[Mike Tyson]

I looked at that, and checked all colours, but the advert said £299, honest!

[lagerstarfish]

if you were using the paid version of UKB you would have been linked to the £299 laptop

 

[Mike Tyson]

What is this "paid" version I keep hearing so much about?! 

[tomtom]

If you pay extra they remove the scrolling p0rn ads at the top of the page.

[Bonjoy]

That Argos one looks like decent to me at that price. Anyone see any downside or can suggest better before I go for it? I can't see mention of a warranty

[Mike Tyson]

I thought it fitted the bill pretty well. I recorded the programme that the advert break was on, jut to prove I'm not going crackers!

[Bonjoy]

From what I can tell a warranty must be bought separate (2 years cost £90). Is this typical, is it still a bargain?

[dave]

I wouldn't buy a warranty, they're just wanting to charge you for a service that they have to provide by law anyway. Sale Of Goods & Services act states things should work and be fit for purpose and work for a reasonable length of time. I would have thought two years was well within what the law accounts for with a laptop. We once had issues with a cooker hood and the Citizens Advice thing told us the law allowed for faults up to six years after purchase to be pursued.

[tomtom]

I wouldn't buy a warranty, they're just wanting to charge you for a service that they have to provide by law anyway. Sale Of Goods & Services act states things should work and be fit for purpose and work for a reasonable length of time. I would have thought two years was well within what the law accounts for with a laptop. We once had issues with a cooker hood and the Citizens Advice thing told us the law allowed for faults up to six years after purchase to be pursued.

+1

Maybe I'm lucky or chose a better brand -- but never had to send a laptop back under warranty...

[Bonjoy]

I came to the same conclusion after speaking to the IT guy at work. Was slightly thrown by previous posts mentioning warranty periods.

[Mike Tyson]

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4240567.htm

Boom! I knew I wasn't going mad.

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Tosh seems fine, they are basic but I've not seen many issues with Toshiba laptops

I wouldn't bother with a third party warranty, but a manufacturer one is useful. As said previously Dell include 3yrs with their pro-range and they wouldn't do this if they didn't think it would last three years. I've seen plenty of laptops die in less than 3yrs. Dead HDDs, screens, keyboards, power packs, charging sockets etc. 3-5yrs is a realistic life of a laptop that gets regular use.

Had a hard drive start to fail recently on a  Dell desktop that was only a few months old, some Dell monitoring software flagged it up automatically before it died totally, got me to run some additional tests, then told me to ring Dell with a ref number, they sent out a new HDD which I cloned dropped in they picked up the dead one. Impressive service.

If your bothered you can extend the Tosh one to 3years total for £48 which isn't that bad.
http://www.toshiba.co.uk/services/warranty-extension/

If a cheap laptop dies after one year (out of warranty) I wouldn't hold out much hope with trading standards in getting a replacement/repair. Unlikely it going to be worth your time and effort in doing it.

[dave]

Small claims proceedings would cost you a lot less than the price of a warranty. In most cases any half decent retailer would relent before it got to that. Most of em know they're pulling a fast one with extended warranties and just bank on most customers not knowing their rights.

But if folk want to perpetuate the situation where retailers make money selling you the rights you already have then by all means go for it.

[Mike Tyson]

Not sure if you're still in the market, but this looks like a stonking deal, as do the other offers on the website. Good company, I've ordered from the a few times with no hassle.

https://mobymemory.com/uk/10tb-birthday-sale/lenovo-x1-carbon-14-ultrabook-intel-i7-3667u-2ghz-8gb-ddr3-240gb-ssd-win-8-64bit-refurb.html?utm_source=Clean+Data&utm_campaign=127cd3e105-Moby_10_Year_October_15th&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bca1336e98-127cd3e105-128566561&mc_cid=127cd3e105&mc_eid=a464efe278