Distance Selling Regulations for laptops with no OS?

[melon]

Should there be any problem returning an opened laptop if your not happy with it for any reason ? ( keyboard / look etc )

Also ( this is a tricky one ) what happens if theres no operating system and you have to install one to see how it runs ?

Thanks

m

[kalniel]

As long as you've taken reasonable care of the product you should be fine on the first point. On the second.. is it something you'd be able to do in the shop if you were buying in person? If it forms part of the assessment then should be fine.

Lots of nice guidance here [pdf]:
http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/bus...ral/oft698.pdf

[melon]

As long as you've taken reasonable care of the product you should be fine on the first point. On the second.. is it something you'd be able to do in the shop if you were buying in person? If it forms part of the assessment then should be fine.

Lots of nice guidance here [pdf]:
http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/bus...ral/oft698.pdf

What if its not in shop though ,but online ?

Also whats stopping someone hypothetically installing one and removing it anyway, is it possible to tell ?

m

[g8ina]

Unless the drive came with written 1s and 0s and you wiped it to same state then yes, you probably could.

[kalniel]

What if its not in shop though ,but online ?

The point of DSR is to give the consumer the opportunity to examine a purchase made at a distance (eg online) as if they were examining a product in the store before buying it.

Also whats stopping someone hypothetically installing one and removing it anyway, is it possible to tell ?

Yes it's possible to tell, but if performance with a given operating system is part of your purchase requirements then you should be fine to evaluate it, providing you don't damage the laptop by doing so.

[peterb]

What if its not in shop though ,but online ?

Also whats stopping someone hypothetically installing one and removing it anyway, is it possible to tell ?

m

It would certainly be possible to tell how long the hard drive had run, and how many times it had been powered up.

You might be able to disguise the fact that the drive was actually written to by imaging the virgin drive and then writing that image back to the drive on completion.

[kalniel]

You might be able to disguise the fact that the drive was actually written to by imaging the virgin drive and then writing that image back to the drive on completion.

Usage is logged in firmware.

[melon]

Alright, I might as well come clean , though I think your well aware what laptop Im talking about ( namely a certain asus mentioned in bargains )

I havent asked the seller about this - though Im sure he must be aware most folk are going to have to install an OS for them to analyze what their buying - unless their looking for spares or a new ornament.

m

[kalniel]

Well as far as I know, most people in shops tend not to performance test laptops, they just look at the specifications, shape, weight, colour, keyboard feel etc. Things like display brightness etc. can all be tested without installing an OS to the hard drive (linux on a USB for example).. however I don't see that installing an OS to the hard drive would not be acceptable as part of the evaluation either, provided it didn't damage the machine and you removed it after evaluation.

But there's not really any need to install an OS to evaluate is there? You know the specifications so you know what the performance level is. If it doesn't work or performs worse than the specifications suggest then you're covered under sale of goods act.

[Hicks12]

You managed to buy the asus in the end? If im honest DSR probably wouldnt work in your favour, ive never known anyone to go into a shop like pcworld and actually bench/test the performance of laptops they are setup to demo content/its specs and features and thats it, you can actually see if you like the display trackpad and keyboard is about it and thats what id expect DSR to cover you for.

Those are really the only parts of interest with the asus, if you dont like the look of it(personally think it looks smart, certainly competes with style/BQ of £500 + laptops) or feel of the keyboard (about average it doesnt excel but it could be alot worse) then send it back. I guess looking at the display could be important, found mine to be fine tbh its never going to rival my desktop setup but its certainly one of the better displays on a laptop ive seen in a while.

Performance is quite good on the laptop apart from the HDD and the trackpad is excellent . What dont you like about it if you dont mind me asking?

[Agent]

You can boot the OS from a pendrive / DVD without needing to install it. Couldn't ever see a shop refusing you to do that.

[melon]

You managed to buy the asus in the end? If im honest DSR probably wouldnt work in your favour, ive never known anyone to go into a shop like pcworld and actually bench/test the performance of laptops they are setup to demo content/its specs and features and thats it, you can actually see if you like the display trackpad and keyboard is about it and thats what id expect DSR to cover you for.

Those are really the only parts of interest with the asus, if you dont like the look of it(personally think it looks smart, certainly competes with style/BQ of £500 + laptops) or feel of the keyboard (about average it doesnt excel but it could be alot worse) then send it back. I guess looking at the display could be important, found mine to be fine tbh its never going to rival my desktop setup but its certainly one of the better displays on a laptop ive seen in a while.

Performance is quite good on the laptop apart from the HDD and the trackpad is excellent . What dont you like about it if you dont mind me asking?

Get back to you on that later once ive opened it.

One thing that bothers me , is they are supposed to be new - correct ?

So why are the seal tapes broken in ( there is cellotape onto - or at least on mine ) and why send it so unprotected other than its retail box ?

Its a fair point I think if your going to start getting down to it.

Charging camera..

more to follow later.

m

[chrestomanci]

You can boot the OS from a pendrive / DVD without needing to install it. Couldn't ever see a shop refusing you to do that.

I have done that before now with an Ubuntu CD. The shop assistant needed to get the store manager's approval, but other than that there was no problem.

I was also told that if I wanted to do a full install (wiping out windows), then I could do that as well if I came back mid week so that they would have time to re-image the machine with windows before the weekend peak time.

This was the Novatech store in Reading.

[melon]

So this is what I mean about the broken seal.

here and here

m

[Spank]

why send it so unprotected other than its retail box ?

It's a worrying trend, my cooler, from Scan was only in a bag (everything else was part of a big order so came with other items), Monitor & case from amazon just had delivery lables on them.

[chrestomanci]

It's a worrying trend, my cooler, from Scan was only in a bag (everything else was part of a big order so came with other items), Monitor & case from amazon just had delivery lables on them.

Sometimes it is sensible to send stuff in the original box, with just a fresh shipping label.

At work, I recently ordered a server. It was a massive 4U thing that weighed about 50kg. It arrived in a huge cardboad box with this way up arrows, so (with help) I carefully moved it from the warehouse to the server room making sure it stayed the correct way up.

We then unpacked the box, and found inside a second box, with the this way up arrows in a different direction, and a pallet attached to the bottom of the box. Needless to say I was not impressed. It would have been so much easier all round if the seller had just attached fresh shipping labels to the inner box and sent it on.