… they’re written on?

Bought a 550 Chromebook yesterday for the missus after the product manager said the warranty enables you get it swapped in-store if you have any problems etc. Turns out this applies only to sub-£150 items according to the guy processing the payment. In fact, the only real benefit is you might get a swap after 21 days of the machine being sent to manuf! Not impressed. Was already running massively late, SM jnr was playing up and the missus had had enough = carried on with the purchase but decided to leave it unopened with a view to returning/cancelling.

Putting aside the product manager’s inaccurate spin, can anyone comment on PCW warranties in general? Still sh1t? I know it’s technically not the end of the world if the device goes away with a fault because all docs are available online (via another machine) anyway, but it’s the faffing I can’t be ar5sed with. The missus is the one whose going to use it – partly at home and partly out n about, so she’s the one who’ll be pi55ed off.

Can’t see any other suppliers offering a better deal either.

Ta

Extended warranties on electrical items are, 99.9% of the time, an utter waste of money. There’s nothing that will go wrong on that item that you can’t repair yourself or pay someone (Independent) to do it for you for less than that warranty price. Computers, in their construction, are very simple items to take apart and plug new bits into. I absolutely guarantee anyone that can use a screwdriver can replace the keyboard on a laptop, for instance, which is their most common fault. Just get your £150 back, at least.

The warranty is something like £5/month + it can be cancelled at any time. No hefty up front fee or long term commitment. My main concern with the 550 is that there’s a known issue that causes the device to stop charging. Product manager said he didn’t know this so I got him to Google it. Hence why I said I’d only consider buying if I knew I’d get an immediate swap if this or some other fault appeared.

Did you get a deal on the 550 chromebook ? The latest version is much cheaper RRP and pretty much the same performance.

I’ve always taken the view (rightly or wrongly), that if things are going to fail due to a manufacturing or design fault then they will in the first year and so I rarely take extended warranties.
I do however choose to buy computer stuff from John Lewis which has the extra free year warranty and generally good customer service too.

Whilst I agree with some of what PP says, being able to replace something is only half the battle. Being able to source reliable parts at an affordable price is important too. Ebay has helped with this, but it can still be a lottery with some sellers.

Did you get a deal on the 550 chromebook ? The latest version is much cheaper RRP and pretty much the same performance.

Paid £300 for this one.

Nice piece of kit and ideal for what the missus wants to use it for.

Unfortunately John Lewis only have the lesser spec model otherwise I’d probably have bought it from them.

Extended warranties are a licence to print free money for retail chains. Definitely cancel it, tell them you felt pressured into it and don’t want it, get back what you’ve already paid. If you’re that worried about known faults, take that back too and get something else.

Bear in mind, you get a two year warranty under EU law. After two years, when the warranty runs out, you will have already paid £110, a third of the price of the laptop, for absolutely nothing.

Arguably, after two years, if it’s irreparably damaged, you’ll probably want to buy something better for half the price anyway.

My main concern with the 550 is that there’s a known issue that causes the device to stop charging.

And you still bought it 😯

I know it’s technically not the end of the world if the device goes away with a fault because all docs are available online (via another machine) anyway, but it’s the faffing I can’t be ar5sed with.

Under SOGA they are legally bound to rectify any faults “within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience” to yourself. If it’s going to be sent off for a month, would you argue that’s a “significant inconvenience?”

The battery fault is not exactly common, but it is out there. There are loads of devices out there with known faults – just look at the number of people who buy X Y Z phone even though loads of people complain about it. If you get a good one then great, if you don’t then you expect decent customer service.

Not really much else to choose from bearing in mind the missus really only wants something light/portable to 1) surf and 2) write lots and lots *. Budget of say £300. Maybe a couple of netbooks or a Lenovo x120e but not much else.

* hence why tablets are not an option.

Dont get me started about PC World
I would not buy another single thing from them.
Bought an expensive laptop and from new it was fauulty but took 3 months and 3 times off for repair before I got a replacement.
Then only after threats of trading standards and item not suitable for purpose.

