Distance selling regulation

Deyvy · 24 Oct 2006 at 18:25

Can someone advise me to my rights for a refund.

basically ordered a custom PC, The day I ordered they took the money out, fair enough I knew this would happen..10-12 working day lead time..Not told of any stock shortages. When the 12 day came and went, I was told there werent any PSUs left in stock some european shortage although OC had them in stock.. I would have had to wait another week for them to receive the PSUs.

Negotiated to be able to buy my own PSU, which I did from here. In the end I go it a month after I ordered it (20 working days). When I received it, it wouldnt even boot to windows, BSOD, Basically wasnt stable, you can read my problems posted elsewhere

They didnt give the lightscribe burner I chosen. When I RMA'ed the PC, they couldn't find the problem I told them about, even after I told them how to find the problem in Memtest.. They tried to tell me I had installed multiple OS's on it, which was causing the problem which was a load of rubbish, everytime I installed a new OS I reformatted first. I literally had to tell them on the phone after I emailed their support how to change the parameters of memtest to find the 1000's of errors..

Just want to ask, whats my rights to a refund? Tried reading the act, but very long winded..Just need a yes or no from someone..

If only OC had posted the Ultima Sli 7950GX full system before I ordered mine, almost identical to the spec I got, really nice case too

PS. I dropped the PC off myself, literally a bunch of kids building them..

Tried to get a refund but they said company policy is have to RMA twice before refund. Was going to refund and order this OC one..

Wont have a go too much, customer service is great, but let down hugely on the thing that mattered the most, the PC...Theres no way I can see how that pc couldve passed testing and QC with the instability issues I had when I used it..

Felix E · 24 Oct 2006 at 18:33

I think the distance selling regulations entitle you to a full refund within 7 days of receiving something ordered over the internet, for any reason whatsoever.. not sure if this would apply if you had it, sent it back, got it again etc.

Deyvy · 24 Oct 2006 at 18:40

The weeks come and gone now, what if the PC still is troublesome and not stable? Discretion of the seller?

Week and half now, spent most of that week, just reformatting and doing tests, which really they should've done. I work long hours so, not much time to get things done. But 7 days? Working days?

pastymuncher · 24 Oct 2006 at 19:18

If the pc is not as described or has a problem from the very begining i believe that you can reject it. You should contact Consumer direct for guidance though.

Yes it is 7 working days from receipt of goods.

In all fairness though i think you should give them the opportunity to sort the fault out within a reasonable time.

Explicit · 24 Oct 2006 at 19:50

You have seven working days commencing on the day after you receive the goods to exercise your statutory right to cancel the contract. You must provide written notice by email or letter stating that you are cancelling the contract under the DSRegs. Providing notice by telephone is not valid.

There are some exemptions which prevent you from relying on the Regs. The two most relevant ones to you are 1) Whether the goods were specially customised to your requirements (custom made spec you say?) and 2) Whether the product in question is computer software which has been unsealed (Windows XP?). If so, you cannot rely on the Regulations.

You may also have other claims under the Sale of Goods Act 1979:

They didnt give the lightscribe burner I chosen

Most definitely a s.13 case, as the goods do not match the description. You contracted for a lightscribe writer and the goods you received did not meet that description so that is a breach of a term. You should be able to change it for a lightsribe one.

You mention memtest errors, so I presume there were also issues with the RAM? Here, you may have claims under s.14(2) and/or s.14(3), whereby goods must be of satisfactory quality and reasonably fit for their purpose. Replacement of RAM would probably fix it.

The fact the PC is unreliable and unstable may also give rise to a s.14 claim.

Best bet is to get in touch with Consumer Direct who may refer your case to Trading Standards

Deyvy · 25 Oct 2006 at 07:30

pastymuncher said:
If the pc is not as described or has a problem from the very begining i believe that you can reject it. You should contact Consumer direct for guidance though.

Yes it is 7 working days from receipt of goods.

In all fairness though i think you should give them the opportunity to sort the fault out within a reasonable time.

I am caught in two minds, sometimes I think I should give them a chance to fix it, but when I do, and they say its past testing now onto QC, and they didn't even find the problem I informed them of and especially when I tell them what to do to find it. They said the problem was me installing loads of different operating systems, that just took the biscuit. How can that happen when I reformat before each installation. Vista wouldn't even load to windows after installing it..

