HP laptop unfixable after 14 months. Curry’s offer 50% refund

diystarter7

I'm no fan of Currys/etc but why should they give some money back as you did not take out an extended warranty etc
Having said that HP is a decent brand and the lappy I am on atm is a 12 year old Eleite book possibly
 older 14 inchers. I've added/updraded it a few years ago - our grandchildren bang their hands on it etc and still works 100%. I've bough other cheaper brands around 10 years ago and they paced up after 18/240 months and straight into the bin.


Contact HP and see what they have to say as it is a good brand.

visidigi

diystarter7 said:

I'm no fan of Currys/etc but why should they give some money back as you did not take out an extended warranty etc
Having said that HP is a decent brand and the lappy I am on atm is a 12 year old Eleite book possibly
 older 14 inchers. I've added/updraded it a few years ago - our grandchildren bang their hands on it etc and still works 100%. I've bough other cheaper brands around 10 years ago and they paced up after 18/240 months and straight into the bin.


Contact HP and see what they have to say as it is a good brand.

Because under their consumer rights they are entitled to have a product last a reasonable amount of time.

visidigi

kaggi said:

I’m absolutely fine with paying something for the usage but my issue now is they can’t find what’s wrong with it so it’s sitting with their engineers and they don’t know what to do.  They keep saying if it’s the battery that’s a consumable so if it is the battery they’ll return it not working.  But it’s an enclosed battery so if the battery is broken, the machine is broken as far as I can tell. 

 They don’t know when someone will know what’s happening so I’ve no laptop, no idea of the resolution so I can’t buy another in case they do find what is wrong and fix it,  there’s just nobody who seems able to help or give me a timescale of when someone will tell me what’s going on.  So, if I’m in limbo with no idea of when they will update me I think taking back some control and starting the section 75 is the best option.  

I’ve had a look and a refurbished one would be around £400 but mine was pristine so I’m not sure if another would have been as well looked after.  

A battery is a consumable on a laptop, even if its internal and requires a cover and connection to be decoupled for it to be swapped.

So if they do prove its a battery issue then it wouldn't be covered. If its the motherboard/charging port and there is no obvious damage then they should cover it.

zoob

My thoughts is the offer at this point is on the low side and I'd be expecting an offer in the £430s
Laptops like cars depreciate by a big percentage in the first few years
OP hasn't stated if there's any inherent fault being found, so if it's customer damage or just unfortunately broken down, the offer would be classed as very generous indeed 

WhiskersTheWonderCat

£303 seems a tad low, but how much is the same laptop second hand on eBay? You say that it's not enough to buy a "new" laptop, but you're not due a new laptop. You need to look at the cost of similar ones that are second hand. 

cymruchris

Have you tried replying to them with something along the lines of:

'Thankyou for your settlement offer in regards the refund for my faulty laptop. I'm glad you've found that there is indeed a problem with is as I'd initially outlined. I do appreciate that you have the right to reduce the value of the refund based on the fact that it's now 14 months old, however I don't agree with the proposed settlement figure based on the usage and condition.

Having looked at lightly used/refurbished laptops of a similar calibre, the retail price tends to range from £X to £Y - and would ask you to reconsider your offer in light of this. I would propose a settlement figure of £Z in order to put me back into the position of having a working laptop of equal specification/brand and age. I look forward to hearing from you in relation to the above, so that we can speedily conclude matters.'

Jono111

Get a quote from HP to repair it, the ones we get done at work cost just under £300 for most faults. That way you can accept the partial refund and get it fixed at no cost to yourself 

zoob

Jono111 said:

Get a quote from HP to repair it, the ones we get done at work cost just under £300 for most faults. That way you can accept the partial refund and get it fixed at no cost to yourself 

I would assume the laptop becomes currys property when they give partial refund 

Money_Grabber13579

visidigi said:

kaggi said:

I’m absolutely fine with paying something for the usage but my issue now is they can’t find what’s wrong with it so it’s sitting with their engineers and they don’t know what to do.  They keep saying if it’s the battery that’s a consumable so if it is the battery they’ll return it not working.  But it’s an enclosed battery so if the battery is broken, the machine is broken as far as I can tell. 

