Returning a laptop to PC World. Not faulty, Am I allowed?

Protocol45

My sister and father went out a few days back to buy her a laptop. Her last one was stolen. She went to PC World and bless my family, what they know about Laptops isn't worth knowing. They spoke to a guy there who pointed them in the direction of a specific laptop. Making such outrageous claims like the bigger the hard drive the faster the hard drive.

In the end they paid £330 for a laptop which while will do the basics, wont do what she initially wanted and asked for it to do, playing small games for her children, namely minecraft.

I tested the laptop out myself and did find it very slow. My question is, what rights, if any, does she have to return the Laptop and get another or get a refund?

I know retailers get funny as soon as you walk out the door, but this is just a quick question really, so I can tell them what, if anything, they are entitled to. Based on what they have told me, the salesman was misleading in his answers. Either because he wanted a sale or because he knows nothing about Laptops. Next time around I will be present to make sure they get the right one, but for now they feel like they are stuck with a laptop they don't want.

All help is appreciated!

matttye

They might let you exchange it as a goodwill gesture, especially after the recent Durkin case.

wealdroam

Protocol45 wrote: »

My sister and father went out a few days back to buy her a laptop. Her last one was stolen. She went to PC World and bless my family, what they know about Laptops isn't worth knowing. They spoke to a guy there who pointed them in the direction of a specific laptop. Making such outrageous claims like the bigger the hard drive the faster the hard drive.

In the end they paid £330 for a laptop which while will do the basics, wont do what she initially wanted and asked for it to do, playing small games for her children, namely minecraft.

I tested the laptop out myself and did find it very slow. My question is, what rights, if any, does she have to return the Laptop and get another or get a refund?

I know retailers get funny as soon as you walk out the door, but this is just a quick question really, so I can tell them what, if anything, they are entitled to. Based on what they have told me, the salesman was misleading in his answers. Either because he wanted a sale or because he knows nothing about Laptops. Next time around I will be present to make sure they get the right one, but for now they feel like they are stuck with a laptop they don't want.

All help is appreciated!

Yes, retailers can get funny... as you put it.

All sales in a shop should be considered final unless otherwise advised.

I understand that PCW do allow returns of unopened goods for some time after purchase, but as the goods in question have been used, I would expect them to refuse a 'change of mind' request.

If you (by 'you' I mean the purchaser) can convince PCW that the goods were misold, then you may stand a chance.

Good luck.

Hintza

Go in nice and easy and you might get a result.

maninthestreet

Protocol45 wrote: »

My sister and father went out a few days back to buy her a laptop. Her last one was stolen. She went to PC World and bless my family, what they know about Laptops isn't worth knowing. They spoke to a guy there who pointed them in the direction of a specific laptop. Making such outrageous claims like the bigger the hard drive the faster the hard drive.

In the end they paid £330 for a laptop which while will do the basics, wont do what she initially wanted and asked for it to do, playing small games for her children, namely minecraft.

I tested the laptop out myself and did find it very slow. My question is, what rights, if any, does she have to return the Laptop and get another or get a refund?

I know retailers get funny as soon as you walk out the door, but this is just a quick question really, so I can tell them what, if anything, they are entitled to. Based on what they have told me, the salesman was misleading in his answers. Either because he wanted a sale or because he knows nothing about Laptops. Next time around I will be present to make sure they get the right one, but for now they feel like they are stuck with a laptop they don't want.

All help is appreciated!

What make and model of laptop is it?

neilmcl

I'd be surprised if it couldn't play Minecraft, it's not exactly graphics hungry. As above, what make & model?

unholyangel

Is it by any chance the Microsoft transformer pad?

I had a look on the website and all models around that price range should be able to handle most games with ease.

Where the tranformer pad happens to be £330 (or £329.95 on their website if you want to be precise) and I could quite understand why it would struggle.

If its an actual laptop....have you had a look at the specs on the laptop (should find it under system - how to find it will vary depending on OS - i'm guessing windows 8?) to make sure they are as they're supposed to be?

unholyangel

neilmcl wrote: »

I'd be surprised if it couldn't play Minecraft, it's not exactly graphics hungry. As above, what make & model?

Looked up the minimum/recommended spec requirements for Minecraft out of curiosity. If its the transformer pad or a chromebook.....might explain why its struggling:

Minimum Requirements:
CPU: Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 (K8) 2.6 GHz
RAM: 2GB
GPU (Integrated): Intel HD Graphics or AMD (formerly ATI) Radeon HD Graphics with OpenGL 2.1
GPU (Discrete): Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT or AMD Radeon HD 2400 with OpenGL 3.1
HDD: At least 200MB for Game Core and Other Files
Java 6 Release 45

Recommended Requirements:
CPU: Intel Core i3 or AMD Athlon II (K10) 2.8 GHz
RAM: 4GB
GPU: GeForce 2xx Series or AMD Radeon HD 5xxx Series (Excluding Integrated Chipsets) with OpenGL 3.3
HDD: 1GB
Latest release of Java 7 from java.com

Software Requirements:
Minecraft Release 1.6 or newer. Older versions will need to be updated to current versions
Please note that some users experience issues playing Minecraft while using a mismatched version of Java for their operating system (32 or 64 bit), while using certain versions of Java 7, or while multiple versions of Java are installed

If you have a laptop with an a built-in (integrated) graphics card, rather than a dedicated card, it is highly suggested that you try the demo before purchase.

Minecraft will not run on a toaster (despite some actually using Java), your car (feel free to prove us wrong, though), or a Chromebook.

Protocol45

I believe the laptop is this one.
I did test minecraft on it and while the framerate was low, it did play it ok, just. I think the biggest issue with the laptop is the HD. Which is painfully slow. I installed updates on it and it took nearly an hour. Booting up takes a long time, loading apps takes a long time also. They should of bought a cheaper one with a smaller HD and then bought an SSD. My sister will NEVER use a fraction of 1TB.

The only reason they got this one was because the guy in the store told them "the larger the HD the faster it is", which still tickles me. I feel responsible for this somewhat, since I build PC's and I should have gone with them to make the choice. Hopefully they will get the manager in a good mood and maybe a deal can be brokered. Otherwise, she either will have to sell it at a loss privately, or spend more money on an SSD.

bod1467

The HDD is a standard 5400 rpm. Whilst better drives are 7200 rpm, this one is typical and won't really be the bottleneck ... the real problem is likely the CPU - I think the N3510 is a fairly budget mobile unit.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Pentium+N3510+%40+1.99GHz

agrinnall

That spec is not dissimilar to the HP laptop that I'm using at the moment, while it's over 4 years old I don't find it particularly slow except at start up, and that's only in comparison to my work laptop that starts from SSD. The processor is a little slower than mine, but it's quad core rather than my dual, and with 8 GB of RAM I'd expect it to be perfectly useable. Perhaps it's actually faulty, or has got some bloatware pre-loaded that is slowing everything down.