Local computer shop.

[The GodMother]

Hi all,

 

Just hopped over from the general debt forums to post my experiances with a local computer company.

 

On Dec 23rd 2006 l brought a computer from a small local retailer.

 

Had been in his shop many times about problems l was having with my very old computer and he was always helpful towards us.

 

Well we brought this new computer with some extra bits, needed some CD discs and a ink cartridge for old printer.

 

The computer l brought was a tower with seperate monitor and speakers.

 

Did not think anything of it at the time, had been looking about for a while and found that the prices were rather expensive.

 

Had been to all the big companys, u know the likes of dell currys comet etc, and to some of our local computer shops mainly to compare prices for what we wanted.

 

Well found the price was between £100 and £250 cheaper than other stores and l could take it away today, the other companys wanted to do things like a credit check even tho l was paying in one go or they did not want me to pay in one go and take it on finance or they said l would have to wait till after christmas delivery and they could not guarentee it would get there till the middle of january.

 

The computer had everything on it my partner and l wanted, left him to sort the techincal stuff out as that kinda went over my head when he started to talk about stuff like Vista compared to XP and if the comp would be able to take vista and what other programme is would be able to run and had on it etc needless to say he said everything wanted was there and it could do eveything we wanted it to do except the washing up.

 

Well l paid nearly £500.00 for everything to do with the comp and the extra bits. We talked about the warrenty and the owner said it covered everything when asked what he ment he said everything means everything. Oh good l thought so if it goes wrong it is covered.

 

Everything was fine and l brought the new version of norton and he installed it for us.

 

One day the comp would not work, had no comp for 48 hours as it went down on the sunday took it back to him the monday and got it back the tuesday.

 

The windows XP edition that he had installed on the comp had gone wrong so he said. Did not charge me for the work as it was covered under the guarentee.

 

In the mean time l had recomended ppl buy norton from him as he was selling it at half the price others were selling it at and had brought another computer from him for a neighbour and a few other ppl had brought comps from them due to me telling them about him.

 

Now a few months ago, Mid october the comp went again. the norton that he had installed on the comp after we brought it off him had failed, let a major worm threw that killed windows system 32 which is basically the whole of your operating system.

 

Took it back and assumed it was covered under the guarentee.

 

That was where we were wrong.

 

It turns out it was not but we did not find that out till it was repaired.

 

Got the tower home and found the money he wanted off us was for work done on the comp. Now he had installed programmes that were not in the computer before on to the comp.

 

Did not pay the money as was told not to due to the programmes we did not want on there being there and him refusing to remove them saying he would need to charge us.

 

The monitor went wrong took it back and he said give me my money or l will not fix the monitor

 

I explained again that he had installed programmes he did not have permission to install on to the comp and after taking advise l had found out he has no rite to do that and untill he removed them FOR FREE he would not be getting his money. The other option was he does not charge us and were would pay someone else to remove the programmes.

 

Needless to say he said no.

 

Took some advice of a expert on here and he said l was covered under the sales of goods act 1979 and that buy that law he had to repair or replace the monitor.

 

Told him that and got verbally threatened my patner was there aswell so he stepped in and advised that he was breaking the law buy verbally threatening me and that l could have him prosectued.

 

Needless to say he calmed down instantly and said l was now threatening him.

 

WTF l had only advised him of my rites under the sales of goods act. My partner advised him my rite not to be verbally threatened which l thought was everyones rite.

 

He then side he does not want to argue with use over this and that he wanted to sort it out nicely and asked what he could do.

So he was told he drops the charge for the previous repair as he could not prove that the time he was charging us for was not including the instaluation of the unwanted programmes and under the sales of goods act he repairs or replaces the monitor.

 

Was told were to go in no uncertain terms.

 

I advised him that this was his last chance to verbally agree to do this as under the act he could be prosected for the goods not working.

 

look out funny bit comming up>. He said l dont have the BALLS to prosecute him. Well when l last checked l was female so no l dont have BALLS.

 

Well took further advise of here and was told to send a LBA. Sent it recorded delivery and he did not sigh for it, then he refused to pick the item up.

 

After further advise off here l have sent it buy specail delivery and he signed for it this morning. Now just waiting he has 14 days to give me a response that is acepted buy us both or l will file court papers.

 

Well there goes the idiot said l did not have the balls to got any further with this but l have and my advise to him is dont tell me l dont have the balls to do things especailly when l have CAG behind me all the way.

 

Just thought l would share my experiance with everyone.

