The Nvidia Defect Forum

Early Dec 2007 - I purchased two HP G6031 laptop computers as Christmas presents from Comet. They have been completely unreliable with numerous repairs having to be carried out during the guarantee period. There was intermittent loss of LAN and screen flickering throughout their periods of use. Parts replaced between them in breakdowns - 2048 RAM (x2), Motherboard, Graphics card (??), Power Board, LCD Display, LCD Inverter, LCD cable and the keyboards.
One laptop had its first breakdown with complete loss of LAN in Sept 08, no display Nov 08 and the final breakdown with no display May 2009.
The other laptop’s first recorded breakdown was due to a faulty keyboard Nov 09, the LAN packed up July 09 with the final breakdown of no display Dec 09.
Both have now failed completely out of their guarantee period.

June 09 - Contacted Comet store and they said there was nothing they could do.
June 09 - Initial letter to Comet and HP.
July 09 - Reply back from HP and I rang their customer care who informed me it was not the manufacturer’s responsibility and that I should take it up with the supplier.
I did not get a reply from Comet.
July 09 - Contacted Consumer Direct & they advised repeat letter to Comet.
Sept 09 - Reply from Comet apologising for no response to first letter & rejecting request for repair or replacement. Offered a £58.71 chargeable inspection and parts at reduced price, but no mention of labour charge. After discussing this with Consumer Direct, they wrote directly to Comet.
Sept 09 - Consumer Direct received reply - copy of my previous response & further copy to me.
October 09 - Discussed this with Consumer Direct and I was told it may take a long time to get anywhere with Comet and there was no guarantee of any success.

Mid Oct 09 - Almost decided to give up until I made searches on the internet and found laptops fitted with Nvidia graphics chips made mid / late 2007 were failing in their thousands. Then stumbled upon this website.

Mid Oct 09 - Made contact with HP through their website, told them of the problems with the laptops and stating that HP website forums have numerous posts of faulty Nvidia chips. E Mail from HP stating I needed to contact HP as it does not fall under ‘Limited Warranty Enhancement Programme’. Contacted HP & after some lengthy discussions with numerous HP representatives, I asked for my complaint to be escalated. I eventually spoke with a consumer support supervisor and again after a long period of discussion, was told that HP were well aware of the issues and problems with the Nvidia chips, but would only repair the laptops if I paid for the repair. Apparently some of the laptops that had failed earlier had been subject to a ‘Limited Warranty Enhancement Programme’. Basically they repaired the earlier failures, but will now not add any more models to the list. She then advised that although the problem was indeed caused by HP’s use of the defective Nvidia chips, I would need to talk to my supplier of the laptops about a replacement and if this failed, take action through the small claims court citing the Sale of Goods Act 1979!! I was absolutely astounded by that statement. Almost as if she was reading off a script.

Mid Oct 09 - Further letter to Comet detailing discussion with HP and giving them 2 weeks to reply and offer me replacement laptops (of equivalent spec.) or a full refund.

Late Oct 09 - Call from Comet customer services on again offering a £58.71 chargeable inspection and parts at reduced price, but no chance of refund or replacement. Discussed this in length with them, but I stated that as Comet would not do an inspection on the laptops free of charge, I would have them inspected independently.

Sent laptops in to Lapcure. Inspection on first laptop Dec 09 & second laptop Jan 2010 found them both to have failed due to defective Nvidia graphics chips. The defect was present at time at time of manufacture and the chip had been ‘tweaked’ by gluing the chip to the motherboard. This was in an attempt to prevent the chip from rising up off the motherboard due to the extreme temperatures being created.

Jan 2010 Letter to Comet confirming I have had both laptops inspected by an independent laptop engineer, the inspections finding both laptops to have failed completely due to defective Nvidia graphics chips and being inherently defective, this being the sole reason for the failures. I then give them 7 days to reply to the letter and offer me a full refund or free of charge replacements under the SOGA. I also made claim for the costs of obtaining the engineers reports. I stated that they should not disregard the letter, as the next communication that they would receive would be the court documents if no reply was forthcoming.
Today I received a letter from Comet reiterating their previous offer. It went on to state that should I wish to make a claim under the SOGA they would need to inspect the laptops, but would charge me £58.71 for the privilege! They would then offer a discount on replacement parts should they find a major component to be at fault.

My claim through the small claims court online will be started this weekend.

Will keep you posted.

Hello,

Time and time again I am hearing customers horror stories of dealing with Comet.

They seem to be totally ignorant of the Sale Of Goods Act - either that or they purposefully
try to remove customers consumer rights or their rights under the SOGA.

They shouldn't be allowed to get away with treating customers in this way.

