Where’s my laptop?

On 12th February, I bought a laptop that cost me P4,000 from a store at Riverwalk.

I’m a final year student at UB so I particularly needed it for dissertations and other crucial assessments.

Turns out the laptop had a fault that when picked up from a certain position it would show static on the screen and freeze. Once I realised this, I took it back to them. That was this week on Tuesday the 29th March. I explained my situation to a man whom I was told was the branch manager, and he told me it had to be taken to their technician and that after the tech’s assessment, it would either be repaired or refunded. He said this could take anywhere from 1 day to 1 month. I explained to him that it was a very crucial time in our semester and that no access to a laptop would affect me greatly, and so I requested a temporary replacement, a quick refund or at least for the process be put on high priority. This “manager” assured me there was nothing he could do to assist me. Even though I demonstrated the issue and even his colleagues agreed it was a manufacturing error. Disappointed, I appealed to any higher authority to assist me and I was directed to a man who was more sympathetic and assured me he would update me on the progress the next day (being Wednesday 30th March). He has not responded to me, the number he gave me is not answering calls, and I have work due that 95% of is on that laptop. I feel very pained because the purpose for which I bought the laptop is now defeated. Is there any authority I can take this further to?

The Consumer Protection Act is very well written and very simple to understand. For example, Section 14 (1) of the Act says that when “a supplier undertakes to perform any services for or on behalf of a consumer, the consumer has a right to … timely performance and completion of those services”. It doesn’t say that a supplier can take “1 day to 1 month”, it says “timely”.

Yes, the store does have the right to try to repair a faulty item before they replace it or refund the customer but they must do this reasonably quickly.

You have waited long enough. I contacted the store and they’re looking into the situation.

Update: The store customer said, “I called the customer care contact number, and after a lot of holding I was told they tested it and it was fine but they wanted to test it again to make sure, so maybe sometime this week”.

I’m still not happy. “Maybe sometimes this week” isn’t good enough. But let’s see what happens?