WA Australian Consumer Law - Computer Repair Shop Dispute?

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TallGirl

Member
15 March 2017
2
0
1
NSW
Going in circles with a repair shop for my notebook in WA.

I brought my notebook in for a power problem. I told the owner in email I thought the power jack was loose. I've had that problem before on other computers. The owner told me her shop lads looked at it and I needed a replacement motherboard. Because my computer is old I needed to order a refurbished board.

I ordered it and paid for it but it never showed up. After waiting two months, I started to question the job. I was unhappy and I thought maybe one of her lads made a mistake. She told me that couldn't have happened and explained my motherboard was very old and it absolutely needed to be replaced. I told her this was rubbish because I'd paid for a new motherboard a bit over a year ago. She told me the shop that did the replacement must have used a dodgy part as it is definitely old and damaged.

This all turned out to be incorrect and I only needed the power jack soldered like I first told her. I found this out when she had a mate of hers come into the shop and inspect the motherboard without telling me. She wrote me an email that explained she assumed all of what she told me because she didn't have a better explanation.

It's been another two months going round before she admitted her mistakes. She says this is my fault because I left the computer with her. I think it's her fault because she kept telling me if I took the computer out of her shop and brought it elsewhere she would assume anything found was a new problem. She wanted it settled in her shop. I was out of the country part of the time which also made it hard. I have a friend who would pick up the computer if I needed but I didn't want her running round doing my errands for me.

Is it faulty service to tell me my computer parts are old when they're not and damged when they're not, and to order and charge me for a replacement part that I don't need on the assumption you hope it will solve the problem? Is she (the shop owner) allowed to have her personal mate come by and handle my computer without telling me? He's not an employee but she may have paid him on some jobs in the past, she wasn't clear.

Am I entitled to take my computer elsewhere and have the problems sorted out at her cost or do I have to allow her mate to do the repair for free? He has some sort of trade certification but I don't know that I trust someone whose chosen because they'll do a free one. She's told me that under the Australian Consumer Law she's entitled to first try to the problem how she chooses and I'm only allowed an outside repair if her mate botches the job.