The Nvidia Defect Forum

Hi Paul,

It's been a little while (6th May) since you provided me with an engineers report for my Packard Bell Easynote MB88-P003 laptop with an Nvidia Defect - so I thought I should update you (and others) with my current situation.

I have refused PC Worlds offer of a free fixed price repair (as no guarantee it will be defect free), and I have also rejected a cash equivalent offer (value £229) against a claim of £734.

I have issued a claim through the small claims court, and have today received a copy of the defence along with the allocation questionaire. A brief synopsis of the defence (the applicable bits) is as follows:

"8) The Defendant does not admit that the goods are inherently defective or are incapable of a satisfactory repair as alleged or at all.

9) The Defendent will contend and aver that the goods are of satisfactory quality as required by section 14 of the Sale of Goods ACt 1979 (as amended)

10) Furthermore, the Defendant will contend and aver that the Claimant has in any event accepted the goods by virtue of section 35 of the 1979 act. Specifically the Defendant avers that:
a) the Claimant has retained and used the goods for a reasonable period of time without intimating that she rejected them and
b) that the Claimant has during the period of time referred to in 10a above had a reasonable opportunity of ascertaining that the goods were in conformity with the contract

11) Further and or alternatively, the Defendant contends that under section 11(4) and the 1979 Act a Claimant who has lost the right to reject goods can only treat any breach she may prove as a breach of warranty

12) Accordingly, the Defendant denies that the Claimant is entitled to reject the goods and recover the purchase price or any part thereof or that she is entitled to damages as alleged or at all.

13) Save as is hereinbefore specifically admitted or not admitted the Defendant denies each and every allegation contained in the Statement of Claim as though the same were herein set forth and traversed seriatim."

So - if I understand this correctly - their defence is that my lap top did not fail quickly enough, and 28 months and 1 day is acceptable in terms of Quality and Fit for Purpose for a £650 lap top !!!!

I will use your helpful guide to complete the Allocation Questionnaire - but I would like to make reference to this site, both in terms of the number of lap tops suffering with the same issues, but also the interesting post recently from the Customer who was told by PC World that they are receiving "repaired" lap tops back and so are no longer repairing them. Do you have any advice for the best way to include this "evidence" in the information box (especially as it is effectively "hearsay" and not evidencial - even though I am certain it is true)?

Any other helpful advice and comments gratefully received - papers must be back to the court by Monday 26th July so I'll need to do them by the middle of next week.

Hello Bev,

Well you have absolutely nothing to worry about in their defence.

I have answered some of the points below.



Did they not read the report? Your laptop is one of the models that is failing in huge numbers, all with the same GPU as yours, the 8600 and all with the same or similar manifestations.

Why can't they just admit to it and stop all this pretence.



Really, does the Sale Of Goods Act allow for inherently defective laptops that fail prematurely?

Of course it doesn't so how can they make such a claim?

The rest of their defence is just the same mumbo jumbo that does not excuse the fact that they sold you an inherently defective laptop.

I would be interested to know what points 1 to 7 was of their defence. Would you be willing to let us know?

Regarding the statement made by a forum member about what PC World had said; sadly you will not be able to use this.

I would include a copy of Nvidia's 10K filing, in which they admit to the defect. A copy of that is here:- nvidia-form-10k-filing-t416.html

The important part is the section titled "Product Defect".

I would then take a look at the links page and download some of the information from there to substantiate your claim. Though you shouldn't need too much information.

If you have any questions or need any advice then 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.

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the reply!

Points 1 - 7 pretty much summarised the diary of events so far:-

1) Confirmation of purchase date and price paid
2) Confirmation that PC came with a 12 month guarantee (excluding damage caused by accident, misuse or neglect!)
3) Confirmation that I took the defective lap top in to the store at the beginning of May
4) Confirmation of their phone call to me offering me a free fixed price repair (value £229) - although they also state that this voucher could be used towards a new PC (I don't actually remember that being in the conversation ...)
5) Confirmation that they sent me a letter and voucher as described
6) "The Defendant admits receiving a letter from the Claimant dated 10th May 2010 outlining her dissatisfaction with the operation of the goods. The Claimant alleged that the lap top had failed due to an inherent fault with the Nvidia graphics chip. The Claimant had obtained an independent engineer's report which concurred with this belief. The Claimant returned the payment voucher previously issued in Paragraph 5 above and requested a full refund of the purchase price, reimbursement of the independent engineers report and further incidental expenses"
7) "The Defendant admits contacting the Claimant by telephone on or around the 17th May 2010. The Defendant gave reassurances to the Claimant that should the repair option not resolve the issue, then this amount would be refunded and a further remedy considered. The Claimant declined the offer".

Thanks for the link to the Nvidia 10k Filing

Bev

Hello Bev,

It appears to me that PC World (or DSG as they like to be referred to in court) list as many points as they possibly can in their defence maybe in the hope that all those defence points will look good to the judge.

However, they are not defence points in the truest sense of the word and simply appear to be statements of fact.

PC Worlds' position is indefensible and instead of fending of action after action and either giving in at the 11th hour or losing the rest at court they should do the right thing once the defect has been proved.

But I guess that all these retailers are interested in is saving themselves money rather than helping their customers who were unfortunate enough to have purchase on of their defective laptops.

You have nothing to fear from PC World Bev.

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.

Hi Paul,

Sorry it's been a while since I posted, but PC World and I have been exchanging letters, and concurrently exchanging letters with the Court.

I have opted to give mediation a go (as their offers haven't yet reached what I deem to be an acceptable level - although we are getting closer) and I believe we are scheduled to talk to the mediation team tomorrow (I say believe as I confirmed I could make the date but I'm not sure PC World have confirmed ...) so I'll let you know what happens (if anything) tomorrow!

Great to see that others are still having successes with their claims

Bev

hello Bev,



Good luck with that Bev, though I have to say that they have had plenty of time to mediate and I really do not think that this will bring about a positive result but I live in hope.

Fingers crossed for you.

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.

Hello Paul,

Well, against all the odds (and after a shaky start when DSG found they didn't have anyone available to make the original mediation appointment on Monday) - I am delighted to report that I reached a settlement today regarding my lap top using the mediation service !!!!

Because of the confidentiality agreement I can't give you the exact details - but I can confirm that I used your formula to work out the residual value of my lap top based on the length of time it was working, added to that the report costs and the court costs, and settled on a value that was within £25 of the figure I had calculated! I am having to surrender my "dead" lap top on Monday in store to receive my cheque (not vouchers!), but to be honest that was a compromise I was prepared to make (after all, I'm not sure I would ever have got around to selling it on for spares!)

I am delighted that common sense prevailed at last - and providing the cheque clears OK next week then I will discontinue my Court Case

I'd just like to add my sincere thanks to you Paul for all your time, help and support in setting up and maintaining this forum and all it's content; and to everyone else who contributes their stories, both good and bad! I can honestly say that without this forum, I would not have had the confidence or the information to tackle PC World about my lap top, and would probably have just bitten the bullet and bought a new one, 3 years earlier than I'd intended.

Good luck to everyone else out there - and don't give up !!!

Hello Bev,

Well done on your success

I am really please for you, especially since you were gutsy enough to be prepared to face them in court.

I don't think that there should be a problem with their cheque, though I bet they are getting through a lot of books at the moment



Thank you for your kind comments Bev, much appreciated.

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

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.