grounds for a full refund or new laptop of same spec ?

[urban]

Hey guys, i purchased this laptop on september 2003, on the recommendation of my computer consultant, i thought it sounded great
http://www.fortunetechnology.co.uk/
a fortune technologies 5620d
p4 2.4ghz
512ddr ram
radeon 9000 pro with 128mb standalone ram
40gb 5400rpm hdd
52/24x cdrw and dvd combo drive
4 usb ports
and all that jazz.

but after only a short while. things started to go wrong...
firstly after about a month... the screen clip decided to go bye bye, was sitting on the train and when closing it ..the train juddered a slight bit more i wasnt moving it fast but ...snap goes the weasel.
...

which is fair enough i mean its only a clip, the screen hovers about 2 cm above the clip holding position now. but ok fair enough cheap clip no point in sending it back or taking the whole thing apart just to replace.

next problem happened one day without be realising, i must have closed or opened the screen and two ridge cracks appeared, they dont effect anything other than the looks and a slight probable strength weakness,

but ok another build problem, again something i'm not prepared to send it back for.

but this...this took the biscuit.
one day i turned it on and it didnt do anything....no boot no bleeps no anything.
so i took it to my friends house and it booted. hmm weird ok awesome lets go ...then it crashed ...and it wouldnt boot again...i (mistakenly) allowed my computer dealer to send it back and deal with all the hassle of it.
i phoned him about 3 times a day after the first week went by and probably about half way into the 2nd week he said they had just recieved it.

they decided it was a hard drive fault and replaced the 40gb but somehow managed to ghost everything on the drive (or maybe they lied and didnt put a new hdd in at all but just did some internal work), anyway, the laptop came back a week later (time now 3 weeks total).

i looked into the box to find that there was no powerpack adapter, and when i booted it up to check everything was good the "o" key and spacebar didnt work, and occasionally the "h" key fell off much to my displeasure i argued my case about the powerpack (they said that no powerpack had been sent with the laptop in the first instance when i sent it back for hard drive repair, which i cant confirm but i trust that my computer tech did as i've known him for 2 years personally).

anyway, sent the laptop back and on the fourth week it came back with the power adapter but no plug cable !?, and the h key still fell off and the spacebar still didnt work !. this while very frustrating because i had a very important big job coming up, i couldnt help but giggle, how is it possible that after spending £1300 !! on a laptop, the customer service and repair's can be so hopeless.

so its 6 weeks after the first time i sent it away for a booting error.

but i' received it back finally (2 days before my big job) and had got my desktop pc back anyway so it wouldnt have matter if i had got it back but whey i got it back...dancing.

not quite. when the hdd burned up it left these marks, not sure what sits underneath there, but it certainly aint cool..photos...

my palm sits there for typing and gaming quite obviously, and what evers under there obviously didnt like the heat and burned all the paint off.

fast forward present day. one month after my warranty is up. i havent used the laptop nearly at all since all this hassle because of fear that its going to break again and i have to send it back to them, when i noticed (as previously posted in the display forum.
the screen has started flickering.

shows up mainly as a blue hue and usually is most noticable when watching a dvd or playing a game. not for browsing because its usually white or solid colour interfaces but on a blue image it's plain as day, hence my using a installation background.

also, other problems include a cd rom drive that decides to disappear after being on for a few hours, you'll go to eject the drive and it wont, disappears from my computer too.

the ps/2 port shuts down on occasion too, you have to reseat the mouse for it to detect again.

lan port shuts down too. just randomly woops where did the lan go ..cuts off msn and stops all out going traffic ...reseat the lan cable and it detects again.

i think thats about it, i'm pretty sure seeing as the rest of the ports are playing it, the usb slots will be too, but seeing as the laptops not got anythng usb attached to except for the cooler i bought, because of fears of another hdd overheat and 6 weeks without a laptop
which does frankly nothing when you play a game (but hey it was only £13)

anyway. i think thats it.

massive post i know, but

my main question is
should i return the laptop and ask for a full refund or a new laptop of the same spec ?, i've asked around all the local computer shops that my friends own and they all have since stopped using the company because of problems.

one store even suggested that i threaten them with trading standards and ask for...the full refund or a new laptop of the same spec, and they probably wont want trading standards on their arse so will give up the ghost and give me my money back ? and i DEFINATLY dont want another laptop from them.... its heavy as hell as you may have guessed from the photos and butt arsed ugly.

so yeah if you managed to read all of this. might as well give me any suggestions ?

 

[pxc]

You waited too long and are probably out of luck. Sometimes manufacturers give a little leeway on problems right after the warranty expires, but 1 month is probably too late.

If you used a credit card to purchase it (Visa/MC gold or platinum, some others), you might be covered by buyer's protection/assurance. Those generally double the warranty length for free, up to an extra year, but some cards explicitly exclude computers. My cards don't exclude computers.

 

[urban]

they've already said to me they want to repair it because its faulty due to their last repair...so i'm gonna push it thanks any more advice ?

 

[urban]

ok urm....about a fortnight has passed, i decided not to send it back to them immediatly because i needed it, and i'm just as well i did...tonight while about to reinstall windows i opened the screen like i usually do, (by holding the main laptop base component down and lifting the screen because its so stiff it usually lifts the whole laptop and it just tilts backward putting too much strain on the joint and it feels shaky, well......today even tho i did that....this happened.

the screen snapped off. i havent tried to turn it on...cause that'd be asking to die...

i'm having nothing more to do with the damn thing, definatly gonna ask for a full refund.

if not i think trading standards will love me

 

[Canon]

You have every right to ask for a replacement. That's absolutely ridiculous. I can't recall ever seeing anything like that... I'd be on the phone right away, they screwed that thing up royally. I can't recall ever seeing an HDD burn up like that under the palm rest, very odd... Sounds like there wasn't a non-defective part in that machine except, maybe the CPU and ram.

Best of luck on it man. You deserve some kind of compensation, even if it's just a brand new replacement, or hopefully a newer model without these defects...

 

[urban]

its been what...a hour since it snapped....and i'm still here looking at it laughing....its just too funny that they can expect someone to spend £1300 on that..

naw i think i'll be asking for a full refund ...dont want anything more to do with them...and they will give me it....cause trading standards will lurve them

 

[Met-AL]

Damn, either your real rough with that thing or it is an utter piece of crap. I am leaning towards the POS crap theory. I have never seen a screen hinge bust off like that, and besides, why in the hell didn't they fix that also when they had it the previous two times.

 

[urban]

cause they are lazy ignortant pig headed bastards ....and their name is fortune technology

 

[tiebird321]

most companies have the policy that if the warenty was to expire while the laptop was in thier possesion they will give it another 30 days

also the company is required by its warenty obligations to continue to work on a problem until its solved if the porblem was first reported before the warenty ran out

as for a refund forget about it
no company is ever going to give you a full refund at this point
they might give you a prorated refund
but after 1 year its at most going to be 50-60%

the thing you could go for is demand a replacement under no lemon laws as it has been to the shop 3 times in under 90 days for the same problem

then take the replacement and sell it to some other poor sob.
good luck

 

[urban]

yeah i think i shall make a nice mini itx computer and maybe hell a athlon 64 system with the proceeds