 

Chrissi

[Penfold92]

Unlucky Chrissy,

 

But gone are the days of the old small retailer being the best option. The problem lies with the need to grow etc and inevitably these guys end up cutting corners which costs someone in the end.

 

I'm sure he will pay up as he will not want a CCJ as a small retailer, he will need credit etc...

 

Good luck,

 

Penfold

[The GodMother]

Yep.

He has recieved the letter that went buy special delivery last week. Still have not had a reply tho you think he would want a CCJ as he has not got back to me.

 

Chrissi

[Penfold92]

LOL He prob has the same sols as the Banks! Wait till the last minute then...

 

I'm sure you'll be sorted in the end

[The GodMother]

well if he does wait till the last minute then he is a fool. He knows he had 14 days to reply to me and he knows that l am not stupid.

 

I am regretting saving the money cause of all the problems l have had from him.

 

Chrissi

[mortis]

unfortuantly by your experiance i would have to say that this proves my own general rule which is if it looks to good to be true it generally is.

 

although i would say in minor defence to the shop keeper ( not his attitude towards you that was unaceptable)

 

the faluire of norton to prevent said worm cant be blamed on him as he didnt write the anti virus software.

[The GodMother]

Yes l know he did not write the softwear but he did guarentee us that this was the best on the market and that this would never let anything threw.

 

I believed him as l am a complete idiot when it comes to computers etc. I had to read the manual to find the on button for the tower and the monitor.

 

When you give somebody a guarentee like that you should make sure that the softwear is able to do as you claim it can and not just make things up as you go along.

 

He knows he is in the wrong and he knows that l will stand my ground if l want to because l have so far.

 

He has now got somebody looking out for me so everytime l walk past the shop he hides.

 

I know this as l was told by a mate who l saw in his shop one day. I was talking to her on the phone while she was still in the shop and she was laughing that as i stood outside he was hiding in the cupboard under the stairs.

 

Chrissi

[mortis]

as i said i am not ina any way condoning the way that he spoke to or treated you as i complety agree with you that it was unacceptable. However unfortuantly somthing like norton for example needs to be updated on regular occasions. i would guess from your own admission of lack of computer knowledge that this was not done (but i could of course be wrong) so techinically if he wished he could easily argue that the fault was caused by you. (not saying it was in any way)

[The GodMother]

we have a three year subscription and yes it is updated regularly as it is done auomatically as that is how the guy at the shop set it up, i think he said you could not adjust the setting for that part of it, Also as my partner or l did not put the softwear on the computer and trusted him to do this then he is the one who set it up so he is in further fault i think.

[dx100uk]

in certain aspects i must agree with the retailer here, although you both need your heads bashing together:)

 

whatever s/ware is installed that you do not like, then uninstall it!

it is VERY easy and TBH basic operations like this are part of what you should be able to do as being the owner, you cannot blindly, have a pc and 'just wash your hands'' of any standard things you should be learning yourself.

 

download and use something user freindly like Ccleaner, it does the hard work for you.

 

then you will get your monitor sorted and everyone will be happy.

 

what are you going to do when something else goes wrong? and you're outside of the retailers warranty? throw it away?

 

i'd love to have your business, my eyes would roll to the pound sign everytime you walk in the door.

 

spend sometime learning a wee bit about maintaining your own system, it will save you pounds in money and a lot of unneccessary stress.

 

there is ofcourse a pc forum on this site where many people will be more than willing to help you.

 

dx100uk

[Conniff]

There is no security product in this world that will guarantee that you will not be affected by malware, viruses, trogans or worms.

I think you are on a looser if you are hoping to rely on the fact that you should not have had an infection because he said it was the best.

 

What software did he install that you don't like??

[Penfold92]

Conniff,

 

I think TGM is upset with the whole process, not just the failureof the anti virus...God my Mcafee drives me nuts, I can hardly browse a website without it kicking me out or not letting me buy anything...maybe that is not such a bad thing...lol

[The GodMother]

Ty Penfold.

 

I am not the only person he made guarentees that he could not fulfil to.

 

I currently have to wait a few more days before l make a TS complaint and some of the other ppl that have made complaints about the Norton Guarentee will be making complaints at the same time. as they have had enough about his lies.

 

I no how to do things now as l am at the computer more and have been exploring the comp a bit more. They say trial and error is the best part. I used to use the old comp which is a lot different to this one so l never had a problem with it really. Ok it was a bit of a pain in the bum due to its age as it was slow and could take a while to do things but you expect that with a old PC.

 

I no how to do what l want it to do ATM and everything esle is for me to pick up as l go along.

 

Penfold l understand how you feel my old comp use to be like that.

