The Nvidia Defect Forum

Hello all.

I purchased a DV9350EA in July 2007 which has a 7600 GO. This failed in March of this year and as such was 'fixed' under my extended warranty. However, the symptoms are starting to appear again (wireless card dropping out, lock ups, and extreme temperatures). As such, I have issued the manager of PC World with a letter outlining the fact that despite me having a warranty with HP, the Sale of Goods Act gives me the right to take the device back to the shop since it is definitely unsafe, and was such at the time of purchase. While composing an email, the GPU was idling at 62*C and thats with a cooling pad underneath it on the 'high' setting.

To his credit, he was extremely pleasant, and assured me that he would get back to me within the week. He came out with something about my rights not applying since HP had fixed it, but I informed him that he would be breaking the Act if refused to do anything. Unfortunately, the only option is a refund. I can't accept a repair since it is the same defective part that is put back in. Also, PC World is ridiculous over priced. (I can purchase a much better Sony laptop for £1200, with one of the same price in PC World being of a much lower spec).

The reason why I am not claiming on the HP warranty again is due to the fact that it took them 8 weeks to repair it the last time, and they also lost it twice in their warehouse. They then had the audacity to blame this on me, since the laptop was 'distinctive' enough.

I will post the outcome to this later in the week, whether it goes smoothly or not. PC World are notorious for urinating all over the SOGA, so hopefully this time they'll prove me wrong.

Hang in there everyone, we won't let these mongrels win!

Good luck in your quest and you are quite right when you say to hang in there.

These retailers want you to go away, they want you to pay for the repair. They do not want to give you a free repair or a refund.

Only persistence will secure you a positive resolution.

Good luck and best wishes

Paul
Lapcure

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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.

Well, I stated on the letter that I wanted the issue resolved within 7 days. He informed me that it he would have been in contact with me by Tuesday of this week. Haven't heard from him, nor did I manage to get him on the phone. Something about them not being able to put me through to the store.


As far as I'm concerned, this is the classic response from PC World. As such, I've passed the matter onto trading standards. Hopefully they will be able to rectify this issue for me.

Once again, thanks for this site and I will continue to keep this post up to date on my progress. Hopefully the outcome will be able to aid others in this fiasco.

A little heads up on this issue. Customer Services at PC World have confirmed that this is a serious, inherent fault and that I should get the whole shebang of money back. After seeing this site, they agreed that all the laptops that they sold with the faulty GPU's should have been recalled, and also mentioned about them knowing about this previously.

If I can get it in writing that they were aware of this, I will send it to Paul so that it can be posted on here for everyone else to make use of.

Another update: Trading Standards are going to take this on for me. Had a chap from PC World tell me today that company policy over rules the SOGA, so the woman from Trading Standards is going straight to the legal team at PC World.

Thats excellent news solve my maze!

I hope PC World do put it in writing as that will be posted here and would drive a horse and cart through
and future attempts by PC World to say no to a customer.

As a matter of interest, you said that a chap at PC World had spoke of company policy over the SOGA and
it was a result of this that Trading Standards are in contact with their legal team; what exactly did he say?

It would be very interesting to know their stance on the SOGA and I would like to post that stance here if thats ok with you.

Thanks in advance.

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.

I certainly hope they do put it in writing. The woman I've spoken to from Trading Stardards will hopefully pass the message from the legal team onto me. Her view is that a replacement is out of the question, and shes not prepared to let PC World mess me around on this situation.

Hopefully the letter would help for other companies too, since PC World have admitted to it in writing.

It was Sean Johnstone that informed me that PC World have a strict 3 repairs policy that they must adhere to. He also said that they do not have to abide by the SOGA since they have their own company rules. He even said that under no circumstances are PC World required to give out vouchers (or a refund in cash). This was confirmed to be nonsense by Trading Standards and the woman in question that is helping me had decided to go straight to the legal team about this. I have also given Trading Standards details that the GPU on this laptop has been underclocked. Therefore, I was sold a unit that was not as described in the shop.
Personally, I now want the money back. I really don't want anything from PC World in the future.

Feel free to post their stance on this site. People should know that this company will try anything to get out of their responsibilities.


Apologies for the lateness of my reply. I've been having a lot of problems with this (Blue screening and nvidia driver crashes). I don't think it will hold out much longer. The moment I hear anything from Trading Standards, I will post it on here which will hopefully help others in the same situation.

That has to be the biggest lie I have ever heard!

Is Mr Johnstone trying to say that PC World are above the law?

Does he think that the SOGA does not apply to PC World?

I am going to ring PC World's Head Office tomorrow and am going to ask them for a statement for this site.

I will also recount what Mr Johnstone said and ask if this is PC Worlds or Mr Johnstone's policy.

Absolutely disgraceful if you ask me. It typifies the state of customer services on the high street today.

They must think they are dealing with a bunch of kids who don't know their rights.

The time has come to shame them.

Will update this as soon as I have more news.

Best wishes

Paul
The Admin Team

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=======================================================
Calculate the minimum refund that you would be entitled to.
FAQ's
Why you should not accept a repair
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Do you need an engineers report?
=======================================================

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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.

Sadly he must think so.

Also, Paulo in custoer services specifically said that every one of these laptops should have been recalled, due to them being unsafe.

You've hit the nail on the head about the customer service of today, hence my Trading Standards rep going right to the legal team.

Not sure if you have the number for head office, but rather than trawling through the 'net, its 01727 202120.

Oh, and he said that PC World can't take the word of this site, HPLies.com, The Inquirer or Engadget since none of them are reputable websites.

Out of interest, is is not illegal to sell a product that has been underclocked, and also requires numerous repairs? The repair done on my laptop shows that the 'new' GPU is from 2006.

Hmm, if your "new" GPU is from 2006 doesn't that make it a downgrade from the chip that you had which was post 2007?

All these chips have numbers on them.

For example:-

G86-N-A2

This shows that the GPU is a G8600 and is revision A2.

Now, the last 2 digits of the above number could be A1 A2 or A3

If you originally had an A3 chip and if you now have an A2 or A1 chip then you have technically received an inferior product.

I really cannot see Nvidia retooling their factory to produce a fresh run of processors to replace the defective ones wo who knows what is being used.

Might be worth checking on what version of these GPU's are being used.

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.