Currys "repair" team wiped my laptop - is there anything I can do?

Mammamaya

I have recently taken my laptop in for a repair of a broken hinge. It has been as a part of my care and repair service that I have been paying monthly and I have mentioned that I would also like to get the yearly health check done at which point the guy said they can book it in for one once it comes back repaired. 2 weeks later my laptop came back, I took it home and when starting it up I realised it's been completely cleared, no software on it, nothing whatsoever, basically looking like a brand new laptop! Only then I looked in detail at the repair slip and found that apart from fixing the hinge the team had discovered 'corruped operating system, outdated operating system and outdated drivers and 'to prevent future issues' they have reinstalled and updated my OS!

Now, I have obviously signed the agreement that you must sign before sending it away which says that they don't take any responsibility for the loss of data or software due to the work done and that customers should back up their stuff before they send it away. So I get it that legaly they can probably just point at that and walk away (which so far is pretty much what has been happening when I took it back to question what happened). But I have been taken aback by having sent something away for MECHANICAL repair and them having felt the need to mess about with my operating system! Also, despite having my contact details to call me, they had not done anything to make sure I am ok with all the drastic changes to my laptop which I was not expecting to be happening! I have a back up of most of my files, but personally I wouln't have known how to back up any of my software or apps and now I'm being faced with spending hours attempting to recreate all the stuff I used! Also some of the software I regularlly use like MS Office have been purchased as a discounted product during the previous job and now I no longer have a way of accessing previous work email with the product key and therefore now I am forced to re-purchase it at the current full price.

I feel hugely let down by the "repair" team to take such liberties with my laptop and also by the non-interest of the shop assistant as if having a computer completely wiped was a standard thing and I should expect it no matter what type of repair is getting done. My laptop was 5 years old and getting little slow (hence the thought a healthcheck for when it comes back repaired), but on the day I dropped it off it was working fine and I intentionally didn't want to update to Windows 11!

Does anyone have any advice on what can I possibly do in this situation???  I have lodged a complaint and should hear back within 2 weeks, but I don't have high hopes...

Thanks Maya x

missile

I always refuse these expensive insurance & maintenance ad-ons. 

GDB2222

When you asked whether there is anything you can do, are you asking for practical help to restore your data? 

Or do you want Curry to compensate you in some way? I don’t think that is very likely, I’m afraid.

unforeseen

In the meantime restore your data from the regular backups that you take. 

You do back up your data don't you? 

Grey_Critic

Why did Curry's not do a backup before starting? It may well be that you have software that they do not recognise but that is no excuse for wiping it.

Have you asked them if they did a full backup before starting>

J_B

I wonder if the key phrases are 'care and repair' and 'health check'

That will be their get out

What to do? Well, post on here advising people not to use Currys is a good start.

TadleyBaggie

J_B said:

What to do? Well, post on here advising people not to use Currys is a good start.

Except that would be against forum “boycotting” rules.

flaneurs_lobster

"non-interest of the shop assistant"?

In Currys?

Blimey, who would have guessed.

I really don't think you will have any luck getting any kind of redress from Currys. They may be a dreadful company to deal with but I bet their T&C are tied down more securely than the iPhones on display in-store. 

You got the PC back, presumably in better nick than it was before. Restore your apps (hard luck about the dodgy ex-works MS stuff) get your data from backup and carry on. 

MattMattMattUK

Grey_Critic said:

Why did Curry's not do a backup before starting? It may well be that you have software that they do not recognise but that is no excuse for wiping it.

They are specific about data not being their area, backing up a client's data would also create huge GDPR issues for them. A clean install of the OS is fairly common and should be expected. As much as I dislike Curry's and would never buy from them they are pretty clear about data being the customer's responsibility and that they may do a clean install as part of any repair. 

Grey_Critic said:

Have you asked them if they did a full backup before starting>

They will not have and do not. 

Mammamaya said:

I have recently taken my laptop in for a repair of a broken hinge. It has been as a part of my care and repair service that I have been paying monthly and I have mentioned that I would also like to get the yearly health check done at which point the guy said they can book it in for one once it comes back repaired...My laptop was 5 years old and getting little slow (hence the thought a healthcheck for when it comes back repaired), but on the day I dropped it off it was working fine and I intentionally didn't want to update to Windows 11!

Does anyone have any advice on what can I possibly do in this situation???  I have lodged a complaint and should hear back within 2 weeks, but I don't have high hopes...

Restore from your own backups or accept your data is lost. Reinstall programs you have licenses for. 

However the biggest bit of advice, cancel the monthly "service", you will have paid many times more than the laptop was worth over the five years to get little to nothing in return.

Mammamaya said:

Also some of the software I regularlly use like MS Office have been purchased as a discounted product during the previous job and now I no longer have a way of accessing previous work email with the product key and therefore now I am forced to re-purchase it at the current full price.

If you had legitimate Office software then the license will be linked to a personal MS account so you can restore your purchases from there. 
 

Mammamaya

missile said:

I always refuse these expensive insurance & maintenance ad-ons. 

I took it as my previous two laptops developed serious issues within two years of purchase and since this one was around £600 new and they promissed to repair or fully replace if repair not possible, it sounded like a good plan. As the luck would have it, this laptop lasted much longer than the previous two.

Mammamaya

GDB2222 said:

When you asked whether there is anything you can do, are you asking for practical help to restore your data? 

Or do you want Curry to compensate you in some way? I don’t think that is very likely, I’m afraid.

Sorry I realise my post is misleading... Unless you would suggest otherwise, I don't think there is really much that I can do to get full content of my laptop back, so I was asking more about what could I do to receive some sort of compensation or at the very least to prevent the company from being so flippant about other people's property. Despite the data back up I have, I need to spend lots of my own time to reinstall the software they have erased and that doesn't seem fair since the repair was not even anything to do with the 'inside' of the laptop, but was mainly about a screw missing. At least I am mostly quite capable to do the installs, but what if this was for example my mum, who is absolutely IT illiterate and while able to use the laptop, would have no clue how to re-install anything on it. She would be fully reliant on someone else to do the finishing job as the 'care and repair' would obviously not do anything about it. Someone could end up with nicely running cleaned up computer, but for example unable to recreate their weekly zoom calls with family because zoom and log-ins would have all disappear. It just seems really incosiderate.