Advice please on faulty products

[Mpatel89]

Hi guys, here is my situation and I just wanted to get some thoughts from other people who may have similar experiences. I am a student from the UK studying at university in Cyprus during term time. I brought a vortex IV laptop in December 2013. I turned the laptop on to find a row of dead pixels so got my first RMA which took about 10 days to get sorted. Then in May 2014 I had issues with keyboard back light and the shut down hanging which I tried to fix through online PC specialist support but with no success.

As my term didn't end till July I manage to keep the laptop running till I came back to the UK at which point technical support couldn't help over the phone hence the 2nd RMA which took about 2-3 weeks. They returned the laptop saying the motherboard had to be replaced due to a power problem.

Now I am back in Cyprus for the new academic year I have a power problem (less than a month since I got my laptop back) which began with the power/charging lights on the laptop remaining on, with the laptop powered off and not plugged in to the wall. Eventually the lights stopped and wont come on when I connect to charger hence I cannot charge the laptop. Somehow after turning the charger on and off a dozen times the lights came on but the battery only charges up to 94%, it displayed 100% but as soon as the charger is pulled out dropped to 94%. Today I checked how the laptop was without being plugged into the wall, it worked OK during the day but wouldn't recognise any USB devices (portable hard drive or memory stick). Also it just hangs in windows is shutting down. Now I have 25% battery left and I can't charge it as when I put the charger in no lights turn on. (the green light on the charger brick works fine so it must be the laptop)

This laptop cost me £1200 and I went with PC specialist more because the customer service was good on the recommendation of a friend. However before this I had a £300 Acer laptop from Tesco which lasted me 6 years. Since I got the laptop back from the motherboard replacement I have installed Microsoft Office and Google chrome and nothing else in fear of breaking it. PC specialist are happy to do an RMA which is difficult as I am abroad, since the time that I brought the laptop, PC specialist has had the laptop for a month doing RMAs since date I received it. Is it reasonable to ask for a refund?

 

[keynes]

If I experienced 2 RMAs then i would give them another chance to rectify the problem. However since you are located abroad it makes the situation more difficult. Try to have a chat with them and see what they say.

 

[Mpatel89]

Thanks Keynes, if I lived in the UK most of the year RMA would be amenable, however i'm spending the next 3 years abroad which makes reliability more important than anything else at this point in time. Initially the response was a refund was not available but from reading around this forum people have been able to get refunds after the cooling off period or replacements equivalent in monetary value in similar situations. Reading elsewhere people have taken issues like this with PC Specialist to court/ written to trading standards in order to get the issue sorted. I'm hoping it doesn't go that far as I do believe that the customer service has been friendly and generally very helpful thus far, but I can't keep sending back my laptop/ requesting help every month through email/phone till the warranty runs out.

 

[Mpatel89]

Update on my situation, so the laptop would only run when plugged into the wall and no battery in it from the beginning September, I sent it back to PC Specialist from Cyprus (£150). . After a dozen or so emails explaining that I would prefer a partial refund or if that's not possible a complete replacement. They eventually offered to rebuild the whole system minus the plastics (wear and tear) and ship it back to Cyprus. I had to call about 4-5 times as well each time being on hold 10-15 minutes to get any result. Eventually I seem to have got something. The lovely Jack Turner who I have been in online communications with since the beginning gave me a 12 month warranty extension on the new build after speaking on the phone; as a repeat of the last year would mean my warranty wouldn't cover most of the 2 out 3 of the RMAs. Ben Alderson has rebuilt the system and put a new CPU -4710MQ (originally 4700MQ) and RAM- 2x8GB Kingston Hyper X Impact (originally Genesis), I was hoping to ask for an Nvidia 870M (originally 770M) but thought that may be pushing it.

I wouldn't have got anything from just email correspondents as they constantly just stone walled. I don't think I have really been given a spec bump as they have just replaced what they had in stock not including the graphics card. I have only been able to get anything sorted over the phone after several attempts. So my advice to anyone with future problems would be to try to call for any problems that need sorting urgently. The guys on the phone are extremely friendly and generally helpful however they are not part of the management team that makes most of the decision and its near impossible to talk to one of these rare beings.

They have rebuilt the system and testing over the weekend and dispatch Monday. Fingers crossed no more problems.

 

[ellen]

Hey,

I was wondering if your new laptop worked okay? I've just had problems with the second laptop they sent me (am on RMA number four) and PC Specialist told me on the phone today that they may not be able to refund it even though this one is only about 6 weeks old :-S just wanted to know whether you had any problems with your second one as well?


Ellen