I bought my lap top this April, from PC World.Its a Packard Bell,and has a 12 months guarantee.What kind of things does this guarantee cover, and what doesnt it cover ? Also if it breaks down before the 12 months is up, do I take it back to PC World or contact Packard Bell ?

It depends what kind of guarantee it is Pattricia; some offer on site repair (in your own home), and some you have to send the PC away.

Silly question maybe, but did you have a look at the guarantee docs? If you did and you're still not sure, tell us what is says, and I'm sure we'll be able to clarify for you! :)

Originally posted by Kristian
It depends what kind of guarantee it is Pattricia; some offer on site repair (in your own home), and some you have to send the PC away.

Silly question maybe, but did you have a look at the guarantee docs? If you did and you're still not sure, tell us what is says, and I'm sure we'll be able to clarify for you! :) No, I havent Kristian,never thought of that,but I will have a good look through sometime. Thanks.

Having just gone through a nightmare with PC World involving a Packard Bell laptop.. I can honestly say- I hope you dont have to go thru what we went through over a period of nearly 3 months.

In the end, because we only had the laptop for 3 months we ended up getting a new Toshiba one which is much better.

The 12 month guarantee means you can take the laptop back to PC World for them to send away for you to be repaired- which they couldnt even be arsed to do in our case- or- and this is the best bit- if the dont fix the laptop in 28 days- tell them you want a new laptop.. go for a Toshiba model like we did.. much better overall and a lot faster! :)

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Kristian
[B]It depends what kind of guarantee it is Pattricia; some offer on site repair (in your own home), and some you have to send the PC away.

I too payed extra for on site repair, big joke, just try and get it, i called the company, was a Brit on the other end, arrogant person, i ended up just hanging up on him, or i would have been intears, he would have had a good laugh at that !

Pattricia

Welcome to the IT industry's major can of worms. Generally guarantees, warranties, on-site support etc only apply to hardware. What you get will entirely depend on the agreement you signed at the time of purchase. Although what they say at the time is supposedly part of the contract forget whatever they said because it is less than meaningless.

No IT supplier guarantees software due to the End User License Agreement (EULA) for the product. It is extremely unlikely you'll get post sales technical support for software; software support costs an arm and a leg. This is also a major IT scandal and is probably the only product you shell out a fortune for something that is not guaranteed to work and manufacturers deny product liability for all of the harm, pain and suffering they've caused you for their useless non-functional products. :rant:

Your contract for the Packard Bell Computer you bought from PC World is with PC World which has a contractual duty to you for the entire period of the contract, that is 6 years minus 1 day. The guarantee with PC World entitles you to whatever you agreed to pay for within the context of your agreement. PC World will have certain duties after the guarantee period expires but these are generally far more limited.

It is also critical to understand you do not have any contractual relationship with the manufacturer, Packard Bell, because none of the criteria for a contract exist although they may have certain duties as the manufacturer of the product.

If you bought it on a credit card or a consumer credit agreement you should be able to call on the financial institution and linked to the supplier under ss56/75 Consumer Credit Act 1974. This is fairly useful because you are entitled to call on the creditor to sort out problems with the supplier and does not necessarily happen in practice.

Just watch out, as many people get caught out in the seller/manufacturer mess. Take it to the seller and they tell you to contact the the manufacturer, and vice versa. Its worth checking who you take it too when it breaks before you buy it.

As for software, it costs a bomb to support, mainly because when you get someone phone up saying "erm, its broken", the people have to be trained in lots of aspects of the software, which costs money, lots of money. Software doesnt come with a years guantee like hardware does, as its not really a physical item.

Plus, 99% of the time, software problems are caused by faulty hardware, or user error/tinkering. That or crap software supplied by third parties, in which case, if you install $software from $vendor and it causes Windows to turn into a rabid goat, its not the problem of the hardware vendor, nor the vendor of any software provided on the PC when you got it.

Despite the appauling software that is WindowsXP. I know for a fact that if you leave it alone, it will stay working. My Aunts PC i upgraded to Windows XP about 2 weeks after its realease, and it still has that installation on, with the latest updates. The only software on there is software I've put on for her. It runs just as well as it did when I installed it.

Joel

I'm not sure if the original question has actually been answered.

The guarantee will cover the hardware of the laptop with regards to mechanical or electrical failure that isn't caused by you.

So basically, if the entire thing stops working, the fans stop, the hard drive dies or the cpu burns itself to a crisp then the guarantee will cover these things. You will be entitled to either a repair or replacement.
It won't cover any software (as already explained) nor will it cover you for accidental damage (unless you're paying extra).

Although there is the massive confusion about whether to return the system to the supplier or manufacturer, as far as I have been able to ascertain all suppliers return laptops to the manufacturer for repair because they do not generally have the facilities to undertake these sort of repairs.

I'd also like to add that the longer in to the contract after the 12 month gaurantee period, the more likely that they will repair and not replace. So if in 3-4 years time your laptop packs up consider buying a new one rather than having it repaired unless the sum involved is really notional, like £20-40.

The supplier is ONLY responsible for the system registries they supplied you. They are NOT responsible AFTER you instal any software on the hard drive other than applications they supplied as part of their package UNLESS you pay them to install all of the other software you want to use.

If you paid for software installation you need to check the terms and conditions because you may find countless exclusions render meaningless the high installation costs charged for the privilege of using the Windows automatic installer.

You can either get accidental damage cover on your household insurance or www.compucover.co.uk seem to offer a reasonably fair deal if the system is less than 3 months old.

good luck getting them to do anything after the 12 month guarantee has finished, you'd probably have to take them to court to get any joy at all and it just wouldn't be worth it.

Even within the 12 month guarantee they will always repair the laptop if that's the cheaper option. And it would have to be seriously bad for it not to be.

Originally posted by Joelc
Just watch out, as many people get caught out in the seller/manufacturer mess. Take it to the seller and they tell you to contact the the manufacturer, and vice versa. Its worth checking who you take it too when it breaks before you buy it.

As for software, it costs a bomb to support, mainly because when you get someone phone up saying "erm, its broken", the people have to be trained in lots of aspects of the software, which costs money, lots of money. Software doesnt come with a years guantee like hardware does, as its not really a physical item.

Plus, 99% of the time, software problems are caused by faulty hardware, or user error/tinkering. That or crap software supplied by third parties, in which case, if you install $software from $vendor and it causes Windows to turn into a rabid goat, its not the problem of the hardware vendor, nor the vendor of any software provided on the PC when you got it.

Despite the appauling software that is WindowsXP. I know for a fact that if you leave it alone, it will stay working. My Aunts PC i upgraded to Windows XP about 2 weeks after its realease, and it still has that installation on, with the latest updates. The only software on there is software I've put on for her. It runs just as well as it did when I installed it.

Joel Thanks everyone,seems that the advice is if you leave it alone,it will stay working.I dont do anything technical on it,only coming on the Forum & E Mailing.Also I am covered on my Household Insurance for accidental damage,so should be alright.

trading standards rules actually dictate you need to give the company chance to repair the item first anyway.

trading standards dont even bother to read their rules never mind applying them so what's the point of their writing rules which dictate what you're supposed to do.

Rather I think you'll find this decision is far more likely to be based on case law.

You may find this article useful

http://technovia.typepad.com/technovia/2005/09/what_to_do_when.html