It’s like I’ve got a new notebook. It’s faster, it’s more reliable (well it was after I removed Bullguard) and the screen now opens and closes (albeit with a creak).

So I’ve ruined the warranty…. like I’m worried about that in the circumstances!

Forget Evesham and cut your losses – it worked for me… Life’s too short to give a damn sometimes.

But that company really pi*****s me off. (sorry, broke my own rule).

I know exactly where you’re coming from and I understand your anger and frustration. Mine developed a keyboard fault which I got repaired under warranty (although not on-site of course, the on-site warranty doesn’t seem to cover on-site repairs). A couple of weeks later my colleague’s laptop developed the same fault – he sent his back 10 days ago and this morning they told him it still hasn’t gone for repair (I will blog this shortly and link to it). Another colleague’s laptop has also developed the same fault a few days ago and he doesn’t dare send it back.

Would I recommend sending it back? If you’ve got proof of collection then you’re fairly well covered. The laptop will go back into the care of Geemore which is the company that the director of Evesham set up to take over Evesham’s business while he was putting Evesham into administration (all above board, I’m sure). At the end of the day, you have a laptop that doesn’t work at the moment and if you send it away and don’t get it back you still don’t have a working laptop but what you do have is a receipt to show that Geemore has your property and if they don’t send it back to you then you can sue them for it.

As for who I would recommend … I don’t like recommending companies as a rule because if it goes tits up I will end up getting grief off anyone who took my advice. That said, I love a good argument and I would have to recommend Dell purely on the basis of their after-sales support which I know from first hand (having worked for a Dell Repair Centre) is very good. Assuming nothing goes wrong, they will collect a laptop from anywhere in Europe, repair it and have it back to the customer within a maximum of 4 days. In the UK and some EU countries it is 3 days from your call to the courier delivering it back to you. The laptops are reasonably priced, the company is never realistically going to run out of cash (famous last words) and they are at least as reliable as any other large manufacturer. I have had a Medion desktop in the past and whilst it was technically a decent machine the after-sales support was a bit naff (I also worked for a Medion Repair Centre).

And for the inevitable replacement I will have to buy – what vendors do you now recommend?

how can expecting you to back up your data be a stupid request.
the laptop will not go to china.
do you really think mitac uk would let you pick up a motherboard from there factory because you didn’t read the warranty terms and conditions?
please understand that proceedures all be it dull and tiresum are there normally at the request of watchdog people, derived from complaining customers like yourself.
i do hope you get your laptop back ok. there are many people that work damm hard at evesham, everyday going that little bit extra.
Dell yes are massive, sometimes an advantage,sometimes not, on the whole warranty wise a disadvantage. business wise their service over the last 12 years has provided evesham with a USP, long may it continue!

if you really want to complain, please try and be proactive, it gets you knowhere when you are acting like a know all. if you need something sorted be nice not blurt it on the net INCORRECTLY and vague picking the bits you remember.
after listing to your converstions to evesham i’m amazed we did anything for you at all..

Dear anonymous contributor(s), please feel free to use the contact form if there’s anything you want to tell me.

I use to date one of them, but she handed in her notice when she started to see the real evesham.

Rumour is that the staff will get their final wage on the wednesday & then that could be the end of it, apparently the staff are in just as much darkness over the future of their jobs as I was last nite when I turned my bedroom light off.

I used to work for a Dell repair centre and I could arrange a collection from someone’s house in Croatia, get it back here in one day, repaired the following day and with te customer again the day after. Evesham/Mitac take 7-10 working days.

A team leader from technical support at Eveshambles has just phoned to arrange collection. It’s being picked up on Friday to give me a chance to try and backup some irreplacable data. They want the power supply with it to make sure it’s not the power supply giving it an irregular supply, I wonder if it’ll come back. Oh yes, and I’ve got to find a box and stuff to pack it with.

I mean, sending your laptop off to China? What are they fucking thinking?