Buyer beware (Maplin)

Member Name: dur_kid

Product:	Maplin
Date:	01/10/02 (348 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Local shops, Helpful staff

Disadvantages: customer service email good, prices are not that cheap, come back not much

After running the same PC for three years so so without any problem, it took a dicky fit one-day and the fan stopped working with the resultant overheating of the chip and freezing of the screen.

I decided to purchase a new one from the local Maplins, as I needed it running again as soon as possible, the staff were very helpful. After returning home it was fitted with no problem if a little tight, the machine was working again in no time at all, and she continued to work for around six weeks or so.

Then one day it started to freeze again so I had a look, the fan was hanging off the chip thus not cooling it with the resultant overheating. On further examination all was revealed one of the plastic clips on the Ziff socket seven had broken off rendering the machine unusable. I contacted Maplins customer service by e-mail and were very nice, they told me to take the parts into the local shop and they said they would send them to the workshop for investigation - sounds good. I removed the motherboard and fan and took them to the shop.

After a couple of weeks I received a phone call from the shop the workshop had asked for the receipt when I bought the fan, I keep all my receipts except this one so it would seem, as I hunted high and low to no avail. I decided to settle for cutting my losses as losing the receipt was indeed my fault. I called into the shop, collected my bits and left without a smile. After reading the ?engineers? report, which read, ?the fan in question had nothing to do with the motherboard socket breaking and is indicative of faulty fitting?. RUBBISH!
As a qualified PC engineer I have fitted hundreds of fans and never known this to happen.

Point one - There is no way a fan can be fitted wrong- there is only one way to fit them correctly as it is physically impossible to do otherwise.

Point two - In my opinion a tight, fitting fan and heat expansion caused the breakage.

Point three -
I have only seen physical damage happen when some totally inept person has for example put a screwdriver or other sharp object through the motherboard or chip, this has happened once to my knowledge, I know
the person personally you know who it is! Dave!

Point four - Even if I had found the receipt (my not being able to find it was a good excuse) and judgement had already been made as faulty fitting gave the scapegoat required to let the fish off the hook as it were, At this point an admission of possible fault would have been enough to satisfy my annoynence. What I do know is a perfectly good machine is an empty shell and all that remains is the burial.

Point five - The moral to this episode is always keep receipts and you stand a ten per cent chance of reimbursement as there?s always a first time for anything to go wrong even if you think it is impossible.

Summary: