Expert: Bobbert - 7/7/2010

Question
QUESTION: I bought a computer for my daughter off a local businessman that is in business for himself. He has a home business and does several local business's and the police dept and school. So i thought that he was reputable. We even called a local company here he did work for and they said he was great. However, I just bought my daughter a computer (desktop) for her college education and i paid 1000 dollars for it and its not working correctly. She has only had it for one week and she says the video card is not working right. Well, this man is really hard to get hold of and he finally got hold of him and he got really nasty with us...saying that computor was working fine when he gave it to us and now it seems like he wont work with us. My daughter lives 3 hours away at college and he wants me to go get the computer and take to him and he will look at for free. He did give us a two year warrenty on it though. He just got really nasty with us and said no one else had this problems and his computers are the best..so and so. I ask for a full refund and he said he doesnt give refunds. I signed a paper when i bought the computer that doesnt give refunds back. I dont know what to do.I should of went with dell.
I told him i was going to take him to small claims court and he said go ahead,, youll never win. He said he had two many references. I said just wanted money back and he said he wouldnt do that.

ANSWER: Well, unfortunately I can't really offer you legal advice - I can tell you that if you signed a contract waiving your right to a return, or a return after a given period, depending on your jurisdiction he probably is correct. I'm sorry to hear a horror story such as this, unfortunately this kind of issue is all too common in my experience.

What I can offer to do, ultimately, is help you fix the computer you've got. First, I'd need to know what exactly isn't working right about it - you mention an issue with the video card: can you elaborate on this? Is a specific application or game not working correctly, or is the overall video output distorted/incorrect? (Upload pictures if appropriate) Can you tell me anything about this machine's hardware, such as specifications and other components?

Generally, when I've encountered issues like this (something not working the way it should), it's usually a single hardware component that just needs to be replaced (and usually the price isn't too exorbitant) - you can order anything you'll need off the Internet from companies like Amazon or Computer Geeks and make the repairs yourself (and, as it seems that your warranty isn't going to be worth a whole lot I wouldn't worry too much about voiding it by doing your own repairs (really there's not a lot you can do to damage a computer by doing repairs yourself, as long as you take your time)).

Again, I do apologize for your bad experience - people really shouldn't conduct business like this - however there isn't much that I can do with respect to your business interactions. As I've said, I'm happy to help you get the machine working as it should (that's the easy part), I'll just need the few above questions answered and we can go from there.

-bob




---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you Bob for the quick reply. I will let you know more in about a week. I am going to my daughters to pick up the computer and take it to the man that I bought off of for repair. The computer totally stopped working.Unfortunatly I have to take it back to the man I bought it off of to take advantage of my warranty. I really have to bite my tongue. I do want to get back with you on the components he used. My daughter said she priced the same computer with same units at dell and it was around $400. We believe he really overcharged us. We asked for a high end computer with a good processor and a high end video card. My daughter said the processor is not even made anymore. I really don't know what to do about this. We never asked for specifics on the computer only a very good one with high graphic card and good processor. My daughter says we were scammed. I am taking this back to him and then getting repaired and then I will get back with you. thanks

Answer
Again, I'm not the person to be asking regarding legal advice - unfortunately it's been my experience that this kind of business practice is all too common among "self employed system builder" types - selling hardware at relatively (bluntly: ridiculously) high mark-ups and refusing to provide any quality post-sale service. As far as I understand(and again, realize I am not an attorney and this doesn't constitute any form of legal advice) this isn't actually illegal - it's just bad business (nothing says I can't take a Honda Civic and ask $250,000 for it - if someone wants to pay that much that's their own choice and assuming I actually deliver the car I'm not doing anything "wrong"). As far as fair pricing goes, if you can tell me about the components used in this machine, I can tell you roughly what similar machines should sell for, and roughly what your machine is able to do (just because Dell doesn't carry a given microprocessor doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad chip - processing demands in the last few years really haven't increased with hardware which means that in many cases even components that were state of the art in 2007 or 2008 are still more than suitable for software that is today considered state of the art - in other words the machine may be suitable for your daughter's needs in spite of being a bit dated).

My best advice, and let me qualify this by saying this is an opinion based on experience, is to just chalk this one up as a life lesson and move forward. Honestly I've never seen a situation like this turn out in the customer's favor, and this is generally why I don't support local businesses when it comes to computer/electronic repair or purchase. Again, as I said earlier, I am sorry to hear another horror story about a local businessman not doing things "properly" but there isn't likely a whole lot that can be done. One option you might have, assuming that the man will repair the machine to a working state (and if it's "totally stopped working" I've got some ideas as to why - I'm sure none of which you'd like to hear) you could try reselling it (very likely at a loss) and purchasing something you're more satisfied with (yes, I do realize this means more money).

If you do decide to purchase a new computer, I'd be happy to help you find something suitable, generally I suggest Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Apple (as they all generally produce a quality machine and will generally provide above average customer service post-sales).

-bob