd sent them proof. I didn't even think they'd even boot into Windows for that matter, as Memtest is booted separately from Windows.

On the subject of software piracy, I think it's all a matter of opinion. I personally will pay for games and software that I really enjoy, because I like having hard copies. If I am just trialling a new game, why would I pay £20+ for a game I don't even know will engage me at all? The only incentives you get from buying a game nowadays is DRM, bloatware, longer installation and discs that you have to swap to switch between games.

infomonkey

Get the laptop back. Then get it assessed by an independent. And lodge a chargeback with your credit card and get the independent to confirm that the laptop is not of merchantable quality.

drspa44

The credit card company are already on the case. Thanks for the advice though.

infomonkey

PS don't use Scan - I have a real dislike for the way they do business.

I can understand their issues with consumers breaking products etc but to treat every customer like dirt if they have an issue is wrong. I put through over 30k with them one year with no issues then had a problem with a power supply and they refused to accept the issue. I've never set foot into their Bolton site again.

victorm_3

I'm new here, so give me benefit of the doubt - a little bit doubting the story, that is. you give us a lot of tech-savvy info about this laptop (80db loud music from less than 1m away?) and you run industry-standard tests. after days of using the laptop (while being happy with it running fine 20% of the time), you have a load of unlicensed software of unknown provenience loaded on it and you ask the supplier to fix. later lodge a complaint with the credit card company.
I hope you know what you are doing and this is not just bad mouthing some company or other - but if so, download and deploy a simple linux distro for testing purposes (Ubuntu could be a choice, or any solution that boots straight from the CD and has diag tools included), run the tests, than wipe everything and send it over for repairs.
On the Windows license (I am just looking to buy a Dell Aurora and I would really like to re-use my Win7 Pro retail license rather than buying a new one), as long as the sticker with the serial number is attached to the box, you can buy the media alone and do the installation - the same way, your supplier can resell the notebook without replacing the license. If you did not buy the license and installed it separately yourself, you would still need to return the laptop in the same state (indeed, Scan will not touch it with your OS, had the same problem with Dell and my old XPS system where I had installed the Win7 myself legally and they refused supporting it on the phone when the videocard borked).
Overall, my advice is to talk to Scan and handle things in a constructive manner - people are very often willing to overlook the terms and conditions when they see a good price, and sometimes that price is the result of very well formulated contracts. Good luck!

garth549

Sorry but theres no excuse for software piracy. I'm a software engineer - how would you like it if you were told you could'nt be paid this month because everyone had stolen your software instead of buying it?

For your information the problem sounds very likely to have been caused by a virus. 'Cracked' copies of software routinely contain worms/trojans/viruses to create botnets for criminals to send spam, steal card/banking details etc.

Get the laptop back and reinstall windows without any pirated software and see if the problems go away. If they do its almost certain a virus was responsible.

Arg

Actually there are plenty of arguments for piracy but this thread isn't the place for that debate so frankly people should keep their thoughts to themselves if they haven't got anything helpful to say.
Secondly there are a number of circumstances where people might have pirated media but have also bought the very same media. For example if someone has a load of games on a laptop that need the CDs to play they obviously can't carry them at all times say for example on a train journey so therefore they will need a cracked version to play.
The bottom line is that Scan have have tried to wriggle out of doing their job with a dubious excuse and that is what people should be focusing on.

wealdroam

Arg wrote: »

The bottom line is that Scan have have tried to wriggle out of doing their job with a dubious excuse and that is what people should be focusing on.

A lot of people have focused on this exact point.

It has been suggested several times that if the dubious software were to be removed from the machine, then Scan would be unable to "wriggle out of doing their job with a dubious excuse".

For some reason, the OP seems unable to do this.

drspa44

victorm wrote: »

I'm new here, so give me benefit of the doubt - a little bit doubting the story, that is. you give us a lot of tech-savvy info about this laptop (80db loud music from less than 1m away?) and you run industry-standard tests. after days of using the laptop (while being happy with it running fine 20% of the time), you have a load of unlicensed software of unknown provenience loaded on it and you ask the supplier to fix. later lodge a complaint with the credit card company.
I hope you know what you are doing and this is not just bad mouthing some company or other - but if so, download and deploy a simple linux distro for testing purposes (Ubuntu could be a choice, or any solution that boots straight from the CD and has diag tools included), run the tests, than wipe everything and send it over for repairs.
On the Windows license (I am just looking to buy a Dell Aurora and I would really like to re-use my Win7 Pro retail license rather than buying a new one), as long as the sticker with the serial number is attached to the box, you can buy the media alone and do the installation - the same way, your supplier can resell the notebook without replacing the license. If you did not buy the license and installed it separately yourself, you would still need to return the laptop in the same state (indeed, Scan will not touch it with your OS, had the same problem with Dell and my old XPS system where I had installed the Win7 myself legally and they refused supporting it on the phone when the videocard borked).
Overall, my advice is to talk to Scan and handle things in a constructive manner - people are very often willing to overlook the terms and conditions when they see a good price, and sometimes that price is the result of very well formulated contracts. Good luck!

