tesco direct laptop issue

[Gaz74205]

As the title says, i bought a laptop from tesco direct. well i bought 2, but i'll get to that...

 

first laptop. i buys it, it arrives at my door, all is good. until i believe 26 days later when it dies. an issue with the hard drive. call tesco thinks i. now before doing that i had looked and the laptop was no longer on the site. out of stock. meaning if i want the same one, i need to deal with acer. now this is a complaint about tesco so i wont start on why i didnt want to do this.. so with tesco's 28 day cooling off period, which i believe is the 7 day legal entitlement one that they have extended to 4 weeks, i called them to return it and get a refund and then buy a new one.

 

now this first part is not part of the current problem, just some backstory and an opportunity for me to vent!

 

first, i try to negotiate their phone system. i swear i felt the will to live leave me as i went through option after option after option. after eventually figuring out that if i tell the phone the truth, i dont get to speak to tesco, rather i am transferred automatically to acer.

 

i then have a look at what tesco numbers i have, and reason that customer service is the correct department.

 

i calls, explains, get told i need to speak to electrical. they transfer me. the guy tells me he cant help, hes not trained on computers. why the hell this would be needed for me to get a refund is anyones geuss, but hey ho, lets push on. he transfers me to someone who he claims is. i get a girl who says she is, though after around 60 seconds it would appear that being computer trained doesnt actually mean they have any idea about computers. she tells me i need to speak to another dept. i explain, for the secnd time in the conversation, that using the IVR on the phone sends me to acer. no use for why i am calling.

 

she assures me the number she is giving me is for tesco and i will get to speak to someone.

 

she lied.

 

it sent me to acer.

 

i calls again, again starting at customer services. then back to electrical, then to a computer trained person, then back to customer services. who eventually arrange a pickup and refund. the laptop was picked up the next day, the 20th of march. as of yet, 10 days later, still the refund is not in my account.

 

after all that, i went online and ordered a new laptop, and this is where the real issue starts.

 

i ordered this laptop - ACER Aspire 6530G

 

it arrived, and all was good. except it wasn't.

 

there are 3 bits in the spec of that laptop you need to pay attention to. they are -

 

a) Screen Type - 16" Full HD Acer CineCrystal ™ TFT LCD

 

b) Remote Control Included - Yes

 

c) TV Tuner - Yes

 

now, someone please stop me if i'm being an idiot. but this indicates that the laptop has a TV tuner and a remote control, and that the LCD screen is full HD. for those of you who dont know, full HD is a resolution of 1920x1080 also known as 1080p

 

there was no remote control, no TV tuner and the screen had a resolution of 1366x768 or 720p (very slightly over, but close enough)

 

this obviously is not what i paid for.

 

so i then had to prevent myself from becoming excited over the prospect of spending ages with my good friends the well informed and trained tesco people!

 

sorry that might have been sarcasm there......

 

despite my misgivings, i call. the girl on the line seems convinced they have made a mistake, and sent me the wrong laptop. she says though due to the circumstances, she will need to pass it to another dept to authorise an exchange.

 

seems a bit odd, but fair enough.

 

later that same day, i get a voicemail from them (i work nightshift, all my wonderful conversations happened as soon as they opened, after work) telling me that i had to call them to arrange my exchange. no name given. no dept given, only a phone number, which doesnt work.

 

i calls customer services back and explains the situation. they have no idea what i am talking about.

 

i then again, slowly, takes them through all that has happened.

 

she says she needs to talk to someone.

 

45 seconds later, she is back. no exchange for me. she says what i got was correct and the website was wrong. i can have a refund, or i can feck off! obviously not what she said, but from her take a refund or keep the laptop comments, along with her attitude which i will characterise as snide, i am left slightly confused.

 

so it ends up they say the site is wrong. its still wrong looking at it now.

 

so you see my problem?

 

i have questions about all this.

 

why is the answer from this last person so different from before?

 

how did she get this info so fast off the phone?

 

why couldnt the last person get this info?

 

why are they not fixing this error?

 

and there is why i am here. whats the legal position on this? are they allowed to advertise one thing and supply a lesser version? if they do, what recourse do i have? keeping in mind i dont want a refund. what i want is preferably what they advertised, or failing that, a discount off what i got.

 

is there a case for this?

 

my main reasoning being that for a laptop with a bluray drive, a full HD screen is a BIG plus. also a tv tuner and remote turns it into a truly mobile entertainment system. these were the reasons i bought the laptop.

 

add to this that the laptop, as supplied, will not actually play bluray films. well it will, but they are choppy as hell. the thing comes pre loaded with so much crap, that it doesnt have the oomph to play them without going into the task manager (processes tab) and killing around 15 processes.

 

sorry i've gone on so long here, but having looked through all this, anyone have any advice? obviously getting what i want is priority number one here. but a close second is causing tesco a load of hassle and making sure they dont pull this in future.

Edited April 1, 2009 by Gaz74205

[Guest Old_andrew2018]

Bump

[auad02]

not sure about the tv tuner and remote!!

 

the 1080p will be the output from the HDMI port on the laptop not the screen. if that helps in anyway

[Gaz74205]

it is. however upon checking the laptop specs with acer, there are versions of that model that have a 1080p screen. those same versions are the ones that come with the tv tuner and remote. the one i got, says 1080p playback. where as the description says - 16" Full HD Acer CineCrystal ™ TFT LCD

 

i challenge anyone to tell me that doesnt read as though the screen is 16 inches and has a full HD resolution.

 

acer it seems like many laptop manufacturers when they give a model number, it doesnt mean every machine with that model number is the same. in fact there can be substantial differences even though the model number is the same.

 

i've seen this model with 2gb, 3gb or 4gb of ram, and as the link below shows, there are 2 different cpu's that might be in it, it might have a bluray drive and might not, there are 3 different options for the GPU and some come with fingerprint readers and some dont. also the tv tuner and remote or lack of one.

 

there are other things too that may or may not be present, like bluetooth for example.

 

link is Home

 

now with this massive range of possible configurations, it stands to reason i would think that they give you what they advertise.

 

i've done some checking myself, and believe that section 13 of the sale of goods act comes into play here.

 

section 13 saying -

 

13. Sale by description

(1) Where there is a contract for the sale of goods by description, there is an implied term that the goods will correspond with the description.

 

(1A) As regards England and Wales and Northern Ireland, the term implied by subsection (1) above is a condition.

 

(2) If the sale is by sample as well as by description it is not sufficient that the bulk of the goods corresponds with the sample if the goods do not also correspond with the description.

 

(3) A sale of goods is not prevented from being a sale by description by reason only that, being exposed for sale or hire, they are selected by the buyer.

 

(4) Paragraph 4 of Schedule 1 below applies in relation to a contract made before 18 May 1973.

[Gaz74205]

to add, if they juist take the best possible specification, then supply a lesser one, how is that not breaching some law somewhere lol

[Gaz74205]

also seems that link doesnt paste well. have a check at the aspire 6530 yourself.