If it’s going to be sent off for a month

Well, their standard warranty states any such device can be sent away for up to 56 days 😯 The warranty reduces this to 28 with the possibility of the device being swapped after 21.

I don’t think PCW are the sort to give a to55 about any of that because they’re just a box shifter.

the missus really only wants something light/portable to 1) surf and 2) write lots and lots

Nothing wrong with this one then?

http://www.johnlewis.com/samsung-chromebook-wifi-xe303c12-a01-exynos-5250-1-7ghz-wi-fi-11-6-inch-display-silver/p231740130

We all get taken in by the best spec for price issue, but sometimes its worth thinking about the other considerations.

I had issues with PC World years ago and vowed never to use them again.

Well, their standard warranty states any such device can be sent away for up to 56 days The warranty reduces this to 28 with the possibility of the device being swapped after 21.

Sounds like a good way of selling warranties.

Also, a week is “up to” 56 days.

Also had a very poor experience recently with PC World regarding a software issue on a Vaio. Suffice to say the manager was an arse, I have cancelled the ‘care’ and managed to fix the problem myself. Apparently they couldn’t do it in store and needed to send it back to Sony. I won’t use them again.

How long have suppliers been responsible for software issues?

PCW refurbished laptop, faulty battery which they were unable to replace as I had installed Linux on the laptop according to “thetechguys”.

Extended warranties are a licence to print free money for retail chains

I’d say they are a way of discounting the ticket price of the goods and letting those who are ill-informed/gullible/bad at maths pick up the rest of the cost.

Most warranties I’ve had pushed at me worked out at the same price as the original item over three years. That means that for it to be worth while you’d have to have a good chance of it failing more than once within three years. If it’s that unreliable I don’t want it.

Put the money in a savings account if you want, then when you almost certainly don’t need it you can spend it on bike stuff or something.

I was having issues as soon as I took the machine home – this was a Vaio software issue, not a 3rd party program etc. PC World didn’t seem to care, and fobbed me off with having to send it off for 2 weeks which as it’s my work machine for an internet based business was a serious issue for me. I dug around online and managed to fix it myself, IMO they didn’t have a clue what they were doing, and weren’t particularly helpful either.

You have a manufacturers warranty of 1 year anyway. You have an extended warranty for whatever you pay for.

Neither of these will get you a replacement. They will get you a repair.

I used to work for them (not in store).

I dug around online and managed to fix it myself, IMO they didn’t have a clue what they were doing, and weren’t particularly helpful either.

The former is always the best policy, for the latter reason.

There’s tons of information out there, and despite the effort you might have to put in it’s always much better than having to rely on fixers.

BTW, seen as I’m bored. A few years ago – 1999 to be precise- the company I worked for decided to issue us with laptops. As i’d been testing this tiny little Toshiba thing I kept it, but needed a bag to carry the external FDD, CD dive and cables. Off to PC World with an agreement as to what the budget was. Picked the bag, tried to pay, no, they needed it in writing because i might have been authorised to spend £20 on games but was sneakily spending on a cheap laptop bag instead. So, back to the office to get a written statement as to what I was allowed to spend the money on and how much. Back to PCW, looking for the case i’d seen earlier and on of their sales muppets people asked if they could help. Why yes, I replied I was looking fora laptop case and this one here looks like it might do. However, it’s 1999 and we have to ensure all our IT equipment is Y2K compliant (remember that?), and, as this laptop case is indisputably IT equipment, I need to see the Y2K statement of compliance. She looked a bit blank so I explained that all IT retailers had to have a list of which products had a statement of comformance proving they were Y2K ready and that it was the store manager’s responsibility to keep a list. So off she went to get a senior sales muppet, repeat conversation, then the two of them went off to find the manager to try and find out if my laptop case would unravel at midnight on 31/12/99. I paid and left before they got back but never really trusted anything a PCW employee said after that