Bad Service or Unrealistic Expectation ?

Many people wouldn't think twice about paying £2000 for a car, £500 for third party insurance, and perhaps over £1000 a year on garage bills together with the cost of repairs when they crash. And very one of them would have to take driving lessons before they would be allowed to drive unsupervised - those lessons might easily cost £500 or more. This might help to put the cost of personal computer ownership into perspective.

PCs are inherently unstable. The average PC will crash many times, unlike most cars. And yet how many PC owners pay for training or insurance? How many PC owners even go so far as studying the manuals for their software, or going through the tutorial sessions that most software packages contain, never mind actually paying for training? Let's look at this another way.

The automobile first chugged on to our roads in the 1880s and it was very unreliable. Anyone who drove one had to be prepared to get grease under his or her fingernails. Motorcars went through a considerable evolutionary process until the middle of the 1950s, by which time most of the elements of the modern motor car had been invented. But they were still, by and large, not very reliable. Intervals between services were short - in fact "servicing" was more or less a constant - and costly - process.

It is only in the last ten or 20 years that motorcars have become reasonably reliable. It took the car 100 years to become reliable - but you still need to spend time and money learning how to drive ….. and repairing damage. For the first 30 or 40 years after invention the television was very unreliable. Now it is unusual if a television develops a fault of any sort within five or six years.

We are still inventing the personal computer and over the next few years we can expect it to become far more reliable, until that time personal computer owners have got to be prepared to study their "highway code", pay for maintenance and tuition, and occasionally to be "towed in." Part of the problem seems to be that we have an unrealistic expectation as to the reliability and ease of use of personal computers.

Advertising campaigns run by some of the major brand names do not help, they show only the possibilities ("blue sky") and don't indicate any of the pitfalls ("blue screen"). And it doesn't help that many personal computers are now sold from the same stores that sell televisions audio and cameras - which are generally mature and reliable technology. (We'll not talk about video recorders, which many people consider to be more difficult to programme than computers.)

Part of the problem is price. Despite what you might hear to the contrary highly competitive market conditions mean that most manufacturers and retailers operate on very thin margins, this means that they cannot include anything more than a relatively low level of customer service within the retail price of their product. Customers have to be prepared to pay extra for after sales support, and this is why many companies provide chargeable telephone support lines, it means that those individuals who do not need support don't have to pay for it. But after-sales support should not be regarded as a substitute for learning - just because you don't understand how to do something doesn't mean that the supplier has an obligation to tell you or show you how. So what then is a realistic expectation? Firstly, the product as sold to you should work when it is switched on provided you have followed the setting up instructions that were supplied with it. If it doesn't you should demand your money back and start again. Think carefully if the supplier offers you a repair instead of money back or replacement, because if you subsequently have problems the fact that you previously accepted a repair may make subsequent refund more difficult to obtain. Do not expect your supplier to believe you if you say that you did not unpack the computer for a month after receiving it, and that it was only then that you discovered the problem.

Generally speaking you should discover any basic problem with the system within seven days or so of delivery. If you only operate the computer with the software that was originally supplied and if you do not add new hardware or make any changes to the setting up of the software and hardware, then your computer should give you many years of trouble-free use. If it doesn't then you should take this up with the manufacturer or supplier and insist that they sort the problem out.
 
However…..

Some software - and sometimes hardware - does not work smoothly alongside other software or hardware; software you install after you have purchased the original PC may cause conflicts with the software originally supplied. But if you told the supplier of the computer that you intended to use it with a specific named piece of software, and if the supplier sold the computer to you on that basis then it is reasonable to expect the computer to work with that software. Provided you have had the software properly installed.

On the other hand, if you told the supplier of the software that you intended to use it on a certain specification of computer loaded with other, named software, then you should seek redress for any subsequent compatibility problems from the software supplier, rather than the supplier of the original system. That's why it's a good idea wherever possible to buy the software and the hardware from the same source at the same time. It is generally considered that free software, especially games, is at the root of many problems.

So what does all this add up to? It's simple, be reasonable. Do not expect the supplier's  customer service department to be a free alternative to your own expertise.

Invest time in learning how to use your computer, and above all - always back everything up. In the world of the personal computer only one thing is sure, at some stage your system will crash and you will loose data. The Department of Trade and Industry provide some useful guidance to the legal rights of the consumer regarding unsatisfactory goods at: ww.dti.gov.uk/access/unsatisfactory/unsatisfactory.htm

And if you want to make sure that your supplier is bound by an industry Code of Practice, always buy from a PCA Member.

Should you have a genuine problem with a product, and reference to the PCA Code of Practice or the mediation provided by the PCA fails to produce a result that you are happy with, and you wish to investigate a solution through law, then http://www.courtservice.gov.uk might be of use to you. But be warned, just because you might not like the solution that's been offered to you by your supplier doesn't mean that you necessarily have the law on your side.