"Miss-sold" a laptop, what are my rights as a business?

Haggisman

Haggisman

Haggisman

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Bit of backstory:

Last week I was tasked with purchasing a new laptop for an employee. They'd done the research and gave me a make/model to look over, see if I felt the spec. was adequate. All looked fine, except the RAM - the manufacturer website listed it as "up to 8GB" but the seller listed it as having 4GB, the user requires 8GB as they are going to be running some VMs on it.

A bit more googling turned up conflicting information about whether the RAM was upgradeable or soldered onto the motherboard, so to eliminate any possibility of error (or so I thought), I phoned the manufacturer, gave them the model number, and asked if it was upgradeable. The guy on the phone said yes, and gave me the spec of the RAM needed (a standard 1600MHz DDR3 SODIMM).

Ordered the laptop, and when it turned up, it was apparent that it was not upgradeable - confirmed by calling the manufacturer again.

The seller is not willing to give a return/refund, as it was purchased as a business and so DSR does not apply.

I've just had a couple of days worth of emails/support tickets back and forth with the manufacturer about the issue, including giving them the exact time of the phone call I made so they could check their recordings. This has ended in me getting a phone call from their support management team stating "there's nothing we can do". Leaving us with a £1,600 laptop which is completely useless to us (who in their right mind would want a laptop specced with an i7, SSD and only 4GB RAM?).

I have both the web URL and postal address for their complaints dept. and was hoping for some pointers on what I can throw at them to get them to play ball?
 
I can't imagine you have a leg to stand on. If it was the seller you had posed the question to, that's fair enough, but I don't see they can be held responsible for something someone else said, even though it's the manufacturer. Sucks tho eh.
 
Orch said:
I can't imagine you have a leg to stand on. If it was the seller you had posed the question to, that's fair enough, but I don't see they can be held responsible for something someone else said, even though it's the manufacturer. Sucks tho eh.
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I know, that's why I'm chasing the manufacturer. I (stupidly) thought they'd know more about their own products than an ecommerce store who deal with many different brands, but apparently I was wrong...

So you're saying that because of buying as a business, a manufacturer could basically make up any old rubbish about their product, send me a house brick, and I wouldn't have a leg to stand on?
 
Have a read of this. In short, you should have posed the questions to the seller and made the memory upgrade a condition of sale. As it stands you asked them to supply a specific laptop which they did.
 
Haggisman said:
I know, that's why I'm chasing the manufacturer. I (stupidly) thought they'd know more about their own products than an ecommerce store who deal with many different brands, but apparently I was wrong...

So you're saying that because of buying as a business, a manufacturer could basically make up any old rubbish about their product, send me a house brick, and I wouldn't have a leg to stand on?
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No, I'm saying that the retailer is not responsible for what the manufacturer tells you. You bought the product advertised by the retailer. That's what they sent you.

The fact the manufacturer representative was an idiot is just bum luck.

That's how I would see it anyway.
 
Where did you order the laptop from? Was it a re-seller? Do you order a lot of things from them? Do you have an account manager there?

Have you been asking the manufacturer to do something about this? If you have what on earth do you expect them to do?

And yes from my experience of working in B2B, DSR does not apply.
 
Orch said:
No, I'm saying that the retailer is not responsible for what the manufacturer tells you. You bought the product advertised by the retailer. That's what they sent you.

The fact the manufacturer representative was an idiot is just bum luck.

That's how I would see it anyway.
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If you were to go on a manufacturer website and see laptop model AB-1234 advertised as having spec X, then go to a reseller, and buy the exact same laptop model AB-1234, would you be happy if it turned up with spec Y?

anticonscience said:
Where did you order the laptop from? Was it a re-seller? Do you order a lot of things from them? Do you have an account manager there?
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No, we got it from one of the big web sites which I can't mention as they are a competitor.

anticonscience said:
Have you been asking the manufacturer to do something about this? If you have what on earth do you expect them to do?

And yes from my experience of working in B2B, DSR does not apply.
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Yes I've been speaking to the manufacturer - considering the laptop was purchased based on false information from them (we would not have bought it if it was not upgradeable), a return & full refund, partial refund, or exchange for suitable spec. would be acceptable resolutions.

As far as I'm concerned the seller has done nothing wrong. They've sold me the laptop they advertised, however the advert listed nothing about the RAM being upgradeable/not-upgradeable, hence why checking with the manufacturer.
 
Can't you just return to the place your bought it and ask for a 8gb model, stating their was a mixup with the order and you wanted the 8gb model and they sent the wrong one. Well that's what i would try. Basically just lie to the place you bought it and try to make out as if they mixed up the order, if you can. :D first i would try and return it without lying and if they denied, then try blame them for it and ask for different model.
 
Haggisman said:
If you were to go on a manufacturer website and see laptop model AB-1234 advertised as having spec X, then go to a reseller, and buy the exact same laptop model AB-1234, would you be happy if it turned up with spec Y?
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Of course not. I'm not arguing with you, I'd be just as peed off as you are. My point is that from an outsiders perspective, you're screwed. In hindsight, you should have asked the retailer.

I understand why you didn't though, who better to ask than the manufacturer right?
 
So you are expecting the manufacturer to reimburse you?

I'm sorry but you don't stand a chance, should have checked with the person you were buying from.

So which make/model of laptop is it?
 
Who in the right mind would pay £1600 on a laptop with only 4gb of RAM installed in the first place? Upgradable or not is hardly the point, im affraid youve dropped the ball here OP.
Try selling it to recoup as much as you can and try again, putting this down as an expensive lesson.
 
Are you sure you can't upgrade the RAM? Are all the slots full? Any laptop I've opened up in the past has just had standard laptop size RAM slots which you could just put more RAM in. Even if it's in a 2x2gb config with just two slots then replace those with 2x4gb.

The only laptops I've heard of with soldered RAM were Apple or miniature netbooks.
 
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