Was i wrong to accept this amount of compensation?

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So, i bought a refurb laptop off the purple shirts. To be exact, it was a Hp tx2-1340ea at the price of £535 after a £35 discount code. As standard it should come with 4gb of ram, and two batteries - a 4 cell and an 8 cell. However, this one arrived with just 2gb ram and only a 4 cell battery. Because it was a refurb, it just came in a plain box with the laptop, power adaptor, battery and invoice. Nothing else.

So, as soon as i'd discovered this i gave them a call. This was on tuesday 9th November. As it was ordered online i was told they would pick it up the next day and another would be dispatched as soon as it had been received.

So i sit around all day wednesday and no one comes to pick it up (DHL were the couriers). I call them again. I ask if i could just have an extra 2gb ram sent out to me and be done with it. Of course i have a greater chance of seeing pigs fly. I rearrange for a pickup the following monday.

I sit around all day monday, no one comes to pick it up. I call them again. I rearrange for tuesday.

I sit around all day tuesday. No one had come by half 4, so i call them again. They have a quick word with DHL and get back to me to say that the driver is running late and that i should give him untill 6 o'clock (normally i should be expecting between 9 to 5). I wait untill 6 o'clock. Still no one comes. I call them again. I start complaining. I get transferred to a line manager. We eventually work out a deal where i get refunded £50 and i go buy my own ram (had given up on the batery at this point). Was told that it would take 3 working days for the money to come through.

3 working days later. No money had come through. I had then discovered that the laptop chassis had a screw with no head, so if something ever broke, it would not be accessible. Reluctantly i call them again and rearrange for yet another delivery the following monday (22nd Nov). They finally let slip that, although i couldnt exchange in store, i could get a refund in store and start again.

The following monday. Yet again, no one comes. at 5.10pm i leave the house and take it back to a store for a refund. When i get back, lo and behold theres a DHL calling card sticking out of the letterbox (the only one ive had might i add). Frustrated i call the purple shirts, go straight up to another line manager. First i get told that the laptop should only have 2gb and one battery to start with (complete BS). I then get told that because i'd refunded, my original compensation offer would get cancelled, and the best they could offer was £25. I then ask them what about the 4 working days id stayed in for nothing? What about the 3-4 hours of phone calls id made (a good chunk of which i was on hold for)? What about the 25 miles worth of petrol id used to take it back? What about the original £35 discount id got which had ended by then? I got put on hold for a few minutes, after which i was then offered £30.

So, i promptly finished the call as i was getting nowhere. I then spent the rest of the night typing out a 3 page letter of complaint, and giving them the ultimatum of i need a laptop before december (I am due to start a course on the 8th). If i dont get a response by then, im taking my money elsewhere.

I finally got a phone call off a case manager today (by now the deadline has come and gone and i have bought a different laptop elsewhere). He agreed that ive been messed around and talked me through all the processes that have been happening since. He then said that the original compensation was agreed to buy extra memory, which i now dont need, hence why it was cancelled. However He reoffered the £50 as a 'token of good will'. Today, i have been pretty tired, and throughout the whole ordeal i have taken the stance of 'i just want it sorted'. As a result, i didnt put up much of a fight and agreed to the offer. I thought this was probably as good as it would get and seemed like a reasonable deal.

However, upon relaying this to my parents, who have been following the case, they seem to think ive been stupid and could have got more out of them. Im fairly inexperienced to things like this, and messed around or not, i still feel kinda guilty basically demanding money off them. So, to sum up, is £50 a suitable compensation bearing in mind that i got a full refund and ended up buying elsewhere, or should i have carried on fighting?

either way i wont be buying off them again...

sorry about the thread length.
 
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wasnt asking for sympathy. Was asking if i'd done right :p

Although i agree. I paid a premium over the 2nd hand ones on ebay for what i assumed to be professionally checked. how wrong i was...
 
well cheers fellas, sounds like it was the right thing to do then (assuming they actually cough it up this time)

The spec on their page does say 4gb ram (as did the multiple other sources i included with my letter), but on the battery side it does state one battery, even though these other sources disagree, hence why i gave up on that fairly early on. Ive just checked back over there and it also now states what accessories are incuded (and by accessories i mean power cord and battery), but that definately wasnt there before. Perhaps something has come out of this after all...

oh, and ive changed the name :p
 
Im amazed you took so long to just take it back and get a refund tbh.
You let them **** you around far too much :p

Well like i said (and like i told them on multiple occasions) i just wanted it sorted. I was more than happy to fit the ram myself and thought i was doen and dusted when that finally agreed to this. Then they didnt pay and i found the knackered screw, so i realised it had to go back somehow or other.

Doesn't surprise me. All you have to do is go in there and stand around a middle-aged couple who are perusing the computer section, and you will overhear staff lying to them. I normally take a chance to have a word with the victim if possible, or occasionally - if the lying is so blatant it's virtually fraud - I just interrupt.

All that said, when people at work ask me for advice on where to go, it's normally to ask where's the best place to buy a cheap laptop for their kid or something, and they have £300 to £400 to spend - purple shirts is normally the best option. I just implore them not to take out extended warranties.

ha, i remember a few years ago when i was a kid and was gettin into the whole custom pc scene i took my grandad in there to buy a computer and bombarded the sales guy (if i remember correctly he was about in his mid thirties) with a load of pointless technical questions of which about half he could answer.

I'm amazed you got anything out of them, so I'd be happy with the £50.

Refurb stuff doesn't always meet the original spec, but if the refurb product page says 4GB then thats what you should get.

Probably best you didn't get the TX2 anyway as the screens aren't all that good, the newer TM2 model was a lot clearer.

Actually, the model i replaced it with WAS the tm2-2050ea. I managed to haggle a new sealed one off the bay for £600 so i was quite pleased. Whilst it is such an improvement over the tx2 in many ways, in my opinion, the screen is definately not one of them. Glossy, naff viewing angles, and the touch only supports 2 fingers (tx2 supported 4). only other major thing is that the 1.2ghz pentium is a tad on the underpowered side, but not as bad as id imagined. The 5450 graphics makes up for that one :D

I'm surprised any board members actually buy anything big from the purple place. It's all overpriced, awful and comes with about a million annoying programs pre-installed.

Actually, its HP that have done that to mine. First bootup had 79 programs preinstalled., Of which about 5 were of any use to me. But ive plonked a 500gig scorpio black in there and started afresh anyways.

I have also had the misfortune of working for them. The service is shocking, the staff knowledge is zero and the greed is high.
The day I resigned and got back into aviation was a great day.

ooo, my course is also aviation!! (oxford aviation academy APP first officer :D). Any chance i could pester you for advice at some point? :D

Yes, you were wrong!


Do explain...
 
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