What law exactly is being broken?

asim18 said:
Why would anyone want a broken graphics card back?

If I go get a new battery and say a some new brake disc+caliper on a car, is the garage supposed to leave the old clutch and brakes in my boot?
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Well, they are yours, and they are supposed to ask if you want to keep them.
But the average person can't be bothered and don't even think about it, so they just take them and make money recycling them.
Should have seen the look on their face when I asked for my bald tire back once. :D
 
asim18 said:
Why would anyone want a broken graphics card back?

If I go get a new battery and say a some new brake disc+caliper on a car, is the garage supposed to leave the old clutch and brakes in my boot?
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For this very reason, we keep all old parts for 7 days, offer to show the customer the parts, and let them take them away if they like.
 
asim18 said:
Why would anyone want a broken graphics card back?

If I go get a new battery and say a some new brake disc+caliper on a car, is the garage supposed to leave the old clutch and brakes in my boot?
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place i go to makes a point of leaving out any parts they replace when you come to collect, mainly just to show anyone who does know enough to spot it that they really did need to change x part
 
Not a lawyer, but I would think it would be theft for the graphics card and one of the varieties of fraud for false-representation of the problem and the trumped up bill. You're looking at two charges here, carried out as part of the same case.
 
Are we assuming that there's no contract in place between the service provider and the customer? I'd imagine it's fairly common practice to include wording allowing removal and replacement of broken components at the engineer's discretion. Any barely competent lawyer would remain silent on the requirement of a like for like swap.
 
[FnG]magnolia said:
Are we assuming that there's no contract in place between the service provider and the customer? I'd imagine it's fairly common practice to include wording allowing removal and replacement of broken components at the engineer's discretion. Any barely competent lawyer would remain silent on the requirement of a like for like swap.
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Why do people keep saying this stuff? It was a working card swapped out for a cheaper card so they could keep the more expensive one.
 
[FnG]magnolia said:
Are we assuming that there's no contract in place between the service provider and the customer? I'd imagine it's fairly common practice to include wording allowing removal and replacement of broken components at the engineer's discretion. Any barely competent lawyer would remain silent on the requirement of a like for like swap.
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If a part's state of the art and it's broken, it'll be replaceable by warranty.
 
firstly Fraud, obtaining money for labour to replace something that didn't need replacing
secondly, theft, stealing a component above.

The problem being how would a customer know ?
I suppose you might say most people who have a 980 in their machine know what it is, anbd would realise it was missing.
but where do you draw the line, perhaps someone has an SSD and it gets replaced with a HDD without the customer knowing.
 
Happens a lot I suspect with small traders and dodgy dealers. I had the same thing happen with a back street tyre place you know the ones £10 for cheap replacement tyres, obviously goodness knows where from. Well they told me go off and have a coffee or something and a fool I fell for it. They not only replaced the tyres but swapped out the hubs which were good with old knacked bashed to buggery scrap ones too. I'll never go near one of those places again.

n.b. reminds of something once on a popular general forum that had a tech sub forum this woman was very upset that this PC she'd repeatedly taken to a small PC shop to be "repaired" they'd kept it for god knows how long replaced this that and the other which probably didn't need replacing at all and to add insult to injury the CPU was massively overheating they'd almost certainly taken the heatsink off faffed around with it a bit and put it back on without any thermal paste and charged her through the nose for it. Tried to tell her she was wasting her time with these cowboys but she was in such a state she basically wasn't listening to any of it and was in all likelyhood going to take it back for another "fix".
 
[FnG]magnolia said:
What are the chances of these types of people investigating, uh, special folders?

Asking for a friend.
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I remember some years back when a mate had to do some building work or something similar in a PC repair shop and he said that if they have access to the OS and all of your files, they'll be certain to go snooping. It was pretty much a bunch of 'lads' working there, who all laughed and joked each time an attractive female walked in because of the possiblity of finding nudes...

These days even the average person can find a video on YouTube on how to fix most problems though, so I don't understand why most would even bother. Plus their prices are crazy.
 
A bloke I work with had a problem not being able to get his emails through the Outlook program on Windows 7 while he was off work for a week, instead of phoning me he phoned a guy up out the paper who quoted him £35 to fix it. So he goes over and can't get it to work and suggests he reinstalls Windows for £135 and my mate agreed to it. Still not able to filter the emails through the app so my mate says he ain't paying £130 for nothing so the guy accepted £35 to "fix" his emails.

So when he's back at work he's telling me all this and he's got printouts of error codes and fault codes, I said it looks to me that the Microsoft mail address has changed, put in the new imap and sorted, 5mins tops. So I go over to his house after work and Google the new address details put them in and there we go there's your emails mate see ya Monday.

The best bit though, the guy he called out was there for 3 HOURS, I suspected what his "fix" was and had a look while I was there.. he signed into hotmail through Chrome and Bookmarked it! £35, nearly £130 for a bookmark.
 
suggestions welcome! said:
This one's 10 years old but seems to cover a similar event.

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holy crud that is dodgy as hell, im glad i sort out my own pc like every one else on this forum :)

there was a old rogue traders ep quite a few years ago with a similar cowboy as well.

even a broken card can sell for money for parts etc, but just wow this ***** just stole the gpu and half the ram and im only half way through watching it.

edit: holy crud again he even nicked the psu :eek:
 
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Garages don't return broken stater motors or suspension coils :p

Windows could implement a system that requires repairers to fill in a "repair form" that must be available for the users to view after repair, and inform the user of any hardware upgrades or downgrades.. would solve the problem entirely.
 
This happens constantly in the service/repair industry. We just put our car in for a service and we got a call from the garage:

"The mechanic has advised that you need new brake discs and pads"

"The brakes were done a fortnight ago, and new pads and shoes were fitted".

"Oh yea, er.. it's just a recommendation. We can show you the mechanic video of the service".

"That's handy, please send the video over"

Cue a link to my car in the video, with the mechanic narrating. We see a brake disc with the usual lip on the edge and a brand new set of brake pads. :D

I would link to the video but the car reg is on it so would rather not as I don't like poo through my letterbox. ;)

The truth is, it comes down to trust and there are some really simple steps to take to protect yourself from these vultures. Unfortunately, most people wouldn't take the steps to prevent this even if you listed them out.

People are just like that.
 
String said:
This happens constantly in the service/repair industry. We just put our car in for a service and we got a call from the garage:

"The mechanic has advised that you need new brake discs and pads"

"The brakes were done a fortnight ago, and new pads and shoes were fitted".

"Oh yea, er.. it's just a recommendation. We can show you the mechanic video of the service".

"That's handy, please send the video over"

Cue a link to my car in the video, with the mechanic narrating. We see a brake disc with the usual lip on the edge and a brand new set of brake pads. :D

I would link to the video but the car reg is on it so would rather not as I don't like poo through my letterbox. ;)

The truth is, it comes down to trust and there are some really simple steps to take to protect yourself from these vultures. Unfortunately, most people wouldn't take the steps to prevent this even if you listed them out.

People are just like that.
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i agree there are too many knobbers about, i learned to fix and maintenance my push bikes my self, can do every thing from bottom brackets to changing wheel hub bearings etc and adjusting and fitting derailuers and cassette replacement thanks to the internet and a 40 quid tool kit.

same applies to pc parts, do not get ripped but learn and do it your self is my motto :)
 
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