Very Expensive Graphics Card Broken- Warranty Question

grantgrant

Hello,

I bought a very expensive Graphics Card for my computer. It was for my work and very specific. They normally cost £3500 but I got a refurbished model for £2500. The American website states that there is only a 3 month warranty with it, though it is factory refurbished to a high standard.

I bought it 9 months ago from their UK branch. It broke last week. I sent it in to them to check over. They have now told me that they can't perform any repairs on any of their cards. I explained that I expected it to last for a long time (which they seem to do) and there must have been a fault with it. They said that this just sometimes happens with electrical equipment, and as it's out of warranty there's nothing they can do.

What I'm looking to find out is if this is the case. Surely it's not fit for purpose, and should be expected to last at least a few years?

I'm not really sure how to proceed. So any help is greatly appreciated. I'm now out of pocket with the card, they no longer sell the reconditioned models, and in addition I rent this card out to clients as part of my work so I'm loosing out on hire, as well as having to hire a replacement in.

When I was emailed the invoice it said that sales and conditions are included but I never received any.


Thank you.

wealdroam

Have a read of MSE's Consumer Rights article.

It does appear though that you are using the thing in a business environment, so some of that article may not apply.

djdave

If it was sold as refurb than one might argue that 9 months use is perfectly acceptable. However, considering the price, I can understand why you might not be willing to accept that!

scheming_gypsy

I'd say that you could struggle because of:

1 - it's refurbished
2 - it's down to you to prove it was faulty when purchased
3 - it's business rather than personal
4 - you also rent it out so it could have been damaged by somebody else; which won't help you on point 2.

bris

As a B2B transaction it's not covered by consumer law. The terms of the contract between you and the company you bought it from will more or less dictate the outcome.
Like in consumer law you would first need to get an engineers report to state that it had an inherant report and was not fit for purpose. The biggest problem you have is that you hire it out, when out of your hands you don't know what kind of abuse the card is taking, most warranties would be void in these circumstances unless you had written proof that hire was an acceptable for the card.
The only course of action open to you is to let a court decide if the the card was not fit for purpose, under normal circumstances it wouldn't be but, the hire part makes it doubtful you will get a suitable outcome.
The good news is that it is under £50 for a small claims action so send a LBA and see where it goes from there.

grantgrant

THank you for the replies. Just to clarify, I hire (or did) hire it out to companies as a service I provide for use by myself and it stays in the computer. However, when it went down it was being used by someone else at work, who was filling in for me. Though I know this person well and they have a good record of professional work.

Getting an independent report is tricky as it is a specialist piece of equipment the only people I can think who could carry this out are people who would deal with the company who make the card, so they may not be willing to take this on.

It did seem to work, but just stopped one day for absolutely no reason.

Hmnnnn, it's not looking too good unfortunately.

What is an LBA? Small claims action sounds like very good advice.

I also have a colleague who is having a similar problem with their card. It just seems crazy that there's so little I can do after spending (what to me is) a lot of money and having so little use out of it. It barely has had 3 months use out of the 9 I've owned it for.

Thanks again.

bris

LBA= Letter before Action. It is an essential part of the claims process, the court needs to see that you gave the company x amount of days to sort out the problem before you resorted to court action. There are templates for them somewhere I am sure someone will point one out for you.

molerat

LBA = letter before action. Write giving them 14 days to come up with a repair or acceptable solution before taking legal action.

arcon5

Court action is useless until op has determined the fault and the cause.

Until you have an independant report on the product, at the very least, do not start sending LBAs out.

Also check the terms to see if the company have a set procedure for complaints/issues.