Bought laptop from somewhere- you won't believe this! What should I do?

samat2001

samat2001

samat2001

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28 Dec 2005
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Hi guys...bit of a long story here I'm afraid but you won't believe this...

I bought the Advent 7079 laptop from a reputable online shop (not overclockers) for £299.99 on Sunday night. It arrived this morning looking brand spanking new (apart from a tiny scuff on the lid which I wasn't too bothered about).

I pressed the email button on the laptop (the quick-link button at the top) and......I got access to someone elses emails!!! I won't give their email address for their privacy but basically I've got access to all his emails from October last year, so basically the laptop isn't new and either second hand or refurbished. Now for the price, I really don't mind that it's second hand (despite being advertised as new and not mentioning it as a return or refurbished or second hand etc...) but the fact it has their personal details on here shocks me ( I haven' read through their emails but presumably it could have card details, address details, phone details etc.....) - this surely is breach of the data protection act and I'm very tempted to email the guy and let him know.

I've called their customer services dept to complain but they have said their systems are down at the moment and they won't really be able to help me. I actually went up to the store too and the guy said that he was shocked at my situation and couldn't believe it. He said I could have a refund but for the money, it wouldn't even buy me an entry level laptop. He said I could have an exchange but I'd need to pay the difference. I've bought the laptop home again and I'm typing this message from it.

Any advice or should I just phone them back later? Surely this is illegal?

***Edit - removed name of store as it is competitor - sorry!!! ***
 
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I'm afraid this thread won't last long unless you remove the name of the store :)

Topic: That is clearly in breach of various laws...advertising a used laptop as brand new.
 
I would contact the original owner by email and tell them what's happened!

Could the original owner complain to the store about this, perhaps file a suit against them? You could even get some media attention around it. I remember something (perhaps on BBC News) where someone bought a memory card, which had other peoples photos on it.

Alex
 
Have edited thread but can't get title to change - if a mod could change this I'd be greatful. Sorry about breaking the rules it completely slipped my mind about the competitors rule thing. Sorry :(
 
bigred said:
Could the original owner complain to the store about this, perhaps file a suit against them?
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Well, I doubt it because he left the data there himself, the store didn't. He should have wiped it all before giving it back. It's his own negligence rather than the store's.

But it's clearly against the law to advertise a used laptop as new, so I'd want a full refund or a laptop that is actually new.
 
this company has been found to have sold numerous returned computers before. And good luck if you try to get a refund or anything i bought a £1400 pc off them 2 years ago the very first time i switched it on the mobo went pop, they then tried to fob me off for three weeks by sending out engineers then offering me lesser machines that they tried to say were better, after all this it took me a further three weeks to get my money back, i then took my money to a small one man band type of shop 15 miles away and have nothing but great service from them, its nice not having to put up with a spotty 16 year old looking at you like an idiot when you ask for something like a raid card or similar.
 
Explicit said:
I'm afraid this thread won't last long unless you remove the name of the store :)
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tbh should be left alone and not removed. Everyone knows of DSG retail, first company that comes into your head for high street store computers...and shows just what they're like.

Mate bought a laptop off them, couldn't reinstall windows as no cd was included. Why should we have to write a CD-R off?
 
Had the same problem with an £850 laptop from No Competitors! all the trial software was expired dvd-rewriter with fubared they told me I should have read the no returns policy on laptops, tv's, desktops etc and said the dvd rewriter shouldnt burn dvds because its illigal? wtf swor never to buy from them again.

Just found ocuk recently had a few problems because it was my first order but there service is great nice friendly emails really fast delivery 12 out of 10 for ocuk
 
Thats really poor!!!! I would be emensly annoyed if a company had resold a computer with my personal stuff on it tho!!!!
 
I work for them.... trust me thats just average I once had a mother come running up to me saying the ex-display pc they brought yesterday has pictures of naked girls which is unsuitable for her 15 year old son.

I told her im sure her son doesnt mind.


Course that didnt happen just said sorry and offered her full refund/exchange and said I would happily exchange for another unit and see the difference can be compensated and check the pc thats its brand new and not used.

These situations occur for many reasons I could spend a whole day writing out the problems with DSG but im just a techy, btw regarding your Advent laptop all u had to do was switch it on and hit F10 and it would have recovered in 15 minutes back to factory settings.
 
The point is that they sold me a laptop advertised as new, and not only is it now new it has someones details on there, which could potentially contain confidential information...I don't mind reformatting it myself, I'm not even bothered its second hand, but I don't think I can just let this go. I'll call trading standards in the morning and see what they say.

Thanks for all the messages, very informative (and shocking to see this is quite minor compared to other stories!)
 
samat2001 said:
The point is that they sold me a laptop advertised as new, and not only is it now new it has someones details on there, which could potentially contain confidential information...I don't mind reformatting it myself, I'm not even bothered its second hand, but I don't think I can just let this go. I'll call trading standards in the morning and see what they say.

Thanks for all the messages, very informative (and shocking to see this is quite minor compared to other stories!)
Click to expand...

Yeah, definatly call trading standards, I would be ****** if I found that all my personal stuff was just available for someone else to read! Oh wait, I would never buy anything from D$G :p
 
I also work for the company, this just happens unfortunatley and it is not acceptable... units in my store are clearly marked as new, ex display, pre-owned or ex-repair, every now and again one does slip through...

as for your rights... within 28 days we are legally abliged to provide you with an exchange or refund if the goods are faulty, or unsatisfactory... outside of 28 days we are within our rights to offer you a repair or exchange...
again we are within the law not to deal with any software issue(though we do).

what this particular incident breaches in the data protection act, the store should issue you with a refund or exchange for the same model(which isnt the case as the advent 7079 is discontinued, which leads me to believe that you bought it from the clearence/refurb section of the website, so you should get a refund). The machines that are delivered to your door come from a distribution centre in Sheffield, after being repaired by our national returns department, so in affect its nothing to do with the store.

Take it in to the General Manager and calmly explain the situation(dont go off it as he will be less likely to help, just as i do) if he has any decency he should take the machine off your hands and do you a deal on another... just dont expect the world:D
 
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