The Nvidia Defect Forum

Hello all,

I have held back on this post as the lady who's laptop it relates to was proceeding towards a small claims action and I didn't want to jeopardise her case.

It's a bit of a lengthy post so please bear with me.

First of all the good news is that Comet settled her claim this week to the value of just over £1,400 - and with just two weeks to go to the court date. (Shame on you Comet)

This lady, bless her, battled against Comet for almost a YEAR and was getting nowhere.

Her story goes like this.

She went into Comet and duly purchased a HP DV9695EA laptop for her son.

Four months after purchase she experienced the black screen of death. She went back to the store and asked them to take a look at it because she wasn't happy that it had failed catastrophically so soon.

Two weeks later Comet called and said that the laptop could now be collected as it had been repaired.

The lady wasn't pleased as she had not authorised any repair work. She stated that she had lost confidence in the laptop and had wanted an alternative one. They insisted that she had to accept the repaired laptop back.

She wasn't pleased but duly accepted the laptop back.

Roughly one month after getting the laptop back it failed again for the same reason.

Back to Comet she went and asked for a replacement laptop or a refund. They refused both and stated that the best they could do would be to repair it again.

The lady was not impressed. Her son needed the laptop for his university work and being without it, or working with an unreliable one, was seriously impacting his studies.

She demanded that something be done and everything, other than a repair. was refused.

The lady left the store, laptop in hand and then started to correspond with their head office seeking the refund she so rightly deserved.

(I would just like to point out that a customer has the right to reject goods if they fail within the fist six months. The law states that if a product fails within the first six months of ownership then it is deemed to have been faulty at the time of purchase.)

After almost a year of letter writing and realising that her attempts to settle without taking legal action were now zero, she sent the laptop to me for a report.

And this is where the whole affair gets murky.

I stripped the laptop down and discovered that the motherboard's Nvidia GPU had been replaced.

This was evidenced by the brown flux residue that was over most of the board in the GPU area. The GPU also had some flux residue on it.

It was patently obvious that the Nvidia GPU that was on the mainboard was not the original one and had been replaced.

Remember, this was a four month old laptop that had been supposedly "repaired" by Comet.

I performed the rework test, reassembled the laptop and switched it on.

The image immediately displayed and I went into the BIOS to verify the details of the laptop.

The serial number and product number that were in the BIOS did not match the serial number and product number that were on the barcode label on the underside of the laptop.

This tells me one thing. Whoever carried out the repair to the laptop used a previously failed. reworked board in a repair.

The part number that was in the BIOS is GX455EA#ABU and the part number of the customers laptop is KC201EA#ABU

I went on to the HP website to get the product specifications for both part numbers.

The part number from the BIOS, GX455EA#ABU, relates to a DV9685EG is here http://tinyurl.com/yk9b56j

The customers, KC201EA#ABU, relates to a DV9895EA is here http://tinyurl.com/ygtmrrd

So, the facts are there for all to see.

The serial number and product number in the BIOS must always match those on the label on the underside of the laptop.

The board was blatantly one that had already failed and had been repaired and had subsequently failed again.

How scandalous is that!

Whoever dealt with the repair to that laptop, be it Comet or HP, used a recycled board in a FOUR MONTH old laptop.

If whoever did it have done it once then one could assume that this is standard practice.

They must be awash with faulty laptops and mainboards, who knows what they do with them once they get them back.

We provided the lady with a concise report detailing that facts and added:-



I cannot believe they even tried to defend this case. Again, shameful behaviour!

They paid out in the end but as the lady said "it was the worst year of her life".

Thanks for reading and your comments are appreciated.

Best wishes

Paul
The Admin Team

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Why you should not accept a repair
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Please note that I am not legally qualified and I only offer my own personal advice. You are advised to seek professional legal advice for formal clarification of advice I give.

As much as I hate Comet I'd always put their attitude down to poor training.

This is just unbelievable.

How on earth did they expect to get away with it?

How on earth did they think they could defend it?

Lesley Law - I'm sure you must read this forum - is this really Comet's idea of customer service?

_________________
Please note: I am not legally qualified and therefore any postings I make are just my own personal opinion based on my experience of working for a number of years at a busy County Court.

After the site's ' worst retailer' poll is over .......

IMHO can I please nominate a special award to ...........

[drum roll]

' for outstanding poor customer service, denial of customer rights, skulduggery, manipulation of customers, and ......'

[end drum roll]

...... you fill in the rest!

Ralph

It must be down to poor training, I also wonder whether Comet or whoever performs these repairs are doing so under some form of duress?, if I was performing the repair I would explain to my boss in writing, that you know this thing is not going to last and we are effectively breaking the law with regard to the SOGA. I work in the rail industry, and in my days as a designer if I had to perform any kind of mod or upgrade to a piece of kit, it was always tested thoroughly before placing back into service. If it failed in service I would have been for the high jump. We would have never dreamt of continually replacing faulty components with further faulty comps, it goes against the grain if nothing else. Do any of these people have any pride in their work?. Unfortunately as you say Ciderboy in all probability they have not had the training, prob just been chucked in at the deep end, prob do not understand the errs of their ways. Anyway if I think this it makes me feel better, if it is to the contrary and is all deliberate, then my faith in human kindness is further reduced.

Paul is doing an excellent job with the forum, I only hope his efforts and the successful listings will mean something to those folk that feel intimidated, by the judicial system.

If anybody is reading this, that is concerned over taking any of the retailers to court, please do not be concerned, just follow the advice given here and you will be fine.

This is shocking stuff. I have just started the battle against Comet. Looks like it will be a long one.

My laptop packed in when it was less than 6 months old. Comet replaced the hard drive (so they say). The a few days after the warranty ended it died again!!

