Legal Rights when a computer being returned via warranty was lost

kineticmix

Hi there,

Looking for some consumer advice, I had purchased a computer from a UK company which I then had to return because of a fault which was within there warranty period.

The computer was returned using a UK Courier company, which then turned out to loose the computer.

The computer company then had to wait for confirmation from the Courier company that they did indeed loose the computer before they could do an insurance claim.

Now my computer has been lost as well as all my photographs of my child for the last 8 years, as well as lot of confidential information etc. This whole process of getting to this stage has taken 1 month, the computer was used by me to complete my job from home. Since return of the computer I have had to travel into the office every day to use a computer in there to complete my work.

The computer company said they would replace the computer to the exact same when it was purchased, but I did not want a replacement I just wanted a full refund as I was disgusted with how I was treated by them and because of the time taken to actually get to this point.

From a consumer legal point of view, where do I actually stand with this company?

They state they cannot offer me a refund and only a replacement but I believe this is only adhering to there internal polices and not legal from a consumer point of view.

Can anyone help with this issue? I am thinking about going to small claims court to sort this out? But really do not know where I stand with this?

emptybox

Not sure why you are angry with the computer company? They're offering to replace the computer. I would take it.
Unless you weren't happy with the PC when you had it?
It would be the courier company I'd be furious with.

I presume you realise you should have had all your important data backed up somewhere off the PC?

I think whether you would be entitled to a full refund would depend on how long you had it for, and whether whatever went wrong could be shown to be a manufacturing defect.
But that's complicated by the fact the PC never reached the computer company.
It may well be the courier company you have a claim against.

kineticmix

The computer company hired the courier company to do there collection and return, so legally the computer company are the ones responsible.

I am already aware of the fact everything should have been backed up. My issue is with the fact of the amount of personal and confidential information that was on that computer has now been left in the public domain.

I do not want to business with the company any further, there was a lot more to the issue that what I stated above, that was the shortened version for easy reading. But there were numerous phonecalls by myself over the month, with promises from the computer company that they would return phone calls with more information etc which never happened. I have lost all confidence in them as a computer supplier.

What I want to know from a legal perspective is, they would have been given an insurance payout to cover the cost of the lost computer.

Why can I not legally get a refund, they cannot provide my original computer back to me as it is now lost, my contract with them was for the original computer.

I know you may see it from the point they are replacing the computer, which I would have accepted if I hadn't had to go through everything in the last month which they put me through to get to this point.

emptybox

I'm not a legal expert, but a warranty is usually for 'repair or replace' not for a refund.

You are allowed to 'reject' it and get a full refund, if you've only had it for a short period (less than 30 days). But if you've been getting usage from it for a while, I don't think legally you are entitled to a refund (might be wrong).

debitcardmayhem

Probably better in the Consumer Rights forum http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=173

kineticmix

Thanks for point me in that direction.

forgotmyname

Quite possible they would have wiped the hard drive anyway. So losing your pictures was likely to happen anyway.

You do have backups dont you? If they are important then you really need a backup solution.

Anything important is on at least 3 devices here. A copy on another drive at the very least and an external device.

Often its also copied onto another computer also.

Frozen_up_north

There are two issues here.

Firstly, the company is going to replace the laptop, so no loss to yourself in that regard. Couriers aren't 100% reliable, so there is always going to be a chance of loss, regardless of who you/they use. Moaning about a courier isn't going to get you anywhere as you will receive a replacement laptop and that's all the supplier is reasonably expected to do.

Secondly, in the future, use a program like Veracrypt to create a virtual disk on your laptop, better still encrypt the whole hard disk, it is free and very easy to use. That way any company/personal data will be unreadable to anyone who repairs or steals your laptop. And of course back up the data regularly to encrypted storage (or save the Veracrypt file).

https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Home.html

fiendishlyclever

I had an issue with a laptop that went missing on the way back from the Acer repair centre. The courier said it had been signed for and Acer were worse than useless and refused to help. I went to the police reporting it stolen in transit. A week later it turned up at my house once the police had served the courier with the paperwork.

I think an offer of a replacement laptop is more than adequate, and it isn't the courier's fault you haven't a backup plan in place.

DoaM

The chances of it happening are remote - yes.
The ability to do it (if someone wanted to) though - easy.

maddogb

it is an interesting case because as you point out there is no longer a consumer issue on the warranty so the case now becomes a liability for the loss which I imagine you are not obliged to accept a replacement for and may even be entitled to further payment for inconvenience, though I could be wrong.
please do let us know how you get on.