Colcam

My Mac G4 Powerbook, the one that broke, was about eight months old. It was bought from PC World, the computer superstore, Inverness branch, with 800 pounds of my hard earned cash, including 50 pounds off the original price as it had been on display.

When I phoned Apple to try to get it repaired under guarantee (PC World apparently don't have anything to do with Macs after they sell them) it came as rather a shock to discover that my computer had been registered with Apple some eight months before I purchased it.

After many phone calls to Apple in Ireland to prove I had bought it when I said I did, trips to two branches of PC World, and many phone calls to them, I still have the broken laptop sitting here, and the Customer Care people at PC World state that if I accepted a computer from display at one of their shops, and get discount, they are under no obligation to tell me it is second hand.

I consider this an unacceptable and despicable way of doing business and treating customers. It is patently dishonest, a view shared by the Trading Standards office with whom I have consulted.

If my Mac had not developed a fault, and normally, in my experience they don't, I would have been blissfully unaware that I had been ripped off by PC World. Is this their r easoning? After all, if this had been a PC instead of a Mac, it would have gone back to them, and there would have been no way of finding out that they had flogged a second hand computer as a new one, albeit off display.

In my opinion they are nothing but corporate crooks, and I am not about to be browbeaten or ignored by them. I want a new computer, or my money refunded.

(Updates to follow)