pcworld damaged my tv beyond repair

[rangiemad]

Hope this is the right forum, Long story short, Bought £2699.00 tv 31/07/14, mounted on wall, all good. After a few months, started to wonder if there was something wrong with picture, but couldn't put finger on it, and just thought down to broadcast differences. after 9 months started watching game of thrones through night as 18yr old cat was becoming ill, and started to notice slight degradation of darks and some faint light bleed at corner of screen, but again put down to broadcast, not UHD tv. Cat passed away, leaving us devastated (no kids so surrogate daughter), couldn't watch GOT's due to memories of her, and didn't watch much tv at all for months. Then, July this year, I was rushed to hospital with another bout of pulmonary embolism's and pneumonia, so ended up at home resting, with tv as comfort and watching all the time.
By now, left hand of screen purple, bad light bleed, massive pixellation to darks. Sent for repair under pcworld 5 year warranty, (tv in immaculate condition at this point), spoke to dust services to find out whats what, explained replaced main board, power board and main board in one connect box (external processor which is part of tv), but engineer noted scratches all over tv. I stopped him there, (having taken 30+ photos with canon eos6d and Lseries lens) explained this, he said would be resolved as their fault, so waited additional 10 days for return, when came back, scratches all over back, sides and one connect box.
I refused to accept it and they had to take it straight back, delivery driver threatened if I didn't accept it and ring in another repair it would go missing or get more damaged, but I held my ground, and he took it back.
After it "disappeared" for a week, they finally said they were replacing x-y and z, they only replaced x-y, and y was damaged even further, (photo's taken of all damage at each stage) at this point I accepted the tv back, but wrote on the paperwork I did not accept the repair due to further damage. Now when the tv is on, the original problem is even worse and I do not think they have replaced any parts at all.
I know all the sale of goods act stuff etc and procedures to TS, Section 75 blah-blah, but can not find anything anywhere about what to do when the repairer has damaged the tv now beyond repair (due to the nature of the scratches etc) and the fault is even worse.
Also, £2300 paid on credit card, rest cash, under 75 would that cover me for the whole amount or only the amount paid by card.
I have no probs in contesting the problem was inherent from new, due to it's slow appearance with use, but as they have damaged it so badly whilst in their care, how would you recommend I proceed?
Any help most gladly received.

[rangiemad]

Re: pcworld damaged my tv beyond repair

Hi R0b,

Sorry it has been such a long time, but still on with this one!

Aqua have delayed constantly and not done anything about the section 75 claim and PC world have now said it has been too long since the damage was done so they are refusing to deal with the complaint anymore.

Just to add more complications, due to the length of dispute with aqua and compound interest they have been piling onto the account, she has now been threatened with default if card isn't settled in full and refusing to discuss the section 75. Cut a long story short, due to the timings of payments, inactions, lost work hours etc, she has not been able to pay their minimum payments and has now been passed onto Moorhouse collections, and threatened with default this week if the amount is not settled in full immediately, which we cannot do.

I know PC world are in breech of contract, so not bothered about that, can deal with, but really not sure what to do about the lack of acknowledgement of section 75 claim against Aqua, the fact they want payment in full, but when I mistakenly overpaid her card early last year, it took 3 months for them to refund it, after suspending the account saying they were not a clearing bank, so couldn't be in credit on the account.

That would mean that if she was able to pay in full, they would not be able to refund her card the section 75 anyway, as they say the card can't ne in credit.

Please advise as soon as you can(any further info needed given as quick as I can) to attempt to stop them defaulting the account.
Kindest regards
Rangiemad.

[rangiemad]

Re: pcworld damaged my tv beyond repair

Hi ellegonzalez,
thanks for the post, but the TV was purchased before the 2015 legislation, so not applicable as I understand it as I didn't think legislation was retrospective?

[ellegonzalez]

Re: pcworld damaged my tv beyond repair

The particular law here is, of course, the Consumer Rights Act 2015. The repair service is governed by Chapter 4 of Part 1.

[rangiemad]

Re: pcworld damaged my tv beyond repair

Hi,

Is anybody able to advise on the last post, as time is disappearing quickly on this matter.

Thanks

[rangiemad]

Re: pcworld damaged my tv beyond repair

Hi,
After way over the 8 weeks for the card provider to respond to section 75, Aqua has sent no communication whatsoever.

I am unsure if to continue to FOS, as if they rule against, can I still raise a county court claim against PC World, and given the circumstances of PCWorld failing to repair it and damaging it on multiple occasions, are there any precedents on how many times I should allow them to attempt repair, bearing in mind the cost of my loss of earnings each time I have to take the day off to wait in (each time is 2 days, once to collect and once to deliver, being self employed I don't get holiday pay!).

Can anybody see anything in the claim I am making which would cause the ombudsman to rule against, or should I just bite the bullet and serve a county court summons and go dow that a route.

Also, are there any rules for how to return the product to when they should refund at all, I don't want to be in the situation where they have the items, but fail to pay up, after all, they wouldn't let me walk out of the store with a new tv and me tell them I'll pay at some time in the future, when I could be bothered.

Thanks.

