2010

Another Morgan customer notes:

Friday, 29th January 2010
The Morgan Computers website seems to have changed hands at the end of last year. The invoices shown to me by other Morgan clients have a different address on them. The new owners seem to be Bentham Limited and IJT Direct. What I bought was a refurbished HP Compaq Presario CQ60-212EM notebook computer.

Tuesday, 02nd February
The computer arrived.

Wednesday, 03rd February
There should have been a note in the packaging to tell me that the computer needed to be charged for 4-6 hours before I could try it out. But there wasn't, so a lengthy spell on hold to Morgan's Technical Department to find this out, and another lengthy spell when the "battery charging" light went out after an hour and a half. During the 2nd call, I was told that I should continue charging for the full 6 hours and then the computer would work. It didn't.

Thursday, 04rd February
Spent an hour and a half on the phone in the afternoon, being shunted backwards and forwards between HP and Morgan. HP seemed to be as unhelpful as Morgan. Morgan told me I need a returns number from HP. The first person I spoke to was quite helpful, but I didn't have enough information and she referred me back to Morgan.
   Armed with the information from Morgan, I ended up being told to ring another number by an Indian bloke at HP, which proved to be a complete waste of time. I eventually reached a South African lady at HP who gave me the details of the former owner of the computer and a fax number, to which I could send my invoice as proof of purchase of the computer after refurbishment.
   I faxed the necessary information to HP at about twenty past five in the afternoon and felt quite exhausted by the runaround I'd received. Whether or not HP will supply the returns number tomorrow remains to be seen. If all else fails:

Your Right To Cancel Under The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000, you have the right to cancel a contract within seven days - starting from the day after you take delivery of the goods (a "cooling off" period). You have the right to cancel for any reason without penalty. If you wish to cancel a contract, please write to us, fax us or e-mail clearly stating your full details, invoice number and cancellation instructions. To cancel the contract, you must give us notice within seven working days starting from the day after you take delivery of the order. Once you have cancelled the contract, you have a legal "duty of care" to take good care of the goods. You must return the goods to us at your expense to the address below - we would advise that you use a recorded-delivery service for small items and an insured courier service for larger items. Please mark all parcels clearly with your returns number. If it is more convenient, we can arrange collection by our couriers; any costs incurred will be deducted from your final refund. We will refund you the full amount paid for the goods, less any costs to collect the goods, within 30 days of receipt of the notice of cancellation.

Friday, 05th February
I now have a kill switch set up to throw at 2:00 pm on Tuesday, 9th February. If I haven't been able to persuade Morgan to deliver another computer when they collect the defective one by then, I shall fax them a cancellation notice and email back-ups. As the computer is "unfit for purpose", no reputable firm would charge me for collecting it. Watch this space for news of what happens next.

Saturday, 06th February
Morgan put this line in their email acknowledging an order:
"We welcome your feedback; if you have any comments regarding the site and/or the on-line buying process please email sales@morgancomputers.co.uk"

My response was:
"f.a.o. the Managing Director

"Dear Sir, you have a serious customer relations problem and you are on the verge of losing an order because your company is okay at knocking out boxes but nokay when the contents of the box don't work..

"I received the computer below on Tuesday, 2nd February. I found out it wasn't working on Wednesday, 3rd February.

"When I tried to get Morgan to do something about it on Thursday, 4th February, I spent an hour and a half on the phone being bounced backward and forward between Morgan and Hewlett Packard, trying to get a return number from HP [which I still don't have] and getting the information I needed from Morgan in dribs and drabs.

"I am now wondering why I was messing about with HP as I bought the computer from Morgan, not HP.

"What I would like is for Morgan to supply me with a replacement computer, one that works, and collect the one that doesn't work when the replacement is delivered. But this has to happen before deadline for cancelling the order runs out.

"Is there any hope of clearing up this mess before the deadline arrives? Or should I just resign myself to writing Morgan off as a computer supplier and taking my business elsewhere?

"Regards,"

I am now waiting to see if there is any reponse

Monday, 08th February, 16:07 hrs. GMT, email to Morgan pressing the kill switch:
Dear Sirs,
As I told you in my email of 6th February, the computer you sent me doesn't work

"Under the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000, you have the right to cancel a contract within seven days - starting from the day after you take delivery of the goods (a "cooling off" period). You have the right to cancel for any reason without penalty. see http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/moreinfo/yourrights.asp for full details."

