PC Service Call...

[ps2mint]

Told me that i needed to purchase Packard Bell recovery disks at a cost of 40 pounds and that these were needed to sort my laptop issue out.

So, trusted their advice and purchased these disks, yet in the end they were not needed! It was a hardware issue with the motherboard!

Does anybody think i can somehow claim this money back, after all, it was a mistake on their part!

Advice and viewpoints appreciated!

Do you have anything in writing that proves
a) What they told you to do (buy the disks)
b) It was a mobo fault

If so, ask to speak to the manager, and say unless you get a refund these will be used in evidence at a small claims court - this should usually work to get your money back.

If you haven't got any written evidence, still try and talk to the manager, and try to get a refund.

hth

[MadGamer]

Originally Posted by ps2mint

Told me that i needed to purchase Packard Bell recovery disks at a cost of 40 pounds ans that these were needed to sort my laptop issue out.

So, trusted their advice and purchased these disks, yet in the end they were not needed! It was a hardware issue with the motherboard!

Does anybody think i can somehow claim this money back, after all, it was a mistake on their part!

Advice and viewpoints appreciated!

Id personally speak to nffc about this as he works for PCServiceCall

personally I would hang onto the disks, you never know if you may need them at some point & they will be a plus point if you ever come to sell it.

- of course, if PB will refund you and you accidentally made copies, before returning the originals, it may be another matter, but that is a comment, rather than 'advice'

[Paul K]

It might be that the advice given was logged against your call, if it was you should complain, if not then you don't have that much proof that you were "mis-sold" the software, either way as said above, you will need those CDs eventually. Especially if somewhere down the line you want to sell the PC.
Oooooh Homer.... obviously those copies would be for backup reasons only We copy the CDs that go out with our notebooks as they are specific to those models and the damn ships never send them back if the pc develops a fault. PITA trying to re-load the O/s and drivers etc onto a system when you have to bodge the install.

[nffc]

Ring back - buying CDs is not an unreasonable request unless the machine is in first year warranty, if it's not a hardware fault. The call where you were advised to buy CDs should be logged in the record (provided the muppet who told you that recovery disks would fix it - presumably without diags!) and if that person did advise you wrongly then the mistake should be fed back to him/her and/or the relevant manager.

Probably not reasonable to ring in and ask straight away for managers because it quite often doesn't work well - most of the managers are in fact non-technical and quite a lot of dialogue can take place between agents/managers anyway. Compensation request isn't unreasonable but will need authorising by a manager (Those CDs are expensive).

If your laptop is in first year warranty, unless you have in the past Fdisked out or screwed the recovery partition by other means (viruses?) so the recovery program doesn't work properly then the recovery partition is covered by first year warranty and provided enough diags have been done then PB should send CDs out if needed under that. (It's not covered by Coverplan unless the hard disk is changed).

In short, I'd definitely ring back. Issues like this DO get fed back, I've fed silly mistakes back to people myself so I know. But do treat the person you get through to nicely and give them a chance to help first

---------- Post added at 13:54 ---------- Previous post was at 13:52 ----------

Originally Posted by Paul

It might be that the advice given was logged against your call, if it was you should complain, if not then you don't have that much proof that you were "mis-sold" the software, either way as said above, you will need those CDs eventually. Especially if somewhere down the line you want to sell the PC.

Not strictly because IIRC he has a PB Bseries which is supplied with a hard drive based recovery.

And we get monitored quite extensively especially on the call note aspect. If we don't log a call properly we can get disciplined (for obvious reasons).

The call will have been logged, and possibly recorded too.

[Strzelecki]

All calls to PC Servicecall are logged. Ring them back up and ask to speak to a team leader (or nffc). I'm not sure where you'll get but it's worth a try! It can be very hard to diagnose a motherboard fault over the phone. Why did they ask you to buy the disks? Had you done something to the onboard recovery? If so then you may have to argue a bit harder!

[nffc]

Another thought:

The main point to investigate is under what grounds / diags you were advised to buy CDs.

Quite often a recovery is needed to show a hardware fault. You don't want to know what some of these customers do with their PCs!

If the recovery was not working then in some cases (Fdisk, use of OS CD, installing Norton GoBack) it is necessary to buy CDs - if the partition is inherently faulty in first year PB supply them free provided PCSC can prove to them that there is a fault (Usually by CRC check, examination in Fdisk).

If, as I suspect, you were told to get CDs to get you off the line, then that's obviously an issue needing escalation. I was monitoring your other threads quite closely and to me, it didn't seem like a reasonable request. But then, I wasn't privy to the conversation.

[Strzelecki]

Can't you give nffc your customer ID number you should have been given then maybe he could take a peek at the call notes?

[ntl customer]

£40 for some recovery CDs? Are these things gold plated, signed by the MD of DSGi and delivered to you on a velvet cushion or something?

[nffc]

No they're not, they are actually ordered from Packard Bell direct. Substantially cheaper than the £100+ for OS CD and not to mention CDs for all the bundled software.

In other news, the price of DSG's OEM PC recovery CDs (That's Advent, EiSystems, Patriot etc) has gone up from £5 to £30 this week - which really does take the **** IMO. That's other news.

But £40 is pretty standard charge, HP/Compaq and other mfrs charge similar amounts.

[MadGamer]

Originally Posted by nffc

In other news, the price of DSG's OEM PC recovery CDs (That's Advent, EiSystems, Patriot etc) has gone up from £5 to £30 this week - which really does take the **** IMO. That's other news.

[nffc]

Originally Posted by MadGamer

Of course, what I omitted to say is that these PCs give you the option and periodic reminders to make your own disks!

[At least they are actually in stock now!]

[MadGamer]

Originally Posted by nffc

Of course, what I omitted to say is that these PCs give you the option and periodic reminders to make your own disks!

[At least they are actually in stock now!]

I just cant believe the price.

[nffc]

Originally Posted by MadGamer

I just cant believe the price.

It's to "bring the cost in line with other manufacturers" plus the fact they've been free for the last 6 months whilst they worked out what to do when DSGRecovery.com was down (they were £5 there).

I think the increase takes the ****, but £30 is still less than HP, PB etc. for all the OS, drivers, and preinstalled software etc etc and a damn sight less than buying it all from scratch.