Tiny Computers (Shop)

...I bought a PC from Tiny Computers. They are now bankrupt but bought out by Time computers. Time have a similar reputation to that of the one Tiny was known by, but I have no personal experience of them, so cannot draw a conclusion fairly.

This op is more about knowing your rights and what to do when you buy a PC. Tiny are just my case in point.

The point of the op is two-fold; to warn potential computer buyers about ...
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Phoned Tiny a couple of days later. Got told I need to ring BT and ask them to increase the gain on my line. When I stopped laughing, I agreed to do it, to humour him (on account of the fact I'd been using the line for 5 years to connect to the net, with 2 computers and 3 modems but 0 problems). BT guy laughed too.

Rang back. "We're not sure it's a hardware issue, it may be third party software".
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What follows, is a shortened version of what happened to me, when I bought a PC from Tiny Computers. They are now bankrupt but bought out by Time computers. Time have a similar reputation to that of the one Tiny was known by, but I have no personal experience of them, so cannot draw a conclusion fairly.

This op is more about knowing your rights and what to do when you buy a PC. Tiny are just my case in point.

The point of the op is two-fold; to warn potential computer buyers about unethical practices in the industry, and to inform them a little about their rights, under The Sale of Goods Act.

Some sites to peruse, if you wish to get to know the rights you have, that some businesses will attempt to deny you;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/guides_to/goodsandservices/
http://www.jus.uio.no/lm/england.sale.of.goods.act.1979/doc.html
http://formby.wiganmbc.gov.uk/pub/ehcp/ts/consumer/soga.htm
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1994/Ukpga_19940035_en_1.htm

These are just a few sites that may be useful. Of particular interest, are any site which highlights the main ways in which companies try to get you to keep goods you’ve bought from them and what your rights are in the matter.

Goods must be;

 Fit for purpose. If you tell the sales assistant that your computer needs to be able to do something, and he tells you it is, then it absolutely must be able to.
 Undamaged and in good working order. If they tell you it has a fault, you cannot return it, but if they don’t, you can reject the machine.
 Complete, with everything agreed upon in place. If your modem is missing, or it has the wrong type of memory, you have a right to reject the machine.

When you want to return goods;

You can reject goods, within a “reasonable time”. For a PC it is reasonable to need between 2 and 4 weeks to ensure that the machine has no problems. However, the quicker you reject, the better.

You have to reject the goods in writing. Send a registered letter to the company manager, as well as the customer service department, etc.

Always be polite. No company will bend over backwards for a rude customer, and if you become rude enough to be offensive, and you have to take the case to court, you will not look good.

About a year ago, I decided that my trusty p2 233 was ready for retirement, but I didn’t have the money to buy a new one. I was walking by Tiny, and saw the 0% interest sign, and made some enquiries. Sadly, it was no good, as I was "between jobs", (I was hunting for my placement job – which incidentally at the time of writing I'm now a couple of months away from finishing). No problem, I'd wait. Later that day my mum offered to get it for me, since I'd be able to pay her back. Stupidly, I took her up on her generous offer and it goes thus:

We went into shop the next day, and we selected the machine I wanted, the options I wanted, and filled in the agreement. We left the shop happy (incidentally I secured my placement job the following day =P), and a week or so later my new machine was in the door. 20 minutes later, it was set up and ready to go. It was running like a dream, very fast and I'm majorly happy with it. I went online, to check email and surf about. There were no problems at all. I installed some software. Great, everything ran smoothly. Then I came to start installing a few games. One gave me a bluescreen of death half way through installing. Restarted. Tried again. Same problem again. Restarted. Tried another game. Blue screen. And so on and so forth, several (new) games caused bluescreens of death. 3 games worked.

Took a break, figured I'd go online for a bit. Modem didn’t work. At all. Funny noises came out of the modem, but no connecting.

After spending an hour or so, trying everything I could, I decided to use the system restore. Modem worked! WOOHOO! Shut down. Half an hour later I restarted. Did the modem work? Did it heck. Hmm, well I didn't actually install anything that time. System restore. Modem worked! Shutdown and restarted. Modem failed. I was able to replicate the problem dozens of times.

Phoned Tiny a couple of days later. Got told I need to ring BT and ask them to increase the gain on my line. When I stopped laughing, I agreed to do it, to humour him (on account of the fact I'd been using the line for 5 years to connect to the net, with 2 computers and 3 modems but 0 problems). BT guy laughed too.

