Laptop - Sales of Goods Act advice

[JamesW]

Here we go, what do you think?

Dear Sir/Madam,

RE: Faulty goods and the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended)

In February 2010 I bought an Acer Aspire 7736G laptop from you for [COST] which has stopped working.


The SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) controller on the hard drive has reported a technical fault. This controller is a monitoring system for hard drives to detect and report on various indicators of reliability, in the hope of anticipating failures.


The Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended) states that when a consumer buys goods from a trader they must be: as described; of a satisfactory quality; and fit for any purpose made known at the time of sale to the seller.

This legislation also states that the seller, not the manufacturer, is legally obliged to sort out a problem if the goods do not meet these requirements.


The law also says I have six years from the date of purchase to claim damages for faulty goods.

I took the product into my local store and they told me that as the product is out of the 1 year warranty they could not replace the drive in store. The store assistant explained that in order for the hard drive to be replaced outside of the stores warranty I would have to take it to an independent engineer (at my own expense) who would then verify the claim. Once verified I would have to forward their recommendations to your head office and it would take upto 30 working days for the claim to be processed after which time I may be entitled to a full refund of the product (not including the independent engineer’s costs).

I require my laptop to be functioning every day as I have a lot of business that I need to attend to therefore I have had to purchase my own hard drive, at great expense.

I am writing to request that I am compensated for lost time, and fully reimbursed for the cost of a new hard drive.

Please respond to my complaint within 7 days from receipt of this letter, after which time I will be taking this claim to small claims court.

 

[WaterGypsy]

Go for it

 

[Domski]

Can't help but think you might be having a laugh with the loss of time bit but rest of it sounds reasonable.

Dom

 

[Dryver14]

you could try the following.

oy numb nuts,

In todays recession I know people that can break joints for less then the price of the part you want me to replace if you know what I mean!!! I will be in to give you the option tomorrow.

 

[Taul]

Rather than giving them a lesson on the law, it might be better to just state the problem and ask that they refund the cost of the hard drive.
You can then follow on with your intention to use the small claims court within 14 days for receipt of this letter if you do not receive a satisfactory response.
If you go the route of the small claims court, the first thing you will be asked is, did you give sufficient and reasonable notice to the seller.

As a side note; doesn't the on-board diagnostic constitute an independent source of testing? It is independent of the consumer (you) and the retailer (the shop)

good luck

 

[JamesW]

Hi Paul,

I just copied a typical Sales of Goods Act letter and changed it.

In regards to the SMART controller, apparently it cannot be used as an independant source of testing.

Amended:

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RE: Faulty goods

In February 2010 I bought an Acer Aspire 7736G laptop from you which has stopped working.


The SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) controller on the hard drive has reported a technical fault. This controller is a monitoring system for hard drives to detect and report on various indicators of reliability, in the hope of anticipating failures.


I took the product into my local store and they told me that as the product is out of the 1 year warranty they could not replace the drive in store. The store assistant explained that in order for the hard drive to be replaced outside of the stores warranty I would have to take it to an independent engineer (at my own expense) who would then verify that the hard drive is faulty. Once verified I would have to forward their recommendations to your head office and it would take up to 30 days for this to be processed after which time I may be entitled to a full refund of the product (not including the independent engineer’s costs).

I require my laptop to be functioning every day as I have a lot of business that I need to attend to therefore I have had to purchase my own hard drive, at great expense.

I am writing to request that I am fully reimbursed for the cost of a new hard drive.

Please respond to my complaint within 14 days from receipt of this letter, after which time I will be taking this claim to small claims court.

 

[Dryver14]

James,

No Joke this time ( well it wasn't very good last time really), I think if you are demanding redress and reimbursement you should probably include the costs in the letter, they have no idea of sums of money from your letter and so do not know what decision to make financially