Purchased faulty PC through private online sale

mark.nbsp

Around 3 weeks ago I purchased a PC from an ad that was placed in a Facebook offering to sell a PC for a set amount of money.

I met the man, purchased it and took it home. I began having problems and, through an inordinate amount of time invested, discovered the problems were due to faulty hardware. I find it very unlikely that the seller was ignorant of these at the time of sale.

I have since contacted him to inform him of this and I received no response. I think his plan is to flog the PC, get the money and hope for the best. I want to return the PC and get a full refund; is the law on my side?

How do I proceed? I am considering telling him that I will go to the police and request a crime number. What rights do I have?

NB. There is no receipt. I do have emails and text messages from him confirming the sale. His name is written on a receipt style sticker than is stuck to the side of the PC.

wealdroam

Do you have an address, not an email address, a real address for this guy?

If not I fear you will have difficulties.

I assume you paid cash.

unholyangel

What do you mean by receipt style sticker? Sounds a rather odd thing for a private sale.

However if it is a private sale, its generally a case of buyer beware/sold as seen. The only stipulation is that it should match any description made about it. So what was the description?

Tbh there is may be little chance to recover anything.

bris

As a private sale it depends on the promises made at the time of advertising. If it was just and ad stating pc for sale with the rough spec of the pc then you have no law on your side.

Please don't waste you time going to the police, it's a civil matter they have better things to do, I hope.

mark.nbsp

The advert, which has now been deleted, didn't strictly imply that it worked. However, in our conversations - which I still have - he offers to show me it on to "prove that it works". I do have his physical home address, his name, his university, his mobile phone number and our email / text communications.

The sticker on the side of the PC denotes his name and the name and street address of the shop he purchased it from, along with a barcode which I presume could identify the transaction. Yes, I paid in cash.

EDIT: The advert also noted that it was a "gaming pc" and that he had used it as his "main gaming PC until getting an upgrade". All our communications are done under the blatant assumption that the hardware was functional.

MamaMoo_2

mark.nbsp wrote: »

The advert, which has now been deleted, didn't strictly imply that it worked. However, in our conversations - which I still have - he offers to show me it on to "prove that it works". I do have his physical home address, his name, his university, his mobile phone number and our email / text communications.

The sticker on the side of the PC denotes his name and the name and street address of the shop he purchased it from, along with a barcode which I presume could identify the transaction. Yes, I paid in cash.

EDIT: The advert also noted that it was a "gaming pc" and that he had used it as his "main gaming PC until getting an upgrade". All our communications are done under the blatant assumption that the hardware was functional.

I take it you've never heard the phrase "to assume is to make an ass of u and me."?

Unfortunately, with private sales there's no consumer protection, and it's buyer beware.
The seller offered to show you the PC working, which it appears you declined.
As you failed to inspect the item, you have very little comeback.
You could try taking the seller to small claims court, however you'll likely lose based on the fact the seller didn't say the item was fault free.

Did you ask the seller, prior to buying, if there were any faults? If you did, and he lied, you'll have a pretty good case.

You could always try writing him a "letter before action" in the hopes it shakes him up enough to worry him into paying you.

mark.nbsp

MamaMoo wrote: »

I take it you've never heard the phrase "to assume is to make an ass of u and me."?

Unfortunately, with private sales there's no consumer protection, and it's buyer beware.
The seller offered to show you the PC working, which it appears you declined.
As you failed to inspect the item, you have very little comeback.
You could try taking the seller to small claims court, however you'll likely lose based on the fact the seller didn't say the item was fault free.

Did you ask the seller, prior to buying, if there were any faults? If you did, and he lied, you'll have a pretty good case.

You could always try writing him a "letter before action" in the hopes it shakes him up enough to worry him into paying you.

After looking through all the records I have on the transaction, he did actually say that the hardware was working correctly and without issue. The problems the PC has would not have been apparent from the type of inspection he was offering; the computer may work for one hour and then die.

[Deleted User]

After a couple of disaster private sale laptop deals.., I'd never buy in that situation again.

I hope you didn't pay an enormous sum for the pc. Can u fix the hardware issues yourself? Are you absolutely sure its hardware issues or could it be a software issue? If you are is it worth replacing the part? If its a RAM issue, easily and cheaply replaced. Graphics card.., more expensive if a gaming pc but as it was sold to upgrade, probably not as expensive as it could be to buy a new one. Hard Drive easily and cheaply replaced. Motherboard - depends on the spec but u can find very good motherboards for £100 or less.

I'd suggest looking at hardware reviews for the spec u need and finding a less expensive but reliable make - don't necessarily go for the top brand name unless its got something u desperately need and nothing else has (rare). I've never had an issue with hardware using this method and saved an awful lot of money building high spec pcs with good quality compnents. They are still working and fairly well futureproofed (well for a gaming pc two or three years without a major upgrade is very good in my estimation, my son still plays the latest high spec games on a pc I built for rather less than £500, 18 months ago). The same pc would have cost £900 if bought online or more in a shop). Sellers will often claim the spec of a pc is able to do more than it actually will without continually restarting etc and giving u the feeling u want a wind up handle on it to make it move faster.

One issue I often find pc users have is getting minimal RAM spec. I always start off with double what I think I'll need and I'm not having to buy more to play games within a week.., or within a year because something high spec has come out. Same for onboard graphics (which I hope you haven't got).., that will never work out if you want a gaming pc.

Obviously I have no idea what spec pc you have and exactly what you want it to do, these are just general comments.

arcon5

Even if he did say fault free you'd need to prove to a degree he misrepresented it and the faults didn't appear afterwards

Searcher

mark.nbsp wrote: »

After looking through all the records I have on the transaction, he did actually say that the hardware was working correctly and without issue. The problems the PC has would not have been apparent from the type of inspection he was offering; the computer may work for one hour and then die.

Sounds like it could be overheating which should be fixed fairly easily. It might be worth posting on the techie board for some help

Lifeforms

Find out what the fault is. That thing has been lifted, moved, turned, driven around, shaken etc so may be that a component is loose which is causing the problems. If it's a shut off problem and linked to heating, fans can be added, or broken fans can be changed pretty easily/cheaply. For any thing you need to know what is broken/not working first.