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

Did you point out that he didn't order it from Asus? The Asus site is just a spec list, and it says upto 8GB. Which suggests that it can be spec'd with 8GB when you are ordering it from the company that are selling it to you. ie, not Asus!

By not trying to sell extras, the retailer hasn't 'failed' to do their job. The retailer advertised a product, the OP bought it. They product was exactly as the retailer described.
 
What does your solicitor colleague think about Asus liability to a party they've not entered into any form of contract with?

That's ultimately the catch point here - they have an ambiguously worded website (but you can buy this laptop with 8GB installed, so it is not false advertising by any means) and the phone operative made a mistake about it being user upgradable - BUT, he didn't buy from Asus, he entered into no contract with Asus, he exchanged no money with Asus.

He should have confirmed this with his retailer. He did not.

All this stuff about 'not fit for purpose' is nonsense as I see it, it IS fit for purpose, it's a laptop and functions as a laptop, just not one very well equipped to deal with the specific task you have which requires 8GB RAM. If you wanted confirmation it was well suited for this particular purpose, then again, should have asked the retailer.

The retailer has done absolutely nothing wrong, they were asked to supply an Asus UX31A and that's what they supplied - it's not their fault the customer was misinformed by someone else as the what a UX31A was actually capable of.

If this retailer is someone your business use regularly I imagine eventually they'll relent for fear of losing future business but if they're not your regular supplier then I suspect they'll stand by their guns.

Quite what anyone would expect Trading Standards to do I don't know? Force Asus to refund the cost of a laptop that they didn't even sell because a member of staff made a mistake?
 
GeX said:
Did you point out that he didn't order it from Asus? The Asus site is just a spec list, and it says upto 8GB. Which suggests that it can be spec'd with 8GB when you are ordering it from the company that are selling it to you. ie, not Asus!
Click to expand...

It may be suggesting to you but many non geeks would need it suggesting properly.
Here's an excellent example where nobody should make a mistake - http://www.sony.co.uk/customise/vn-fit-e?cid=14217071&s_kwcid=sony|27978044535

GeX said:
By not trying to sell extras, the retailer hasn't 'failed' to do their job. The retailer advertised a product, the OP bought it. They product was exactly as the retailer described.
Click to expand...

The retailer isn't at fault, he just did a poor job of selling.
Every time I buy anything technical on the high street the staff are trying to sell you more stuff or a higher spec.
The OP needs to take it up with ASUS who have a very poor website and need to accept responsibility for the mixup.
 
Dimple said:
I work with a Solicitor so asked her about this and she reckons the ASUS web page is not correct and misleading.
There is nothing on the page that the OP linked to that says 'Optional Upgrade when ordering' or an asterisk by certain wording with small writing down the bottom to advise the buyer about their options.
It is a poor informative web page and ASUS need to be pulled up on it and accept responsibility.
She also suggested that ASUS might have a recording of the conversation which you can get a copy of for a price.

Also the dealer didn't do his job correctly, even The Purple Shirts staff would have been all over the OP telling him his options so they could make more money:
Do you want it with an i7 or i5, you'll be able to word process and go on the internet at the same time?
Do you want a bigger SSD because you'll be able to download more movies and music?
And would Sir like more memory added so it's got a bigger brain and can do sums better?
Click to expand...

seems like if this were true "unlimited" internet wouldn't be legal.

still not sure how they can say you get "unlimited downloads....well until you reach the limit but we just wont tell you what that is"
 
Dimple said:
It may be suggesting to you but many non geeks would need it suggesting properly.
Here's an excellent example where nobody should make a mistake - http://www.sony.co.uk/customise/vn-fit-e?cid=14217071&s_kwcid=sony|27978044535
Click to expand...

That's Sony's store you've linked to there, a store page is different to a general model advert page. I would imagine the advertising page on Sony rather than Sony Store is similarly worded to the Asus laptop page.

Ultimately, there is nothing wrong with having a website that says 'Up to 8GB RAM' when the laptop is available with 8GB RAM. The issue only came when the Asus employee on the phone said this was user upgradable which was incorrect. The website itself doesn't imply this.
 
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Kenai said:
That's Sony's store you've linked to there, a store page is different to a general model advert page. I would imagine the advertising page on Sony rather than Sony Store is similarly worded to the Asus laptop page.
Click to expand...

Here is the model page that has two links to the page I linked to : http://www.sony.co.uk/product/vn-fit-e/tab/editorialarticle2
There would/should be no misunderstanding.

Here's an excellent example from Toshiba - http://www.toshiba.co.uk/laptops/home-computing/thin-light-and-ultrabook/satellite/u920t/
Click on View All Models
 
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Well that doesn't even mention specs, just features. It's easy enough to have no misunderstanding when you don't actually give any information at all :p

Personally, I see nothing wrong with the Asus website.

It says 'up to 8GB memory'.

The laptop is available from various retailers, with 8GB memory.

They've not lied, they've not misled. They don't imply this is upgradable.

The issue only arrives when the phoneline incorrectly told him this was achievable via a user upgrade.

edit - that Toshiba link is again a store, the 'overview' is full of 'up to' language and the store comparison is unfair because Asus aren't selling directly in the same manner, so there is no need for them to have a comparable page.
 
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"up to" to me suggests a configurable component, it doesn't say "includes". The issue in my opinion isn't the advert / specification but that the advice given was incorrect, I wouldn't like to say whether you have any recourse against the company that gave you that advice but its not likely to be straightforward because you weren't buying it from them.

Its a bit like ringing the beef farmer to ask what the pie shops pies taste like :p
 
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Can't you just shelf the laptop and then buy a suitable one, and give the lemon to someone else when the need arises?

Or if it is a soldering job, find someone to solder some more Ram in?
 
That said, the a laptop that highly specced seems a bit pointless, why not just run the vm's on a suitable tower/server, and then just dial in with a regular laptop if you need to mess about with it on the fly?
 
LOAM said:
"up to" to me suggests a configurable component, it doesn't say "includes". The issue in my opinion isn't the advert / specification but that the advice given was incorrect, I wouldn't like to say whether you have any recourse against the company that gave you that advice but its not likely to be straightforward because you weren't buying it from them.

Its a bit like ringing the beef farmer to ask what the pie shops pies taste like :p
Click to expand...

Or to find out what the cows are fed?

mattyfez said:
That said, the a laptop that highly specced seems a bit pointless, why not just run the vm's on a suitable tower/server, and then just dial in with a regular laptop if you need to mess about with it on the fly?
Click to expand...

Lack of internet access on secure customer sites mean this is not an option
 
It's definitely preferable to not rely on the internet. Personally I'd be looking for a laptop with enough memory to run a VM or two.

Oh wait...
 
An update on this.

Just had a call from one of the high-ups at Asus. They're going to do a "buyback" and basically give us a 100% refund.

Glad to see common sense prevails! :)
 
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