Do-it-yourself shortcuts
15 months ago, I bought a used Toshiba Satellite C50 laptop. It was loaded with so many superfluous programs that I could have taken my dog for a walk in the time it took to boot up (but that’s another story). I upgraded from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 at the end of March of this year and I have set it up so that it closely resembles Windows 7 when the laptop boots up. I come now to the real point of this letter, which was prompted by your article on shortcuts (Issue 477, page 58).
My laptop has an optical disc drive, which is a hassle to open manually. The button that you need to press is flush with the drawer and impossible to locate without tilting the laptop and looking directly at the drawer (which isn’t a good idea if you have a flash drive sticking out at the other end of the laptop). Even when I’ve successfully located it, it’s still fiddly to push. I am sure that you and many of your readers understand how frustrating bad design can be. I thought that there must be a shortcut that can open the drawer at the press of a key or keys, but couldn’t find anything.
It then occurred to me that it may be possible to create a shortcut of my own and this is what I did. I went into File Explorer and right-clicked my DVD Drive. From the menu, I selected ‘Create shortcut’ and one click later a CD Drive icon appeared on my desktop. All I have to do now is right-click this icon and select Open or Eject and the DVD drive pops open all by itself. Easy-peasy.
AAnna Lawrence
We believe Anna has a strong case and shouldn’t have to pay PC World or an independent technician for an examination of her laptop. The catalogue of faults in the 19 months she’s owned the laptop suggest there are serious problems with it, so we’ve contacted PC World about this.
This case is exactly why the new Consumer Rights Act (CRA) contains a clause saying retailers have only one chance at a repair, even if any subsequent faults are entirely unrelated to the first one. This is because ongoing repairs are deemed to be unfair to the consumer. If the initial fault isn’t fixed then the customer shouldn’t have to put up with shoddy repairs. Although Anna can’t use ththe CRA to support her claim because the law didn’t come into force until October 2015, we believe the ongoing faults show that the laptop was never fit for purpose. If PC World doesn’t want to help, Anna could consider taking the matter to the small claims court ( www.snipca. com/20954).
Whether or not she undertakes an independent examination, we can’t guarantee Anna of success. However, a judge may decide that the sheer number of repairs and faults are all the proof that’s needed and that she’s entitled to a replacement or her money back. This arrangement (if it happens) could be on a pro rata basis, meaning PC World deducts some of the £454.98 based on the usage Anna’s had from the laptop. But that would be for the judge to decide. We’ll update you on the outcome in a later issue.
www.snipca.com/20962 www.snipca.com/20726 www.snipca.com/20724 www.snipca.com/20723 www.snipca.com/20727 www.snipca.com/20718 www.snipca.com/20725 www.snipca.com/20719 www.snipca.com/20721 www.snipca.com/20720