Bought a new laptop that turned out to be an ex display model

binary-tim

Hi all

Great site and full of useful info. I'll Try to keep it short and too the point and would appreciate any words of wisdom.

I bought a £1000 new laptop from a well know PC shop that turned out to be an ex-display model.

They have admitted such and offered to send me a new laptop to exchange for the old one.

The box was open but the sales person assured me it had never been turned on, used in any way and was not an ex display model. They said it had just been removed from the box for a customer to look at it.

I thought it was a bit odd but after a long journey to get there I took their word for it and bought it.

• Were they in breach of Trades Description Act when they said it wasn't the ex-display laptop when I specifically asked?
  (I also have a witness/friend to the whole sale)
• Is that actually a criminal offence?
• If so how can i ensure they are correctly punished?
• Should I inform the OFT?
  (I am waiting for consumer direct to call me back after leaving them a message)
• Should I pursue for more compensation then just a plain exchange? (discount/free bee, how much?)
• Or should i just take the exchange and carry on with life?

Thanks in advance for any advice(or worlds of encouragement) you may give me.

Tim

somethingcorporate

I'd take the replacement and get on with my life if I were you.

You may have been told a little lie by a sales person to get a sale. You could write and complain and they may offer you some goodwill token but they obviously don't have to and I think the chances of it are slim.

Alternatively, it may have been a genuine mistake and you may just end up getting someone in to trouble who has not done anything wrong.

mo786uk

Unless they were purposfully deceptive (hard to prove) or do it regularly then no criminal action will be taken is my guess.

If you have complained to Consumer Direct the data will already be available to your local Trading Standards and the OFT.

Just be glad of the exchange.

pinkshoes

They admit they made a mistake and are sending you a new laptop. What more do you want?!?!

Perhaps the person selling it had genuinely only shown it to a customer, but someone else had turned it on previously?!?!

Life is FAR too short to spend it fretting about issues that have already been resolved.

arcon5

cheekily ask for a free memory stick or some cheap accessory. You don't have any rights but its always worth a shot!

binary-tim

Thanks guys

Perhaps not exactly what i wanted or was expecting to hear.

In my mind an exchange or refund is the bare minimum they would have to do without quibble by law and to me that's not something I should be grateful for thats just my right as a consumer.

Whilst I have no right to compensation they have broken two laws (un-intentionality or otherwise) one civil and one criminally.

The thing that gets me, is that as this was the only model in the shop, they have admitted it was an ex display its very possible it was packaged up specifically to fulfill my online order as this was the only one left in the shop.

I will ask consumer direct what they think if they phone me back and write the shop another letter.

I'm not a complete a$$ hole so will take the exchange laptop if consumer direct say this is not something that is worth pursing (I did see a news article about trading standards prosecuting this shop previously for much the same thing)

Thanks again

arcon5

Report them to Trading Standards.

There are people out there that have lost hundreds or even tens of thousands of pounds and you want them to waste their time dealing with a store who have rectified their wrong doing without argument. I'm sure nobody is condoning their actions, but you have to be realistic.

binary-tim

I have phoned consumer direct just to ask for their advice, thats what they are their for. If it is a clear case of something that the OFT would be interested in then consumer direct will inform the right people. arcon5 You make it sound like i'm harassing a government body for no good reason, i'm just using a public service. £1000 is a lot of money to me. If its a cultural thing within a chain of stores then even if it was a £10 item its wrong.

In my particular case it is almost impossible for the store not to exchange but had they had enough time to reload the software (takes about 20 mins) then I or another customer would have had no idea what had happened.

And to add it did take a lot of choice words and effort to get them to agree to exchange the item, they would have not if I hadn't been so persistent.

Thanks for you opinions.

dreamypuma

binary-tim wrote: »

Whilst I have no right to compensation they have broken two laws (un-intentionality or otherwise) one civil and one criminally.

What do you want from them? Hush money? You could try the more direct approach and tell the manager of the store you are willing to blackmail.

You really need to move on.

It also seems you know what you want the outcome to be, but are looking for other posters to justify your actions.

arcon5

Binary-tim,

I think you missed my point. I don't for the life of me think £1,000 is not alot of money or think this is right. But the point is as a result of their actions and bearing in mind they are rectifying it without quibbles, you have not suffered any losses and minimal inconvenience.

I'm not saying your harassing the government body, i'm saying whats happened here is extremely derisory. By all means make a report to TS so if they start receiving complaints in bulk about similar issues these practices can be halted, but if this is one of a handful of incidents I personally wouldn't think it responsible for them to spend to much of their time/resources in trying to proscecute the store for it when there is so many other cases requiring urgent attention.

paddyrg

Deep breath, take the refund/replacement and get on with your life. Or ask them, as it is ex-demo if you can have a retrospective discount. Margins are slim on laptops, even £1000 ones, so you are unlikely to get anything better than 5%. And do remember to be polite when making your fuss, all you will do with a huffy attitude is make them dig their heels in.

Or if you feel really hard done by take them to court, but my hunch is that the offer of a refund/replacement will appease the judge.