Curry`s GRRRRRRRRR

ADNYF

I have had ongoing problems with a laptop I bought from Currys for going on 15 months and in an attempt to get some other help I was directed to this site so here goes, it is a bit long winded but i think to fully understand it you need as much histiry as possible.
I have cut and pasted the email correspondence i have had with them in the hope it fully explains it all to you.


Wed 23/11/2011 17:01
I purchased a Advent Modena model number A15IMO2 ON 27/11/2010, I had to take it into my local Curry’s for repair on 28/3/11 which turned out to be a faulty HD which was replaced.

On the 1/10/11 I had again to take in to get another repair this time due to almost all the screws falling out of the bottom of the laptop which meant the top case had to be replaced.

I have now had to put it in for the 3rd time again with a faulty HD on the 5/11/2011, I was not given a tracking number for this repair, I left all my details including a contact number but heard nothing until I went to my local Curry’s at the Forge retail park in Glasgow today, at which point the Manager produced it from the rear of the shop saying it had just came in last night (when I got the laptop home the printed sheet inside the laptop cover said the repair was completed on the 11/11/2011 so why has it took 12 days for it to be returned to the shop or has it been in the back of the shop and forgotten about ?)

I spoke to the manager regarding the laptop and told him I was not happy about having to take the laptop back as my warranty had now run out and as there is obviously something inherently wrong with this laptop causing TWO HDs TO FAIL IN 8 MONTHS there is every likelihood of it happening again. And now that my warranty has run out if the HD fails again I would be left with nothing. The manager said he could not sanction a replacement.

I can accept one HD failing in the first year, but to fail twice and still be expected to accept the same laptop back I think is unacceptable and with this in mind I am requesting that this laptop is replaced with one of the same spec.

I look forward to your reply on this matter


Curry`s reply
Mon 14/11/2011 23:15

[FONT=&quot]Thank you for your email regarding your Advent A15IM02M200. It has been assigned the reference number 3342032654, please quote this number in any future correspondence.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I apologise for the repair history you mentioned, but I can assure you that there is no inherent fault with your notebook.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The hard drive is a self-contained unit and will have a 90-day warranty, starting the date your notebook is returned.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Even though the notebook is about to go out of warranty, the hard drive will still be covered in the unlikely event that it should fail again in this timeframe.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Should you have any further issues please don't hesitate to contact us either via email or by telephone on 0844 561 1234 open 24/7.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Kind regards,[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Michael[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]KnowHow Tech[/FONT]

and the next day
Thank you for your enquiry.

I am concerned to learn of the difficulties that you are experiencing with your Advent Laptop.

Whenever one of our products develops a manufacturing fault within the guarantee period, we will offer the remedy of a free repair, exchange or refund. This is dependent upon the age of the product and the nature of the defect.

On this occasion, we believe that a free of charge repair is the appropriate solution. Should an engineer deem the product to be beyond economical repair, an exchange will be offered. If a replacement of similar specifications is not available then a refund will be considered.

If your Advent Laptop becomes faulty again within the warranty period I recommend that you request for the Laptop to be replaced. If it becomes faulty outside of the warranty period please write in to our Customer Correspondence Team.

Customer Correspondence Team
Customer Services
PO Box 1687
Sheffield
S2 5YA
Kind regards
Currys Customer Services

So i stupidly accepted the laptop back, and guess what
Sat 31/03/2012 21:22
Hi

I am writing again to advise that my daughters laptop is again failing as it is continually crashing, I rebooted her laptop in safe mode and looked in the event viewer- administration events and it shows that it has been crashing at least twice a day since 24/12/2011, the description on this date was as follows,

WINDOWS DISK DIAGNOSTIC DETECTS A S.M.A.R.T. FAULT ON DISK SAMSUNG HM400JI (VOLUMESC:\)

Every other failure since then has the following,

THE DRIVER HAS DETECTED\DEVICE\HARDDISKO\DRO HAS PREDICTED THAT IT WILL FAIL IMMEDIATELY BACK UP YOUR DATA AND REPLACE YOUR HARD DISK. A FAILURE MAY BE IMMINENT.

When I got the laptop back from yourselves the last time I was told the hard drive would still be under warranty but as you can see above the fault first started on the 24/12/2011 and clearly shows that it is still the same fault that we have already had repaired twice with this laptop.

I look forward to your reply in this matter.

Their reply was that because it was now out of warrenty they needed £50 from me for them to pick it up and look at it, of course I refused this and after two phone calls got them to agree to pick it up free of charge but also told them they could access the laptop but i did not want it repaired as i did not want the laptop back and was demeanding a refund or exchange.
I have just had a call from them to tell me it is back at the showroom fully repaired, needless to say i have been back on the phone to them but i am still getting nowhere.
I am at my wits end here and any advice can only help.
As i said sorry its a long winded one :mad:

Thanks Andy

CoolHotCold

Hard Drive are indeed fully contained units and unfortunately I feel it is the way your daughter that is handling the unit that is causing damage to the hard drive. They have already done more than what the SoGA states in repairing it again.


