The £50 Currys PC World laptop scam

On 27th of December last year, Father Christmas bought Tilly a laptop. The machine and all the necessary software cost us £510. It was bought from Currys PC World in Solihull.

Tilly was happy with it. She would disappear into her room for hours, sometimes days, pretending to do college work while looking at boy-bands on the internet. All was well with the world.

In the last week of March, the laptop malfunctioned. It refused to start up and Tilly described it as being 'in a constant loop'. So we leapt into the car and hurried back to PC World, safe in the knowledge that electronic goods are covered by a 12 month warranty. Phew.

However, when we explained our problem to the stone-faced dragon in the PC department, we were told that if it was a software issue then we would have to pay extra to have it repaired.
"Aha!" I replied, "You misunderstand! I bought the laptop from you, including the software, only three months ago!"
This didn't seem to impress the ice maiden behind the counter at all. She told me they would check the machine to establish whether it was a hardware or a software fault. They'd call us when they knew...

An hour later I received a call telling me that it was a software fault and that it would cost me a further £50 to have it repaired. Alarm bells started ringing...

I rushed back to the store and had a sit down with the manager Anand. He explained the situation with a metaphor: according to him, it was as if I'd bought a car from him. The car (the hardware) was fine, he explained, it was the oil (the software) that had caused the malfunction. "Aha" I exclaimed again, this time less hopefully. "I bought the oil from you!"
Sorry, sir?
"The oil! The software! I bought it from you just twelve short weeks ago! Fix the problem and I'll be on my way!"
Anand explained that he was happy to correct the software problem. For £50.

A few days later, I returned to the store for another brief meeting with Anand. He explained to me that they had looked into the problem further: they knew what was wrong with the software (that they had sold me) and they knew how to put it right. It was only going to take an hour or so. "Fantastic!" I cried, much relieved. "Let's have that done, and I'll be on my way!"
Certainly, Sir. That'll be £50.
"But it's the software you sold me! It's gone bendy, but you know how to fix it! Fix it!"
£50 please, Sir.
I quickly tired of this. Anand seemed the sort of chap who, once settled into a certain way of thinking, proved difficult to shape into new ways of going about things. I let him have a letter that I'd written. It detailed a bit of research I'd done: unless the store could prove that I had somehow damaged the software or caused it to malfunction, then the store was obliged to put things right. Anand tried to give me the letter back. I advised him to keep it and respond in writing. He refused to do this and instead gave me a customer service email address.

What followed was three weeks of emails, back and forth, between me and PC World customer services department. Then, eventually, on 26th April, a month after the machine had stopped working I finally got a reply from an decent human being who confirmed that if I called a certain telephone number then a technician would be able to put things right for me. And there would be no charge.
I called the number and sure enough, I got put through to a helpful young man called Jack. He listened to my tale of electronic woe and then proceeded to talk me through how to put the laptop right. He and I completed the procedure within about 60 seconds. "There you go," said Jack cheerfully. "I've just saved you fifty quid."

After a brief discussion with Jack and his manager Neil, it turns out that the stores are charging £50 to simply reset laptops, a procedure that takes seconds to start and only and hour or two for the machine to complete. I find this a very dishonest and underhand way of separating people from their money, especially since they've already parted with their cash in the store to buy the product in the first place!

Shame on you Currys PC World, shame on you.