PC World - The Conclusion
Well the power of PC World - my adword didn’t last long, and even though I changed it and made no mention of PC World, there was no way Google was going to let me publish it - if we hadn’t been so busy I might simpy have created another adwords account with a different email address and credit card - maybe next time.
I had several further conversations with the numpties at customer service, who still insisted it was IMPOSSIBLE to resurrect my old/existing job number, and that I had to abide by their 7 day rule. So I contacted Trading Standards who simply stated that I had given them reasonable time to mend my computer and Under the Sale of Goods Act, I was entitled to a replacement and I should use one of their templated complaint letters and send it to their head of customer services …..
when, lo and behold, I received an email from their online customer complaints section, who I’d emailed the day before :-
Considering your machine is still within the first year of warranty, and the initial fault was not caused by accidental damage, the “6 week rule” does not apply. Instead, the “28 day rule” (a guarantee from PC World) is in force. Basically, this means that if repairs for a specific issue are ongoing for more than 28 days, the store of purchase will offer an instant replacement.
The difficulty in this case stems from the fact that the initial recovery problem was resolved after 26 days and thus marked as complete. The current difficulty concerning the wireless card is taken as a seperate problem, which is entitled to its own 28 days of treatment.
However, any 28-day-rule exchanges are at the store’s discretion, so it may be worth going back to speak to them directly. Everyone seems to have been caught up in the “6 week” view of things, when it is not even applicable in this circumstance. Considering you were technically two days outside of being able to claim a 28-day exchange it would only be in the interest of customer service for the store to consider this.
mmmmm - why have I paid £9.99/month for the last 11 months!!!
So, Dave trots off to our local PC World to see the manager, armed with a copy of my blog - and … Rob couldn’t have been nicer or more helpful, it was a pleasure dealing with him and his staff. We’ve returned the offending base unit, exchanged it for another one and they’re going to do their best to recover my data from the backup drive and load it onto the new one - result.
We’re picking up the unit next week - then I’ll be phoning customer support to ask why I wasn’t told about the existing Guarantee, that I really didn’t need PC Performance and I think I was sold it under false pretences ……….