When I first got the laptop, I did notice issues and as a techie, I tried all that I could to rectify them. I wasn't happy with the 20% figure, but I didn't believe that the hardware was faulty. I hadn't run any diagnostic tests, so I thought it must be a driver issue or a problem with Windows 7. I had similar crashes when using the RC version of W7 and generic drivers.

I don't think running other diagnostics on Linux will really help much. As I said, I ran Memtest which is deployed using a separate partition of Linux, outside of Windows and the primary HD. These were the T+Cs presented to me at the point of buying: scan dot co dot uk slash Terms.aspx. I did skim them before the purchase and there's nothing there I don't agree with. Nothing about uses of software or anything. I'd really like to sort it out with Scan, but the contact I have has made it clear he doesn't want to deal with my system any more; firstly by sending it back without telling me and secondly by blackmailing me about the pirated software etc.

garth549 wrote: »

Sorry but theres no excuse for software piracy. I'm a software engineer - how would you like it if you were told you could'nt be paid this month because everyone had stolen your software instead of buying it?

For your information the problem sounds very likely to have been caused by a virus. 'Cracked' copies of software routinely contain worms/trojans/viruses to create botnets for criminals to send spam, steal card/banking details etc.

Get the laptop back and reinstall windows without any pirated software and see if the problems go away. If they do its almost certain a virus was responsible.

If I was a software engineer, I would accept that my software or games would be shared for free on the Internet. That's just the way things work and this will always be the case. As I said, I will pay for software if it is useful to me and is not priced out of proportion, but not when I'm only trying it out or testing new hardware. If your software is good enough, then most people will pay for it and those who don't would never had paid for it anyway, so you wouldn't have lost anything. I shouldn't have used the word software, as apart from WinRar and 3DMark, they were all games. The better ones, I had bought previously but as games like Audiosurf, GTA San Andreas, World of Goo, Penumbra etc etc are much easier to try out when you're using a cracked copy, why should I bother with all of the DRM and disc swapping?

The problem is absolutely 100% not caused by pirated software or any software for that matter. The issues were present before I'd even installed my preferred web browser to get the program to download the games. The pirated software scene is not as riddled with threats as one is made to believe, though it's good practice to use anti-virus in any case. Reinstalling Windows would not make the issues go away I'm sure, as it's not a software fault.

Arg wrote: »

Actually there are plenty of arguments for piracy but this thread isn't the place for that debate so frankly people should keep their thoughts to themselves if they haven't got anything helpful to say.
Secondly there are a number of circumstances where people might have pirated media but have also bought the very same media. For example if someone has a load of games on a laptop that need the CDs to play they obviously can't carry them at all times say for example on a train journey so therefore they will need a cracked version to play.
The bottom line is that Scan have have tried to wriggle out of doing their job with a dubious excuse and that is what people should be focusing on.

Thanks. :beer:


If anyone has an email address for anyone higher up in the company, please share. I tried to find Elan Raja's email to make a complaint, but couldn't find it.

drspa44

wealdroam wrote: »

A lot of people have focused on this exact point.

It has been suggested several times that if the dubious software were to be removed from the machine, then Scan would be unable to "wriggle out of doing their job with a dubious excuse".

For some reason, the OP seems unable to do this.

I can't do this because Scan will be unwilling to send back the laptop and then accept the laptop back again for return. I included the restore CDs with the laptop, so it's not as if they can't do it themselves, so why would they let me?

Besides, they say that there is no RAM fault and that my Memtest results were wrong (url is grab.by slash 6x2i). They say that the crashing was due to my software and couldn't explain why my laptop was unstable out of the box (of course the couldn't!). I told them that if they really couldn't see the problem that caused my Memtest to fail, the faulty microphone though 'small potatoes' is something else for them to look at. However, "As stated before I cannot accept the laptop back from yourself with the presence of counterfeight software on, as this time I would have the report the matter to the relevant authorities, as such at this stage and as never mentioned before I cannot currently assist you over the microphone claims.".

If you buy a car and send it in under warranty for an engine issue and during testing, the engineer finds illegal home made mixtapes in the stereo, would he refuse to refund or repair? Would he tell the customer to take back the faulty car otherwise I'll "call the feds on you".