Alienware Laptop - Manufacturing Fault

visidigi

vaio wrote: »

SOG rights are against retailer, nothing to do with manufacturer and says that in the event of a fault which was present at the point of sale the retailer is responsible for fixing it without significant cost or inconvenience to the consumer. To me this means that the retailer needs to collect it at a time & place which is convenient to the buyer. Given that we get courier deliveries between 7am & 7pm it seems strange to me that they can't arrange something that suits and that's before you consider collecting it from the OPs place of work or using the Post Office.

As the retailer has gone bust these SOG responsibilities pass to the credit card company under s75 and they are responsible in exactly the same way as the retailer would be if they were still in business.

The warranty with the manufacturer is an entirely different matter, you need to comply with the T&C of the warranty so they can stipulate that to claim under the warranty the computer has to be available for collection between 12 & 2 at the OP's home address or must be delivered to the co-op in Milton Keynes at 10am on Wednesday wearing a morning suit or anything else they care to put in their T&C. (silly examples I know but you get the point)

Don't get me wrong, I know the legal obligation the CC has with a S75, but given the S75 process, and the decision that they make, I just can't personally see them going for a S75 claim on a device that went faulty, the manufacturer agreed to repair and that the OP has basically made no potential opportunity to be resolved.

vaio

Fair point but I don't see how they could defend against it.

SOG obligations are statutory and not conditional of getting it fixed by the manufacturer. To coin a phrase, any manufacturer warranty is in addition to your statutory (ie SOG) rights and can't detract from them.

visidigi

...yeah but looking at it from the outside in, if the S75 claim had no validation or internal approval process by the credit card company it would be wide open to abuse and fraud...

SOGA requires a duty of care, potentially the S75 claim could fail due to misuse if the product has not been operational for a period of time before claiming under S75...

vaio

I'm sure the cc companies have procedures to prevent fraud etc but I'm not aware of any time limits on s75 other than the statutory 6 years.

Not quite sure what you mean by duty of care & misuse, on the face of it the laptop had suffered from a well documented motherboard manufacturing fault which killed it after three months. I'm struggling to see how not using a laptop could amount to misuse

Assuming that's true then the OP can get Dell to fix it under warranty (but subject to Dell's T&C) or go after the CC company under s75 to enforce SOG.

visidigi

Duty of care would come in when the OP has the laptop, broken but covered by warranty and refuses to deal with the manufacturer, instead choosing to claim from the credit card company when convenient (after warranty expiry) - the OP has had plenty of opportunity and has indeed pointed out that Dell are willing to repair it its just the OP can't/won't/doesn't want to make it available to them to repair.

I'm not arguing your point of view, I'm just thinking out loud that people if the retailer exists the CC company expects you to work with the retailer, via the manufacturer to resolve. Just because the retailer no longer exists (and I agree about the transfer of SOGA) I just can't see the CC company turning round and saying, here's your money back because you've been 'too busy'.

Individual circumstances don't replace general expectation to resolve is I guess what I am trying to get across.

DoktaUH

As a lot of you are focussing on my lack of effort I will try to clarify a bit more.

When I first emailed Dell/Alienware about the problem I was told someone would call to discuss my problem. They did call, however it was 10am and I was at work, as I drive for a living answering the phone was not an option.nwhen I tried to call back the number was engaged. I left it a few hours til my next break and tried again, again engaged.

When I arrived home I check my email to find one from them saying someone had tried to call and I had no answered, they would try again the next day at the same time. I replied telling them that this would be unsuitable as I would be again working and unable to answer. They called again and this time I was able to call back immediately after their call rang off, but their number was one again engaged.

When I arrived home I found another email from them saying as they'd tried twice and gotten no reply they were closing my case. I replied to tell them that I had already informed them I would be unavailable so it was a little unfair to close the case and to ask if an engineer could be sent to sort the matter. No reply.

The next day there was no call, however when I got home I was told that an engineer had been to visit but no one was home, I hadn't even been informed they were going to be sent so I hadn't had time to take the day off. I emailed to say I had the next day off work (a Saturday) and would be available all day for them to try again. This garnered an immediate response that as it was a weekend they would not be able to provide an engineer and would send one on Monday, once again whilst I was at work.

At this point I asked them if they cold provide an address for me to drop off the laptop for it to be fixed in my absence to which I was told that they were unable to do this and would send the engineer on the Monday.

As expected when I arrived home on the Monday I found an email stating as the engineer was unable to access the property the case would once again be closed. Furious I abandoned the issue for roughly two months to focus on my work.

After these two months I emailed again to ask what they were going to do as I work during the day and had no safe place to leave the laptop for them to collect in my absence. The reply I got told me a few weeks from that point drop off centres would be available and they would reply when they became available.

I left this some months waiting for the reply which didn't come. When I finally decided I'd waited long enough I emailed again to ask where I could drop it off. Their reply was that the centres were not going to be open for another 2 weeks and again be patient.

As a few weeks from then I was moving I again left it, waiting for a reply. Now I have moved I'm pursuing the issue again and thought seeking assistance here would help me, not get me abuse because I'd trusted the company would contact me sooner.

If you can't help, don't reply. If you want to be nasty, don't reply. If you want to be condescending, again don't reply.

I just want to gt his laptop working, repaired replaced or refunded so I can stop seeing a very expensive paperweight.

somethingcorporate

Unfortunately even if you don't want to hear it your lack of effort would certainly be called into question by the other party.

I suggest given it was Dell's lack of response you pick it up again with them.

You have 2 options (as the previous 20 or so replies suggests) (i) speak to Dell and arrange something you can both stick to or (ii) talk to your card company and file a s75 claim (although they may bring into question why you have waited so long before doing anything).

Saying things like "taking 2 months off to focus on work" won't help your cause so try and push the waiting issue back on Dell if you do speak to your bank.

Confused_consumer

Hi Forum,
I have re-posted this to a more suitable thread!