[Spellkaster]

Re: pcworld damaged my tv beyond repair

I would advise NOT going down the road of the Financial Ombudsman.

I have been with them on 2 separate occassions and both adjudicators sided against me.

Unfortunately the Financial Ombudsman is NOT for the consumer.

There is another road you can go down on and that is if you have legal expenses on your home insurance, this can be used.

You should be able to claim on that maybe for accidental damage.

[rangiemad]

Re: pcworld damaged my tv beyond repair

attachments to previous

[rangiemad]

Re: pcworld damaged my tv beyond repair

Hi Rob,

After sending the letter before claim, waiting until the deadline, and after finding a freephone number to contact pcworld customer service after no response (no surprise there!) I finally spoke to some one after a 35 minute call (mostly on hold) and got a response which I have cut/paste/attached for you to see.

I have still lodged a section 75 claim against the card issuer, (after they ignored 3 emails for a claim form over 3 weeks!), and explained this to the pcworld rep I spoke with, but they are asking for the TV to be collected for them to assess, despite the photographic evidence, and I am assuming from their response they are wanting to exchange the TV with a re-conditioned/second hand unit due to their non specific response.

I have attached my immediate response to them which I hope isn't problematic to my cause, as I don't want them to take the TV away for reasons :- 1- they will have my property and will have the upper hand in negotiations, 2- they will cause yet more damage to the TV so if I end up at the end having to keep the TV, I don't want any more damage done to the TV than already.

I am assuming that this is now the negotiation stage as they have acknowledged the claim by responding, I understand that if it goes all the way to the ombudsman with section 75 it will take as long as 6 months or more to resolve,and Aqua, the card issuer insist that it goes to their adjudicator prior to the ombudsman, adding even longer to the mix!

Any advice at the moment or how best to negotiate?

Attachments coming as soon as I can restart this stupid macbook and find where it's put them!!!!!

Kindest regards

Nick

[R0b]

Re: pcworld damaged my tv beyond repair

Well it's nice to know that this forum does have plenty of property disputes involving building work so if you do stick around here it may be worth assisting on those when they crop up.

will await the response from PC World

[rangiemad]

Re: pcworld damaged my tv beyond repair

Thanks Rob,

Pedantic is good, as grammar and consistency is missing in most things nowadays which is very annoying on emails etc.

Will make the changes when get back this evening, print off and send to PC World.

Thanks ever so much for everyone's help/input, if you ever ned any advice on LandRovers (mechanically) or building work (help not getting ripped off) just let me know and I will be glad to assist in any way I can.

Will keep updated as things happen,

Kindest regards

Nick

[R0b]

Re: pcworld damaged my tv beyond repair

Much better, but being a bit pedantic I have a couple of more comments

1. Letter before Claim same font size as the rest and in bold.

2. Change "Costs claim as below" to "Damages and loss"

3.

I now give you 14 days from the date of this letter in which to respond, should I not hear from you in this time, I will commence legal proceedings against you without further notice.

Reworded in red

4. Change "Tv" to "TV". You've also capitalised Television and should be lower case unless you have defined it elsewhere. After television you could insert ("TV")

[rangiemad]

Re: pcworld damaged my tv beyond repair

Think this amendment should do?
please let me know if it's acceptable, or missed anything out.

Kindest regards

Nick

[rangiemad]

Re: pcworld damaged my tv beyond repair

Thank you Rob,

Will amend accordingly. Breech/breach due to annoying spell correction on macbook, but thank you for pointing this out as quite different meanings in the dictionary.

I'll send pics of the 3 worst parts, and 3 pics of the same before they collected it and will try to get the dates on them at the same time as proof, with others available should be required.

Sorry Ostell, I do agree with Rob re CRA, I only have basic legal knowledge but do believe the repair relates to a warranty purchased in 2014, and therefor the repair is part of that contract despite them being instructed in 2016. (but I do thank you for all your input as it is very appreciated and is being acted upon).

Kindest regards

Nick

[R0b]

Re: pcworld damaged my tv beyond repair

The fault of screen light bleed and separate discolouration was reported to yourselves on theXXXXXX and I was informed that the tv would be collected on the XXXXXXX, that I would begiven a 4 hour delivery slot and called 30 minutes before you were to collect

....

On delivery, I inspected the tv only to find more damage on the casing, including the new items youhad replaced, and refused to accept the repair, the delivery driver than reeled off a speech aboutnot accepting aggressive behaviour from the customer, even though I was only firmly rejecting hisdemands for me to accept the tv, but at no point being aggressive.

From the first paragraph to the last paragraph above should be condensed into 2-3 paragraphs. As Ostell has indicated you explain in more detail in your Witness Statement at a later stage. Just give the key facts and information they need to be aware of.

"breeched" is spelled as "breach"

After the paragraph for costs you should set out what documents you are seeking to rely on and enclose them. Again you don't need 400 photos of the same pictures at different angles. You could instead enclose a few of those photos and just indicate in the letter "various photographs of damage".

And head your letter as "Letter before claim" for clarity, otherwise the PC World might mistake it as a normal complaints letter and not act on it with haste.