The Nvidia Defect Forum

Hi Guys

Looking for some advice. I purchased a sony Viao laptop (model VGM-FZ38M) back in april 2008. During xmas gone it started to develop a fault where after it had been on for a while the screen would just get blue lines all over it. I then would switch it off but when when I switched it on again nothing would be displayed on the screen again. This happened a few times but now the screen never comes on. I am unable even to hook up an external monitor to it. I did some research on the internet and found out about how my viao contains the faulty nvidia 8400M graphics cards. This lead me to write a letter to comet stating my problem and asking for a credit note under the sale of goods act. They have since replied via email stating I need to send the laptop off for inspection at a cost of £49.95 and after which I would be charged a reduced rate for repairs.

I was wondering if anyone has any advice on how to proceed with this matter. Also I notice a lot of people have had problems with HP laptops, has anyone else experienced this problem with a viao.

Many thanks

ravi

Hello Ravi and welcome to our forum.

Sorry to hear of the problems you are experiencing with your laptop.

First things first. You should disregard all that Comet tell you as most of the information that comes out of their mouths is, in my opinion, factually incorrect.

You should reject their offer of a chargeable inspection as it will get you nowhere. Just today I was contacted by a customer who had paid Comet the £49 for an inspection. The result was that Comets engineers stated "mainboard failure" at which point the customer was offered a chargeable repair and was refused the refund of the £49.

This is not the first time I have heard of this happening either so it leads me to believe that your laptop will probably not be diagnosed as inherently defective.

I can say that because I have worked on a number of laptops that were classified as either "motherboard failure" or "major component failure" by Comets engineers.

In each case I proved, 100% conclusively, that the Nvidia chip was inherently defective. The customers then proceeded to litigation where they received a resolution.

As you have already made contact with Comet your next step is to secure an engineers report on your laptop.

You need an engineers report in order to be able to prove conclusively that your laptop is indeed inherently defective.

Once you have this you should forward a copy to Comet and give them seven days to either refund you or to replace your laptop.

You asked in your post whether anyone else with a Vaio had experienced a problem.

Well, the answer to that is yes, plenty of users have. This problem affects every manufacturer whose product lines have one of these inherently defective chips, which, unfortunately, is virtually all of them.

HP sell the most laptops worldwide so that is why their name seems to crop up more than others. But then they made a rod for their own back when they didn't act more openly when the problem first came to light.

I have to say that Comet are not handling this problem with the professionalism that one would expect from a high street retailer. I would go further and say if it came to marks out of 10 for the way they are handling this problem they would get a resounding 0/10.

In order to succeed you have to be persistent and that is the key to success.

If you persist, stand your ground and don't be fobbed off by Comet's drivel, then you will succeed.

The cost of the engineers report is £65 which includes the collect and return carriage via DHL.

You can claim this cost back from the retailer when requesting your refund/replacement.

Turnaround time for these reports is 5 business days.

In order to proceed with the engineers report please do the following.

1) Please go to http://www.lapcure.co.uk/register.php

Complete the registration page and then verify your email address.

2) Once you have done that please then login to the site and click on the
"Add a job" link.

Fill in details about your laptop and then once you are sure the details are
correct please save the record.

Once you have done that the courier will be booked to collect the laptop the
next business day.

We use DHL for the collect and return carriage.

Please ensure that laptop is securely boxed with sufficient packaging to
withstand transit to ourselves.

Once you have booked your laptop in I will email you with the label to place
on the box.

Payment is not due until the report is ready.

I will email you a PDF copy of the report and will include 3 copies of the
report and invoice with your laptop.

If you have any questions or queries then please do not hesitate to contact
me.

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.

Thanks for your response Paul

Can I just clarify a couple of things.

1) Comet recommended that I contact sony as they are offering free repairs outside of warrenty. I don't really want this as I feel if it breaks down in future I'll be stuck so am i entitled to reject this?

2) Are comet happy to accept an engineers report from Lapcure and are you sure they will refund the cost (they mentioned in one of there emails that this would be non-refundable).

3) Do you need the whole laptop? I have currently removed the hard drive so that i can access the data using my desktop.

4) Do you recommend/think I should get in touch with trading standards or anybody else about this?

Thanks for your help

Ravi

Hello Ravi,

Please find below answers to your questions.



Yes you are entitled to reject this. There are no reliable parts available at this time and Comet are only providing a three month warranty on repairs.



Comet would not want to accept a report from any company if it meant they would have to pay a refund.

They have accepted substantial quantities of our reports and virtually every one has reached a successful resolution.

They HAVE to refund the cost of the report. They may say that they don't but that information is incorrect.

No doubt with Comet you will have to proceed to litigation. Don't worry about this, if your laptop is indeed inherently defective then you cannot loose.



I would just need the laptop in order to perform the test. The hard drive would be useful in order to take some temperature readings but it is not vital.



I would contact Trading Standards and lodge a complaint against Comet. The way they are treating their customers caught up in this sorry mess is despicable.

The more customers who complain about Comet the better.

Please let me know if you have any further questions or queries.

Best wishes

Paul
The Admin Team


Thanks for your help

Ravi[/quote]

_________________
=======================================================
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.

IMHO Comet will sooner or later be caught out by trading standards ( or some other organisation) because they are denying customers their legal rights under the SOGA !

