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Go Harvey go – sort that laptop problem

A reader contacted us after having “serious problems” with Harvey Norman, the electrical and furniture chain.

In April 2009 she bought an Acer laptop, at a cost of €600 together with a two-year extended warranty from Harvey Norman in Castlebar. In December last, she bought some DVDs but nine out of 10 of them failed to play on her machine. She took the laptop and DVDs to her nearest Harvey Norman store in Dublin and they agreed the problem was with the laptop. In the middle of January, Lavelle left the computer with them and three weeks later was contacted requesting her permission to send it away and she agreed.

“Some time later it was returned to the store but it didn’t work properly. I was informed that the factory settings needed to be restored. This was done and I received a call informing me that my laptop was now working properly. When I went to collect it, armed with my DVDs, the machine didn’t play the DVDs. They decided to send it away again.”

She says she then made repeated phone calls to the store and was finally told there was nothing wrong with the laptop even though it still would not play the DVDs. In April, she was told that it was no longer the shop’s problem, she says.

She persisted and sent an e-mail to the consumer complaints department and the chief executive’s PA. She was contacted by the company again and was assured the issue would be resolved.

She was contacted by the shop again and told her problem was software related and it would be fixed that evening. Days later she called in to collect the repaired laptop. It was not fixed. She was told her DVDs were not compatible with the machine and was offered an external DVD player “that I could plug into my laptop at no extra cost to myself. I obviously declined.”

She was then offered a replacement, a Toshiba, and was also told her extended warranty was now null and void even though she had another year on it. She did not like the replacement laptop, nor the fact that it was priced at €449 and not the €599 she had paid. She was not pleased either that it had half the memory of the original.

“I was informed that it had been retailing at €639 but was reduced. I pointed out that the memory was half of the original and I was offered an external hard drive.” And that’s where it stands.

We contacted the company to find out more. A spokeswoman said that it had now offered her a Samsung laptop with a much higher spec, a higher price, more features and benefits.

“I realise that the issue has been ongoing for some time but we have always tried to work to find a solution that she will be happy with,” the spokeswoman said.

“She did demand a full refund from us. However, my own feeling is that a refund is not the ideal outcome for our customer here. She will still be without a working laptop and that will leave her back at square one and she will leave the store furious with Harvey Norman and will probably never shop with us again. That is not what I want. I am hoping that

she will look favourably on our offer of the higher-spec machine.”

Not the most cordial price for a drink

After a recent night out, Alan Nolan felt compelled to e-mail us. “I was in the Hairy Lemon pub in Dublin’s city centre with a friend who does not drink alcohol,” he writes.

He ordered a pint of lager and a blackcurrent cordial and water.

“Without thinking, I handed the barman €20. When served, I casually looked at my receipt to find that I was charged a whopping €7.50 for the two drinks. The beer was €5.50 (a shocking price in itself) but to my dismay the flavoured water was €2!”

When the barman returned with my change I showed him the receipt and told him that I thought this was a disgraceful cost for the water and asked why the cost was so high.”

Our reader was not happy with the response but as he had already paid for the drinks, could not get a refund.

“Myself and my friend quickly had our drink and left. I have no issue paying for my drinks whatsoever but I really think €2 for a pint of what is basically tap water and sugar is terribly excessive.”