Refurbished Laptop Fault - Do I have any rights?

DesignerLuke

I paid through Paypal. If I remember correctly that was the only payment option offered on the eBay shop listing.

DesignerLuke

They are willing to inspect but I have to pay the organise and pay the costs to return it to them and they will then give me a 'repair quote' for whatever needs fixing as it out of their warranty.

DavidP24

I am guessing they are quite far away which makes the cost prohibitive to return to them.

Are you sure you are talking to Microsoft and not some 3rd party?

So if you suspect it is the SSD get one of the diagnostic tools and test it

http://mashtips.com/ssd-health-test-and-performance-monitor-tools/

Check the manufacturer of the SSD and look for their own tools, e.g. for Kingston

https://www.kingston.com/en/support/technical/kingston-ssd-toolbox

If they are inconclusive, get a cheap conventional hard disk off ebay (cost £3 to £5 for a 160gb

Either install windows to that new hard disk or clone your SSD partition to test hard disk with mini partition tool

https://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

If it works OK on the test hard disk or if there are read errors cloning then you have your answer.

All of the previous advice applies, it is irrelevant that it was refurbished or that they gave a 3 month warranty, these do NOT affect your statutory rights.

However, it is only reasonable that you provide some evidence of hardware failure, an error message from a diagnostic tool or a service report Do NOT go into PC World, if you are not tech savvy I am sure you have a friend who is but you could sort it here on the techie forums. The other day a lady was struggling with getting a PC working, in the end she took a photo of inside and we spotted a cable that powers CPU was not plugged in. Saved her returning it, paying a fee etc etc

If you do determine it is the SSD you can offer them chance to replace it with one of these

https://www.viking-direct.co.uk/a/pb/Toshiba-Solid-State-Drive-Q300-N-A/id=5408680/

https://www.viking-direct.co.uk/a/pb/Toshiba-Solid-State-Drive-Q300-120-GB/id=4152475/

They are only really responsible for the hardware and maybe providing a source for the drivers for Windows.

unholyangel

DesignerLuke wrote: »

They are willing to inspect but I have to pay the organise and pay the costs to return it to them and they will then give me a 'repair quote' for whatever needs fixing as it out of their warranty.

I'm assuming there must be some purpose to them offering to inspect it for a hardware fault, have they said what would happen if the inspection finds in your favour (ie free repair/reimbursed postage costs etc)?

DavidP24

DesignerLuke wrote: »

They are willing to inspect but I have to pay the organise and pay the costs to return it to them and they will then give me a 'repair quote' for whatever needs fixing as it out of their warranty.

Do not accept the premise of returning for a "repair quote"

They must accept that it is being returned for repair under your statutory rights, you would be expected to pay for shipping to them and them back to you.

If that is expensive then you provide them with evidence and give them a way to make this go away. So a diagnostic report from software or a report from a tech who has put fingers on the machine.

I have to say, usually when an SSD goes you usually lose everything, they are just electronics rather than the slow death of a conventional drive.

Paypal will not cover you, if you used a credit card and paypal was merely the merchant service they used you could go to the credit card company. Always worth buying anything over £100 with a credit card, even if you pay it off as soon as you get statement.

wealdroam

DavidP24 wrote: »

They must accept that it is being returned for repair under your statutory rights, you would be expected to pay for shipping to them and them back to you.

If it is an inherent fault, then the seller must cover all costs in providing the remedy. That is the statutory right provided by Section 23 of The Consumer Rights Act.

DesignerLuke

Thanks for all the replies everyone, you've given me a massive boost in confidence to resolve this fairly.

I definitely did speak with Microsoft technical support, though their inability to pinpoint the exact issue was a little concerning. I will go through the SSD tests to clarify my position (I'm good with tech when it's working but not great when it comes to individual pieces of hardware) and go from there. It's settling to know that at the end of the day, my statutory rights should mean this will be of little to no cost to me.

I will update when I know more. Thanks again!

DavidP24

You are right, I am thinking of distance selling aspect

(2) If the consumer requires the trader to repair or replace the goods, the trader must—
(a)do so within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to the consumer, and
(b)bear any necessary costs incurred in doing so (including in particular the cost of any labour, materials or postage).

(6) A consumer who requires or agrees to the repair of goods cannot require the trader to replace them, or exercise the short-term right to reject, without giving the trader a reasonable time to repair them (unless giving the trader that time would cause significant inconvenience to the consumer).

For me the concern would be not to accept the return on the basis of a "repair quote"

They must fully accept their obligations under the act and agree to proceed on that basis.

However, based on their behaviour I would not trust them, I would get diags myself, provide evidence or get 3rd party report.

Only with their agreement to repair under the act would I agree for them to send their own courier to collect the laptop or I would offer them the swap remedy if it was proven that the SSD were faulty.

DavidP24

YouTube is your friend here, there are videos on how to remove or completely dismantle laptops.

SSD is just like swapping a hard disk, ASUS are a bit of a PITA as most require you remove whole cover rather than a panel or caddy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlrCCLK5Nxw

wealdroam

DavidP24 wrote: »

Only with their agreement to repair under the act would I agree for them to send their own courier to collect the laptop or I would offer them the swap remedy if it was proven that the SSD were faulty.

Surely you cannot expect the seller to agree 'to repair under the act' until they have had an opportunity to inspect the goods to determine that the problem is due to an inherent fault?

It seems to me quite reasonable that the seller asks the buyer to return the goods at the buyer's expense but with the assurance that the the carriage cost will be refunded if the problem is found to be inherent.

In this situation the buyer can get their own report to confirm the 'inherentness' of the issue, but equally the seller can refuse to cover that cost simply because in the six months following a sale the onus is on the seller to do the proving.