Laptop Guarantee - Help needed

Simon7685

I bought a laptop from Littlewoods for my daughter last Xmas. In July this year it stopped working and would not turn on, so I contacted Littlewoods under the 12 month guarantee.

Littlewoods told me I needed to contact Lenovo and they would arrange for a collection and repair of the laptop, it went for the repair and Lenovo contacted me to say it could not be repaired and I needed to email them with proof of purchase and they would supply me with a returns authorisation code, which would entitle me to a full refund or replacement from the retailer.

I got the code contacted Littlewoods and sent them a copy of the email. I was contacted and told that I should return the laptop and they would credit my account with a full refund on receipt, so the laptop was sent back to them.

They credited my account as promised earlier this week. Today I received a letter from Littlewoods saying the return did not comply with their Approval guarantee. It goes on to say they have forwarded the laptop to their computing repair service for their inspection and they will contact me shortly.

On checking my account they have reversed the refund and charged me again for the laptop.

In the meantime after getting the returns code from Lenovo, I have ordered another laptop from them which has also been added to my account. I did this after speaking to them and being told I was going to receieve a full refund.

The department the letter is from is 9 to 5, Monday to Friday, so I can't contact them until Monday. In the meantime I need to know where I stand here and what my rights are before ringing on Monday.

If someone can give me some sound advice I would really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance

Simon7685

I could not wait until Monday as this was worrying me, so I decided to ring Littlewoods main number to try and find out what was going on.

Having looked at the letter that they sent me, it mentioned the name of the company they have sent the laptop to, so I googled it. It turns out to be a company that specializes in refurbing machines for the major retailers!

This left me wondering if there plan was to return a repaired laptop to me with non original parts, or possibly re sell the laptop as a refurbished machine at the same time as getting the cost price refunded through the Lenovo code they supplied?

Anyway after over 30 minutes on hold I got to speak to an advisor who said she completely understood my problem and that all the notes were on the system to say a full refund was in order. She put me on hold again several times trying to get through to the correct people to sort out the mess.

Eventually I spoke to a guy who could not have been more apologetic, he said this was a total error on their part and that the machine should not have been even sent to the company that it has and the credit that was put on my account should not have been reversed.

He said it was the fault of the returns department who obviously had NOT read the notes on the system! So had decided to send it for a repair and re charge my account. He said they would be advised that the laptop had to be recalled and that my account would be credited but this would take up to 7 days. He said he had again noted the system with the returns code from Lenovo.

All in all if it all happens it should now get sorted out but I will wait and see.

I do intend to write a complaint to Littlewoods once this is sorted and also ask for the cost of all the calls I have had to make. It might sound petty but this months phone bill (last months calls) shows total charges of nearly £8 to them. Having checked with my provider the number I have had to use to call them costs 10.8p a minute to them and 10.8p a minute to Littlewoods. Today I was on hold for over 30 minutes just to get through which will cost me over £6 for the initial period on hold!

All because someone cant do their job correctly!

wealdroam

Simon7685 wrote: »

It might sound petty but this months phone bill (last months calls) shows total charges of nearly £8 to them. Having checked with my provider the number I have had to use to call them costs 10.8p a minute to them and 10.8p a minute to Littlewoods. Today I was on hold for over 30 minutes just to get through which will cost me over £6 for the initial period on hold!

Yes you are right, it does sound petty.

You do not have to use the 21.6p per minute number. You are choosing to use the 21.6p per minute number.

Look on SayNoTo0870 for many Littlewoods geographic numbers.

AJXX

Write a letter of complaint re the situation by all means, perhaps mention the cost of calls in passing (with the hope of them granting a gesture of goodwill) - but my no means would I be insisting on a refund or making a big deal about the cost of calls, as littlewoods are no way responsible for how much your telephone provider charges to call them - as mentioned above geographic cheaper numbers can be found very easily.

P.S. it took me all of 2 mins to go onto the littlewoods website (just out of curiosity) and find a 03 telephone number.

Alternatively if you have any service related queries
please call us on 0344 822 8000

http://www.littlewoods.com/help/en/online-help#plckforumid=Cat%3A8ab7caf3-d385-4234-bd91-fa5026ca8214Forum%3A24356a58-3e6a-4df3-ad9d-6db53da50d64&plckforumpage=Forum&plckdiscussiononpage=1&plckforumpostshowfirstunread=&plckfindpostkey=

Hermione_Granger

AJXX wrote: »

P.S. it took me all of 2 mins to go onto the littlewoods website (just out of curiosity) and find a 03 telephone number.

PPS. If you had checked a bit deeper, you would have found that if you don't have an inclusive calls package or if you do but are calling at a time when you are charged, many call providers charge around 10p a minute for an 01, 02 or 03 call (which is what the OP stated they paid), and some are higher than this.

wealdroam

Hermione_Granger wrote: »

PPS. If you had checked a bit deeper, you would have found that if you don't have an inclusive calls package or if you do but are calling at a time when you are charged, many call providers charge around 10p a minute for an 01, 02 or 03 call (which is what the OP stated they paid), and some are higher than this.

The OP stated they paid over 10p to their service provider plus over 10p to Littlewoods for each minute of every call.

The point being that second component of those call costs is easily avoided.

Simon7685

I had completely forgotten just how much support you get from some of the forums on MSE!

Regarding the phone calls and associated costs, the point is that had Littlewoods done the job right in the first place, the calls and costs would not have had to be made!

Regarding the use of the 0844 number, I usually do set about trying to find an 0800 number but owing to the situation I wanted to try and get the situation sorted out as a priority and used the main number, yes my mistake.

ThumbRemote

Why do posters on these boards insist on thinking that it's the consumers responsibility to dig around trying to find alternative contact numbers for companies. It's entirely reasonable for people to use the main contact number supplied.

In this case Littlewoods have admitted their mistake; as such OP shouldn't be left out of pocket for it and certainly should be chasing Littlewoods to have the cost refunded.

wealdroam

ThumbRemote wrote: »

Why do posters on these boards insist on thinking that it's the consumers responsibility to dig around trying to find alternative contact numbers for companies. It's entirely reasonable for people to use the main contact number supplied.

One reason a consumer might want to take the initiative and find a cheaper phone number is to reduce the cost of the call. This is a money saving website after all.

If I can offer help with that, I feel it is the right thing for me to do.

Of course the consumer can use 'the main contact number supplied', whatever that may mean, but as was pointed out earlier by AJXX, Littlewoods Contact Us webpage does point the consumer to an 0344 number.

See here:

tomtontom

ThumbRemote wrote: »

Why do posters on these boards insist on thinking that it's the consumers responsibility to dig around trying to find alternative contact numbers for companies. It's entirely reasonable for people to use the main contact number supplied.

In this case Littlewoods have admitted their mistake; as such OP shouldn't be left out of pocket for it and certainly should be chasing Littlewoods to have the cost refunded.

1. No digging required, the number is on the main contacts page.
2. Should the OP have needed to take this to small claims, they would have a duty to mitigate their losses. This would include taking a few seconds to look up an alternative number.
3. Looking up a number would certainly be quicker than writing the complaint the OP now intends to send, so would have benefited him also.