Entitlement to a refund within 7 days?

JustAnotherSaver

My sister is wanting a refund on a laptop she bought online but i'm not really believing her reasoning behind it.

She says it keeps turning off/resetting so she wants to send it back for a refund.

Knowing my sister as i do & how she hates change, i suspect she just hates Windows 8 & this is the reason for her wanting a refund. I've used it (briefly i must admit) & it didn't reset or turn off or whatever on me.


So if she goes down the turning off (faulty) route would they have to refund her or can this be refused & she'd only be entitled to exchange?

I'm not too sure about what you can & can't expect so thought i'd ask.

rustyboy21

All it is doing is doing the security windows updates, which will have taken place, since the laptop was produced and boxed up.

OH got one the other week and there were 172 updates to do, which entailed it restarting numerous times, it was a pain, but I have not been asked about anything further since he has started using it.

She will have updates on any laptop she has, she can switch them off and do them manually, so if she doesn't want to be kept up to date, she can be.

You will be told that she may have the rights to a refund, by people on here, but getting it easily and without stress is not going to be easy. If she is getting hassled by all the updates, the god help her with all the hassle of proving she hasn't 'accepted ' the laptop.

Can you sit with her for a few hours and do all the updates for her? at least she wont have to deal with them. She can also set the desktop to a normal desktop, she doesn't need to use the tile screen. I have got used to W8 now, OH, who I was worried about using it, as he is a technophobe, loves it, he says it is so much easier then W7 which he had before.

JustAnotherSaver

Yes it's the updates which i was thinking about. I suspected this is what was going on.

I asked her that if i turn updates off does this change anything, does she still want a refund.

She did. The laptop isn't what she wanted. She thought she'd cope better with Windows 8. The touchpad left/right keys are kind of integrated which she doesn't like.

Her mind is set on a refund if possible. I'm not sure "don't like it" is a valid reason for one though.

daytona0

Well the item could have been rejected within 7 days BUT I suspect that acceptance has occurred here plus one could argue that by booting up the laptop you have also personalised it which is worse... Not sure you can return it unwanted to be honest, but worth querying with the company..


Also, they may test the aults you have proposed and should it be down to the automatic updates then you'll probably just having it sent back to you (at your expensive i you have posted it out to them!)

unholyangel

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Yes it's the updates which i was thinking about. I suspected this is what was going on.

I asked her that if i turn updates off does this change anything, does she still want a refund.

She did. The laptop isn't what she wanted. She thought she'd cope better with Windows 8. The touchpad left/right keys are kind of integrated which she doesn't like.

Her mind is set on a refund if possible. I'm not sure "don't like it" is a valid reason for one though.

I hated windows 8 to start with. But when purchasing a new laptop, wasnt put off by 8 as updating OS is inevitable and other half has a laptop I use occasionally with windows 8.

After 1-2 months of using it, I think I actually prefer it. Has some useful features and is easy to navigate once you learn your way around.

By the touchpad keys, do you mean the left/right "buttons" on the touchpad (that resemable the mouse buttons)? Has she considered a mouse or mini mouse?

Not very much consumer rights, more along the lines of time spent arguing it (CCRs replaced DSRs which allow the retailer to deduct an amount from the refund to account for the diminished value - up to the whole contract price) it may be the easiest/quickest solution.

rustyboy21

Unholyangel


Just wanted to check something out with you, as I have not looked into the new regs much, but are you saying it is possible that the retailer could in effect say, Yes we will take it back but you will only get a partial refund. Because she has in effect used the laptop and registered it with her details etc, they could Hypothetically say ' It cost you £300, we will only refund £100, as we will only be able to recoup, say £100 selling it on again'


I know you have checked up on this new regs and it is something the OP may have to put to her sister, who by the sounds of it, will be expecting a full refund, even though there is nothing wrong with the product.