In the absence of a response to this email, I have decided to cancel the order while I still have the opportunity to do so.

Would you kindly arrange for the defective computer to be collected from my home for return to your premises and refund the purchase price to my credit card.

Reply from Morgan
Your message

To: Morgan Computer Shop
Subject: Re: Morgan Computer Co - Order number xxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Mon, 8 Feb 2010 16:07:56 -0000

was read on Mon, 8 Feb 2010 16:59:03 -0000

Support <support@makingitgreen.co.uk> wrote @ 17:14 on 08/02/2010
Dear Sir,

Sorry to hear you are having problems. Please could you provide me with the exact problem you are having and I will get the matter looked into.

Regards,

IJT Support.

Tuesday, 09th February, email to whoever it is at <support@makingitgreen.co.uk>
Dear Sir,

The problem is that I ordered the notebook computer described below on Friday, 29th January. The notebook arrived on Tuesday, 2nd February and when I tried it out on Wednesday 3rd February, it didn't switch on. I was told by your technical support department that it wouldn't work off the mains adaptor until the battery had been charged for 4-6 hours and there should have been a note packed with the computer to tell me that.

The 'battery charging' light went out after an hour and a half. I made another call to your technical support department to report this turn of events and I was assured that if I left the computer plugged in for the full 6 hours, it would work. But pressing the 'power' button didn't make it work and the charging light remained dark during the rest of the time I left the notebook connected to the mains.

On Thursday, 4th February, I tried to get the computer returned to Morgan and I was sent off on a wild goose chase to Hewlett Packard for a return number.

On Friday, 5th February, I got a call from Hewlett Packard to say they hadn't received page 2 of a fax offering proof of purchase so I re-sent the fax.

At 4 p.m. on Monday, 8th February, having heard nothing more from HP, and having received no response to an email sent to Morgan on Saturday 6th February, and with the deadline for cancelling the order fast approaching, I decided to save myself a lot of time, trouble and frustration and cancel the order with the email to which you have replied.

The problem now is that time is running out and it doesn't seem possible for you to supply me with a working computer, which I will have to test for myself, before the deadline for cancelling the order runs out.

And that's about it.

Regards,

Wednesday, 10th February, email to Morgan
Dear Sirs,

You sent me a defective computer, I have exercised my right to cancel the order within 7 days of receipt of the defective computer and I have an email from you acknowledging the cancellation instructions (see below).

Would you kindly arrange for:
1. the defective computer to be collected from my home for return to your premises, and
2. the purchase price to be refunded to my credit card.

Surely there is someone at Morgan who can manage this without further delay.

Regards,

Thursday, 11th February
Despairing of hearing anything useful from Morgan, I phoned their "Speak to a human" number, and the young lady who took the call arranged a collection for next Monday, 15th February.

Monday, 15th February
Guess what? The computer wasn't collected.

Tuesday, 16th February
Phoned Morgan, told that the collection had definitely been booked with the courier. The bloke who took the call said he had no idea why the collection hadn't been made and he would get on to the courier right away and book another collection for Wednesday afternoon. We'll see, the frustrated customer thought to himself.

p.s. The Support people @makingitgreen.co.uk seem to have given up on me if I can't produce an HP return number, which doesn't seem likely if the useless mob at HP continue to ignore my faxes. The Support mob seem unable to grasp the facts, namely that if I bought the defective computer from Morgan, then Morgan should handle retrieving the goods which are "unfit for purpose" and giving me my money back, and simple consumer law doesn't allow Morgan to palm me off on to some non-involved third party. But if the people on the "Speak to a human" number can do their job, I might be able to by-pass the unsupportive Support mob.

Wednesday, 17th February
Falls over backwards! The non-working laptop was actually collected!

Friday, 19th February
A refund of less than I paid for the laptop made to my credit card. So the whole affair has cost me about 15 quid in actual cash and three weeks' aggro. But at least the non-working computer has gone – and so has my bookmark to the Morgan website.

Ratings:	MORGAN	HP
Technical Service	0/10	0/10
Customer Service	2/10	0/10

Would you buy this company's products again?
Morgan : Maybe a relatively cheap gadget but certainly not a computer. Too much hassle involved.
Hewlett Packard : Definitely not. The after-sales service is truly dreadful.