Complaint Rating:

I think the attached letter to Acer explains in detail of my concerns, disappointment and frustration in dealing with a despicable company which really should be held to account for its shambolic customer service..surely the worst.

letter is as follows:

Sarita Banyard
Esplex Ltd
Unit M Eagle Road
Langage Business Park
Plympton
Plymouth
PL7 5JY

Dear Ms. Banyard

Without Prejudice

I am compelled to write to an official complain concerning my statutory rights over a laptop that I had purchased through PC World in 2004 for the sum of £800.00.

You certainly may be wondering as to the date of purchase and to the length of time this matter has dragged on…this has been a frustrating time for me, and farcical in your response to my query, bordering on negligence.

Briefly, I had purchased a laptop from PC world which was faulty from the outset. After many, many months of telephone calls, speaking to various staff members from the Technical Department and having my laptop couriered to and fro on 2 occasions, Acer admitted that the laptop was indeed faulty from the factory line… this after examination of the product itself. In the meantime I had also lost two days of lost wages due to the incompetence of City Link, your couriers not turning up on the days to pick up the laptop.

After I had threatened legal action, Acer agreed to replace my laptop for a new one, this in accordance with signing an agreement with Acer that I would not pursue an action and that I would waver the days lost out of work claim. I signed and returned the agreement and waited and waited and waited.

This item never arrived and I was forced to chase Acer once again, starting from scratch and forwarding a copy of the agreement letter etc., Acer, it appears, did not have much information regarding my case (more to the point they were making it difficult for me). . I managed to get a hold of Angela Foster & Melanie Knight who seemed at first kind enough to go through my details with me as it appeared that most of my details and calls records mysteriously disappeared.

To compound matters, and without my knowledge, the company couriered a 2nd hand model with lesser specs and from my guesstimate, a 3 year old model which must value at £200. I immediately emailed Angela for an explanation, only to be fobbed off with excuse after excuse and blank silences and what seemed like "cut and paste" responses from the company warranty which made neither sense nor relevance to my case whatsoever.

I feel comprehensively let down by the company, in the knowledge that for the £800, I have a 2nd hand item to show for it, an item which I cannot use even for its lower specs.

Under the sales good act Acer are duty bound by duty of care to provide and if, necessary, to replace the item for a like for like laptop and not 2nd hand item as you have done. This is merely accepting that after nearly two years of constant, and persistence resistance, you are merely stating to me that the £800 I had paid for my laptop was worth no more than £200. Furthermore, I can log many, many months of telephone calls and duplicitous actions of most of your staff concerning my case.

You reneged on the signed agreement and as a result, this after consulting the Office of Fair Trading and the Trading Standards, I will give you 7 days to either replace this 2nd item for a new laptop or return my original laptop (the 2nd item you have sent is a ramshackle item built of other parts)…failing these requests I will seek a county court judgement in which I shall enforce through the court that you pay for all legal costs and additional costs such as lost days from work.

Yours sincerely

Dipak