Are they right?

[dusty_bugs]

Hi guys,
Got a bit of a question - not sure this is the right forum.. but it's more about business ethics than the computer itself.

I got a custom gaming PC from a very good company ( I still think so anyway). 5 months later it had a problem - PSU was bust, I sent it in, they found no problem, sent it back. It worked for another month then bust for good. Sent it back in and they fixed it on the warranty.

I can completely appreciate their disagreement on the issue from a business perspective, but are they right in telling me I have no grounds to request re-imbursement for the shipping and labor costs when they didn't find the problem the first time around?
I honestly had no way of turning it on, and thanks to the warranty sticker on the back I had no way of looking at the problem myself. I had no choice but to send it to them. Despite the fact the PC behaved differently for them the fault was still existent even if their stress tests didn't trigger it.

Any thoughts? If you tell me they are right I will be disappointed but will understand why.

Cheers guys

 

[superman22x]

You probably won't get the shipping costs. That's probably somewhere in the fine print of the warranty. Companies will always try and avoid replacing the part if they can. Would it be ethically correct for them to reimburse you? Yes. Would it be legally required? No.

 

[MMM]

Unfortunately Post and Handling is usually the responsibility of the customer.
Some companies can be generous by paying for costs of postage.
Generally the big retail stores will not charge you for this.

 

[dusty_bugs]

Thanks for that.. they are replacing the part now but I have the feeling it might not be another 5 months before all this happens again. My PSU is a 650 corsair and the rest of the rig is mid to top spec. My friend suggested I shouldnt be using anything less than 850.. The company said a 550 will be easily sufficient. Of course no -one else can say unless I posted the rest of the stats.

Just hope this doesnt happen again!

Cheers for your help!

---------- Post added at 01:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:20 PM ----------

Unfortunately Post and Handling is usually the responsibility of the customer.
Some companies can be generous by paying for costs of postage.
Generally the big retail stores will not charge you for this.

I think the company is a smaller one.. but still pretty well loved by the people who use them. The guys certainly know their liability rights though! They love to use that word! haha!

 

[iPwn]

You're going to see the Max Power Draw (usually) mid-way through the Windows loading screen. When you initially turn it on and it goes through POST, it doesn't power everything on at the same time at full draw. When Windows starts booting, loading drivers, starting services, that's typically where you see the what your system should run at. Now, this obviously is not correct for newer systems, as every resource might not be needed at max to launch Windows quickly. You could need a higher PSU, but I highly doubt the manufacturer would bulk produce a PC that would fail. That just costs them money in labor. You only the S&H charge, but they are paying people 10-30 (Euro/Dollars) to fix those things.
They are getting their information from the Parts manufacturers. You can google your parts and find how much power they require at max. It should be listed under the specs as "Max TDP". They may have two numbers listed on other parts (e.g. 45w/65w) which just represents the minimum running requirement and the maximum needed.

As for labor on the original request. Ask for a supervisor, explain the entire situation, be polite, do not threaten, beg, say how unhappy you are, just be honest about the facts. You sent it in when it wouldn't start, they sent it back saying it was okay. It failed again and they discovered the problem. It's not like you wanted to lose your new computer for a few days/weeks, pay shipping, just to give them something to do. The company can prove they found nothing wrong the first time. Therefore, they can prove they owe you nothing. Crappy, but that's how it goes with a large business.

 

[MMM]

The company can prove they found nothing wrong the first time. Therefore, they can prove they owe you nothing. Crappy, but that's how it goes with a large business.

Quite a few years back I had a scanner that was faulty, I sent it back to the retail store where purchased and they passed it on to the manufacturer for repair or replacement...this came back supposedly repaired in which case I sent back with the original fault,The retail store IT person queried me about the fault as he did not want to send it back to the manufacturer....
I won the argument as I made the retail guy to open up the scanner and showed him the burnt circuit board which I secretly new about in the 1st place....I got a refund....
Do not assume manufacturers/companies/retailers do the right thing for customers....You would hope so.

 

[dusty_bugs]

Great feedback, thanks guys. My Pc is custom build - improvements on a kit they had designed for hardcore battlefield gamers. As for the company, I've spoken to them on several occasions.. They're really nice guys but are quite firm that they can't do more than replace the faulty part and only *if* they found a problem. Protect themselves quite well but I guess that's the pitfall of being a customer who lives on the other side of the country and who doesnt know a sausage about how a computer works. All I know is that the bugger wouldnt turn on. Full stop. Unless of course I shake the damn thing about to mimic the delivery apparently! ha ha.

I'll check out when I turn my PC on next what it says about power usage for various parts. It's unfortunature but Ican't look inside it if things go awry again because of the warranty sticker I have to slap on.

Anyway. It's back on Wednesday. Lets see how long it lasts!