classic christmas pain

Hazel_

I just went and had a look at an argos tablet computer auction and it does say

"
Refurbished Products

Refurbished products are all 100% OK! In fact, they represent amazing value for money, especially as we offer all our refurbished products with a full ONE YEAR warranty. These products may be classed as refurbished for a number of reasons:

[*]They may have been previously sold, and subsequently returned to one of our parent stores and not put back on sale for cosmetic packaging reasons. This is often as little as a broken seal.
[*]Alternatively, they may simply have incurred a minor amount of cosmetic packaging damage during handling in the day to day running of our business.
[*]Some items may have been returned to our parent stores with a reported fault or where a customer had difficulty in using the product."

So it does say they are returns and may have cosmetic damage or have been used and returned

CoolHotCold

Doesn't matter Hazel_

Argos can accept back returns of used items as it's their business decision to do so, PcWorld and Currys do the same thing with their refurbished units.

But all items that can be personalised such as Hard Drives, Flash Drives or media should not be sold without preforming a complete data erasure via a separate company or through professional data erasure tools to ensure that any data on the system is overwritten. (Even when you delete photos or documents or anything the information isn't deleted it just makes that space which was taken up available to be overwritten, so it's still retrievable)

Not only did argos not do the data erasure, they also didn't restore the item back to the factory settings, which leads me to believe it bypassed all QA checks so it may be a faulty item or just a Distance Sales Return, but the point is if Argos failed even the very basics in quarantining stock returns and stock ready to be sold then it still leaves future problems and issues and this time it may not be a adult that opens it first, and it may contain problematic issues.

It's a serious issue and the ICO can fine companies and individuals for £500,000 for each infringement as it is that serious.

Al_Ross

My concern would be that it has been returned to Argos because it has some problem !

Refurbished means that the unit has been re-tested and no faults were found.

A properly refurbished laptop would surely have been restored to factory settings.

Hern

OP: arrange for a return and refund. The principal point of the vendor's selling message was that the product is "100% OK". It isn't. It cannot be treated by the purchaser in the same way that any other "100% OK" (i.e., new) product can be treated. I suspect Argos will very quickly move to reacquire this computer because as CoolHotCold says, there's a data protection issue here and Argos knows very well what consequences can befall. For your own self-protection, you must reject the computer, even though it's a disappointment for all concerned.

markelock

Just bumping this. I've sent it back, making it very easy for them to note the areas where it's clearly been used. I've asked that they send me a new one, as this is what I contracted for, and indeed they contracted for.

To note, it's a fizzbook. It explicitly stated as brand new, not refurbed or anything else.

I have asked them to replace it. I have asked if they can't do that (through whatever crazy system they may operate), they discount a replacement by the cost of postage (as they now charge postage on these) to allow me to purchase a replacement at the same price as I paid originally.

Surely that's a reasonable suggestion? they have them in stock. They are suggesting I have a refund only.

Hern

Progress: well done! But you might be better taking the full refund -- there's no guarantee that you won't wind up with another "new" product that, er, isn't. There's also the fact that companies lilke Argos have a tram-line way of doing things, and though the refund process will, like tram lines, be set in stone, any variation may prove too much for them. Good luck anyway.