[Neil]

Rhonda plugged her laptop in to charge. Fortunately she week back in the bedroom as she could smell burning. There was smoke coming out of the laptop and it was making a crackling noise.

This was a few days after Mothers Day, the laptop had been a gift the year before from the children and had been purchased a couple of weeks before from PC World.

I was on nights at the time, I said to Rhonda if she dug out the receipt, I would take it back to PC World even though it was more than 12 months old. I think she spent the whole day looking for it but could not find it.

About a week later I was telling Lindsay the story, she suggested I should be able to use a bank or credit card statement as proof of purchase if I could not find the receipt. That was the plan and the following day I was off to PC World with my credit card statement and a very smelly laptop back in its box.

I spoke with a chap on the customer service counter. I explained the laptop had almost caught fire and that is was 13 months old. He asked if it had extended warranty or a cover plan on it. I said that it did not. He said that unfortunately there was nothing they could do. I told him that under the Sale of Goods Act the laptop should be expected to last a reasonable amount of time and did he think 13 months was a reasonable life for a laptop. At first he said I would have to contact the manufacturer, I reminded him that my rights were with the supplier and not the manufacturer. He then said I would need to prove the goods were faulty from new. I said that was not the case and could I speak with the store manager.

Five minutes later and the manager arrived. I explained what the laptop had done and that it was 13 months old, I then said "that gent there, does not appear to understand my rights under the Sale of Goods Act and that my rights are with the store where the item was purchased".

Straight away he said that he would have to email the manufacturer to see if they would agree to repair it. I again said it was not the manufacturers responsibility but I did not mind if they did accept to repair it. I did say that if they did not repair it then we would be having this conversation again.

He printed out a standard repair agreement form which I read. There was a bit that said I agreed to pay all repair costs. I told the manager that I did not agree with that. He said it did not apply in this case so I crossed it out and signed the paper.

This was almost two weeks ago. Yesterday I called in to the store again to see what was talking so long and if they had agreed to repair it. I spoke with the same manager, he said they were unable to repair the laptop. I though he meant they were not going to so was ready for an interesting conversation. He actually meant unable because it was completely fried. He said head office had authorised him to replace the 13 month old faulty laptop out of its 12 month guarantee with a new one.

He called a sales assistant over who showed me a few laptops I could select from. I made my choice and waited for her at the counter. She asked if I wanted to take out the cover plan on it in case it failed after 12 months - I said why would I want too? This new one is replacing a faulty one that was 13 months old, she looked confused and said " Oh right, it it?"

I was extremely pleased with the outcome and think PC World met my rights extremely well. I was disappointed that only the manager appeared to understand my rights, the sales assistants really do need more training.

So if you have something that is over 12 months old and dies on you, read up on The Sale of Goods Act and get back to the shop.

If anyone managed to read this far without killing themselves have you had a similar experience, good or bad with faulty goods?