Buying a laptop

[mrsblack]

We want to but a new laptop in the UK (cheaper ?) and with qwerty keyboard - not French one but the warranties available in two(so far) leading retailers are not valid abroad. The manufacurers also say that a warranty only operates in the country we buy the laptop. Friends have said just buy in the UK and hope for the best but we dont go back that often, Has anybody got any ideas. One manufacturer even told us that we could order it in France but only models with a detachable keyboard would be available!Thanks in advance.MrsB

[EuroTrash]

You can buy a laptop on Amazon UK, pay in £ and have it delivered to France for very little extra postage...

[mrsblack]

Thanks Eurotrash- will it be guaranteed though that is what worries me Mrs. B

[NickP]

http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/guarantees-returns/index_en.htm

"Free of charge, 2-year guarantee (legal guarantee)

Under EU rules you always have the right to a minimum 2-year guarantee at no cost.

This 2-year guarantee is your minimum right. National rules in your country may give you extra protection: however, any deviation from EU rules must always be in the consumer's best interest.

If goods you bought anywhere in the EU turn out to be faulty or do not look or work as advertised, the seller must repair or replace them free of charge or give you a price reduction or a full refund.

As a general rule, you will only be able to ask for a partial or full refund when it is not possible to repair or replace the goods."

[mrsblack]

Thanks NickP comforting advice and it is a pity that a very well known shop that prides itself on its customer service told me categorically that their famous warranty was only valid for UK! I am off to follow Eurotrash's suggestion . All advice welcome especially from anyone who bought and then has a problem . Thanks again.

[EuroTrash]

In more than 20 years I've only ever once needed to have a laptop repaired under guarantee, and that was the very first one I ever bought, in 1990s. I buy budget ones and they seem to work straight out of the box and last for 4 or 5 years, and by that time they're so superseded that I'm quite glad when they start going wrong so that I feel justified in buying a new one. To be honest, I never even stop to think about guarantees. I suppose if I bought top of the range gear I would feel differently.

[suein56]

[quote user="EuroTrash"]You can buy a laptop on Amazon UK, pay in £ and have it delivered to France for very little extra postage...[/quote]

And you can track the delivery online while you wait.

Having ordered a UK computer for a friend she was thrilled to be able to watch its progress ... though somewhat mystified that it went a rather convoluted route, going east out of the UK rather then south but I said it probably cost less that way or was a more reliable way of doing it.

Safely delivered, all in order, all set up and working a treat.

Sue

[mrsblack]

Thanks Eurotrash . With the shops telling us there were no warranties for UK laptops in France we went off the idea of our original Which researched choice and are thinking more along your lines . After all we are not into gaming just emails web browsing - the usual low level retired stuff! What did and still does throw us was the certainty with which we got denied our EU rights even basic UK rights I suppose the retailer can just dig their heels in and say shove off! So back to the research and thanks again.

[mrsblack]

Thanks Sue glad to know at least one laptop is working well . I think that when I was working and had less time I just nipped in to the big PC shop and spent ten minutes on the purchase whereas now we are more cautious with our cash especially at the moment with the low rate of exchange . I did look on Amazon's site and while there was no mention of EU rights it did seem ok. So as I posted to Eurotrash we are now looking at a moe modest outlay and hopefully all will be well. Thanks again, Sue .

[mint]

I know you said you wanted QWERTY but really AZERTY doesn't take long to get used to and wouldn't you rather have all the French accents readily available for writing emails and letters?

Plus you could also shop more locally!

[AnOther]

Like ET I've bought at least a dozen laptops over the years and not a one has failed or needed the warranty, the early ones were no names but still cost over 2k a pop, 2.3k for the first one if memory serves !

Yes it is a risk but it's a very small one and letting your choice of what to buy be determined by the warranty terms is just wrong !

BTW any machine you buy will come with Windows 10 which has the facility to completely change the system language which only leaves you with the AZERT keyboard layout to come to terms with - or you could plug in a UK keyboard - or you could replace the one on the laptop itself, they are usually cheap to buy and easy to swap and although it would invalidate the warranty as said you're unlikely to be needing it anyway [geek]

[andyh4]

In contrast to the posts above, I have had problems - HP laptop which I later found out had a relatively common problem with start up and it failed within weeks.

Regarding keyboards I find AZERTY a pain in the proverbial. Yes of course we all now use laptops for communications but they were originally designed to do hard sums. I cannot understand a hard sum system that demands using the shift key to get to the numbers! - Yes I know there is a num pad at the side if you buy the big keyboard.