 

All i had to do was browse a website and it would run and hide. anyway that won is going to computer heaven as a result in it not being able to be upgraded.

 

Chrissi

[The GodMother]

Cnooiff if i had the knowledge that l have now because of this site and his lies then l would have known that he had lied to me.

 

All tho i am not the only person in the world that has been conned into something so l dont think l am completly to blame.

 

Aslo the fact that he blantly had been a pain about this whole thing as he nos that what he done is wrong and even admitted it to one of my witnesses.

 

Chrissi

[demon_x_slash]

GM - surprisingly enough, Haynes do a very good 'computer manual' in a similar vein to their car handbooks; take a look around the computing section next time you go into your local WHSmith/Waterstones and you'll find plenty of beginners' manuals, with clear step-by-step instructions and clear screenprints to help you out. It sounds like you're only using a fraction of your computer at the moment, and it's a shame to have one there and not know how to use it properly

 

(PS Both I and my IT nerd OH despise Norton - we use a combination of AVG, ZoneAlarm, Spybot and AdAware [as well as OH's own physical firewall] to protect ours. Norton used to be good years ago, but has lost it in recent times...)

[StormWarrior]

Funny, I have never had a problem with Norton.

Never had a virus, worm, or other nasty.

[The GodMother]

We are running AVG and norton now so we no if there is anything.

 

I was told to stay away from spybot as it caused a few viruses.

 

I have been using my comp for music internet and stuff like finances letters shopping lists for christmas food/drink and pressies etc.

 

I have also taught myself how to do a disc clean up and how to clear the cookies and defrag a comp, it took and hour and a half to defrag but it was worth the wait.

 

Well must get on with some learning

 

Chrissi

[ForestChav]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

NEVER, EVER run more than one virus checker at the same time.

[Conniff]

We are running AVG and norton now so we no if there is anything.

 

I was told to stay away from spybot as it caused a few viruses.

 

I have been using my comp for music internet and stuff like finances letters shopping lists for christmas food/drink and pressies etc.

 

I have also taught myself how to do a disc clean up and how to clear the cookies and defrag a comp, it took and hour and a half to defrag but it was worth the wait.

 

Well must get on with some learning

 

Chrissi

 

As Forest has said Chrissi, don't run two products together, you will weaken the defences, or can cancel each others effectiveness out. You can use both, but disconnect from the internet and disable one while you run the other, only run one at a time.

Also it is best to do scans with windows in 'Safe Mode' (press the F8 key just as windows is about to start).

 

I don't know who told you that about Spybot. There are a couple of badasses who are using the name Spybot that are not legit and they are NOT 'Spybot Search and Destroy'. Spybot search and destroy is one of the most respected names in malware cleaners and definately will not introduce any viruses.

 

Symantics Norton on the other hand, does contain spyware and sends details of things about you back to Symantic. Norton advises that you remove Spybot search and destroy before installing Norton as Spybot search and destroy picks up the spyware that Norton contains. They want Spybot search and destroy out of the way as they do not want you to know that Norton contains spyware.

 

The defrag will be much quicker in the future if you run it regularly.

[demon_x_slash]

lol I think we've had this conversation before about Spybot reacting to Norton's spyware - Symantec collects info on you and sends it back, and Spybot (rightly IMHO) kicks up a fuss about it. Spybot FTW, all the way

 

PS Now you've defragged once, as long as you do it regularly it won't take nearly as long next time.

[The GodMother]

Yeah l kinda worked that out. l am just pleased l have been teaching my self things.

 

Chrissi

[ForestChav]

SUPERAntiSpyware.com - AntiAdware, AntiSpyware, AntiMalware! is a good scanner. I don't think SS&D is as effective as it was a few years back.

[saintly_1]

I would never have Nortons on my pc .... It slows my pc down too much ... last time I installed norton I had to format pc because norton had input its own admin password and I couldnt uninstall it!!!

 

On a similar vein I would never run a pc without spybot S&D

[Darren]

I would never have Nortons on my pc .... It slows my pc down too much ... last time I installed norton I had to format pc because norton had input its own admin password and I couldnt uninstall it!!!

 

I had exactly the same with norton

 

luckily my brother is a computer programmer so he sorted it out for me. I'm a plumber and wanted to tackle it with my blowtorch. I know this wouldn't have sorted it, but it would have been very satisfying

[The GodMother]

LOL Darren.

 

I thought that a hammer might help when the comp went wrong.

 

It would have been helpful at the time. I just would have need to buy a new comp.

 

the fact it would have been satisfing at the time is good as you could have let all your frustration out on it.

 

Chrissi