The Nvidia Defect Forum

Just returned from court today with a victory over pc world. Good guys do win!!!

Court awarded me £490 and let me keep my laptop, also judge hinted it should be no problem claiming the interest from the finance company. So all in all a great result against a very stubborn company.

Just wanted to take this opportunity to thank paul for all his hard work. without this site i would have been fobbed of by pc world and that laptop in the bin! So thanks for all your assistance and support!!!!!

I still however dont understand why some retailers are taking it so far. Its obvious that the laptops were defective. They dont have a chance in hell wining , yet are wiiling to go to court and loose extra money/time and customers. Is that what you call customer services???

Congrads Homyachok and Well Done.

I am facing a court battle with Comet and this gives a lot more confidence.

I am not sure why these companies can't be done for "Deception" The judge should fine them or award the claimant bigger some of money, and trust me they will settle earlier. its totally unfair. What about those customers who brought laptop but don't have the time or some cases money to go ahead with sue these companies.

Paul can I do them for deception at the same time as my case?

Once again Well done Homy!

Hello Homyachok,

Well done on your success.

It is a real shame that PC World forced you to go down this route rather than complying with their obligations in law.

I cannot believe that PC World sent not one but two Lawyers to try and defend their position which was, in actuality, indefensible.

I am really pleased that the Judge lambasted both PC World and their Lawyers for trying to discredit me and I am also really pleased that the Judge accepted my stance with regard to the written guarantee.

It is all well and good for both HP and PC World to say that they now have a part that is free from the defect but in the absence of the written guarantee then their claims are without foundation - which the Judge concurred with.

PC World should be ashamed of themselves and instead of bemoaning the fact that I am helping customers who were unfortunate enough to have purchased an inherently defective laptop from them they should change their company procedure and should accept that they have a real problem on their hands.

It seems to me that their profits are more important to them than the customers who helped them make those profits and that is evidenced by the fact that they have forced you down this path when they really must have known that your laptop was indeed inherently defective.

It was also excellent news that the Judge awarded you the money you had lost with having to attend court and also the interest that you have paid. I would now get straight onto the finance company and let them know that you are seeking a refund of this amount.

If they refuse to comply then you should file a small claims action against them.

PC World are not the only retailer who have gone to court and complained about the fact that I am helping customers; you would think that they would have realised by now that this is not a defence to the fact that they sold a laptop that was doomed to fail prematurely.

It is great news that the Judge agreed that had it not been for the presence of this forum then you and 100's of customers like you would have either thrown their laptop away or would have paid for a repair to the very company who sold them the laptop, that is a wonderful validation of this forum.

Today must have cost PC World far more than it would have cost them had they settled earlier. Apart from the cost of sending two lawyers to court, which wouldn't come cheap, there are all the other costs that have been racked up.

Serves them right if you ask me!
Well done again on your win. I am really pleased that you found us and that I was able to help you reach this very positive resolution.

Best wishes

Paul
The Admin Team

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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.

Paul, from the judges comments it seems like you should be put on TV for helping everyone. Maybe not on X factor but I would nominate you any day for an OBE or MBE.

I hope we all at this forum can make this happen for you. I pray that I get a good judge like homy had.

As I said in my previous post I wish i can do these companies trying to hide the truth. Its criminal!

Hello Gulam,

Thank you for your kind and positive comments in your post, it is much appreciated.

When you court day arrives the most important thing is that you show the judge how many claims Comet have settled and how other retailers are struggling with failure rate of these laptops.

It is also important that you counter Comet's attempts to refute your claim by printing as many of the posts on this forum detailing the successes against Comet and the other retailers from this forum. I know I have said this to you before but it is very important that you impress upon the Judge how you are simply a layperson with no knowledge of the law and that Comet have continually tried to remove or reduce your rights under the Sale Of Goods Act. You should further tell the judge that had it not been for the information provided by this forum then you would have simply thrown the laptop away.

Whilst Comet may try and belittle me by bemoaning to the judge about my alleged lack of independence due to the forum this is, in the scheme of things, simply a smokescreen to try and deflect the fact that they have sold so many defective laptops and it is not a defence to that fact.

Fingers crossed for you Gulam.

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

Just thought i'd give some more advice from my experience (not want to be one of those who gets a benefit and runs off!).

Anyway I dont know if this is in the right section, but please feel free to post this somewhere else. Hope this helps you Ghulam


Some pointers from my case:

1) The defence argued that I, the claimant, had accepted the laptop by virtue of section 35 of the Sales of Goods Act 1979 based on the following:

a) i had retained and used the laptop for a reasonable period of time without intimating i rejected the product
b) i had reasonable opportunity of ascertaining that the laptop was in conformity with the contract.

Now this is a very crucial part of the law. In effect if the defendants fail to satisfy the above, it is probably very likely you will get the full refund of the laptop, never mind a percentage. Section 35 is to prottect the retailer from abuse, for example you buy a sofa and when you take it home you notice it has a tear, but dont bother taking it back. After 2 years however you suddenly decide you dont like the colour and return it back to the store under the Sales of Goods Act. This obviously wouldn't be fair.