If they refuse to settle I will be sending to lapcure for a report. But maybe I will be lucky and Comet will settle early!

Hello Cymrocymraeg,



I really wouldn't hold your breath. Comet are, in my opinion, not known for the best customer service so you should be prepared for a bit of a battle with them.

We are here if you need any help or advice.

Good luck and best wishes

Paul
The Admin Team

_________________
=======================================================
Calculate the minimum refund that you would be entitled to.
FAQ's
Why you should not accept a repair
Links to evidence
What is the Nvidia Defect?
Step by step help to getting a refund
Do you need an engineers report?
=======================================================

If you like what you see on this forum and would like to help then please post links to this forum in other forums or blogs. The more people we can help the better.


Please note that I am not legally qualified and I only offer my own personal advice. You are advised to seek professional legal advice for formal clarification of advice I give.

New to the site but i have to say what an inspirational site it is .

I`ll be promoting it on other boards if possible .

I`m now chasing a resolution for my HP DV6512 which (like many many others) has failed twice .Yes and you guessed correctly .....purchased from Comet .I`m reading the threads with interest and pursuing two lines of enquiry .I may need the services of lapcure after the initial call to Comet failed .I intend to escalate this to obtain a satisfactory resolution be it via litigation or ammicable terms .

Why this couldn`t have been recalled from day one being a World leading brand is beyond me ....the backlash continues for these companies and will continue thanks to fantastic websites like this empowering the consumer

Credit to Paul and his team

Hello Trusted and welcome to our forum.

Sorry to hear that your laptop has failed.

Thank you very much for your kind words, much appreciated.

Is your laptop still displaying an image? If so, why don't you see if you have a reworked board in your laptop by pressing the F10 key at the BIOS screen. Then make a note of the model number and serial number reported in the BIOS then check those details with the details that are on the white barcode label on the underside of the laptop.

If they don't match then the chances are the repair was performed by non-HP engineers (hence no BIOS flash to match up the details) and the chances are also that the board could be a refurb.



Did you know that HP ranked worst out of all the laptop manufacturers for reliability. HP report an astonishing 25% failure rate.

Can you believe that, 25% failure rate!

Further details can be found here:- http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/Squa ... y_1109.pdf



Thank you for that Trusted, the backlash has indeed begun. In fact, I have seen some of the retailers change their practices as a direct result of this forum which can only be good.

What really annoys me is the number of customers who are being fobbed off because they are totally oblivious to what the Nvidia defect is, or even of the fact that their laptop contains an Nvidia GPU. These customers are the ones who are paying through the teeth for repairs, in some instances to the same retailer from whom they purchased. Then there are others who, sadly, simply throw the laptop away and purchase another.

There is only one company that has shone through all of this and that is Staples. They are just about the only one that has not made their customers jump through hoops in order to reach a resolution.

I have said it before but some of the high street retailers should send their staff to Staples for a weeks training to learn how to properly run a customer services department.

Good luck in your quest and if you need any help along the way then please let me know.

Best wishes

Paul
The Admin Team

_________________
=======================================================
Calculate the minimum refund that you would be entitled to.
FAQ's
Why you should not accept a repair
Links to evidence
What is the Nvidia Defect?
Step by step help to getting a refund
Do you need an engineers report?
=======================================================

If you like what you see on this forum and would like to help then please post links to this forum in other forums or blogs. The more people we can help the better.


Please note that I am not legally qualified and I only offer my own personal advice. You are advised to seek professional legal advice for formal clarification of advice I give.

Well I decided to make a few further phone calls today in an attempt to make Comet see reason and take responsiblity for the laptop .

It was apparent from the outset that trying to actually get past Customer services and speak to the Investigations team was akin to climbing Mount Everest without oxygen ....

After several attempts i felt deflated but eventually managed to get through .....yippppppeeeeeeeee ....I thought

I started my dialogue in a civil manner and continued eventually coming up for air .

"I`ll look into that for you sir " and "Can i phone you back "

Yes i`m sure you know where this is going ....

After a 3 hour wait and to get to the point ....Same old ... same old

"Our engineers will have to look at the laptop before we can decide anything "

as if i hadn`t heard that response before ....a 1000 times

I commented on the reverse burden of proof and why would i want to pay an engineer when i can obtain an independant report prior to litigation

I have to say Comet is using every trick in the book to place obstacles in front of the legal rights of the consumer

This weekends course of action is to initiate step 1

Thanks Paul I may well be in touch for your services very soon

Hello Trusted,



I agree. They certainly seem to make it difficult for their customers to secure their rights under the Sale Of Goods Act.

You were quite right to point out the reverse burden of proof. This is the problem when companies use inexperienced and untrained staff to man their phone lines.

If they are going to have a customer services department then the least they should do is make sure that at the very least their staff have basic training in the laws surrounding the Sale Of Goods Act.

Let Comet throw down their obstacles, just keep batting them back. Don't let them dictate how long it will take to do things. You should take control of the timeframe.

I recommend seven business days between letter of action and taking the next step.

Comet's position is indefensible and they must know that. If they don't then it is time to wake up and smell the coffee.

If you need any help or advice then just ask.

Good luck for the next step.

Best wishes

Paul
The Admin Team

_________________
=======================================================
Calculate the minimum refund that you would be entitled to.
FAQ's
Why you should not accept a repair
Links to evidence
What is the Nvidia Defect?
Step by step help to getting a refund
Do you need an engineers report?
=======================================================

If you like what you see on this forum and would like to help then please post links to this forum in other forums or blogs. The more people we can help the better.


Please note that I am not legally qualified and I only offer my own personal advice. You are advised to seek professional legal advice for formal clarification of advice I give.