Even when told that you had irrefutable proof that your laptops were inherently defective they still wanted to charge you. How wrong is that?

The more customers that report this company to the Trading Standards the better.

Good luck with your small claims action.

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.

Made a claim against Comet this PM through moneyclaim online.

Fairly straightforward process, register then 3 screens to fill out, one for your details, one for the details of whom you are claiming against and the last for details of the claim, including the amounts you wish to claim for.

Claim will be processed by Mon 10 AM, court documents being sent the same day.

5 days for docs to arrive then they have 14 days to reply, this can be extended to 28 days on application if they need more time to reply.

Worst bit was trying to condense your claim details down to 1080 characters

It is a bit difficult editing it down to 1080 characters - I could fill a whole book.

Good luck though, your almost at the final stage now.

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.

Hi Paul

Comet did not reply to my claim so I applied for judgement to be made against them. This was accepted by the court.
They have since made an application for the judgement to be set aside on the grounds that 'we never received the original claim and was therefore unable to reply to it'.
Load of carp, but we know who we are dealing with here.

Would either you or ciderboy be able to answer me a few questions?

Do I need to attend the 'hearing of the application to set aside the judgement'?

And

What is the likelihood of them been granted the judgement to be set aside and 'allow the claim to proceed'?

Regards

Dave

Hi Dave (and thanks to Paul for pointing me in the direction of this query)


Yes - if you don't attend then their application will be granted and the judgment will be set aside. Likewise, if they don't turn up & you do then it won't (and you will be able to ask the DJ for your costs of the hearing).

Go in to the hearing prepared for the full hearing of the case - some judges will set aside the original judgment and then move on to a full hearing if they've got time.


That's something that isn't easy to answer - you can never predict how a District Judge is thinking. I would say that there's a 75% chance of it being granted providing they can show they have a valid defence (see below).

A couple of questions back (feel free to reply by PM if you prefer).

Have they given any indication as to what their defence will be? If not then you may be able to defend the application on the grounds that you fell that it's just a delaying tactic as they have not given any indication of a defence that has any real prospect of success

How long is there before the hearing? (just wondering if there's time for you to make contact with Comet or vice versa).

and finally, had Comet been in contact with you before issuing the application?

_________________
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.

Success !!!

13 months after the first laptop died and 6 months after issuing the small claim, Comet have refunded the full cost of both laptops onto a gift card and issued cheques to cover the cost of the two engineers reports, court fee and my court expenses. A grand total of £1003 .


I had almost given up last September when Trading Standards advised me that it would be difficult to get anywhere with Comet. I had written a number of letters to both Comet and HP, but had got nowhere. I then stumbled upon this forum.

My small claim was issued in January and I got judgment by default entered in February. An application to set aside the judgment was quickly made by Comet and a hearing date set by the court.

I had my day in court along with a local Comet employee, but the judgment was indeed set aside to enable the hearing to go ahead .

Comet then wrote offering a repair and asking me to contact them by telephone, which I did.
I rejected their offer of the repair. They then started talking about having nearly two years use out of the laptops. I was having none of that and argued that the laptops were having problems from when they were about 6 months old and the fact about the first motherboard replacement at 8 months. They then said they would reassess my case and would get back to me. Four days later they rang with an offer of replacement equivalent laptops, which I refused and managed to get them to transfer the full cost onto a gift card.

I have since called at the store, collected the gift card and returned the two faulty HP's.
The gift card was used to purchase two new Toshiba laptops that contain no parts made by Nvidia. Cheques have cleared as well .

A BIG thanks to both Paul of Lapcure and Ciderboy for your help, advice and encouragement over the last 10 months.

It may have taken a long time to sort, but it was definitely worth it in the end .

Hello Bandit12,

Well done on your success

I am really pleased for you - it just goes to show what persistence can do.

A lot of people would have probably accepted their offer of replacement laptops but you stuck to your guns and I admire you for that and for not giving in.

I am really glad that we could have helped you reach this positive resolution.

Well done again and all the very best for the future.

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.

Great news and well done on your persistence.

We seem to be getting success stories on here every day now. However, it's always the Comet ones that put a on my face. Their attitude when I first contacted them about my laptop was appalling and, whilst I was unable to personally take my case any further, I like to feel that I'm getting my revenge on them by hanging around this forum

All the best, and enjoy the Toshiba's

_________________
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.

Hello Ciderboy,



That really did put a smile on my face

I wonder how they account for all these refunds in their annual accounts and I wonder also if they have made their shareholders aware of the scale of the problem?

Probably not!

But this problem is not going to go away and will, in my opinion, rise exponentially. My advice to Comet is that they should order in a few more cheque books from the bank in readiness

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.