Best pad I found was an QWERTZ one - all of the French letters (sorry characters) plus the German ones and numbers where you need them.

[mint]

Andy, I have the numbers pad on the side and, although an AZERTY, I do have the choice to change the keyboard.

Mind you, although I could touch type, I soon forgot the layout of the QWERTY keyboard and for things like passwords, it became difficult to work out where the different letters would have been if the keyboard was still QWERTY.

I have now had my new computer long enough to have changed all the necessary passwords and now touch type again with no big effort.

I just thought I'd mention an AZERTY to Mrs B because I for one wouldn't want QWERTY again as long as I continue to live in France.

[PaulT]

As for staff in major retailers not knowing the requirements of the EU then they are probably going on what management is telling them and management will be keen to minimize their exposure hence the 'the warranty only applies in the UK'. So, if they have what you want buy it and if anything goes wrong you now have the info to get it repaired.

About to buy something from the retailer I think you are referring to for the UK. However, for a bit of fun I shall ask about the warranty taking it to France hohoho

[AnOther]

Some of the problem is that warranties may require you to return the machine to the place where it was bought.

[Harnser]

We bought a Dell laptop from Amazon UK and it was shipped to France for us to use in France.

We had a lot of trouble with it, but the support from Dell was first class, both by phone, remote operation and two service visits by an engineer to our house.

Solved eventually-so we know that Dell warranty works in Europe.

[EuroTrash]

If you change the OS to a different keyboard layout, would it not be possible to simply swap the "keys" around, ie prise them off and rearrange/replace them? I've only just thought of this and it seems too simple to be possible, but would it in fact work? (Not that I want to do it, I'm azerty and happy with it, but just curious.)

[suein56]

EuroTrash wrote :

If you change the OS to a different keyboard layout, would it not be possible to simply swap the "keys" around, ie prise them off and rearrange/replace them?

I know of someone who tried just that. Mostly it worked except the French keys that give numbers/accented letters on the top row had to remain as the option was to buy some new ones. He broke a couple of key tops prising them off but managed to replace them from somewhere. His comment was it was debatable whether it was worth the hassle.

Sue

Edit : Correction : Twas not a laptop that I ordered for my friends but a new tower + keyboard set up as they are committed pc users though they both have tablets.

[EuroTrash]

Thanks Sue, very interesting!

[Lehaut]

You can buy a set of stickers with the french letters on them. They stick over the Qwerty board and voila, its french (our son did this with an old brit lap top).

[AnOther]

There is a lot more to keyboard layouts than just moving the key tops about and if you want to void a warranty it's hard to imagine a quicker way to do it !

[img]http://www.starr.net/is/type/imgt/french.JPG[/img]

[img]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/KB_United_Kingdom.svg/420px-KB_United_Kingdom.svg.png[/img]

[EuroTrash]

My azerty isn't quite like that. It has the Fn key between Control and Windows on the bottom row left, and bottom row right it has alt grasse, then menu, then control, then the arrow pad.

So yes it is obviously not that simple.

[AnOther]

They were representative not definitive [;-)]

Have to say that when it comes to AZERTY I have extreme difficulty in understanding the logic behind a full stop being a shifted character [8-)]

BTW I recently changed an AZERTY for a QWERTY on a laptop I'd acquired and it cost a princely £15, fitting took about 10 minutes, most are fitted much the same way so it should be a simple job even for the non technical owner.

[mint]

[quote user="AnOther"]

Have to say that when it comes to AZERTY I have extreme difficulty in understanding the logic behind a full stop being a shifted character [8-)]

[/quote]

I use the decimal point on my numeric pad for full-stops[:)]

AZERTY much more convenient if you write a lot in French.

As for passwords, and if it's a comment of any use to anybody, I use an English word for French sites and French words for English sites and my passwords are in this way always accepted and considered to be of "high security"[:D]

[mrsblack]

Thanks Mint, AnOther, Andy , Paul , Harnser and Lehaut , Mrs.B back again after short holiday and I really appreciate your advice and we have narrowed it down to either buying in Uk and taking our chances or buying online from Amazon and getting it sent here . One thing is that if I buy in Uk my son can get it up and running but an online buy would mean that I would have to do that . Strange to say the seven year old laptop we currently have has started to work more quickly -it must know it is under threat ! Seriously though , it has been great to have your take on things and thanks to all who replied and I will post the outcome .