This is a criminal act for a company to behave in this way, and they must know this.

Why this has not been picked by the press is a strange one.

So yes please report this to trading standards !

Ralph

I will be in touch with trading standards over the weekend. I noticed elsewhere someone mentioned emailing trading standards in hull - should i contact them or one based where i live (london)?

I also emailed comet telling them I would be sending my laptop to lapcure for inspection and would then chase them up for a refund if the report did highlight an inherent fault with the machine. Their response (see below) was to say sony are offering free repairs and regardless if lapcure found an inherent fault i would only be entitled to a repair service. They also stated they would have to look at the laptop (for which I would be charged). Am I being fobbed off? I thought I was entitled to a refund/credit note under the SOGA provided I show the product was faulty when purchased.


Comet email

Thank you for your reply.

I note your further comments, however I must advise that the Sales of Goods Act does
not require a retailer to provide a refund or credit to customers with a product
that has a suspected inherent problem.

Only a remedy to the situation will be offered if available, which is what we can
offer via a chargeable inspection from ourselves, or alternatively as I advised in
my previous response, you can contact Sony directly who are prepared to offer a
solution to the problem free of charge, as detailed on their website. There is no
grounds to assume that the fault with the unit has in any way affected the other
internal workings of the unit.

Should you remain unhappy to contact Sony and wish to pursue this matter with us
under the Sales of Goods Act, I must only again refer you back to my original e-mail
which explained that an inspection fee would apply, and a decision would be made
with respect to the cost of the repair following completion of the engineers
inspection.

Whilst I note that you are seeking advice from Lapcure, regardless of their
involvement we would still require one of our own engineers to complete an
inspection, which would again be chargeable.

Please note that as Sony are offering a free of charge inspection and repair (where
applicable) on your model of laptop, any fee's which you choose to incur with a
third party company would be your own responsibility and therefore we would not look
to reimburse these costs.

I again apologise sincerely for the inconvenience caused and trust this clarifies
our position.

Yours sincerely


Customer Service Officer

That has got to be the biggest piece of *£!# I've ever read.

Make sure you send Trading Standards a copy of that email.

Under the SoGA you only have to prove that there is an inherent fault. Once you have got an independant report then you should make the laptop available for Comet to make their own inspection but this shouldbe at their own cost (including any collection/return costs such as reimbursing you for fuel used to drop it off at one of their stores).

Comet know this and are hoping that they can fob you off enough that you'll go away.

Technically it's their choice whether or not you get a repair/ refund/ replacement. However, they know damn well that a repair will not fix the underlying fault.

You could always call their bluff by saying that you'll accept the repair providing they give you a written guarantee that any components used will not reintroduce the fault - I bet they refuse.

Comet definitely get my vote for worst customer service ever.

_________________
Please note: I am not legally qualified and therefore any postings I make are just my own personal opinion based on my experience of working for a number of years at a busy County Court.

Hello Ravi,

I need to make something quite clear here.

You purchased your laptop from Comet. Comet sold you the laptop. Not Sony but Comet.

Any repair offered by Sony would be done on behalf of Comet as they are the ones with whom your sales contract is with.

You should ask Comet for a written guarantee, on their company headed paper, that states the following:-

"The mainboard used to repair your laptop is from a completely new batch and is 100% free from the Nvidia defect. If at any time in the future it transpires that the mainboard is inherently defective due to the Nvidia GPU then we will refund or replace your laptop"

You have to show the courts that you are being reasonable in rejecting their offer of a repair.

If Comet fail to provide you with such a written guarantee then that, in my opinion, shows they have no confidence in the boards that are being used.

You could then clearly demonstrate that whilst you have tried to be reasonable Comet are not prepared to assure you that the board being used is not inherently defective and so you have no confidence in the repair being offered.

You should not pay them a penny for their chargeable inspection as that will get you nowhere.

The biggest piece of mis-information in their email is the following statement:-



How untrue is that?

If we provide you with a report that states your laptop is inherently defective then that is that.

If Comet want to verify the contents of the report then they are quite at liberty to do so, but this must be at their cost.

They cannot insist you take your laptop into one of their stores and must arrange to collect it from you.

If they do not wish to pay for this then that is their choice but they cannot insist on you trailing down to one of their stores.

Once you have that report if they have not refunded or replaced the defective laptop they sold you then you can just proceed straight to litigation without further communication with them.

You also said:-



The answers is yes, you are being fobbed off.

The G84 and G86 range of Nvidia GPU's are all defective and will fail in time. Under those circumstances as there are no reliable parts that the retailers can provide then the only other solution is either a refund or a replacement laptop.

Stick to your guns and don't let them fob you off.

Persistence is the key to success.

As I have stated elsewhere in this forum. Comet are, in my opinion, one of the worse high street retailers so you will probably have to issue a small claims action against them.

They will pay in the end though as their position is absolutely indefensible.

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.

Hey Paul

I'm sending my laptop to you. Already added the job on your website.

Kind of let this lie for a while as I was away on business but no I want to get this sorted out once and for all.

Ravi

Hello Ravi,

Thank you for booking your laptop in for a report, I have now replied by email.

Once you have the report you are on your way to a refund and it is only a matter of time before you reach that resolution.

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.