Rang back. "We're not sure it's a hardware issue, it may be third party software".

How I managed to stop myself hitting the roof, is anybody's guess. I explained several times the circumstances around which the fault was occurring.

I also pointed out, that the blue screen of death problems were unacceptable, whether or not the software was 3rd party. I bought the machine for very specific reasons, and any machine that couldn't install and run the latest games, was not fit for the purposes I stated when I bought the PC.

I asked for an engineer to come out to see the machine. "We can get one to you next Wednesday".

5 days? I'd had enough. "Okay, I'm rejecting the machine. Please organise collection".

"Sorry, we can't do that, an engineer has to see the machine".

I reminded him to no avail, that I was legally entitled to reject the goods as it was only a couple of days since I received it. No avail.

I asked to speak to his supervisor. This was refused. Left my details, but he told me the supervisor would not call me.

Rang back, got the engineer appointment made (my mind was set though, I was rejecting this machine regardless of outcome). Person I spoke to agreed to get someone to me on Tuesday instead.

Told Tuesday morning. So I wait. And then I wait. And then some more. Phoned them at 1pm, and am told they forgot to book the engineer. New appointment! For the following Tuesday.

Tuesday comes, Tuesday goes. In between those two events, I rang (again at 1pm) and am told the engineer was too busy.

I'm not including my apoplexy around and over these set of events, so I can finish typing some time today. Suffice to say, I’m amazed I kept calm enough on the phone to not break my own advice of being polite at all times.

Told new appointment, for Thursday.

Thursday comes. Engineer calls. By phone. To tell me he can't make it.

On the phone to Tiny. For the umpteenth time, am told I cannot reject the goods till an engineer. He's going to come two days later.

Imagine the steam escaping from my ears if you will.

I then drafted an 8 page letter, detailing the whole debacle (including the surreptitious charges added to the contract like insurance, which had never been discussed - the salesman seemed quite sure though, that I'd agreed to it).

3 copies of the letter went off. One to Tiny customer services. One to the manager, and one to the finance company, all signalling my/our intentions to reject the goods, and seek a full refund (also that legally both companies were liable for the costs, so we could recover them from one or the other).

Rang tiny the next day, and they told me someone would call me. I got a call from the engineer saying he can't make it (ROFLMAO! Like I thought he would).

Got a call from another underling (but a nice, polite, helpful one - which was nice). Clearly she's been asked to try to get me to agree to a replacement. Nothing doing. Her supervisor agrees to let me return it (he was nice and polite too). My letter put the wind up them, because I was very detailed in which regulations they'd broken, from the Sale of Goods Act(s). That wasn't limited to stopping me from rejecting the machine, there was a lot more about "fit for purpose", and other ways they'd tried to stop me exercising my rights.

A courier was arranged for two days later, in the afternoon.

Anyone guess that he didn't turn up? Calls to Tiny, meant they arranged for the courier to pick it up when he finished work, and take it back overnight. He arrived at 5:30pm, with just a small car. One that's smaller than the 3 boxes of comp equipment it is supposed to carry.

It got picked up the next day.

No acknowledgement that it's arrived was forthcoming.

Rang Tiny, they could find no record of the return number.

Find it all eventually.

Was promised a written apology, a refund of postage costs for the registered letters.

Nothing ever arrived.

Called finance company, and lo and behold, Tiny have not given them info on the cancelled agreement. Took 6 more weeks for Tiny to get it to them.

By the time the money is refunded, they'd actually taken 3 months worth of payments.

ANYway, this is actually an abridged version of the whole debacle, there was even more to it, more lies, more attempts to stop me from returning the goods, and many more parts to the whole fiasco involving the return of monies paid.

So, in short, if you’re ever going to use a company in the mould of Tiny (there are a few about I’m sure you can think of), please do the following:

 Know your rights under the Sale of Goods Acts (original and amended).
 Know your Distance Selling Rights (don’t buy from the shop if you can get away with it, but online or by phone – you have extra rights).
 Read the contract for hidden charges very carefully.
 Be sure to explain to the salesman your needs very carefully, so you can be sure they know what purposes you need it for (so you can quote these in any rejection letter).
 Look into the “unfair terms in contracts act”, as a contract that tries to remove statutory rights, or has unfair clauses can be challenged.

Or you could do what I did instead. I researched the components, and built my own computer, 3 months later. I got better components, for the same price, and an in-depth knowledge of my machine. I’ve never looked back since.

Thanks for reading!

 

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