Sorry, but HDD's are one of the most delicate parts of a laptop, and is usually down to environmental conditions (environmental in this case being the way it's handled) causing it to fail.

ADNYF

Thanks Cool

My daughter is 15 years old very level headed and careful, her laptop sits on a mobile table next to her bed, when she needs to use it she pulls the table over to her or sits at the table, she never lifts the laptop off the table in fact the only time its been off the the table is the times it has been in the repair shop.
Laptops are meant to be mobile, i myslef use mine at my work and at home, it was bought from Currys around the same time although a different make from my daughters and gets carried around in a bag and in the boot of my car and to date i have not had a problem with it. sorry m8 but this is down to a faulty laptop.

SuperHan

In that case, you will need to get an independent report stating that the machine is in fact inherently faulty, which you will need to pay for. If the report comes back conclusive, you can then take this and the laptop in to Curry's and they will have to repair, replace of refund the laptop - whichever they choose, so most likely a repair - and refund the cost of the independent report.

Like CoolHotCold has said, it's unlikely that something in the notebook is causing the hard drive to fail as they are self contained units, but if you think this is the case, then follow the above cause of action.

I can't really follow your sequence of events though - If the laptop has been crashing since December, why didn't you claim under the 90 day guarantee of the replacement hard drive? Why have you waited until now when both warranties have expired?

Mista_C

HDDs are contained units but they still have to interface with the rest of the machine. It's possible to cause damage to the drive by not allowing the drive to spin down. Why would it be doing this?..

The laptop is crashing on average twice a day. It quite easily could be an intermittent fault elsewhere and the drive failing is merely a symptom of that problem, laptop crashes, data read/write interrupted, data corrupts. I would also be looking at other areas of the laptop for signs of the fault.

the HDD is giving you a visible symptom of the problem which is also visible to the techs. Presumably a quick reinstall later and it appeared solved. All the files are newly installed and have not yet corrupted. I seriously doubt Currys take the time to do a proper burn in test before OK'ing the repair.

CoolHotCold

It's very possible to cause damage to the HDD by other parts of the unit. Usually it's all user done (system crashing through software/infections, failure to shut it down properly, etc) And I have doubts it's a physical issue with the rest of the machine as it was working correctly without any issues for two months, even intermittent faults should appear from there.

Usually it's user control that causes HDD issues, occasionally it may just be a faulty piece of hardware from the factory.

Mista_C

CoolHotCold wrote: »

And I have doubts it's a physical issue with the rest of the machine as it was working correctly without any issues for two months, even intermittent faults should appear from there.

The crash could be due to any number of physical issues including processor overheating, bad memory chips, etc. all of which may not have shown any symptoms for a number of months. Over heating through poorly designed airflow, for instance, may not be immediately evident but as lubrication dries and vents start collecting dust it can be just enough to take a faulty component over the edge.

Usually it's user control that causes HDD issues, occasionally it may just be a faulty piece of hardware from the factory.

Most, if not all, HDDs leave the factory with bad sectors. Most will never show any symptoms as there are practices in place to make sure those areas of the disk are never used but occasionally those bad sectors will be more than an oddity and can be caused by minute debris particles impacting the rapidly spinning platters.

In any case I agree it's highly unlikely that 2 drives would fail in such a short space of time. Handling is likely, what evidence is there that Currys actually replaced the drive?

I'm still leaning towards it being something else though. Toshiba, for instance, have a nasty habit of not securing HDDs into laptops. The amount I've seen fail because it's slipped off the connector (it's only method of being secured) is shocking.

Jakg

Personally I don't think you have any case for a new laptop after nearly 2 years.

CoolHotCold

Mista_C wrote: »

In any case I agree it's highly unlikely that 2 drives would fail in such a short space of time. Handling is likely, what evidence is there that Currys actually replaced the drive?

I'm still leaning towards it being something else though. Toshiba, for instance, have a nasty habit of not securing HDDs into laptops. The amount I've seen fail because it's slipped off the connector (it's only method of being secured) is shocking.

Very easy to check if the HDD is replaced KnowHow issue JRS numbers when being picked up or taken into the store which track the item from when it's picked up by KnowHow, to the repair process in KnowHow's labs in Newark to it's redelivery and you can either phone up and ask what was replaced giving the JRS or pop into a store and they can show you what was replaced on the report and what diagnostics were done. (It also gives dates and times of each step).


As far as securing it, Advent Modena's are horrible to break down as there isn't a typical easy to remove plastic backing where the HDD slots in, no you have to remove a bazillion screws to prise the case in half and undo another bazillion screws to loosen the hard drive, and even then you're unsure if you've got all the screws relating to the hdd removed as it still refuses to budge unless you pull it in a particular direction. In short, if the HDD wasn't snug to the connectors the laptop would not be able to be reassembled. Those Advents and some 14" Sony's have been designed by a person with no technical background who's main purpose in life is to make mine a living hell.