Motherboard bought on CC, bent pin

Alloneword

Hi everybody, ok story goes back a couple of months now where i bought a £200 motherboard on my CC from Amazon marketplace (Company called Ballicom, u have been warned), first MB they sent me was broke so asked for refund they said OK fine no probs, send back to us for refund and that went ok, I asked if they had another one they said yes but join our site and order through us (bang goes Amazon's commission i guess) which i did again on my Barclaycard, got here fine however I did not check the cpu socket 100% instead i just put it in case as it looked new (However CPU protection plate was not on CPU socket but in with driver disk and manuals under motherboard), however after i had been trying for ages to get it working i kept getting problems with BSOD, so asked them what to do they said take pic of cpu socket and serial number, which i duly did and emailed them to them they then wrote back and said no refund as i had bent a pin, now sure enough there was a bent pin, however I'm 99% certain it was not down to me as I'm not a fool and know you have to treat these things with kid gloves.

So i thought about it and made a claim to Barclaycard under section 75, however after speaking to them today they reckon i have no chance of a refund, but the guy kept on saying "Under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act" blah, blah, blah.

So this has got me thinking have I made a boob going in under section 75 should i be making a claim under some other act or ruling?

I will take it to there level 2 plus the ombudsmen if needed, i can't afford to have a £200 paperweight.

All1

wealdroam

When did you take delivery of your current MB?

Alloneword

wealdroam wrote: »

When did you take delivery of your current MB?

4th of March this year was del date but in mean time i have been in contact with Ballicom and Barclaycard so i have not been sitting on my butt just taking time dealing with these folks.

All1

daytona0

Can't you go through the courts? As far as I can gather it seems to boil down to who bent the pin, you or the seller? If you have reported the damage quickly when testing it then you may win in court under the sales of goods act with faulty items.

I'm kinda happy to hear that the bank declined a section 75 because at the end of the day you have the 200 pound item and nobody has established who caused the pin damage on the latest item - how or why should the bank take your word over the seller's, especially if they take money from the seller when you still have the item in your possession? It is merely your word against the seller and whilst the seller needs to prove that it was you and not them, you may need to push this in small claims (as a side note, you should have checked the second item with a magnifying glass prior to even breathing on it, especially when the company previously provided a dodgy one)

Alloneword

daytona0 wrote: »

Can't you go through the courts? As far as I can gather it seems to boil down to who bent the pin, you or the seller? If you have reported the damage quickly when testing it then you may win in court under the sales of goods act with faulty items.

I'm kinda happy to hear that the bank declined a section 75 because at the end of the day you have the 200 pound item and nobody has established who caused the pin damage on the latest item - how or why should the bank take your word over the seller's, especially if they take money from the seller when you still have the item in your possession? It is merely your word against the seller and whilst the seller needs to prove that it was you and not them, you may need to push this in small claims (as a side note, you should have checked the second item with a magnifying glass prior to even breathing on it, especially when the company previously provided a dodgy one)

Oh I'm well aware of your last point 100% my mistake, i will never make that mistake again, it's a very long story and in a nutshell when i wanted to send 2nd one back for refund they made me take an image if the cpu socket, which is intresting as they never did on the first board nor did they have this listed in there t&c on either Amazon or there own site, it's just too suspisious (spelling), well i'll see what BC say from my POV I have nothing to loose so may as well go all the way to the ombudsman then look at small claims I have never done that before so may well do it just for a life lesson so long as it's not too much, last time i heard it was about £50, oh well, put this down to life lesson.

All1

Alloneword

Well just to put this to bed i got what in think is a good deal from BC, they have agreed to refund me £150 out of the £200 and told me i can keep the board, i can now flog it on ebay for about £60 or send it away for repair at a cost of about £25, so not bad IMO

All1

photome

Alloneword wrote: »

Well just to put this to bed i got what in think is a good deal from BC, they have agreed to refund me £150 out of the £200 and told me i can keep the board, i can now flog it on ebay for about £60 or send it away for repair at a cost of about £25, so not bad IMO

All1

If its just one bent pin, can you just straighten it? Of course there is a chance it will break but most likely it would be ok

Nilrem

photome wrote: »

If its just one bent pin, can you just straighten it? Of course there is a chance it will break but most likely it would be ok

You could sometimes do it with pins on CPU's, but with the pins in the motherboard socket it tends to be a lot harder to do (and it was bad enough with 775 CPU's, let alone the much higher pin count for modern processors).

A good (preferably hands free) magnifier, a selection of thin blades and preferably a mechanical pencil (slide the lead holder over the pin for the final straightening) was what I used to use for CPU's, but I probably wouldn't try it for the motherboard socketed pins.

visidigi

Alloneword wrote: »

Well just to put this to bed i got what in think is a good deal from BC, they have agreed to refund me £150 out of the £200 and told me i can keep the board, i can now flog it on ebay for about £60 or send it away for repair at a cost of about £25, so not bad IMO

All1

That's a really suspicious conclusion, I am pleased for you, but at the same time its like they KNEW something was up with that item. The socket on the motherboard is the most common cause of user error, closely followed by scored tracks on the board itself.

Like you say the fact they asked for a photo of the socket is odd, especially as they didn't the first time.

Oh well, pleased you got a good outcome, something would be niggling me about the amounts though!

Alloneword

I had a go a fixing it myself but as my m8 says i have finger like a bunch of bananas I gave up on the job I have spoken to Asus and they confirm fix will cost £15 plus postage to them in UK so max spend for me of £25 which mean board will have cost me £75 at the end of the day, which to be honest i'm happy with, i do think i had a decnet case and could have pushed it by going to the ombudsman but i'm not looking for a fight, just something fair and i think i got that, I just won't be using Ballicom EVERY again.

All1