The Nvidia Defect Forum

Greetings to all. What a fabulous forum. I am a new member who is suffering the same dreaded black screen failure that affects so many HP laptops. I bought my Pavillion DV6190 in December 2006 from Comet Direct's web site. Within 15 months the wi-fi gave up and it was impossible to get any action from my local store. Rather than send it back to Comet for a "Chargable Repair" since the 12 month warranty had expired, I bought a wi-fi dongle from e-bay for £9.00 and lived happily everafter until Boxing Day last year. The screen of death struck without warning, accompanied by 1 long and 2 short beeps. Due to the Xmas holidays it was not possible to contact anyone at HP until the new year. The first few calls were fruitless with repeated statements to the effect that the machine was out of warranty and not their responsibility. Eventually I made sufficient fuss to be referred to a "Case Manager" She was extremely sympathetic but unable to offer anything other than a chargable repair. Having suppied the serial number she did conceed that my machine was one of those affected by the defective Nvidia chip problem and stated that it's original warranty had been extended to two years because of this. It's a pity that neither HP or Comet saw fit to inform me of this fact until after the extended warranty had expired, despite being registered with both of them. It would certainly have saved me the cost of a wi-fi dongle and a lot of messing about trying to get Comet to sort the problem. When I mentioned the "Class Action" in the States, she informed me that HP UK had no contractual relationship with me since I purchased the laptop from a retailer and that I should persue the retailer if I was in any way unhappy with my purchase. Several phone calls to Comet's Customer Dis-service line later I was still being told that there was no problem with HP laptops or the Nvidia GPU that they were aware of and that my only option was a chareable repair. It also appeared that I was being most unreasonable; firstly for expecting a laptop to last 4 years and secondly for not having bought their extended warranty. I was advised that when I bought my replacement machine from them, I should make sure that I invested in their extended warranty in order to aviod such problems in the future. Obviously not a happy bunny, however consequent research to support my claim led me to this forum and what a lifesaver it has been. All the necessary information together in one place. Anyway, I have sent the "Pre-Action" letter to Comet's head office and now await their reply. Any negativity will result in a Small Claims Court action. I will keep you posted as to all further developments and tender my sincere gratitude to Paul for maintaing such brilliant web site.

Hello DC1 and welcome to our forum.

Sorry to hear that your laptop has failed and am even sorrier to hear that you purchased from Comet.

How scandalous that they stated that you should have purchased an extended warranty when you and I know that extended warranties are not worth the paper they are written on.

If you had purchased an extended warranty at the point of sale then they would have to also refund that as they cannot charge for a warranty on an inherently defective laptop.

Don't let them fob you off. See if you get a response to the pre action letter. They may offer you a chargeable inspection. You should refuse this and should tell them that there is a reverse burden of proof after six months of ownership which means that the onus is on you, the customer to prove to Comet that your laptop is inherently defective. It is not for Comet to prove this on your behalf.

It is my opinion that any inspection by they could by biased and is certainly not independent.

Let's see what they say first and then pop back here and let me know and I will advise further.

Any questions please let me know.

Good luck and 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
Thank you for your swift reply and support. If I get anything other than a cheque, or promise thereof, from Comet I will be contacting you to arrange for a report prior to issuing small claims court proceedings.

The response from Comet is that they would like me to deliver the laptop to one of their stores where they will carry out an investigation which is chargable. I have told them that to comply with the Sale of Goods Act, the onus is on me as the consumer to prove that the laptop has an inherent defect and that I will be obtaining a report from an independant engineer which I will forward to them and which I shall require them to pay for. I have tried to register on the lapcure site in order to arrange for a report but am still waiting for the "link" email in order to proceed.

Hello Dc1,

I have now sent you an email with further instructions.

If you have any questions 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.

Herewith the latest correspondance from Comet. I propose to reject their offer and promis them a small claims court appearance if they don'y reconsider. Any thoughts anyone?


Subject: 31.01.11 - Cliaming nVidia issue - wanting full refund - has enclosed eng report
If this issue is not resolved to your satisfaction, you may reopen it within the next 7 days.

Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.
Response (Lara Brewer) 23/02/2011
Dear Ms Fuller

Further to your recent letter dated 15 February 2011.

Having reviewed this matter with our Consumer Electronics Services Manager, he has confirmed that as your Hewlett Packard Laptop unfortunately failed on 26 December 2010, the unit has had 49 months usage without any fault being reported to us. Therefore taking the above into consideration a partial refund has been authorised to the value of £236.38, plus a reimbursement of the engineer report you provided for £65.00.

Please accept this letter as confirmation that gift vouchers to the value of £301.38 will be sent to you within 10-14 days upon receipt of this letter.

In closing, I trust this now clarifies our position in this matter and please accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Yours sincerely




Lara Brewer
Customer Service Officer

Hello DC1,

To be honest with you their offer is in line with what you would expect to receive if you were to pursue this to the small claims court.

I think that their offer is fair and I would be inclined to accept it.

I doubt you would get much more by proceeding to court and you do run the risk, if the judge finds that you have acted unreasonably, in having the court costs disallowed which would leave you in a worse position.

If you want my advice I would accept their offer and would draw a line under the matter.

What do you think?

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.

I'm inclined to fight on; for two main reasons. Because they initially refused to admit that the Nvidia chips were causing a problem, together with the mass of information on the internet about the problem, it was clear that reaching any settlement was likely to be a lengthy process. Consequently I sourced a replacement laptop. Secondly the specified remedy under the Sale of Goods act, is an equal/ equivalent replacement or a refund of the purchase price. I've got the replacement so a refund is all that's left. I accept that I have had 4 years use of the machine but they were not trouble free. The wifi function stopped working after 18 months so I took it into my local store. I was told that because I hadn't purchased an extended warranty, it would be a chargable repair and that it involved a new mother board at a cost of about £300 pounds. I opted to buy a cheap wifi dongle form eBay for £20 which sorted out that problem. They did not tell me that my laptop was one of those that HP had extended the warranty on to 2 years. If they had, who knows? The new motherboard may have failed again or may still be working but I wouldn't be in the position that I am in today.
Anymore thoughts?

Hello DC1,

I can fully appreciate your angst and I can also fully appreciate that you would like more of a refund.

But I can only offer you advice that I think will benefit you. I think that if you do pursue this to the small claims court then you could end up worse off.

You could be lucky and receive more, but what it you didn't?

What if the judge ruled that he wasn't going to allow your court fees?

You would end up with much less than you are currently being offered.

Sometimes in life you have to draw a line under matters and move on as pursuing matters can be detrimental.

I realise that this is not the advice that you want to hear, but there is no point in me egging you on towards litigation if I could not say, hand on heart, that you would be successful.

At the end of the day you have to make the decision that you see fit, all I can do is offer my advice.

Good luck with whatever decision you make.

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.