Feel so let down by a major store I trusted.

[Landladyissues]

In December last I thought the time had come to buy a new laptop. There is a major High Street Department store I trust, in Oxford Street. I have a shoulder impingement so can't carry, and am getting on a bit, added to which I don't know much about computers so I waited until my daughter could come with me to help choose. The ASUS laptop I chose wasn't in stock but needed to be picked up from my local associated supermarket. And I picked it up on January 2nd. My daughter set it up a few days later. It seemed fine. But I noticed that the hinge guard popped out if the screen was beyond a certain angle. In fact, when I looked at the laptop from the side, it looks as though the hinge isn't properly in line. I told daughter and she said it should be under warranty. I had a virus that hit me for 6 in February and I planned to take it back to Oxford Street hoping to exchange it, possibly for a sturdier model. But couldn't do this alone. Eventually, last week, after weekends of daughter not being available, I called the store and was told it was out of warranty - the warranty only lasted a month. I was kept an hour on the phone as the adviser kept asking me to hold as he spoke with his manager. As a 'concession' he agreed to take the laptop away for repair - but that I would have to save everything on it and he had no idea how long I'd be without a laptop. I spoke with some friends who know laptops and they said that they felt the laptop was sub-standard. But I can't really fight my corner and I can't last without a laptop. I complained but got nowhere. The laptop works so I suppose I'd just better live with it. But next time with electrical appliances, I'll use Curry's!!

Am my expectations unreasonable.

Sounds like it was second hand. What was the store?

I'd email the store's complaint department clearly outlining all the issues and threaten to report to Which or a consumer program.

Good luck.

I would contact customer services directly. I'm assuming you're talking about John Lewis and they normally offer a 2 year guarantee on electrical products which is why we usually buy ours there.
I would also leave a poor review on the product on the website as usually they also respond to these.
If you don't have any luck initially with customer services don't give up, follow up your call with an email. I've always found them to be good but have always dealt with customer services as opposed to the store direct. Good luck!

I’ve always found John Lewis to be helpful.

I think offering a free repair when the laptop is out of warranty is good customer service.

I KNEW this would be John Lewis!

Did you pay on credit card? You may have some protection if you did

I can't imagine even noticing if the hinge guard (whatever that is) was wonky, let alone going to the hassle of trying to get it fixed.

I suspect they’d have examined it and then replaced it with a new one. The wait would be annoying

Did they misunderstand at first and thought you were just returning it as unwanted (which is usually 28 days) not as a faulty product.

Eventually, last week, after weekends of daughter not being available, I called the store and was told it was out of warranty - the warranty only lasted a month.

That doesn't sound right.

But if they agree it's faulty I don't think they should leave you w/o while they send it off for repair - not if it's only a couple of months old.

I don't think OP has said that.

Department store on Oxford Street that has associated supermarkets......
🤔

It clearly is from the description. No need for her to be coy about it.

Which store are you referring to? Not much point in being vague.

There's only 2 department stores on Oxford Street now (not including m+s).
It is kinda obvious 😂

Pretty sure OP means Woolworths

A laptop ought to last longer than a month, never mind the warranty. Contact them again and say that the laptop is not fit for purpose and you want it replaced; mention your statutory rights. It might also help to leave a negative trustpilot review. Good luck.

If it’s John Lewis they have a two year guarantee on their ASUS laptops.

Is this John Lewis? There's no reason not to say so here, OP: it's not the BBC and describing your experience is not libel.

Ah OK - I don't know Oxford St that well.

Never buy a laptop at John Lewis. I did a few years back and it wouldn't connect to the internet. Took it back to the shop about three weeks later so still in warranty. They agreed it was faulty. Their guarantee that everyone thinks is great is a shocker. It states that they will repair it with a turn around time of six weeks and this is what I was offered. I went ballistic - how was I supposed to do without my work computer for six weeks (I'm freelance) - and refused to leave until I was given a refund. Manager was called down, massive argument, and about an hour later they gave me my money back. I thought that sort of thing was all in the past. Not so. A couple of years ago my Apple airpods stopped working. Took them to the Apple store who confirmed that they could not be repaired and gave me paperwork confirming this to take to JL. They woudn't accept it and as per their utterly shite warranty insisted on sending them away for repair. When I asked about the timescale I was told 'weeks' which is what it was. Weeks later they confirmed that they couldn't repair them but instead of being offered a brand new pair of airpods, their warranty states that a reconditioned replacement will be offered. Just terrible from start to finish. You have been warned!

There's just John Lewis and Selfridges now.
The rest have gone.

I also had a problem with the purchase of a new HP laptop from JL. Went wrong very quickly, well within their 2 year guarantee. Never managed to get them to fix that problem or funnily enough a hinge. I buy nothing from them by choice. Occasionally I take my mum or DC in. Staff on the shop floor are lovely, as always.

If it was a brand new laptop, the warranty should have been 2 years, surely? Nothing comes with a 1 month warranty! Contact them again and stand your ground. Tell them that the laptop must be fit for purpose under the Consumer Rights Act.

John Lewis customer service has gone massively downhill in the last 5 years or so. Used to give you peace of mind buying from them, but no longer. I bought a HP laptop from them last year, which I use for my freelance work. After several months, I noticed on MS Teams calls, the audio would keep cutting out and making a high-pitched buzzing sound intermittently. Then also noticed a shadow in one corner of the screen. WiFi connectivity was also poor.

Laptop had a 2 year warranty and I contacted JL about 9 months after purchase. Initially they kept asking whether I had done all the trouble-shooting steps, which were irrelevant as the laptop was clearly faulty. Eventually they agreed to take it in for repair but refused to refund. They said they would have it for up to 21 days. I explained that I need the laptop for my work and cannot earn if I cannot work. They weren’t interested.

So then I had to copy everything from my laptop onto a removable hard drive and wipe the laptop, which was a pain. I dropped the laptop into JL and thereafter there was no further update on the repair, despite repeated calls and emails to JL. Eventually, the laptop arrived back out of the blue 30 days later with a note explaining all the repairs they had carried out. They had pretty much replaced everything, including the motherboard! Surely it would have been better just to replace the laptop.

In the meantime I had had to buy a new laptop for my work, as I just couldn’t be without one for a whole month. So I now had a refurbished laptop I didn’t want or need. I sold it on EBay to recoup part of the costs. But the whole experience left a very bad taste in the mouth and JL have gone right down in my estimation, especially for high-price electricals.