Watchdog - Case file

On February 12, Mr Lewis of Carmarthenshire telephoned Quantex UK in Stevenage and placed an order for a PII-300 PC and a printer. He sent off a cheque and waited to receive confirmation of his order.

Three weeks later he spoke to Quantex again, and finally got his confirmation.

But, even at this stage, the company could not give him a firm delivery date, and after several phone calls he cancelled his order. When he hadn't received a refund by April, Mr Lewis contacted Watchdog.

Quantex told us that his system had been delayed at first because the company does not start building orders until cheques have cleared. Then it had been held up further by a shortage of modems at Quantex's New Jersey factory. However, no-one had told Mr Lewis this, nor was there any explanation for the delay in returning his cheque.

Mr Lewis has received his refund, so Watchdog is sure that Quantex was not acting in bad faith. However, the company should communicate better with its customers - had he been kept informed, Mr Lewis would probably still have bought his PC.

Casefile update

In April, Watchdog looked at the case of Mr Holland from Kent, who had waited some four months for a refund from Time Computers. Granville Technology, Time's parent company, has clarified that this delay was down to Mr Holland not having obtained a returns authorisation number before he sent the goods back.

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