damaged laptop consumer rights

darkangell73

hi, i really need some advice, I hope this is the right place for this.
So bought a £700 plus Toshiba laptop from John Lewis at the end of September, around Christmas time i noticed that it was a bit floppy when opening and closing, after the Christmas holidays, i noticed the the floppy hinge seem to be opening from the cover at the back, called the technical helpline and was told to bring it in to a John lewis near me. The next day as i was putting the lid back down, there was a loud click, a bit of plastic went flying across the room, wires became even more exposed and the metal hinge popped out of at the back. Same day i took the laptop back to John lewis and it was sent off to be repaired, a week later i get a quote for £300 for them to fix it!!!
i refused to pay as i did nothing to cause the damage...what can i do?

InsideInsurance

Why are they saying that you need to pay? Presumably saying you dropped it or such?

Have you googled to see if its a common fault with this model?

Ultimately you need to inform them its a warranty repair and if they allege you've caused the damage its up to them to prove it

bris

They are looking at the damage and to them it is obviously apparent its accidental damage, pretty easy for them to spot so as far as they are concerned they have proved it.


The ball is back in the OP's court.

InsideInsurance

bris wrote: »

They are looking at the damage and to them it is obviously apparent its accidental damage, pretty easy for them to spot so as far as they are concerned they have proved it.

Not really, they'd have to explain why its AD rather than fault rather than simply saying that a broken case is always AD

JJ_Egan

Title says damaged and i would guess that the vendor will simply say excess force on the hinges , picked up by the screen etc .Hinge was probably a bit lose but continual usage has made the problem worse .
If that's the case it may be worth referring to Trading Standards for advice

darkangell73

I have found loads of forums where people are reporting broken hinges on toshiba laptop across different models. John Lewis however claim to not accept or acknowledge any evidence from Internet forums.
I asked them how they think this could have happened if they contend it's not a manufacturing fault, they said it could be impact, I counted that if such a force was applied, how come the screen remains perfectly undamaged? They had no answer, then the suggest that maybe it was opened too far back, I said the back cover and hinge broke not the front.
I even found that there was a class action in America a couple of years ago over toshiba refusing to acknowledge that there was a manufacturing problem with hinges on its laptops, they lost and had to pay...but john Lewis was not interested.

wealdroam

darkangell73 wrote: »

hi, i really need some advice, I hope this is the right place for this.
So bought a £700 plus Toshiba laptop from John Lewis at the end of September, around Christmas time i noticed that it was a bit floppy when opening and closing, after the Christmas holidays, i noticed the the floppy hinge seem to be opening from the cover at the back, called the technical helpline and was told to bring it in to a John lewis near me. The next day as i was putting the lid back down, there was a loud click, a bit of plastic went flying across the room, wires became even more exposed and the metal hinge popped out of at the back. Same day i took the laptop back to John lewis and it was sent off to be repaired, a week later i get a quote for £300 for them to fix it!!!
i refused to pay as i did nothing to cause the damage...what can i do?

As has already been said, the important thing is that during the first six months after the sale it is for the seller to prove that the fault is due to misuse.

Did you make this purchase using a credit card or some other form of credit?

If so, get in touch with you card issuer.

Maybe have a read of MSE's Section 75 article first.

Fosterdog

darkangell73 wrote: »

I have found loads of forums where people are reporting broken hinges on toshiba laptop across different models. John Lewis however claim to not accept or acknowledge any evidence from Internet forums.
I asked them how they think this could have happened if they contend it's not a manufacturing fault, they said it could be impact, I counted that if such a force was applied, how come the screen remains perfectly undamaged? They had no answer, then the suggest that maybe it was opened too far back, I said the back cover and hinge broke not the front.
I even found that there was a class action in America a couple of years ago over toshiba refusing to acknowledge that there was a manufacturing problem with hinges on its laptops, they lost and had to pay...but john Lewis was not interested.

You'll actually find if you search for hinge problems with any manufacturer you will get hundreds of forum posts for all brands. Try a search on Sony, Lenovo, HP, Asus, Acer and you will get the same results as you have for Toshiba. 9/10 are caused by the user and the way the screen is opened (from a corner instead of centre) or from impact or being carried by the screen.

That being said they do have to prove that it was user inflicted during the first 6 months and just saying you've caused it isn't good enough, they have to be able to show how you caused it. After 6 months it's for you to prove that you didn't damage it. There is still the 1/10 that are genuine defects with the hinges that could be as simple as the supporting screw not being done up tight enough and causing undue stress to the hinge or much more complex internal faults.

vyle

It could all be down to how it's opened. I see an alarming number of people open laptops from the corner, not from the middle, and it always makes me cringe.

If it's gone off to a repair agent, and they've determined it's misuse, they likely have a good idea of how it's been misused and will be able to show it. If there's a quote for the repair, it won't have been an admin person in the shop looking at it, it'll have been a professional repairer who presumably knows about these things and has made the call that it's misuse.