The hard drive turns up, I go to install it, but I haven't got any SATA sockets left
So I eventually get myself another motherboard and install the hard drive a couple of months later. When I turned it on, it seemed OK but was making a few funny noises. So I downloaded and ran the Seagate hard drive toolbox tester software. Sure enough it came up as faulty, even though I hadn't even formatted the thing yet. This was a brand new drive.
So I spoke to ebuyer to let them know, and they offered a replacement. I said I wasn't happy with that, since if another one was to fail, I could loose all my valuable data. Messages went back and forth until they eventually ignored me.
I forgot about it for another couple of months until I eventually got around to it again. This time I spoke to Seagate who promptly offered to replace it. Since I felt I had no other option as ebuyer were ignoring me, I went ahead and sent it back to the manufacturer. They replaced it with a reconditioned model which sat on my desk for another couple of months until I got round to installing it.
Upon installation and power up, it sounded like a fan with a cat stuck in it... The computer hung for a bit while it tried to detect it. But no surprises it was dead.
I went back to ebuyer again, and messages quickly escalated to legal terms before I sent them a notice of intent to take matters further - since the product was not fit for the purpose and both ebuyer and the manufacturer had been given opportunity to resolve the matter but failed to do so.
The last letter I sent was a 'notice before action' which is basically the last contact before court proceedings. At this point I spoke to a solicitor who let me know it was a waste of time...
If you buy something from a retailer but have it swapped by the manufacturer, the contact of sale (which relates to the sales of goods act) is uninforcable. This applies even if the retailer insists you deal directly with the manufacturer and you act on their advice.
Lesson learned!
On the positive, the solicitor also said I should speak to the manufacturer, and 'lay it on thick', although legally I didn't really have much to go on. Seagate have kindly offered to swap the reconditioned model for a brand new, larger, more expensive model. Lets hope that one actually works!
