Hi, sorry for the long post but any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Took delivery of an ASUS AIO on Monday evening, set it up Tuesday and thought it sounded a little quiet, but didn't have time to investigate fully until Thursday evening. With all settings on maximum the sound is fine, so for e.g. watching a you tube video I have to have it turned to full volume for a decent sound. Compared to my previous AIO, this is much quieter and of course doesn't give any leeway to turn something up to listen to something at a loud volume. I know that AIO speakers aren't great and don't expect great sound quality, but equally given it cost £730 and none of the reviews mentioned anything about quiet sound I thought there might be something wrong. I downloaded a decibel app and whilst I'm not sure of its accuracy, it consistently gave significantly lower readings for the ASUS when compared to my previous AIO and even my work netbook, where I can't even see the speaker. I called ASUS thinking they might help me check settings or might suggest updating drivers etc, but they were of no help and just brushed me off, saying different computers have different sound levels and wouldn't discuss it any further. I called John Lewis who said that despite being within the 30 days, they couldn't guarantee a refund as it had been opened and used, but they could check for a fault. They asked me to take it to a John Lewis store, which is over an hour and a half drive and longer on public transport and then said they'd send a courier, but they couldn't give a time. I need to save my annual leave days so offered to drop it the courier. The one they wanted it taking to was further away than the John Lewis store! I have now had to book a day off and they have sent me an email with a repair receipt attached.
In the meantime the speakers have buzzed a couple of times, but are now ok. However, the lowish volume remains. I asked what would happen if they couldn't find a fault and she said I wouldn't get a refund. I then said that it wasn't fit for purpose even if there was no fault as I should reasonably be able to expect to listen to things at a louder volume than the computer allowed for, but she just kept talking about a fault. ideally, they'll find a fault and will refund me, but I think they're going to try and repair it and send it back, which I don't want on as 5 day old item. If they can't find a fault I don't know what will happened as she insisted because I had used it, it wasn't refundable. Is this right? I've looked at the Consumer Rights Act 2015, but have managed to confuse myself.