I confess I don't know a whole lot about pcs, thats subjective though, I know a lot more than some people and some people know a lot more than me. But in this case it seems I know more than them.

But how can I have confidence in a company who are not able to build a working high spec pc to order in a month. I bought a 3 year warranty with it too, so I'm thinking is it someone I want to deal with for another 3 years if I have any further problems..

Well hopefully somone's going to call me with a update this morning..

I spose I'll be breaching the board rules if I mention the company name

AtreuS · 25 Oct 2006 at 12:24

Deyvy said:
I am caught in two minds, sometimes I think I should give them a chance to fix it, but when I do, and they say its past testing now onto QC, and they didn't even find the problem I informed them of and especially when I tell them what to do to find it. They said the problem was me installing loads of different operating systems, that just took the biscuit. How can that happen when I reformat before each installation. Vista wouldn't even load to windows after installing it..

I confess I don't know a whole lot about pcs, thats subjective though, I know a lot more than some people and some people know a lot more than me. But in this case it seems I know more than them.

But how can I have confidence in a company who are not able to build a working high spec pc to order in a month. I bought a 3 year warranty with it too, so I'm thinking is it someone I want to deal with for another 3 years if I have any further problems..

Well hopefully somone's going to call me with a update this morning..

I spose I'll be breaching the board rules if I mention the company name

Wouldnt happen to start with an "A" by any chance?

t31os · 25 Oct 2006 at 12:37

If its been that long, and you still do not have a working product, i'd step up the phone calls and ask to speak to someone in charge, not just any tech support idiot.

Explain to that person you are seeking legal advice regarding the level of customer service when trying to get what you think you paid for.

You'd be surprised how quickly problems get fixed when people think they have a legal battle imminent.

Zogger · 25 Oct 2006 at 13:17

also if they don't give you written notice of the distance selling regulations (for example in the terms and conditions on their website) then the period is extended from seven days to something like a month.

As long as you give them written notice within the given time period, they 'regularly' sell online and the condition is preserved they're obliged to give you a refund I believe.

Can't say if what I've said is exactly right as I'm just going by what I remember of reading it a few weeks ago.

Deyvy · 25 Oct 2006 at 14:05

No not 'A', but considered it after this nightmare..But saying that, buying it from them, same spec would've cost £900 more...

I did call Consumer direct, the guy was very helpful.. Basically said give them till Monday, if nothing happens call him back to see what to do. But did say worse comes to the worse, I can write a letter to my credit card company explaining the situation, as apparently they're part responsible for the goods. He said, they can/will/should/could refund the money for me, and then they start knocking on the PC company's door to get their money back..

Straying off the point, their tech support said one of the things that caused the problem was me installing lots of different operating systems. I did install lots of different OSs' but each time I reformatted, using the thing in windows setup. But he tells me its not good enough really, should use Western digital reforms..

Just wanted to know if this is true? That reformat only reformats the boot sector, he says?

huppy · 25 Oct 2006 at 14:15

I don't see how formatting would have any effect - as far as i know most memtest proprams are booted to from a bootable floppy. If that's the case, and if this is where you are finding the problems with the memory, you could take out the hard disk all together and the memtest will still run exactly the same, and still demonstrate there is a problem with the PC.

z0mbi3 · 25 Oct 2006 at 14:16

Sounds like you did something wrong during the reformat, as the "techie" knew what you had done.

I just always delete the partition and start afresh. Always does the job for me.

To be honest these guys sound like amateurs. I would push for the refund and order off trusty ocuk.

Deyvy · 25 Oct 2006 at 14:29

Well they knew what I did, as I told them about me installing all the different Os's, and it didnt work.. I wrote a massive email detailing what I did, given, I didnt mention delete partition, format install. I thought thats obvious..

But yeah thats what I do, delete the partition reformat then install, so I dont know how I couldve messed that up..

As I say, I'm not technical, but stuff like this I assumed I could handle.

Dont say that about ordering it off OCuk, rubbing salt into the wounds mate..I know, but that system on here now, wasnt on here when I ordered my one..

Dont think there were any core 2 duo systems on here before these ones?

He keeps telling me how Xp 64 is a white elephant and if I search google for XP64 BSOD/crash, I'll find millions of hits.. I didnt find that many actually. BUt as others have stated that they completely disagree with his comment..He doesnt know one person with it that hasnt had big problems..