back to article Mesh Computers goes titsup

Components distribution minnow PC Peripherals has snapped up the brand of MESH Computers – along with certain assets – after the recession and the market shift to tablets forced the traditional system builder to call in the administrators. London-based MacIntyre Hudson LLP were appointed yesterday and having punted the …

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  1. Derichleau
    Thumb Down

    New owner same old crap!

    I see that the new owners have updated their terms and conditions today but have retained clause 6.3. Clause 6.3 Limitations states:

    'The guarantee is limited to the rectification of hardware defects or faults,by the Seller or manufacturer only and during the guarantee period covering goods supplied by the Seller'.

    This is simply not true. The seller can be liable for up to six years but it requires the owner to seek compensation via the small claims court. For example, where one has paid £1000 for a computer that develops a fault after two years. A reasonable person would expect a £1000 PC to last for more than two years but Mesh will only get involved if it is still under warranty.

    Trading Standards are a waste of time in this instance - I made Trafford Trading Standards aware of this but they didn't want to know. Your only option, if the PC is out of warranty, is to seek compensation via the courts; which is why I'll never purchase another Mesh PC again.

    Like I say... new owner same old crap... if your £1000 Mesh PC doesn't work the day after it's out of warranty, your only option is to seek compensation in court. Why would you want to do business with a company like this?

    1. BristolBachelor Gold badge
      WTF?

      Only buy one with a 6 year warranty then...

      ...and good luck finding a company willing to sell you a PC with 6 year warranty!

      1. Derichleau
        FAIL

        You missed the point

        The main point here is that Mesh go out of their way to make it clear to their customers that they are not prepared to negotiate if your PC is out of warranty. In other words, when you purchase a computer from Mesh, by accepting their terms and conditions, you're accepting that they may be unreasonable once the PC is out of warranty.

        So you've just spent £2000 on a computer and the graphics card has failed two weeks after the 12 month warranty has expired. The retail version of the graphics card comes with a three year manufacturer's warranty so it's not unreasonable to expect Mesh to replace the graphics card free of charge. A good company would replace it without question. Other companies may try to negotiate some of the cost or ask you to settle for a second-hand test card. From my experience, Mesh do not want to know unless you're willing to pay for everything.

        Never again for me.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      My last 2 home desktops have been Mesh

      I have no complaints.

      OK a CD-Writer failed on the first one (about 6 years ago) but as it cost me about £22 to replace (with a DVD re-writer actually) I wasn't that bothered.

    3. Hilibnist

      6 years liability does not mean a warranty

      The seller *can* be held liable for up to 6 years but only where the consumer can prove that the equipment was inherantly faulty at the time of sale and could reasonably have been expected to have lasted for longer. After six months of ownership, even if you follow it through Trading Standards and the courts, the owner will need to prove that the fault didn't occur after purchase through misuse or simple old wear and tear. That can be very difficult, even if you're dealing with a reasonable person. It's really difficult to prove that a computer has _never_ been dropped, flooded, left to over heat, overclocked or otherwise interfered with in a way that causes it to break down.

      Now, if you were talking about an HP notebook battery *cough*...

      1. Derichleau
        FAIL

        Not true

        You're getting confused over two different issues. There's the Inherent fault issue where you have a remedy if a fault was detected within the first six months, and then there is the durability issue - where you can ask a judge to decide whether or not you are entitled to compensation because it's reasonable to expect the computer to last for so many years based on the price paid for it. The two do not have to be connected. In other words, to pursue a case for compensation, I do not have to show that there was an inherent fault.

        The point I was trying to make is that Mesh have a clause in their terms and conditions which basically says that they're not interested. If your £1500 computer has a problem the day after it's out of warranty then stuff you! Unless you're going to pay for them to repair it they don't want to know. Bearing in mind that trading standards are not interested either, the only way that you're going to get it fixed is to either pay for it to be fixed yourself or take Mesh to court.

  2. mark 63 Silver badge
    Headmaster

    corporate accounting

    "profit of 184,000 for the year, compared to a £3.5m loss a year earlier"

    dosent that mean you're still about 3.32m down?

    or does it mean they repaid the 3.5m loss and made a further 184k ? doubt it.

    1. jonathanb Silver badge
      Headmaster

      1st one is right

      It means you are still about £3.32m down.

      Also, not your mistake, but companies with a turnover of less than £6.5m can file abbreviated accounts.

  3. Valerion

    Glad they went under

    Couldn't have happened to a more deserving bunch.

    Against my better judgement I decided to order a PC from them last year. After several weeks of no PC, no information, long times on hold and a very long saga that I shall not bore you all with I told them to shove it. It then took me 3 months to get all my money back.

    I ordered from Novatech instead, incidentally, who were able to deliver me the PC on Xmas Eve when I ordered on the afternoon of the 23rd Dec after finally having enough of Mesh's bullshit. Better spec and better price too.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      Know what you mean

      Mine took 2 months to arrive with chasing, and then a further 3-4 weeks for the MS Windows key and recovery disks. Also the 'do not open' tape was split. At least it worked well and nothing (aside from the MS Windows disk and key) was missing. Until I started to get a graphics card problem. I was able to prove it was the graphics card but they still wanted to courier the PC back so they could test it - oh and charge me for the courier. Upgraded the card in the mean time and not suffered a problem since.

      Price was good, but then I haggled, delivery time and contact information was poor, and support took the piss.

      1. david wilson

        I gave up on them in the '80s...

