britehouse

[squidgybumbu]

for nearly 2 years ive been paying for a laptop from britehouse,2 weeks ago i took it back as it would not turn on even though the battery was charged i was told it has to be sent back to acer as it needed a new hard drive and it will take upto 8 weeks.a friend had a similar problem with her laptop and on the 9th week she asked if it was back and was told they had not heard anything and gave her a credit note but she could not have a new laptop.i dont want this happening to me how long should it take to send back for new harddrive and back to the shop,8 weeks sounds to long as i still have to pay for it even though i havent got it and i cant borrow one unless i pay .

[BertiWooster]

I dont know the answer to your question , but i'm sure others will be along in due course to give an answer.

However what I would say is that Brighthouse charges extremely high APR rates , which is why allegedley they were kicked out of operating in France .

[Buenchico]

29.9% APR isn't a particularly high rate of interest, Berti. I've got a credit card which charges rather more than that (and the doorstep lender, Provident, currently charges 272.2% APR).

You've gone past the point (which normally only lasts for a very short while) where you would be entitled to a refund. You're now at the point where the vendor is obliged to repair or replace the laptop. You're entitled to state which of those two options you'd prefer but Brighthouse are entitled to reject your choice if it's not economically viable.

Replacing a hard drive in a desktop PC, and reloading Windows plus the relevant software, would take 'Joe Bloggs' only a few hours. 'Joe Bloggs' might take longer to do the job on a laptop, because of the problems associated with getting inside it, but the manufacturer should be able to tackle a laptop just as quickly as a desktop PC. If the repairer was to attempt to recover your data from the old drive, and to copy it to the new one, it might add an hour or two to the total time but a repair should still take well under a day. Even allowing for the time taken to get the laptop to and from Acer's repair centre, it's hard to see how a repair should take much longer than a week.

Brighthouse are obliged to minimise any inconvenience to you and to ensure that you're not out of pocket as a result of the fault. (If you had to pay for petrol or public transport costs to get the laptop back to Brighthouse and to collect it again, they should refund your expenses). Further, if they're able to provide you with a laptop on loan, they should do so without charge.

For further advice, contact Consumer Direct:
http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/contact

Chris