The Nvidia Defect Forum

My story so far re Comet and the Nvidia defect...

Bought a HP dv2699ea in Jan 2008.

In December 2008 it basically died with the screen picture breaking up and having lines and artefacts eveywhere.

Luckily it was still under warranty so I returned it to HP and who replaced the motherboard and sent it back to me in Jan 2009.

June 2010 and it failed again with what looked like exactly the same fault as the first time. I sent Comet a letter informing them of this and asking for either a refund or replacement. Comet were not interested saying it was no longer under warranty and that it was not on HP's "affected laptops" list.

I told Comet I was going to get an independant engineers report and sent it to Lapcure, who confirmed it was the Nvidia defect.

I sent a copy of the report to Comet along with a letter before action, again asking for a refund and stating if a positive resolution wasn't forthcoming I would have no option but to start a small claims procedure.

I received a call from Head Office today. They said they had been in contact with HP and they had agreed to offer me a free repair. When I asked if they could provide me with the part number I was told no they didn't have that. When I asked if they could provide me with a guarantee in writing that it wouldn't fail again with the same defect a few months down the line I was told no, they couldn't put anything like that in writing. So, I told them I was not interested! They asked if Lapcure had "put me up to this" as HP had assured them it was free from the defect!! I said without the part number and guarantee in writing that I was not interested and it basically ended with them saying fine and me saying I would see them in court!

Has anyone actually managed to get the part number from Comet of this apparently defect free part?? I can't see Nvidia going back and changing their production line to make a new batch of old chips from over 2 years ago!

Marc

Hello Marc,



What on earth is wrong with these people? What is wrong with you asking for the part number and the written guarantee?

DSG Retail were slated this week by a judge for "acting recklessly" in offering a repair. Seems like it is not just DSG Retail then!

I did a quick check on the HP website for your laptop and found the following:- http://tinyurl.com/32f4fp2

This is a link to the BIOS update for your laptop. The purpose of this update, according to the HP website is:-



This means that HP must have been fully aware as early as 8th April 2008 of the potential for the premature failure of your laptop.

What does their refusal to give you a written guarantee tell you?

It tells me that they have no confidence in the repair being offered. If they were confident that it would be as they claim, which is free from the defect, then surely they would be happy to provide a written guarantee?

You are acting perfectly reasonably in refusing their offer of a repair as you have no confidence in the parts that will be used.

If this did go to court even the judge will agree with this as they have already done on a number of occasions.



Well, I did get a couple of part numbers the other week from customers who had been offered a repair. I checked those part numbers out and they were an old board that had the BIOS update. This was, apparently, the fix.

If you ever do get a part number of the mainboard to be used it is so easy to check whether or not it is one of the defective ones.

If you can let me know the P/N from the white barcode label on the underside of the laptop I will advise you further.

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.

So I started my claim with the court and got a copy of Comet's defence (it was pretty standard). I was about to complete and send off the AQ but before I could I got a letter from Comet offering to settle out of court! They offered me about half the price I paid for the laptop (I'd had it around 2.5 years) along with the cost for the engineers report and the court costs. I accepted the offer last week and received the cheque today!! I also get to keep the laptop so I'll sell that and claw back some more of the money that way.

Thanks to everyone, especially Paul, for the invaluable info on this forum that has helped so much with my claim.

Hello Marc,

Well done on your success

I am really please than you have managed to reach this resolution without the need for court action.



Thank you for that Marc, much appreciated.

Well done again and best wishes 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.