        ...when they sent a couple of 386 machines out with the requested 25MHz processors, but with [non-adjustable-speed] 33MHz motherboards, which were consequently not stable (falling over mainly when using the 387 for maths).

        Their head 'engineer' insisted that there was no problem, and that a chip with 25 Mhz printed on top would magically limit itself to that speed even with a incoming clock signal faster than it should have had, and despite the fact that was complete bollocks, I do recall he was disturbingly close to being convincing even when talking nonsense.

        I never could work out if he was simply ignorant, or if he was just unable to admit to a mistake.

        Effectively, his response was to be utterly unhelpful and hope that we'd go away, and I think it was only the fact that our finance department was glacially slow and hadn't actually paid for the machines that resulted in us eventually getting satisfaction (at-extra-parts-cost upgrade of the 25MHz parts to 33MHz).

        Understandably, that was the last time I bought anything from them.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Story of a friend...

    Bought a MESH PC about 2 years ago. When it arrived the HDD was faulty, so he had to pay to get it couriered back to MESH for replace & repair. Fast forward 5 months, the BRD-R/W goes kaput, and again he has to pay to send the component back to MESH - this happened 3 times with the BRD.

    After a few more months - by which time he'd loaded up the HDD with stuff - you know, the things we all buy PCs for - and phut goes the HDD. Only this time MESH insisted that he return the whole case, not just the HDD, for repair/replacement, again at his expense for the courier to send the stuff to them.

    He's now had nearly a year *touch wood* of a working computer, but from begining to end their customer service has been beyond shite. We bought our home PC from PC Specialist and have had no issues in 3 years.

    I say that now, the blooody thing will probably have borked when I fire it up this evening when I get home :D

  5. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    But think of the flexibility

    Everywhere else in Europe the poor downtrodden consumers are landed with 2year minimum warranties.

    But our brave and nobel leaders managed to get an opt-out so that British consumers would be free from this and the great British computer manufacturers would have more flexibility.

    Funny, from my engineering days I seem to remember that mesh is quite flexible - obviously not in this case.

    1. Peter Hoare
      Stop

      @YAAC

      Sorry but that's wrong. There is no EU Directive requiring a two year minimum warranty and consequently there is no UK opt-out. What you have mistakenly picked up on is the Directive that requires a two-year limitation period during which consumers can seek redress for a fault <b>that was there at the time of delivery</b>. That's not a warranty or guarantee and is significantly worse that the equivalent UK period which is six years.

  6. Mark Allen
    FAIL

    Lack of cash showed in the hardware

    I used to be a fan of Mesh as I bought many for clients. And they worked well and lasted for many years trouble free.

    But in the last couple of years you could see the change happening. That lack of profits was showing up in the hardware. Cheaper PSUs were being used, and I was now seeing failures in their product on delivery. Graphics cards, RAM, and other items. All gets frustrating for my reputation and my client's new PC.

    I also learnt long ago to never order a PC from them at Xmas as they never had enough staff to keep up with the demands.

    A pity to see UK company go down... but they were also the cause of their own downfall. Spoiling a good reputation with cut-backs in the quality.

  7. Dave Bell

    I build my own.

    Really, it's not incredibly difficult to assemble a desktop PC. So I have a decent case and PSU, and a system which suits me.

    But you can't do that with all these portable machines.

  8. Greemble
    Pint

    Observation / Comment from PC Pro By nickramsden

    "On the Mesh web site terms and conditions page PC Peripherals do quote their company registered number(4070792) as required by law, although its prominence is questionable.

    However the T&Cs immediately go on to say "We are licensed under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (Consumer Credit Licence Number: 154771) and registered with the Financial Services Authority (reference number 204572)." They also claim to have a Data Protection registration entry under number Z5750586. In reality all of those registrations refer to Santander Cards UK Limited. For them to say "We are licensed..." is extremely dishonest IMHO.

    Also PC Peripherals [Limited] do not have any Data Protection registration entry of their own and, if they have "bought the database" from the Administrator of Mesh Computers Limited then they are already breaking the law. The Information Commissioner and OFT should take note, I think."

    Pint for nickramsden - Well spotted that chap!

    Might be worth looking into by El Reg?

    1. Derichleau

      I don't think it matters

      I don't think an organisation has a legal obligation to display this information on their website. If they've chosen to display it within their terms and conditions and it's incorrect then all I can seen happening is someone telling them to correct it.

      On the data protection issue... not all data controllers are required to register; for example, if they are exempt from registration. It is however a criminal offence to process personal data without being a registered data controller - if you are not exempt, and there's an e-mail address on the ICO's website where you can report them if you feel so inclined. The ICO won't do anything though... they'll just advise them that they may have to register. The ICO are extremely reluctant to get involved legal issues, preferring instead to advise.

      1. Greemble

        Agree fully - especially about the ICO

        The only worry it raises, IMO, is for those that may buy a system from the 'new' company. That is, does the new company really exist or is it just a grab the cash & run operation?

        Displaying false information should certainly ring alarm bells, especially if the company has done so deliberately. Granted, the info might be there from before the 'buy-out' & it just hasn't been updated.

        However, if this is the updated version...

        Remember Evesham and the extra cost warranties? For the sake of new & old Mesh customers, I hope my suspicions are unfounded.

  9. Neil B
    Unhappy

    Pity

    I've had three PC's from them and don't have a single complaint (except on the last one they used a courier which required me to drive from Worcester to Birmingham after a not-at-home delivery). So, from a purely personal perspective, I'm sorry to see them go.

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