Three months before the 1-year warranty expiry my portable computer stopped charging. Local Argos store sent away for repair, noting on the sheet that there was no physical damage. Having not heard from Argos after over a fortnight I called the store, was told that the device was back in and to come and collect. When I popped in store I was shown the repairer’s (a company called D & J Henry) report which stated that the unit had a damaged charging port which was not covered under the manufacturer's warranty, and that they were unable to source parts, and cost of repair would almost equal to the cost of the unit. Challenged the customer services manager to show me the damage to the port but to no avail. Several times I asked for a replacement or a refund as stated on their refunds policy of which I had brought a copy, but it all fell on deaf ears. Ended up leaving the store with my unit. Called the manufacturer on a Monday, they said that they would repair under warranty ONLY if there was NO EVIDENCE OF DAMAGE or TAMPERING. They arranged uplift on Tuesday, the item was returned back to me on Thursday that week in working order. All they did was to repair the charging port – UNDER WARRANTY! So there was NO DAMAGE after all! Was annoyed at fist as I could have bought the item for slightly more from Amazon and save myself all this trouble (based on a very similar recent experience) but I chose Argos because I felt strongly about preserving the jobs in our high street. I still feel that way but won’t be shopping at Argos EVER again because: 1. Judging by my experience, their Repair service is not competent2. ARGOS do not practice what they preach in terms of their Refund policy (in my case –for faulty goods after 6 months of purchase).3. ARGOS prefer to blame the customer – or is their repair service a sham?4. ARGOS senior management (sent private letters to them but did not get a single reply) do not seem to want to concern themselves with customer care. Having read online feedback on the ARGOS repair service it would appear that there are a lot of unhappy customers who consider the goal of the ARGOS repair service to be “stopping refunds” rather than “simply repairing”. If, after reading this, you do choose ARGOS for your next electrical purchase and it does develop a fault, BEFORE testing their repair service DO make sure that you have taken good quality pictures of the ENTIRE exterior of the item, and DO make sure that the physical condition of the item is described truthfully on the repair sheet. In view of my experience I doubt that you’ll be successful if you have to argue your case with ARGOS, but such evidence can be really useful if you do decide to take your case to the Small Claims Court. Obviously it would be pointless for me to do so after the item was repaired by the manufacturer, however I have reported ARGOS to Trading Standards and I will also be writing to BBC’s Watchdog.
