York Guides

The York branch of PC World at Monk’s Cross, somewhat famous for its staff’s ineptitude, poor customer relations, blatant rudeness of the management and general PC ‘unknowhow’, has been found guilty in court of mis-selling computer equipment under the 1968 Trade Descriptions Act. The court heard, over 5 days, how a PC World customer had bought a Toshiba 1800-814 laptop in April 2002 and another PC World customer bought an Apple 700 CDRW on 31 December the following year from the same Monk’s Cross outlet. In both cases they were led to believe that the computer hardware was brand new when it was not, as became apparent when they got their goods home and discovered they were in an ex-display or second-hand state.

DSG Retail Ltd who own PC world, as well as Dixons, Currys, and The Link, say that the two incidents were ‘honest mistakes’, but the courts did not agree. City of York Trading Standards had copies of the original till receipts that clearly argued against their claims of an honest mistake. An extensive investigation into how deep the PC World rot went is the cause for the long delay in the cases coming to court. The phrase ‘where there’s smoke there’s fire’ must spring to mind for many who’ve got their ‘new’ PC home only to discover they’ve bought a white elephant and had to go back and deal with the, sometimes, unhelpful management who seem bent on doing anything but give a reasonable service.

Judge John Foster fined DSG Retail Ltd £5,500, awarded its wronged customers £2,184 compensation, and ordered the company to pay the £28,000 prosecution costs. DSG immediately said that it would consider an appeal, though it is unlikely they will follow this through.

Matthew Boxall, for Trading Standards, said: "These computers were sold on information that was blatantly wrong. The company hadn't done enough to prevent the wrong impression being given - this case shows there are serious consequences.

"The judge has imposed a significant fine, awarded substantial costs and fully compensated the victims. He has made it quite clear that businesses - whatever their size - cannot escape their responsibilities. It's great news for consumers and for those businesses who do all they can to prevent similar problems arising. It shows it pays to get it right."

In the case of the Toshiba laptop, the customer only found it had been pre-owned when he complained to Toshiba itself about its performance. The model had been owned by a commercial company, but had been returned after various faults had emerged.

PC World say: "This was an unfortunate case of human error and there was no intent on our part to mislead the customers. We have comprehensive processes in place to ensure that mistakes are not made and during the hearing the judge praised our procedures. We are disappointed with the outcome and we are currently considering an appeal."

We say, “Tell it to the judge!” Oh, wait, they already did – he fined them £5,500.

Trading Standards are eager to hear from other similarly mistreated customers of PC World in York at their website: http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/