Replacement item also faulty, is warranty re-set?

carminekitsune

I bought a custom build tower PC from ebay (buy it now) in October 2016. It worked fine for a few months, but in April this year it would no longer turn on properly (just turning itself off and on) and no picture on the monitor.

I returned for a replacement, but I was too busy with work to actually set it up and use the new PC for a while and only did so early this month. To my dismay, nothing came up on the screen, tested with both HDMI and VGA. I also tried a friend's monitor and same problem. Another friend (who knows computers) thinks the motherboard or graphics card might be faulty.

I contacted the seller, who has refused to replace or refund as it's been more than 6 months since the initial purchase. However, it's only been 3-4 months since the replacement was sent to me, so surely that would still be covered under a 'new' 6 months?

Thank you!

custardy

no,it doesnt reset.
6 months warranty on a new PC?

unholyangel

A warranty is in addition to your statutory rights and as such, the warranty provider can have pretty much whatever terms they like (providing they're not unfair terms of course). Given they're stating its outwith warranty (and I presume you've already told them it was repaired in april) then that would leave you reliant on your statutory rights.

In the first 6 months, if goods do not conform to contract then the lack of conformity is assumed to be inherent (this is possibly why some smaller retailers offer 6 month warranties as its presumed inherent anyway). After that, its up to you to prove that the lack of conformity is inherent - usually done via independent report (the cost of which you could claim from the retailer if the report finds in your favour).

Sometimes putting it this way can get them to bypass the report requirement: "well I know its up to me to prove the fault is inherent past 6 months but as the cost of that is likely to be £x, I just wanted to run it by you first if you're rather check it on your own as obviously if the report finds it is an inherent fault, you'd be liable for the cost of the report which will probably cost you a lot more than checking it yourself and I really think it is inherent because I honestly haven't used it since it was repaired and the first time I did try to use it, I discovered it was still faulty"

Obviously only say that if its true (thats what I've inferred from your post) and once you've obtained prices for getting a report.

carminekitsune

no,it doesnt reset.
6 months warranty on a new PC?

Built and sold by a small ltd. company, I suppose they're just putting the minimum warranty on to cut costs!

Obviously only say that if its true (thats what I've inferred from your post) and once you've obtained prices for getting a report.

Alas that is the case! I haven't even done any of the software set up ect since nothing came up on screen for me to be able to, so hopefully it wouldn't be hard to prove...

How and who would I contact in order to find out how much a report would cost?

Thanks for your help!

shaun_from_Africa

carminekitsune wrote: »

Built and sold by a small ltd. company, I suppose they're just putting the minimum warranty on to cut costs!

In the UK, there is no legal requirement for any manufacturer or retailer to provide a warranty of any sort so there is no such thing as a "minimum warranty".
As unholyangel stated, a warranty or lack of warranty doesn't affect you statutory rights.


Is there a computer repair shop near to you?
If so, contact them and ask if they would be able to investigate the problem and write out a detailed written report stating what they consider the fault to be.
They need to say that the problem is due to a manufacturing defect.

unforeseen

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

They need to say that the problem is due to a manufacturing defect.

ONLY if their investigation proves this

carminekitsune

In the UK, there is no legal requirement for any manufacturer or retailer to provide a warranty of any sort so there is no such thing as a "minimum warranty".
As unholyangel stated, a warranty or lack of warranty doesn't affect you statutory rights.


Is there a computer repair shop near to you?
If so, contact them and ask if they would be able to investigate the problem and write out a detailed written report stating what they consider the fault to be.
They need to say that the problem is due to a manufacturing defect.

Ahh sorry that was badly phrased! I meant the warranty imposed by ebay rather than law, although thinking about it that's probably ebay enforcing consumer rights rather than any form of warranty.

The only PC repair place I know of is run by the father of a friend of mine, though I wonder if it would be a bad idea to ask him in case he's accused of bias...

In any case I may have found an alternative route. I contacted ebay in addition to posting here, and they advised me to talk to PayPal's dispute resolution centre. Spoke to a very nice lady and told her my story, and she agreed that given all the facts, warranty or no, I was in my rights to request a refund and said she'd contact them and advise them to issue it. I don't know if PayPal can necessarily make them do it, but they apparently have 72 hours to respond to her before we take the next step.

She was quite confident I'd get my money back one way or the other, I suppose it's just a case of how much back-and-forthing I have to do before it happens!