Warning; Laptops Direct

ellenGB

I bought what I was told was a fast laptop from a company called Laptops Direct. One reason was their no quibble quarantee. This states:

"Worried you might have made the wrong choice? With our no quibble return policy you can send it back to us and get a full refund up to 7 days after you've received your order. Whether you've picked the wrong product or just changed your mind you can send your order back to us and you'll get all your money back." It's on their home page. You can't miss it. There's no * to alert you to limitations and exclusions.

To check, I talked to a sales assistant. He informed me that if there was a fault, the promise was a full refund, even for the extra memory stick.

I paid for their checking service to make sure there were no errors etc, upgraded the RAM and bought a recovery disc with the OS and updates on it. At least, that's what I was told it would be. A disc with a pristine OS and drivers. No need to spend hours downloading. An out of the box laptop, protected and ready to use. I couldn't wait.

When I got it, the laptop was slow and on shutdown, there was an error message. Something was causing the shutdown to stall. This happens, I know, but I had paid for someone to check the laptop and would have thought they might have tried to resolve it before sending it to me. I rang the same day and someone was going to call me back with instructions.

An engineer who had a similar model thought it awfully slow and couldn't determine why. He saw the error and didn 't know what to do except reinstall the OS etc. I didn't know if the recovery disc had the updates, in which case, the error was likely to be on there. Slow, already having issues, the recovery disc had no instructions and the screen was fuzzy. I recalled the no quibble quarantee, rang the company, got the RMA and was told someone would call the next day with instructions. They didn't. I didn't get the instructions until they knew I'd returned the laptop and not reset the system to factory settings. (That was not wise as they needed to see the error so it was clear that I had not rejected the laptop because of its looks.)

I'm not getting a full refund. I paid £653. I have to pay for the memory fit (£8, fair), the recovery discs (£12.50, but it will almost certainly be configured with the fault), and £80 for someone to press the F4 button and reset the system to factory settings. I also have to pay the postage for the return though usually, the seller pays for the return of faulty goods. So that's a refund minus more than £100. I felt a sense of duty to warn you all. Waiting to tell me that they wanted me to reset the system when they knew I couldn't was a great move. It says it all.

In the terms and conditions, they refer to the resetting fee, but then they wouldn't have been able to confirm that there was an error and this falls under the Sales of Goods and Services Act.

My bank told me to buy from a reputable company next time. I had no idea I hadn't. I wasn't aware that Laptops Direct's no quibble guarantee is only applicable if you don't pay for anything else they offer and if there's no fault. If there is an issue like mine or it's not as described (i.e. fast), then expect a lot of quibbling.

I wish that someone would have warned me. Hence this post. Be very aware.

wealdroam

If you are just wanting to warn people, then this thread is in the wrong place.
There is a whole board devoted to Praise, Vents and Warnings.

Or are you perhaps looking for help with your Consumer Rights issue?

visidigi

Personally, this isn't a warning - its a rip off - if the laptop is faulty they cant charge for the install, they cant charge for the media and they cant charge for the return.

But all that depends on how visible and obvious the fault is/was

ellenGB

Sorry I posted in the wrong thread.