Your Thoughts?

[25GTT]

Hi All,

Need your help here.

Monday night My computer went *pop* and no power what so ever. So first things first new power supply! went all out and got a corsais HX750 for just under $200 at MSY. (However a different company originally

Lastnight spent a considerable amount of time wiring the whole thing up with the new PSU and still..... nothing (actually got a small yellow and red light from the card reader) but thats it, no boot up nothing.

Went back to MSY today, they replaced the PSU thinking it was faulty no probs, but the guy said i am best going to the store where i got it from before going any further as he does not want to make a mess of things.

So have now gone to the store i bought the PC from, MOST OF THE PARTS ARE 11 MONTHS OLD, still have receipts etc. All parts have a 12 month warranty on them so i am all good there.

Now this is where i need your help. They have Charged me $50 to change the PSU (yep no probs) surprise surprise still no power so then I am told they think its the motherboard, "great" i say it is under warranty so change it over. I then get told before they do that they MUST run a diagnostic check to confirm that and it will cost $100.

I have now questioned.... IF.... it is the motherboard, and it is under warranty will i still be charged the $100? "yes" they replied as they still spent time diagnosing the issue, i am debating though weather or not i should be charged as they have supplied the faulty equipment under warranty. If its found to be the motherboard causing a short should i have to pay for any diagnostics?

I would like to know your thoughts and if there are any consumer "facts" that i could use.

[oweban]

Hmm, it's a hard one... I used to work at a computer store and I could understand a labour charge for testing of parts, but there's a matter of good-will involved there too.

Best bet? Department of Fair Trading, just give them a call tomorrow and tell them a *little* about the story; you've checked some other parts and believe it to be this part, but to diagnose and say 100% it's that, and that it'll be swapped under warranty, they want $100. See what they say?

[dan_the_man]

Do you have original receipt? They should have supplied you with the terms and conditions of the warranty. Usually warranty covers parts and labour.

[25GTT]

OK, called fair trading and a case file has been started. They beleive if the part is under warranty then labour should not be charged.

They are sending a letter for me to complete and they can further investigations on this.

Since then the diagnostics report (which they charge $95 mind you) has confirmed it is the motherboard, so they said they can send the motherboard back to the supplier which could take up to 3 months to get it back, and when i do they then need to charge labour to replace the motherboard and sort out the parts etc At this time i am thinking this is getting pretty far fetched and they really have me bent over!

Spoke to the supervisor (as the original employee had only been there for 7 days and had no idea) and he said, regardless of the situation we will not charge over $200 in labour, so a small win there, however according to what fair trading said no labour should be charged what so ever.

[oweban]

3 months WHAT THE f**k

admittedly i'm still waiting on a video card back; the distributor has had it for 2 weeks now, beginning to get unhappy. 200/h labour? seriously dude that's raepage there. we'd charge $89 TOPS. and they can't charge you shit to put it back in if it's a warranted fault. or you could put it back in yourself mebbe?

if they're that shifty... make sure you get the right cpu/ram back, too.

[25GTT]

Have spoken to the store manager this afternoon with a MINOR breakthrough.

Basically he has knocked $50 off labour.

So $50 for the install of the power supply (Yes i do know how to install this, however in light of the problems if i install it i KNOW they will turn around and blame it on me)

$95 for the diagnostic test to confirm it was the motherboard.

He said they will leave it at that. Whilst its a sign in the right direction i dont feel the diagnostic check should be charged as the result was the faulty motherboard, the $50 on the PSU though is entirely my wish which i am happy to pay for.

so it looks like free labour except for the diagnostic check...

[dan_the_man]

what a jip.

[Damit]

Ah yes ive been down this road many times and This is why I spend the extra few $ it cost me to order through my mates store as he knows my background in IT and that I can confirm a fault and if something fails I just ring him up and he will have a new component drop shipped to me strait away and I just send the faulty one back to the wholesaler for RMA

I would position to the store that you will not pay a diagnosis fee upfront and will pay if not faulty as the reason they charge it is if it is returned for RMA and has no fault the store will be charged the fee by the manufacturer

If you are having them disassemble and reassemble they can charge labour for that but not for them to test and if they want to test before sending it back it is at there own cost

I've had stores when I've taken in a faulty graphics card say they need my whole computer to test before they can send it back and that I would need to pay a diagnosis fee for the testing and that when it came back they would need to install it or it would not be covered and would need to put a seal on my case and if it was broken and I had another fault i would need to pay another diagnosis fee to confirm the fault and would not budge on it but I did get them to change there minds quickly when I had one of the EVGA reps for Australia give them a call

[oweban]

Christ dude, if you were in Sydney I woulda helped out after the way they're trying to f**k you. I get to pull out the "certified IT professional" card, Apple doesn't even try and f**k me on voiding warranty stuff anymore

[SoFreshSoClean]

Yeah man, you should not have to pay a cent to redeem your warranty.