 They don’t know when someone will know what’s happening so I’ve no laptop, no idea of the resolution so I can’t buy another in case they do find what is wrong and fix it,  there’s just nobody who seems able to help or give me a timescale of when someone will tell me what’s going on.  So, if I’m in limbo with no idea of when they will update me I think taking back some control and starting the section 75 is the best option.  

I’ve had a look and a refurbished one would be around £400 but mine was pristine so I’m not sure if another would have been as well looked after.  

A battery is a consumable on a laptop, even if its internal and requires a cover and connection to be decoupled for it to be swapped.

So if they do prove its a battery issue then it wouldn't be covered. If its the motherboard/charging port and there is no obvious damage then they should cover it.

Is a battery really a consumable on a laptop? Granted, I wouldn’t expect the battery to last the life of the rest of the laptop (maybe 10 years, based on my own experience) but consumables to me are things which are used up and regularly replaced. I would expect the battery to last at least 3 years and so if it’s only lasted 14 months, my view would be that it wasn’t as f reasonable quality i.e. the same consumer rights should apply to the battery as to the rest of the laptop, but perhaps tempered by reasonable expectations when it comes to the battery.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Money_Grabber13579 said:

visidigi said:

A battery is a consumable on a laptop, even if its internal and requires a cover and connection to be decoupled for it to be swapped.

So if they do prove its a battery issue then it wouldn't be covered. If its the motherboard/charging port and there is no obvious damage then they should cover it.

Is a better really a consumable on a laptop? 

I don't think it is really as the average person wouldn't expect to change the battery after 14 months, or indeed probably not until the point the laptop was so old it's no longer worth anything. Even if a laptop battery was consumable that doesn't mean consumable parts aren't covered by consumer rights, just that the expectations are less. 

However if it was the battery I assume Currys would be changing it as it's cheaper rather than offering £300. 

zoob said:

Jono111 said:

Get a quote from HP to repair it, the ones we get done at work cost just under £300 for most faults. That way you can accept the partial refund and get it fixed at no cost to yourself 

I would assume the laptop becomes currys property when they give partial refund 

It depends on what OP requests, if they exercise the final right to reject then yes the laptop goes back to Currys if they want it (which they probably would if they get a credit from the manufacturer). 

If OP requested a price reduction for the cost of repair then the laptop would belong to the OP but again I don't see that repair is less than £300 otherwise Currys would take the cheaper option. 

macman said:

Next time buy from JL or somewhere else that gives you at least a two year warranty. After the 1 year HP warranty expired your only statutory rights are those under CRA 2015. Currys don't owe you anything unless you claim under this. And after one year, you need to prove a pre-existing fault by way of an engineers report. You need to give the retailer one chance to fix it before you can ask for a partial refund, and the Act doesn't specify how long they can have to attempt the repair.
You are entitled to get a refund to the current value of the laptop-not to it's replacement cost. Maybe £400.

If Currys are offering a settlement they presumably agree it has a fault not caused by the user, the £300 offer isn't because they are nice  

Again presumably, the cost of repair is greater than £300, I assume the OP would happy with a repair at no cost and their laptop back but if Curyrs say it's too expensive then OP move on to final right to reject/price reduction. 

WhiskersTheWonderCat said:

£303 seems a tad low, but how much is the same laptop second hand on eBay? You say that it's not enough to buy a "new" laptop, but you're not due a new laptop. You need to look at the cost of similar ones that are second hand. 

OP mentioned the cost of refurbished rather than new, 2nd hand value doesn't necessarily mirror the value of OP's laptop, 2nd hand units have a stigma of unknowns which is why they tend to be cheaper.