It would be good to know.

unholyangel

rustyboy21 wrote: »

Unholyangel


Just wanted to check something out with you, as I have not looked into the new regs much, but are you saying it is possible that the retailer could in effect say, Yes we will take it back but you will only get a partial refund. Because she has in effect used the laptop and registered it with her details etc, they could Hypothetically say ' It cost you £300, we will only refund £100, as we will only be able to recoup, say £100 selling it on again'


I know you have checked up on this new regs and it is something the OP may have to put to her sister, who by the sounds of it, will be expecting a full refund, even though there is nothing wrong with the product.


It would be good to know.

Well new regs wont have been tested in court yet given they've only been in around 6 weeks.

But laptops are a bone of contention with retailers and consumers. It would likely come down to what exactly OP's sister has done to it and whether that goes beyond normal testing.

The CCRs say:

Reimbursement by trader in the event of withdrawal or cancellation
34.—(1) The trader must reimburse all payments, other than payments for delivery, received from
the consumer, subject to paragraph (10).

(8) The trader must not impose any fee on the consumer in respect of the reimbursement.
(9) If (in the case of a sales contract) the value of the goods is diminished by any amount as a
result of handling of the goods by the consumer beyond what is necessary to establish the nature,
characteristics and functioning of the goods, the trader may recover that amount from the
consumer, up to the contract price.
(10) An amount that may be recovered under paragraph (9)—
(a) may be deducted from the amount to be reimbursed under paragraph (1);
(b) otherwise, must be paid by the consumer to the trader.
(11) Paragraph (9) does not apply if the trader has failed to provide the consumer with the
information on the right to cancel required by paragraph (l) of Schedule 2, in accordance with Part
2.
(12) For the purposes of paragraph (9) handling is beyond what is necessary to establish the
nature, characteristics and functioning of the goods if, in particular, it goes beyond the sort of
handling that might reasonably be allowed in a shop.

JustAnotherSaver

Right well she's finally come out with it & confirmed what i suspected - she just doesn't like it.

Obviously buying online you can't see properly what the product is like. Also she couldn't experience Windows 8 or the proper use of the keys without turning it on.

She could do a restore i suppose. She's just done a bit of browsing. 1 days use.

Question is though, whether she can expect a refund just based on the fact she doesn't like it & wants a different one?

She's a bit of a nuisance for this. She buys clothes all the time online & is forever sending them back - doesn't like, doesn't fit etc etc. That's going slightly off topic though.

They've responded saying technical support need to be called & are open 9am-6pm. No good to me since i work 7am-6pm.

bris

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

They've responded saying technical support need to be called & are open 9am-6pm. No good to me since i work 7am-6pm.

Why would you phone them, they have no contract with you, cant your sister phone them?

bluenoseam

Restoring it is useless as it will have a sticker on the box somewhere which is a tamper proof seal, once that is broken it's highly likely if not almost guaranteed that any retailer will reject any non-faulty return. With regards to the regs stating that retailers may deduct an amount as a result of being handled well, that's where it becomes tricky.

It's highly likely that the supplier of it will refuse to credit the retailer with a return unless the machine is faulty once the tamper proof seal has been opened. As a consumer if I was handed an electronic product like that I'd be expecting a sizeable discount - simply put it's going to be difficult if not impossible to get anywhere near the cost price of that unit back. As a result as a retailer they could elect to shoot for that deduction to be 100% of the unit cost price knowing they will have to sell it at a substantial discount in order to get it sold. It could easily be argued that because of the vastly reduced ceiling price of that item they must recover it's cost so as not to be out of pocket by the time it's resold.

Harsh as it may seem this is the great problem with people buying technology - if it's not to their taste it's not as simple as taking a top back to the shop, so you HAVE to do your research before hand. I would warn her not to expect anything other than a "no" because ultimately that's the most likely outcome here.

rustyboy21

As said above by everyone, this purchase may be the first one she has done, which the answer is likely to be.....


The computer says NO.

It is not like a dress, jumper or shoes, she has had a good go of it already.