[dreamteam]

To cut a long story short a while back i purchased a freeview box from PVR empire. The box powered up first time and everything was looking great. However after i had put it in standby and unplugged it (because i wanted to move the position of the box in my room) the box would not power back up again.

Finally i got in contact with PVR empire and they said to return the box. So i did that and eventually got a refund (after about 2 months). But they are now claiming that they are not liable for the cost to me of returning the box. I have claimed that under distance selling regulations I should have my P&P refunded because the box is faulty. But according to them because I have unplugged the box i have invalidated the warranty.

Is this true? If true do that mean i should keep every electronic item plugged in for ever?? Another thing, according to the email, all they done to fix it was format the hard drive. Surely this is something i could have done. I was happy with the box had it of been working. So if they had told me to reformat, i would not of had to fork out £8.22 on delivery back to them.

Sorry for the length of this message. But if there is anyone out there who could help me i would be very grateful.

[ROYOLD]

Originally Posted by dreamteam

To cut a long story short a while back i purchased a freeview box from PVR empire. The box powered up first time and everything was looking great. However after i had put it in standby and unplugged it (because i wanted to move the position of the box in my room) the box would not power back up again.

Finally i got in contact with PVR empire and they said to return the box. So i did that and eventually got a refund (after about 2 months). But they are now claiming that they are not liable for the cost to me of returning the box. I have claimed that under distance selling regulations I should have my P&P refunded because the box is faulty. But according to them because I have unplugged the box i have invalidated the warranty.

Is this true? If true do that mean i should keep every electronic item plugged in for ever?? Another thing, according to the email, all they done to fix it was format the hard drive. Surely this is something i could have done. I was happy with the box had it of been working. So if they had told me to reformat, i would not of had to fork out £8.22 on delivery back to them.

Sorry for the length of this message. But if there is anyone out there who could help me i would be very grateful.

It's usually a good idea on this forum to tell us the NAME of the freeview box and the model number. It appears that in your case it's not just a box but a HDD recorder.

If all the retailer has had to do is reformat the HDD then apparently it wasn't faulty either. They will have reformatted the drive to remove any programming you may have set.

Your best option would have been to ask for advice here before returning the box to the retailer. If the box wasn't faulty then I do not think you have a case for return carriage costs.

[dreamteam]

My apologies. It a Hitachi HDR081 freeview recorder.

I can understand what your saying. However my issue is the fact that they did not inform me of re-formatting the hard drive. If they had said this too me i would have probably fixed the box myself and not had to return it.

[darkcloud2011]

Can not see them returning the postage costs as it will go around in circles and they will argue the box wasn't faulty. Just be thankful they returned the money for the equipment.

[ROYOLD]

Surely your Hitachi freeview recorder came with a manual. You need to consult this first when things go wrong. Perhaps you pulled out the power plug when the machine was still carrying out a function which could cause a lock-up. In cases like this you need to set it to default settings and if this doesn't work then the manual may suggest a reformat of the HDD.
Certainly this is what the manual for my PVR's suggest - and they also indicate that a reformat of the HDD will result in all previously recorded programmes being lost as everything is set back to zero.

Also the mains plug - did you check the fuse was intact?

Personally I think you will have great difficulty in obtaining a refund of your £8-22 costs for return of the machine. They can evidently prove the equipment isn't faulty.

I would just put this down to one of life's experiences and resolve not to go about it this way in future.