It aint the PC store's job to do diagnostics anyways, they should just be RMA'ing the board to the supplier

[gregor]

Did you buy a complete PC from them or did you just purchase a shopping list of parts? If its the latter i guess it makes it a bit greyer.

Assuming you purchased a complete PC i wouldnt think you should have to pay a cent - it takes a few minutes to replace a PSU in most cases so not sure why you got charged that or a diagnostic fee. Then again there are plenty of dodgy operators out there.

[25GTT]

Thread revival!

Just wanted to update you guys, incase you havent read.

Basically my parts went POP! and they were under warranty. PSU and motherboard went. The store i got them from were they were under warranty would not exchange them instead they wanted to run a "diagnostic report" for $95. Of course i thought that dont sound right otherwise they could charge $500 if they want and make money out of parts that should be under warranty.

Well good news is consumer affairs feel the same way, they called them and told them that "it's not on!" so i got a phone call from the manager of the store who i dealt with twice and even advised him its not correct and that i was going to consumer affairs. the convo went like this:

manager: Hello Daniel

Me: Hello

Manager: yes its Jason from XXXX here i have received a call and i wasnt aware of the full situation. You see the man who was looking after it went on holidays not realising it was under warranty.

Me: So Jason, both our conversations that we had where i specifically explained to you the situation meant nothing?

Manager: Oh, i got confused.

Me: OK well how can i help you.,

Manager: Well i can give you a $95 credit.

Me: Absolutely not, please hold whilst i call back consumer affairs and I discuss this further with them

Manager: Oh, ahhh before you do would a refund be better?

Me: As advised by consumer affairs that is what you have been requested to do.

Manager: ok give me your details and i will organise refund.

Details given.

A win for the little guy!

The dissapointing thing is though, that even till the end he wanted to get out of paying me, even when advised to. instead he went the credit route. I guess being a manager myself I cant blame him for thinking of the business but i could never do the dodgy on a customer who has bought over $6000 worth of items from me.

[*LOACH*]

Nice work, it is great to hear about people stand up for there rights like this. It isn't just about what you get out of it but hopefully it makes them think twice about doing it again. So thanks for following it through on behalf of all customers everywhere.

[DivHunter]

So much easier when you just say - MSY - $200,000 fine for not honoring warranty, how 'bout them new parts?

[boiracer]

win, nice work man.....

name and shame anyways?

no matter how large or small..any company should keep an honest customer happy.

[25GTT]

wasnt MSY,but quite a big pc store here in WA which i always recommended but obviously wont now. from what i can tell they are only WA based.

Mods - is it ok if i say the name? otherwise gang feel free to PM, dont want "Prank" getting in the sh*t,

have gone over 10 years without a warning and dont feel like one now :-)

[25GTT]

also thanks guys for the comments. It really is nice to know that not only did i have all your help and advice throughout this process from you all, but there actually is a government department that is here for us.

Much appreciated gang

[DivHunter]

wasnt MSY,but quite a big pc store here in WA which i always recommended but obviously wont now. from what i can tell they are only WA based.

Mods - is it ok if i say the name? otherwise gang feel free to PM, dont want "Prank" getting in the sh*t,

have gone over 10 years without a warning and dont feel like one now :-)

What I meant was MSY was fined over $200,000 by the ACCC which should put other 'manufacturer only' warranty shenanigans to rest.

[25GTT]

Thread revival!

Well if you have bothered to read my journey thought this thread basically consumer protection stood up for me from a well known oc store here in WA. Basically I told them what was wrong and the parts were under warranty but they wanted to charge me to confirm the parts that were under warranty were faulty which basically under certain circumstances breached consumer law.

Well sad to say but 7 months later AND still under warranty my motherboard has blown and.... Well..... Exact same experience.

-My motherboard has blown which is still in its 12 month warranty period.

-Leave it with us we need to run a diagnostic check which costs 65.

-I have already run diagnostics checks., you can turn it on now if you like and it won't even show the bios screen

- we will see this as part of the diagnostic check

- no problems, but I assume if I am correct that the part under warranty if it has failed then I won't be charged

-no

- ok, is Jason the store manager in as I encountered this situation 6 months ago and consumer affairs had to get involved which ended up with your store refunding me on the exact same issue. Your store rebuilt this 6 months ago and should also have labour warranty

- look if your not going to pay for this then we are not going to fix it

I then recalled Consumer protection telling me the first time to pay for it and they will call them to organise refund.

Sorry about the long post, I need to vent. It's just so dissapointing that even 6 - 7 months on nothing has changed.

[*LOACH*]

What a bunch of cucking funts, hopefully Consumer Affairs penalises them somehow - otherwise all I can recommend for your next interaction with the store is:

Edited July 17, 2012 by *LOACH*