Paying by credit card, I purchased a Targa High End PC from Lidl for £699 in May 2006. It was supplied with a three year warranty. It soon developed various faults and I lost count of the number of times Targa sent an engineer to repair it. In October 2008 it failed to boot up and Targa indicated that it was beyond repair and gave me a choice. They would either a) take the PC away to Germany to repair which would take several weeks or b) take the PC away and refund 50% of the original purchase price. The person who made the 50% offer said that to make such an offer was "big good will" as I would "easily be able to purchase an equivalent PC for such a sum".
I bought an Acer Aspire (so far so good) for £369.99 and advised Targa, on October 14th of my decision to accept the 50% refund. I was advised by Tiina Mäkipää of Targa that a letter will be sent to me which I am to take to Lidl with the PC (for which packaging would also be sent) and I would be provided with a refund. Tiina Mäkipää said it usually takes about a week to 10 days before such a letter would arrive.
Two weeks later I emailed Targa as the letter had not arrived and Targa's response was to advise me, by email, of the telephone number to contact Lidl.
I telephoned Lidl on 30 October and the following day, 31 October, whereupon the Lidl rep told me to “give them a couple of days”. A week later on 7 November I telephoned Lidl again and spoke to Janine who advised me that she will put a note on my account to indicate that I phoned to request information on any progress in respect of my refund and that someone from Lidl will contact me either by post or phone.
Another week passed without any response from Lidl so, on 14 November I emailed Targa. Targa responded that they will forward my inquiry onto Lidl.
On 17 November Lidl phoned to advise me that a letter will be sent to me instructing me to return the PC to Lidl in exchange for a refund and that I will receive the letter by Friday 21 November. The refund amount is £315. I said that was not the sum agreed with Targa (surprise surprise it is less) and I was told “it was less due to depreciation”. Depreciation? What? Is that because the absolutely useless PC (which has not worked since £350 was agreed to) has depreciated further since the agreement due to Targa or Lidl dragging their feet?
It is Friday 21 November today and the letter has not arrived. As I have yet to receive the refund I have to wonder will the PC depreciate any further?
A week later - Friday 28 November - and Lidl and Targa have advised me that the refund of £350 will be paid to me in full. I will update here with news of whatever - whenever it happens.
Today, 2nd December 2008, Lidl made a full refund of the £350 without any liability to return the PC or even produce a purchase receipt.
On December 20 I contacted the manager who had issued the refund by text "Thanks for sorting the refund. I expect it I am OK to dispose of the PC as I see fit".
She replied that I should return it to a store or that she would call to collect it - she also apologised and added that she did not know that I still had the PC in my possession. I responded that I would return the PC to a store but was concerned about some confidential financial data and artwork stored on the hard drive and that, if I had not contacted her, I could have probably kept it. She did not reply to that.
I thought "I will not hurry to return the PC" and on December 26 was able to discuss the matter with another person who is employed by Lidl and he advised me that, once I had received the letter from Lidl's Head Office and the refund the matter was closed and that no one from Lidl is allowed to request return of the PC.
Targa PC - countless attempts to repair and I am now left waiting -j
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/hide comment form