£50 Rebate not available on item despite being labelled "£50 cashback"

LostRebate

I am self employed and work from home doing programming related work.

My main customer said that they need my new project to be tested with Vista. My current PC is not up to Vista, so time to buy a new one. As I would need to buy a new monitor and various other bits, the budget for the PC itself ended up being about £310.

I searched around for options and discovered that there are some great HP offers at the moment on Vista PCs with cashback to bring the price down to within my budget.

If you follow http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:39qmrFmDgMEJ:www.dabs.com/productlist.aspx%3F%26NavigationKey%3D11101%26NavigationKey%3D49020000%26NavigationKey%3D4294954735%26NavigationKey%3D46070000%26CategorySelectedId%3D11101+%22GD003ET%23ABU%22+claim+cashback+site:dabs.com&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=uk you will see a great candidate highlighted on the right hand side. £359.98 with a "£50 cashback". This is just inside my budget and gets me the biggest "bang for my buck" as it were.

You will notice that the link does not take you directly to dabs.com, but to the copy of their site that Google cached on the 6th February (the reason will become clear later).

On the 5th February I ordered this PC, described clearly by dabs as:

HP "£50 Cashback" Microtower dx2300 Core 2 Duo E4400 2GB 250GB DVD+/-RW Vista Business

This week I decided I should claim my "£50 cashback" from HP - only to discover that the offer only applied to PCs bought before 31st January.

Hang on - I bought the PC on the 5th February and dabs were still describing it as HP "£50 cashback" Microtower etc.

So, I contacted dabs and they basically say that it was up to me to have discovered that their HP "£50 cashback" Microtower was not eligible for a cashback payment before I bought it.

I know that according to the Trade Description Act 1968:

What are the offences under the Act (relating to goods)?

The Act makes it an offence to:

• apply a false or misleading description to goods (e.g. by writing it down, making a verbal statement or by turning back a car’s odometer); or
• supply or offer to supply goods to which a false or misleading trade description is applied. A person exposing goods for supply (e.g. in a shop) or having them in his possession for supply (e.g. in a storeroom) is deemed to offer to supply them for the purposes of the Act

Looks like I have a case here - the description cannot be described as other than "misleading".

I have told dabs that if they don't refund the £50, that they clearly led me to believe that I could claim back, then I would take this to the small claims court.

So, one problem with this is that I am based in Scotland, but dabs are based in England.

Do I claim in Scotland or England?

Do I have to claim in Bolton where they are based (and if so will I get all reasonable travel expenses back?)

Any suggestions?

Blacksheep1979

yes you can ask for reasonable expenses and can lodge the claim wherever you like. You may be on shakey ground though if it says anywhere see HP website or read t&cs etc. Do you have a full copy of the advert rather than just the link that says £50 cashback?

JohalaReewi

HP have got a new cashback deal which runs from 1st to 29 Feb. Maybe Dabs have still got the old form on their website. You can get the current HP form here...

http://www.misco.co.uk/cashback/HP_PC_Savings_Claim_Form_Feb_FY08_310108.pdf

Official HP promotion page is here...
http://www.hp.com/uk/pcsavings

LostRebate

Well, Dabs paid up.

I got my £50 back.

I thought I had a clear case, Consumer Direct thought I had a clear case (and even passed all the info onto the "criminal investigations" department of Trading Standards) and despite initially trying to fob me off, it seems that Dabs actually agreed.

I sent them a letter giving them 7 days to refund me or "see me in court" and the refund was issued the day they got the letter.

It just goes to show - don't back down if you think you have been wronged!

golddustmedia

Now that you've got the money from Dabs do yourself a favour and fill out the form for HP's cashback promotion for February.

The cashback is TOTALLY independent of Dabs as I've just had mine from a laptop I bought from ebuyer.

All you do is fill in HP's form and send a copy of your receipt.

Before anyone starts moaning at me, this is acceptable as he HAS met all the terms for claiming from HP. i.e. he has purchased an HP product on which cashback is offered within the promtion period. The money he has already received is actually a refund/discount from dabs (the retailer) and has been given at the descretion of that retailer and independently of HP.

So this is a money saving site. Save yourself some money and claim the HP cashback you're entitled to.

Loz66

How did you claim?? DABS don't show the HP part number on their receipts and the cashback Ts&Cs says it must be shown.