PC world

[tuxsheadache]

My friend's sister has a compaq v5115eu (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&product=1847283&) 80GB HDD, 512MB RAM, AMD Turion 64 Mobile Technology ML-32 ~1.8GHz. She sent it back for 12th may 2008 to fix the hinge on the screen and replace the keyboard.

She received it back on 27th June 2008 with a broken disc drive. It has power running to it, but seemed unable to access it from computer. She put up with it for quite a while because she needed her laptop to search for a job, and knew how long they kept it the last time.

She sent it back to them around 11th Mayish 2009 to sort out the disc drive. Pc World returned it stating that they have "replaced the motherboard and disc drive". She received it back today, and did a quick check. The disc drive appears to have the same scratches on that it had before it went and advised me it seemed a bit slower. After a quick dxdiag was done and sent over msn, it appears that she now has 382MB of RAM.

For this service she pays £200/year. She uses photoshop, firefox, windows live messenger and winamp, so needs all the RAM she can get, and realises when she has lost some. Is there any reason why the RAM would have dropped? The only logical explanation I can think is:
A: the ram is damaged, and only working on half capacity
B: they have replaced the 2x256MB with 1x256MB and 1x128MB, yet the manual states it can only take 256MB+

Any advise, queries, tips, thoughts regarding this situation? She is phoning them tomorrow regarding this, and has also sent an email to compaq which original serial number to see if she can have original specs of laptop.

[xpod]

My wife has a friend who has had similar nightmares with PCWorld.
She`s had problems with her crappy laptop from the day she bought it some 3 years ago now.
It started with a dodgy left click but by time it came back from PCW a couple of months later it then had a broken nic.She sent it back again only for it to be returned in the same condition,allegedly repaired.
She uses a wireless dongle & mouse when she does use the machine now but the best advice i was able to give her was stop paying the cash she gives PCW every month to keep it working.She`s probably paid more in monthly support charges now than she originally paid for the machine.

I also know of others who have taken their machines to so-called reputable experts only for them to discover later that they now had half the amount of ram that the machine originally came with.
It dosen`t leave much to the imagination.

EDIT:

She is phoning them tomorrow regarding this

I did that for the wifes friend funnily enough.I had believed my ISP`s tech support was as bad as it could ever possibly get on a phone.Then i called PCW.
Good luck to her.

[Vostrocity]

Sheesh that's a horrible computer in the first place, no point in paying for repairs on that. For less than 200 pounds, I believe you can get a netbook (which actually has better specs than that old thing) plus a nice-sized LCD (19"). And overall, laptops have improved in quality dramatically in the last couple of years.

[ajgreeny]

My wife has just bought a Compaq Presario CQ70-211EM from Curry's which is linked to PC World, with a 160 GB disk, 17in widescreen, wireless, 2 GB ram, Webcam, built in card reader, and it cost only £150 more than the annual cost of your friend's sister's support. Everything on the machine works brilliantly with Ubuntu 9.04; compiz, webcam, sound, graphics, wireless, they all seem to work out of the box, so perhaps worth just forgetting that machine and going for a newer one.

I think extended guarantees or support from such companies as PC World or Curry's are a waste of money, in any case, and would never waste my time with one of those, personally

[gn2]

What's costing £200/year?

[LowSky]

paying for services are not worth it. A new machine from dell whould be less than double that serives agrrement
http://www.dell.co.uk/home/laptops?~ck=mn

[tuxsheadache]

What's costing £200/year?

The service cover for the laptop, admittedly extortionate.

[speedwell68]

These service contracts are not worth the paper they are printed on. There is no point in them. My PC came from Comet and came with 2 years manufacturers warranty and yet they wanted to sell me cover that ran concurrently with my existing warranty?? I cost a little over 50% of the value of the PC, if the PC failed after the first two years it would be worth so little I'd just replace it anyway. As for the damage and negligence PC world have exacted towards you sister's laptop, I would seek the advice of the Citizens Advice Bureau and Trading Standards.

[LowSky]

Call them up threaten to cancel the service, or write a letter to the company president and watch as things get done correctly.

when all is said and done, cencel the service agreement and save the cash toward a new machine.

[gn2]

The service cover for the laptop, admittedly extortionate.

Outrageous.
Two years service at that price = a new laptop and change.

[stwschool]

PC World are bastards. A few years back they refused to replace a faulty camera (400 quid) I bought there. Me and some mates lurked outside with placards for a day and a bit. The police came on the first day, presumably requested by PC World. He was ever so helpful and informed us of how to make sure our protest was legal, so we made sure we weren't technically on private property (but close enough to be visible to PC World and any potential customers) and also to word our placards carefully (ie nothing defamatory, just "Ask us about PC world refunding faulty goods"). It was loads of fun, we brought plenty of food and drink to keep us going. 2nd day they saw us turn up and half an hour later they caved. THAT is how you get PC World to behave themselves.

[HappyFeet]

Awesome. =D> =D> =D>

[gn2]

Excellent story, the common sense of the good old British bobby ensures fair play and saves the day.

[stwschool]

Excellent story, the common sense of the good old British bobby ensures fair play and saves the day.
Yeah we weren't expecting that to be honest, we were expecting that he might give us some grief, but thankfully he was wonderfully helpful :)