Hi Techs.co.uk Laptop Repair Centre
Complaint 163191 Details

I bought a new laptop on 8th August 2012. While i was on holiday from 5th till 12th September it got damaged. My grandaughter had a small glass of water sitting on the bedside cabinet, she moved the quilt and knocked the glass over and it spilled onto laptop which wason floor at side of bed. My daughter paniced incase i would go mad and so she took it into Hi techs.co.uk Laptop Repair Centre to see if it could be repaired. The guy in there said he would give it a free diagnostic check and let her know what was wrong with it but that he could not fix anything that would mess up the warranty. When i got back she told me and i told her i didnt think the warranty would cover water damage but i had house insurance that would cover it. The guy from the shop then phoned and asked for £65 for a part he put in it.I went along to the shop and told the guy he had no right as he could have invalidated my warranty, not for the water, but any future things. I told him he had said it was a free diagnostic check and was suppose to phone my daughter to let her know just what was wrong. He began to shout at me i told him i was not paying for it and he had no right to open any part as he himself told my daughterabout warranty.He was raging and tried to grab the laptop and told me to come back in 20 mins for it(yet it had took him an hour to do what he done to it). I told him to do whatever he had to do on desk in front of me.He was very angry and showed me a small opening on bottom of laptop he said was memory ram, but he would not change it back in front of me. (i didnt think at this point that he had changed any part as my pal works in PC World and said as long as its only water it should dry out). He was very threatening and shouting again and had grabbed the laptop.I called the Police as the Police Station is just across the road from the shop.I wanted the Police to take note for insurance purposes that he had tampered with it. When police came he had already been in back shop with laptop. At first he had told me to come back in 20 mins, when i told him i was not leaving he then said 5 mins, then he walked into back shop and was out again in seconds.There were cameras in the shop but he could not show them to police, they would have shown him shouting and acting ina threatening way towards me but he told police only his boss could use camera. Police told him to give me a receipt saying exactly what he had done to laptop but again he said only boss could do that. Police asked him what he done and they wrote it down and gave me an incident number 1262 15th Sept 2012. He told Police its nothing to do with me from now on but policeman told him, yes it is if you have messed up warranty because of part u told us u took out. When i left shop i left with laptop and original part in it that had been water damaged. I went straight to another computer shop and told the guy exactly what had happened. He opened it right in front of us and took out the ram, right awayhe showedus it had been deliberately scratched all the way along with a screwdriver or similar object.The guy Chris in the Scotstoun shop then put in a new part and gave me the scratched part back. He told us too that water damage would have dryed out. We then went straight along to Partick,the guy just about fainted when he seen us.He was told exactly what we had found out,denied it at first but eventualy gave me the £65 for the part he damaged. Still claiming it was damaged when we took it in, we said yes water damaged,it was only 2 weeks old and the damage couldnt have been caused by accident as the back would havehad to be took off and ram scratched deliberately. Why would we do that.He had reason to do it as i was not paying him, as i did not think he had replaced any part to start with.He was just a conman wanting £65 for nothing, when he was found out he was angry and scratched it.I said to my daughter he must have known we would find out. My daughter thinks with all the talk of warranty he probably thought we would have sent it away and they would have fixed it no questions asked.So although i got my money back that i had paid for part he damaged i still dontknow if anything else goes wrong if my warranty will be affected.I am raging as Comet had to send away for this laptop as its a special edition and although i got it for £500 it would normally cost £700. How do i stand on this one. I would just like to let people know about this conman and how horrible he is. Ithink i only got my money back as my son was with me and the guy never shouted or threatened me then.His final words as we walked out of shop was, okay customers always right, yes i damaged it. It was said sarcasticaly of course but he still said it, and paid. Finished at last.