In my particular case however the judge felt it was not reasonable for a 'layman' to have known about the defect of the graphics card and unlike a sofa obviously I would have no chance to have ascertain if the goods were free from any fault. However I had mentioned that I did start to notice the laptop was overheating for around 4 to 6 months before. The judge felt that this should have been enough for me to take action and because I did not I had therefore accepted the goods as such. Basically therefore if you became 'aware' of something untold about your laptop, such as overheating etc then the defence will be succesfull with Section 35 of the Sales of Good Act. If not and the laptop just went bang, you will in my opinion have a strong case for a full refund.

2) Defendants tried to argue my £710 laptop was midrange and therefore midrange laptops are expected to have a life of around 3 to 4 years and thus wanted to pay me based on those figures , not the full years of the Sales of Good Act. They nearly got away with this one, but judge changed his mind when I told him the question about midrange ( which was bull anyway!) was irrelevant, as even if it was midrange this referred to the laptops specification , not its durability. If you by a laptop for £300 you still should expect it to last 5 years! The only difference with a high end laptop would be you would have a zillion gb harddrive, blah blah.....

3) The defendants usually put the claimants to strict liability to the failure date, which usually is the day they were informed. Unfortunately most people do not record telephone calls etc and will end up sending a letter a few months after. However if you can be persuasive enough and with a good judge, you might get the date when you rang, which in my case was almost 2 months before the actual official letter. I succesfully argued that any reasonable person would first ring and not start sending 'letter before action' etc . As a law studnt myself , i can tell you courts and the judiciary love the 'reasonable person test' . Many of our laws are based or decided on such principles.

4) The attack on Lapcure ( which i felt was below the belt) maybe brought up. However the turning point for me was when I told the judge its ironic how the defendants are questioning the intergity of Mr Durkin ( Paul) when in effect when I rang them first they just fobbed me of saying my laptop was out of warranty etc ( judge raised his eyebrow at this point). Indeed if it wasnt for Lapcure I would have never known the defective part or many of my rights as a consumer. Ofcourse Paul runs a commercial outfit and makes a living, just like the defendants lawyers sitting across me! They didnt come all the way down to ********** court because it was the morally right thing to do, but because they were getting paid and probably alot more than Paul ( with all due respect to you Paul!). This raised a nice smile of approval from the judge.......

5) Remeber also the court in time are added expense, i.e loss of earnings and you should mention this at the end while the judge is deciding your final payment.

6) One more last thing which is important to mention is that the Defendants asked for my old laptop back ( remember this could still be worth 100 odd pounds on ebay). However if you remeber in my case and probably in the majoirty of the cases they will first establish that under Section 35 of the Sales of Goods Act 1979 that you had accepetd the product ( as discussed in point 1 above) the laptop is therefore your property and they cannot do this, unless ofcourse they pay you the full refund. So dont fall for this.

Okay thats it really. Just stick to your guns and i am sure we will all win! GOODLUCK

Hello Homyachok,

Thank you for your above post.

It just goes to show the lengths that some retailers will go to in order to try and defend these legal actions against them.

What amazes me is the objectionable defences that they submit to the courts.



I had to smile when I read that.

It is all well and good for the retailer to question my integrity when they are the ones who are consistently misleading customers with regard to their rights.

What is really rubbing them up the wrong way is the fact that their "scripts" are no longer working due to the fact that their customers are coming to them fully aware of their rights under the Sale Of Goods Act. This floors the retailer as it is a law which not many consumers are familiar with and so the retailer, in my opinion, uses this lack of knowledge to take advantage of the consumer by trying to reduce or remove their legal rights.

How many people know about the six year rule for example?

The more judges that concur with me the better because only then will these retailers realise that they really cannot win.

One retailer went to court recently after printing out over 120 pages from this forum to try and state that I was not independent. The judge, after looking at the evidence and this forum disagreed and stated that the advice being offered was in the public interest and awarded against the retailer. The judge also pointed out that the retailer had provided sufficient evidence within those 120 pages that there was indeed a major problem and promptly awarded against them.

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

Until such time as these retailers sort themselves out and start to give their customers the Customer Service that they deserve then this forum will continue to help members press for their rights in law.

It is a complete joke and a waste of the courts time for owners of these laptops to have to proceed to litigation in order to secure their rights in law. The retailers concerned should be heavily fined if they habitually file vexatious defences.

The advice in your post is sound and is good advice which I hope will give confidence to others in your position.

Well done again on your success.

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 Homyachok,

Thank you for the good pointers. Is it possible to get the whole judgement from your court case? I mean its public right?
Can I search it on public database?

I think all the win cases can be set us precedence for other judges.

Thank you

Hi Gulam

Most cases published in law reports etc, but i'm not really sure about a case in small claims. Besides i'm quite certain even if it was to be become available to the public , you will be looking at a long time before they are are available...this is a public body you are talking about afterall!!

Ofcourse English law is based around statutes and case law ( precedents) and you could use past cases to highlight your case. However in my personal opnion there isnt any really need to do so. What everyone who has stumbled across the forum or had the problem with the nividia graphics card have to realise is, you rights under the Sales of Goods Act are very very clear and theres no way you can really lose if you go to court. Thats the only reason many retailers are paying out before it gets that far, apart from the odd 1 or 2 stubborn ones, who will lose anyway.

The only question and issue you have to worry about and therefore present you case strongly, is the amount of compensation etc you are awarded. If you do get to the staage of a court case feel free to give me a ring and i can give you some guidance and hopefully confidence.

Thank you sir for your kind offer to assistance. Please let me know of a number to call. Please pm me, or else these retailers will be calling you asking for some defence ideas!