Can't Get My Money Back!!!

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stearman65

stearman65

Bronze Level Poster
I bought a new PC Specialists Desktop PC, Monitor Keyboard & Mouse In late June 2019.
Around Christmas time I started to have problems where the PC wouldn't start up. Eventually after a number of tries over a few hours I got it to start up.
This happened a number of times over the next month so I rang PCS's support service. I spoke to one of their female operatives, she thought it could be the internal battery at fault. Having had that fault on a previous PC I had bought from them, I knew that wasn't the problem, so I ordered some return packaging from them intending to return it for repair.
The packaging arrived but I had managed to re-start the PC so decided to hang fire to see how things went.
The PC failed a couple of more times up to April 2020, but I managed to re-start it. Then towards the end of April 2020, it failed again & wouldn't re-start. I rang PCS'S support, had a 45 minute session with them where they asked me to carry out various diagnostic checks but still the PC wouldn't re-start. So it was decided to return it to them.
This was done & they kept it for some time, eventually, emailing me to say they had replaced the power supply & the PC was OK & they would return it to me.
The PC arrived & I connected it up, switched on & it failed to start, so I again rang PCS support. Had a further 45 minute session carrying out various checks, but it wouldn't re-start. It was decided to return it to them for a second time, this time supposedly for an emergency repair.
Two weeks went by & I had heard nothing so I emailed them. They replied, say I was fourth in the queue & it would be dealt with soon. I complained it was supposed to be an emergency repair.
a week later I re-contacted them, they replied that they had carried out various tests but couldn't find a fault. I replied saying I wouldn't have sent it back it there hadn't been a fault.
They replied they could keep it on test for longer if I wanted, I replied saying they had had it long enough & to send it back if they were sure it was fixed.
The PC arrived back late last week, I switched it on, & it failed to start. I again rang PCS to complain, They again tried to diagnose the fault over the phone & couldn't. I told them I had lost faith in them & their product & wanted a refund. They agreed & arranged to return the PC to them.
They acknowledged the PC had reached them & would process a re-fund. In the meantime I was having to use my laptop as an emergency computer.

Since then I have sent 4 weekly emails asking where my refund was as I needed to purchase a replacement, they replied saying "it could take up to 14 days for refund agent to complete there investigations, once they have all the information they will be in contact with yourself to discuss the refund further." (their text copied word for word).
I replied that they had 3 days to issue the refund or I would contact my credit card company.
Since then I contacted my credit card company (RBS Mastercard, they advise it could take up to 45 days to process the charge back due to Covid19.)
As I needed the refund to buy a replacement PC I decided to raise a summons against PCS through the government money claims online in an effort to get my refund quicker.
 
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ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
stearman65 said:
Since then I have sent 4 weekly emails asking where my refund was as I needed to purchase a replacement, they replied saying "it could take up to 14 days for refund agent to complete there investigations, once they have all the information they will be in contact with yourself to discuss the refund further." (their text copied word for word).
I replied that they had 3 days to issue the refund or I would contact my credit card company.
Since then I contacted my credit card company (RBS Mastercard, they advise it could take up to 45 days to process the charge back due to Covid19.)
As I needed the refund to buy a replacement PC I decided to raise a summons against PCS through the government money claims online in an effort to get my refund quicker.
Click to expand...
Do you know whether PCS have processed the refund yet? I'm reading your comment that 'RBS Mastercard, they advise it could take up to 45 days to process the charge back due to Covid19', so I would think it important to establish where the delay is and whether PCS have not issued the refund or whether the credit card company has not credited you yet?
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Nursemorph said:
From the way it was written, it reads that the OP looked into doing a charge-back via the CC company but, because it could take up to 45 days, they decided to go with the government thingywhatsit.
Click to expand...
Suggesting that PCS have not yet issued the refund? That's not good even in these difficult times.

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ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Nursemorph said:
That was my understanding...because PCS had not sorted the refund, the OP looked into the CC charge-back but, because it could take so long, they went with the Government thing instead (no clue what that government thing is or how it would be any quicker?)
Click to expand...
Kudos to SpyderTracks for escalating it then.

