Bad experience with Dell

p2fyre

I'm wondering what my legal standing is on this.

I bought a laptop from Dell on the 23rd Feb this year. It came to roughly £1,078.

The other day I got an email from their debt collection department saying that the tax on my order was calculated at 17.5% rather than 20%. They're demanding me to pay the £35.14 within the next 10 days.

Can they do this? They quoted me a price.. which I have paid. Surely any miscalculation is at their loss. Plus surely this is the wrong way of going about this? Straight to debt collection rather than an apologetic letter from customer services.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

sho_me_da_money

Just speak to a manager and refuse to pay it. If they persist, return the machine and let them lose your custom over £35.00. It will probably cost them just the same to have a courier collect.

Personally, I'd mash-up an onboard controller, return it and get a full refund.

Now the real question - !!!!!! are you doing buying a Dell Laptop for over £1000.00!! You shouldn't be paying any more than £700 for an uberleet (Windows) laptop. What makes this model worth over a grand?

p2fyre

Thanks, I will do. It's hard trying to find contact numbers for Dell but I'm sure there'll be something on one of the invoices.

The laptop is a monster, hence the price. 2630QM, 6GB RAM, Geforce GT555, 17" HD LED screen, Blu-Ray drive etc. Dell are one of the only companies that offer decent graphics cards.. otherwise I'd avoid them like the plague

sho_me_da_money

http://www.asuslaptop.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=N73SV-TZ044V

Not bad.

JasX

p2fyre wrote: »

The laptop is a monster, hence the price. 2630QM, 6GB RAM, Geforce GT555, 17" HD LED screen, Blu-Ray drive etc. Dell are one of the only companies that offer decent graphics cards.. otherwise I'd avoid them like the plague

Return it and shop around

Take a look at the msi GX660 / GX660R -> comes with an HD5870m for £920 (weaker CPU and no BluRay at that price tho), got one myself last week and am generally chuffed with it esp the heat dissapation....

-> But don't make the mistake I did and buy it from scan.co.uk, stung me with a free shipping offer scam they then refused to honour when queried

fwor

Be careful about this. I'm not sure the advice given so far is correct.

IIRC, because VAT is (obviously) a tax which Dell are obliged to collect by HMRC, it may constitute a special case.

If pushed, Dell may be willing to right it off as a goodwill gesture, but don't assume that they are obliged to do so just because it doesn't seem fair.

As far as I can see, nothing that you've said gives you any reason to expect that you can return it for a refund.

rmg1

I'd agree. If it's not faulty then you can't return it. You're outside the 28 days(?) for distance selling.
As for the VAT, I'd argue that they've sold it to you at the price shown so the rest of it is their problem. Don't know how far you'd get though.

aliEnRIK

If it was me, id just ignore them. If they phoned, id tell them how much it cost (Which ive already paid) and ive no intentions of paying them anymore money

ashleypride

fwor wrote: »

Be careful about this. I'm not sure the advice given so far is correct.

IIRC, because VAT is (obviously) a tax which Dell are obliged to collect by HMRC, it may constitute a special case.

If pushed, Dell may be willing to right it off as a goodwill gesture, but don't assume that they are obliged to do so just because it doesn't seem fair.

As far as I can see, nothing that you've said gives you any reason to expect that you can return it for a refund.

It's not a special case. Dell collect VAT on behalf of HMRC it's up to them to collect and pay HMRC the correct amount. The customer agreed to pay £1078, Dell agreed to sell it at that price, how much of that is VAT is irrelevant to the customer. If Dell don't pay the correct VAT HMRC will come after them.

Pinkypants

I agree, the deal has been done, you've entered into a contract. Dell agree to sell you goods at said price, you agree to pay the price.

How that price is made up in terms of VAT, profits, cost etc... is all down to Dell. Not you.

Tell them they can whistle for their extra money. Their mistake, they can take it on the chin.

tellmeitsfriday

I think the company is allowed to choose which VAT rate to apply when the quote and the invoice are either side of a VAT change... I am looking for a link.... http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/forms-rates/rates/rate-rise-guidance.pdf

"I deliver a computer to a customer on 29 December 2010 when the VAT rate is 17.5 per cent. On 6 January 2011 I issue a VAT invoice in respect of the sale. What rate of VAT do I charge?
Under the normal tax point rules 20 per cent VAT is due as the invoice was issued after the increase in the rate and within 14 days of the supply of the computer. However, under the special rules you may decide to charge the 17.5 per cent standard rate of VAT which was in effect when the computer was delivered. This will reduce the amount of VAT you are liable to account for on the sale. If your customer is VAT registered and able to recover the VAT charged in full the use of the special rules will not save them any tax."