John Lewis laptop keeps breaking

I purchased a laptop from John Lewis 18 months ago. We noticed a problem with the screen, which started to appear washed out.

After that, the laptop stopped working completely. We took it to our nearest John Lewis store a year ago. It took about six weeks to repair the hard drive.

The screen problem was put down to liquid contamination and considered outside the warranty.

Two months ago the laptop once again failed completely. I took it to the local John Lewis store and when I called two weeks later was told that it required a new hard drive and connecting cable.

This was exactly the same repair as before. The repair was not covered by the John Lewis warranty and I was told to pay £628 to replace the screen and the hard drive.

I then received another call advising that the hard drive was covered by the warranty but not the screen. I immediately said that I wanted the hard drive replaced and would accept the screen as it was without replacement.

I rang every week for three weeks and then every day for a while to no avail.

Then I was advised that the timescale had gone outside the acceptable duration and my case would be considered in the “not able to repair” category. WG, LONDON

You were then told that you could have a refund of the original amount you had paid for the laptop, which was £699.

You found this unacceptable as you could not then source a replacement of the same specification for that amount. Really, you wanted the unit repaired and returned to you.

John Lewis said you could look in the Black Friday sales.

When you protested it said that the repairer could not obtain an original hard drive for the repair and replacing it with any other one would invalidate the warranty.

You said this was not in the general terms and conditions when you bought the warranty and you could not see it on the John Lewis website when you checked recently.

John Lewis, in fact, said the information about the restriction was wrong and the only thing that would have affected the guarantee was the water damage to the screen.

As you said, as it wasn’t caused by you, it had waived this condition.

Further to my involvement John Lewis offered a further £225. This is half the price difference between what it had offered before and what a new laptop of the same specification costs now.

You ended up getting a £100 discount off a laptop that is an enhanced version of the original one with a two-year guarantee.

You say you did have two years’ use of the old one, so you feel the outcome is fair. and was promised it would escalate my inquiry, but still there has been no response whatsoever. Not a letter, email or phone call.

Surely there should be some communication after nearly six months.

I am a 72-year-old pensioner who would like to enjoy some nice holidays before it is too late. JH, CHESHIRE

The gross amount due was £19,888. You emailed asking for a trivial commutation quotation and information on the tax implications. Getting this was like drawing blood out of a stone.

Only further to my involvement did you receive your money. Compensation of £100

was offered. I stressed it was too little and it was increased to £250.

A Capita Employee Benefits spokesman said: “We have now resolved this query with the customer, offering a gesture of goodwill also, and apologised that his experience with us fell short of the high stands of excellent customer service we are committed to provide to all our customers.”