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stearman65

stearman65

Bronze Level Poster
Still getting delaying letters from PCS, this arrived this morning.
(Good Afternoon XXX
Thank you for contacting PC Specialist.
Due to the nature of your email, I have passed the information across to our Customer Care Manager for him to review and respond to your email.
He is going to look into this and contact you shortly, in the meantime I would kindly ask for your patience and should you have any other concerns you would like to address please let me know.)
Can't see their point in doing this, what they owe me has gone up by £70 by going to the Government scheme. If this carries on I will claim a further amount on top of that for stress.
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
stearman65 said:
Still getting delaying letters from PCS, this arrived this morning.
(Good Afternoon XXX
Thank you for contacting PC Specialist.
Due to the nature of your email, I have passed the information across to our Customer Care Manager for him to review and respond to your email.
He is going to look into this and contact you shortly, in the meantime I would kindly ask for your patience and should you have any other concerns you would like to address please let me know.)
Can't see their point in doing this, what they owe me has gone up by £70 by going to the Government scheme. If this carries on I will claim a further amount on top of that for stress.
Click to expand...
Can I ask who that was from?
 
moosEh

moosEh

Administrator
Staff member
Moderator
stearman65 said:
I bought a new PC Specialists Desktop PC, Monitor Keyboard & Mouse In late June 2019.
Around Christmas time I started to have problems where the PC wouldn't start up. Eventually after a number of tries over a few hours I got it to start up....
............................
............................
....I replied that they had 3 days to issue the refund or I would contact my credit card company.
Since then I contacted my credit card company (RBS Mastercard, they advise it could take up to 45 days to process the charge back due to Covid19.)
As I needed the refund to buy a replacement PC I decided to raise a summons against PCS through the government money claims online in an effort to get my refund quicker.
Click to expand...

Hello @stearman65

First of all, my apologies for the issues you have had with your system and the issues with the refund request. I can see from this chain that this matter has caused you undue stress so I apologise again for this, as it is never PC Specialist's aim to cause this.

As Chris has mentioned, the matter has been referred to the Customer Care Management team and they should be responding to you shortly.
Sadly due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic the Customer Care team and Customer Care Management team are currently working remotely, so I cannot go to speak to them for an update. However I have personally contacted them to see if we can get traction on this or if I can get an ETA for this matter to be closed.
 
W

WhiskyMac

Bronze Level Poster
Hi, I appreciate like any of us would do that this is very stressful but things at moment are taking longer than expected and i think would be a good thing if we could try as much as possible to give businesses some benefit of the doubt whilst they try their best to navigate this situation. However there are a number of questions with your claim which i think is important to check given you have made a number of claims on here.

Do you have actual physical documentation of them stating they will refund you? As you seem to indicate the emails suggests they are just investigating a refund at present.

Given you had the PC for 7 odd months before contacting them in the first instance about a fault then this would normally be a Warranty issue and it seems they believe they have managed to repair the problem - hence some communication breakdown in what they are finding and yourself. A full refund rather than replacing the parts for something which you have had for almost 7 months before finding any problem would be unusual (and I think we should recognise would not be offered by any big brand name).

As such on the face of it you will have a real struggle to win the claim through the mediator/CCJ from the government MCOL unless you have a recording or statement that they agree to honour a refund without restriction, given they are within their T&Cs - or you would need to prove the fault was not the result of wear n tear etc, and existed when purchased (challenging when it operated fine for 6 months, and 7 before communicating the issue to them).

Whilst you may be able to claim your court fee if you win, you cannot claim as well for stress as you put so I would also be wary of making such claims to PCS - it is likely just antagonise the situation with any staff member when what you both undoubtedly want is to resolve this issue. In any regard the action could take well over a month to be resolved if PCS return an acknowlegdement of the service to the court.

When you say chargeback - do you actually mean chargeback or do you mean a Section 75? The distinction is important. Having purchased the computer last June then you are in fact time barred from chargeback as its passed the 120 days from delivery mark so RBS is giving you bad advice if they have suggested you could make the claim. I think what you might be suggesting is a Section 75 for faulty goods (assuming you paid with a credit card rather than debit card). If this is the case, given the length of time until the fault developed then you would most likely be asked for an independent report that verifies there was a fault existent when you purchased the computer (not one that somehow developed subsequently through wear n tear / misuse etc) before you can make the claim so you would need to get the PC returned to you first.

I think it might help if you get some personal guidance from citizens advice (where i have some background) as the situation from what is written above does not seem 100% clear cut due to the time horizons involved - ultimately I'm sure PCS want to resolve your issue but they do remain a business at the end of the day and so being as patient and civil with them as you can will go a long way into resolving your issue as quickly as possible.
 
stearman65

stearman65

Bronze Level Poster
I have copies of every email exchanged between myself & PCS. Two of them state refund from PCS. As the matter may end up with a court decision, that's all I have to say on the matter. Charge back was not from RBS Mastercard, it was my thoughts from reading various articles on similar situations.
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
stearman65 said:
I have copies of every email exchanged between myself & PCS. Two of them state refund from PCS. As the matter may end up with a court decision, that's all I have to say on the matter. Charge back was not from RBS Mastercard, it was my thoughts from reading various articles on similar situations.
Click to expand...
We've now had a response from a PCS employee (moosEh) and you're talking about court action, so I think we should leave this here.

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