Useful documents from the BIS site (Department for Business Innovation and skils - Sale of Goods Act Fact Sheet Sale of Goods Act Fact Sheet - BIS A traders guide: the law relating to the supply of goods and services (505KB) http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file25486.pdf

Have a look here: Small claims and Making a Claim If it's a non complex case - as yours appears to be - it should be put on the small claims track (less then £5,000 and no personnal injury involved) http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/courtfinder/forms/ex307.pdf

The Dell was my son's first Laptop. Since it's currently not working he's taken his desktop to uni this term but he needs a laptop (making note at the library etc) so we'll have to get him another - it won't be Dell.

I suppose working for Dell would be one way of ensuring premium support!!

During the winter it would have been moved between Halls and lectures in it's carry case. During the summer it was left at home and to be quite honest after it was fixed on the second occasion it wasn't used that much during the summer since he has a desktop system. Again after the second trip back to base in September it was in his room for just over a week before giving up the ghost. As for the home engineer visit I think it's pot luck as to the dedication of the engineer you get. The hard disk isn't recognised, lets change it - Oh it works now - bye bye - what do I do if it fails again before christmas!! They've had three chances to fix it already - one should have been enough.

If you read my letter it's the county court I've threatened them with. My understanding is that the small claims is a fast track process within the county court system which the court decide to implement for low value simple claims

It's being sent recorded delivery and should be delivered Tomorrow (Wednesday 21st - 14 days to 4th Nov). I started this process on 28th September with the first recorded delivery when I gave them 28 days to resolve this so I think my timescales are reasonable. I do take your point though I think there is some basic problem with the Laptop which could be difficult to resolve. I don't believe it's just a couple (or maybe 3) bad hard drives. After three chances to fix the laptop I'm simply not prepared to continue the cycle since I can see the laptop breaking down again in another month or so.

I think I'll be going down the county court route. The Red bit are my son's account We bought a laptop for our son for Uni last September. By Jan it had stopped working - wouldn't boot, so my son called Dell - The person on the phone ran through some diagnostic checks on the computer with me and the messages that came up were enough for him to decide that the laptop would have to be returned to Dell as the Hard Disk needed to be replaced - it was sent back to Dell for a new hard drive. In June it stopped on the loading Windows screen - this time the support went through the painstaking process of re-loading the operating system from CD - I made one initial phone call when I went though the re-boot. He then called me back the next day to finish it (as it was the evening when I made the initial phone call the previous day). I then rang him a week later as the system was not in perfect order, ie. The mouse was lagging a little bit. He contacted me at work, I asked him to ring back but he never did. I then just continued to use the laptop presuming that I was never really going to be able to get it working perfectly with all the problems, and was reasonably satisfied that I could actually use the laptop again. In September it stopped booting again and Dell agreed to again replace the hard drive. Two weeks after we got it back it AGAIN refused to boot this time with a “No bootable Device” error. It's now out of warranty Sent a recorded delivery letter to Dell Dublin and was phoned back two days later with the offer of an on site visit - even though the laptop is out of warranty . At this stage I have no confidence in Dell's ability to repair the laptop since they've already had three attempts and have failed to Satisfactorily repair it I replied to the e-mail offer of an onsite repair asking for a percentage of the purchase price back (some use through the year) or a replacement with a year warranty (to make sure they don't give us a duff). This has been ignored so I'm sending another recorded delivery letter asking for the same set out below: ============================================== 20 October 2009 Sir/Madam, Since I have had no reply to my e-mail sent on 1-october-2009 to xxxxxxxxxxxx@Dell.com. I am sending this letter recorded delivery Thank you for the offer from Mr xxxxxx, (on behalf of Dell – copy of email enclosed) for a free repair for the laptop in your e-mail of 28th September 2009. I feel though that it has gone beyond the stage where a repair is acceptable and would again like to insist on either a partial refund or laptop replacement since I have no confidence in Dell’s ability to fix the laptop to a reasonable standard. Since over the last year the laptop has had some use made of it, I am prepared to accept less than the full purchase price in compensation, a value of £399 (full price was £509). Alternatively a replacement laptop of equal or greater specification should be supplied with a year warranty to protect against the replacement laptop itself not being of satisfactory quality. The fact that the existing laptop is out of warranty is irrelevant since under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended), section 14, (2) Where the seller sells goods in the course of a business, there is an implied term that the goods supplied under the contract are of satisfactory quality. (2A) For the purposes of this Act, goods are of satisfactory quality if they meet the standard that a reasonable person would regard as satisfactory, taking account of any description of the goods, the price (if relevant) and all the other relevant circumstances. (2B) For the purposes of this Act, the quality of goods includes their state and condition and the following (among others) are in appropriate cases aspects of the quality of goods— (a) fitness for all the purposes for which goods of the kind in question are commonly supplied, (b) appearance and finish, © freedom from minor defects, (d) safety, and (e) durability. My contention is that a laptop which has four major faults in the first 13 months of use would not be regarded by a reasonable person to be of satisfactory quality, and hence Dell is in breach of contract and I would be within my rights to seek damages from the county court. I would obviously not want to go down this path and would prefer to come to an equitable arrangement with Dell to resolve our dispute. If you do not have the authority to negotiate an equitable resolution to our dispute please pass on the relevant correspondence onto someone who has the authority. References: Invoice number: xxxxxxxx Customer Number xxxxxxxxx Dell Order No: xxxxxxx Product Service Tag: xxxxxx Express Service Code: xxxxxxxxxxx Please reply within 14 days (by 4th November 2009) or I will apply to the county courts for damages for breach of contract. Bla Bla Bla ============================================== Lets see how this pans out

If this is your first contact with Dell regarding a complaint please contact: Non Technical Queries Email:Click HerePhone : 0870 906 0010 (expensive - last resort) Technical Queries Email : Click Here Phone : 0870 908 0800(expensive - last resort) If somehow we have not delivered the quality service you deserve as a Dell customer via the above methods, please give your feedback via the following link “Complaint” . You will be contacted by a Dell representative within 24 hours of sending this form. If you are still dissatisfied with our response please write to our Customer Relations Department. A Dell representative will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and provide a likely timescale for resolve. Customer Relations Department, Dell Computers, Dell Innovation House, Cherrywood Science & Technology Park, Cabinteely, Co. Dublin Ireland. - Found on web page http://support.euro.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/emea/shared/support/email_customer_care/en/complaints_procedure?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs