Argos refusing return of Laptop purchased day before

TadleyBaggie

So that is the entry level model with the slow (1.4 GHz) processor, I have virtually the same spec MacBook Pro but with a 2.3 GHz processor and not had any significant issue with the hardware.

You should have bought it directly from Apple, it would be the same price and they will unconditionally accept returns in the first 14 days.

mc6415

neilmcl said:

What sort of work are you doing that makes 8GB RAM to little and why don;t you simply upgrade it if it is too little?

I do a lot of programming of large environments which take quite a bit of memory to debug which just slows everything to a crawl. I'm also experiencing issues now with popups saying "{x} quit unexpectedly" and apparently the solution is to reinstall the OS from looking online and talking to people, this is turning into a bit of a nightmare machine it seems haha!

mc6415

TadleyBaggie said:

So that is the entry level model with the slow (1.4 GHz) processor, I have virtually the same spec MacBook Pro but with a 2.3 GHz processor and not had any significant issue with the hardware.

You should have bought it directly from Apple, it would be the same price and they will unconditionally accept returns in the first 14 days.

Yep lesson well and truly learned!

mattyprice4004

Undervalued said:

mattyprice4004 said:

Genuine question - would you be happy paying full price for a laptop that’s been opened, set up and then returned? 

Whilst that might be an interesting philosophical discussion it is not the point.

The OP was asking if he has the legal right to return the item for a refund. If he has, then what the shop do with it and how much of a loss it may cause them is not his problem.

It kind of is the point, because they can make a reasonable deduction for any use over and above what is necessary to establish the form and function of the goods. 

If they deem the use over and above this, they're entitled to reduce the refund to reflect this - the point of this deduction is to compensate the retailer for this loss. 

It's not a philosophical point at all. 

mattyprice4004

To the OP, if you're a PC hardware literate kind of chap (which it seems you are) - I'd have a look at the older HP EliteBooks from some of the refurbished outlets. 

I needed a machine for some heavy crunching and bought an EliteBook 8770w - only cost £300, and is fully modular and upgradeable by the end user (even the graphics cards!) 
Currently sitting here with 2x SSDs in RAID0 and 32GB of RAM for under £500 all-in.  

mc6415

mattyprice4004 said:

To the OP, if you're a PC hardware literate kind of chap (which it seems you are) - I'd have a look at the older HP EliteBooks from some of the refurbished outlets. 

I needed a machine for some heavy crunching and bought an EliteBook 8770w - only cost £300, and is fully modular and upgradeable by the end user (even the graphics cards!) 
Currently sitting here with 2x SSDs in RAID0 and 32GB of RAM for under £500 all-in.  

I would do but I'm not quite willing to take a complete loss on this machine, if I can't return it I'll see what I can do with it, even if I was to sell it on for say £1000 that's a £300 depreciation in 3 days which is insane.... I'm still sure looking at it that I should be able to return the item to Argos and I really am quite frustrated at the manager who basically lied through his teeth to me saying they don't sell used goods when their ebay outlet has this exact model listed as "Refurbished" on their site right now..... The fact he kept changing the issue up as well to be first the not selling used goods, then it was a GDPR breach issue etc. doesn't sit well but I'm going to have to take the loss on the chin I guess..... I'm surprised that Argos don't think that turning the item on is reasonable use to test if it's working or not though for example.

mikb

pinkshoes said:

mc6415 said:

So basically here's my issue I purchased a laptop on Monday evening online it was delivered on Tuesday due to work I wasn't really able to check it out until that evening and when I did I realised it just wasn't fit for my purpose I'm a developer with a pretty specialised use case and it just wasn't able to handle it, locking up, freezing and just generally being very slow.

You needed a specialised use laptop yet bought from Argos???

Then buy a PC from a PC store. The ones where you can have it built to your spec and budget. If you phone them up they will help you.

By "PC Store" you mean somewhere technically advanced, like PC World or Currys then?

Note to OP: Don't do that! A real PC specialist next time!

I love how Argos get on their high horse about how they "don't sell used goods". Aside from their eBay open-box/graded returns store (which I have used in full knowledge of what I was doing!) where they sell used and opened goods -- anyone that has read MSE for a while will be aware of the recurring threads of "I bought an X from Argos and it was used/damaged, they won't believe me!". E.g. a food blender with soil/blood inside.

It happened to me -- a replacement new TV from Argos, delivered. First warning sign, no protector stuck on screen to peel off, mains cable not tie-wrapped/no plug protector. Fingerprints on display (not mine, fingers on LCD is forbidden). Second warning sign: TV did not "automatically do a station scan on first power on" but sat there saying "BBC1" with no picture. Hmmm. It had already been tuned in to a neighbouring region (Waltham vs Sutton Coldfeild) so wasn't working. A rescan was forced, all ok.

However, the original owner's address was still attached to the box! (Data protection? What's that?)

So they do sell used stuff as new. Not as policy, but often enough for it to be noted!

FirstTimeSolo

mc6415 said:

mattyprice4004 said:

To the OP, if you're a PC hardware literate kind of chap (which it seems you are) - I'd have a look at the older HP EliteBooks from some of the refurbished outlets. 

I needed a machine for some heavy crunching and bought an EliteBook 8770w - only cost £300, and is fully modular and upgradeable by the end user (even the graphics cards!) 
Currently sitting here with 2x SSDs in RAID0 and 32GB of RAM for under £500 all-in.  

I would do but I'm not quite willing to take a complete loss on this machine, if I can't return it I'll see what I can do with it, even if I was to sell it on for say £1000 that's a £300 depreciation in 3 days which is insane.... I'm still sure looking at it that I should be able to return the item to Argos and I really am quite frustrated at the manager who basically lied through his teeth to me saying they don't sell used goods when their ebay outlet has this exact model listed as "Refurbished" on their site right now..... The fact he kept changing the issue up as well to be first the not selling used goods, then it was a GDPR breach issue etc. doesn't sit well but I'm going to have to take the loss on the chin I guess..... I'm surprised that Argos don't think that turning the item on is reasonable use to test if it's working or not though for example.

I don’t understand. Why do you expect Argos to resell the used item at a loss when they are not at fault? 

cymruchris

they don't sell used goods when their ebay outlet has this exact model listed as "Refurbished" on their site right now..... 

As mentioned previously - refurbished isn't likely to be customer returns for people who had a bit of a slow machine. In the case of Apple stuff - having bought a refurb myself - and knowing someone that works for Apple - I had an idea of what they went through before being able to be sold again. Argos won't be selling the items customers have returned without some form of refurb process - and it'll likely be the hardware where a disk drive failed, or a screen was cracked on opening the box, and those parts replaced before being resold.  So don't get hung up on the fact they are selling refurb stock - as that's not directly related to your issue.