Do I have grounds to sue this computer shop?

Question

I purchased a computer from this small local computer shop. I paid them to build me a computer for general purposes (surfing the web, watching videos, etc). I could have done it myself but prefered paying to have it done painlessly.

About a week in I start noticing some issues with videos online lagging a lot and such. So I looked at the specs of the computer they made for me and noticed it only had 4G of ram. This seemed a bit ridiculous for a modern computer. At that point I was already annoyed by them, so I decided to buy ram myself. I purchased 8G elsewhere.

So I receive it, open up the computer and remove the old ram. And then just like that, a spark appeared and nearly killed me. My screen's colors went all weird and eventually turned off. Now the PC won't even turn on.

I know I installed it myself, but the PC was inadequate to begin with. And it should have never blew up like that? I'm beyond annoyed at them at this point. What can I do? Do I have grounds to sue them?

Answer 1

So many lies. Almost killed you. So how many weeks did you spend in the hospital? Anything that almost kills you will put you out of commission for some time. Can we see the newspaper report where it says "Local man hospitalized working on own computer" ?



Changing ram while the computer is running is testament to a nearly unfathomable level of ignorance.

Answer 2

No grounds. Regardless of whether the computer was adequate or not (a wholly subjective description), YOU'RE the one who blew it up, not them. As far as only having 4 GB RAM, you should have asked for more from the outset. If you are able to build one yourself (as you stated), you would have known from the start that you needed to specify how much RAM you wanted and which video card to install. It also sounds like you removed the RAM with the computer turned on, another indication that there's NO WAY you have the knowledge to be able to fix it yourself. It it was turned off, you did nothing to ameliorate static protection issues, again, something anyone knowledgeable enough to build their own computer would have known. Bottom line: No, you have no grounds. The lagging of the videos has nothing to do with the RAM if it was working initially. Sounds like you have more of an issue with not deleting temp files, etc., an issue which is software-related, not hardware-related.

Answer 3

"I purchased a computer from this small local computer shop. I paid them to build me a computer for general purposes (surfing the web, watching videos, etc). I could have done it myself but prefered paying to have it done painlessly. "



Okay



"About a week in I start noticing some issues with videos online lagging a lot and such. So I looked at the specs of the computer they made for me and noticed it only had 4G of ram. This seemed a bit ridiculous for a modern computer. "



Hold on. You didn't make any requests about the specs of the computer when you decided to purchase it? Surely they gave you a copy of the specs of the machine or at least made you aware This doesn't add up.



"So I receive it, open up the computer and remove the old ram. And then just like that, a spark appeared and nearly killed me. "



Perhaps you should've either turned off the computer first or unplugged it first. That would be user error in either case.



"I know I installed it myself, but the PC was inadequate to begin with. "



1. Your fault for not knowing what you were doing

2. Your fault for not knowing what you were buying





"And it should have never blew up like that?"



If you had turned it off first and/or unplugged it, that wouldn't have happened. They shop wasn't negligent, the user was.



" I'm beyond annoyed at them at this point. "



With yourself, I would hope. You bought a functioning computer, that's all shop is responsible for. Once you took matters into your own inept hands, you assumed liability for whatever happened next.



" What can I do?"



Replace the motherboard and/or RAM and/or CPU (if needed) at your cost.



"Do I have grounds to sue them?"



Sue them for what? They sold you a working computer. You apparently did not make it known that you wanted 8GB of RAM when they built you the computer. Then you started monkeying around with it (with as it turns out, an inadequate level of expertise), you break it, and you think that it's somehow the shops fault? That's staggering. Go ahead try to sue them, and see what happens. If you're lucky the shop will only counter-sue for their legal costs.

Answer 4

Nope, at the end you caused the whole thing blew up. To begin with you did not specify the spec in the contract, 4gb is quite plenty for purposes other than gaming, in fact gaming of slightly older titles 4 will be enough too. I am confident the shop consider contract fulfilled. Any wiggling legal jousting is blew away by you.



What transpired is completely your own fault, while I did have similar incidents involving not firmly connected boards fell off no one in their right mind will do it without having sure electricity is out.

Answer 5

No, you caused a surge in your computer which blew out all your parts, if lucky only the motherboard died, but saying that the colors messed up and it wont turn on, probably the videocard, cpu, ram, and the motherboard blew out all at once, by taking out the ram when the system was still plugged in. Next time if you want to have a company build a computer for you, do not do small businesses trust me they suck. Stick with companies like Ibuypower, Alienware, or even Origin Pc.

Answer 6

Nope! Had you brought the computer back to them and it happened then they obviously would be responsible. Since you decided to do the RAM install yourself you removed any responsibility from them. Your only recourse with them would be if you can show that the spark that occurred was because of something that they did wrong and not from your being careless or inept at computer repair and/or upgrade. If the spark was powerful enough to "nearly kill" you then there should be burn traces inside the computer. The location of burn traces may prove that they built the computer incorrectly, it was a faulty component they installed, or it may show that you didn t have a clue about what you were doing.

Answer 7

Did you disconnect the power before opening the computer?

Answer 8

First off the power supply in a computer is 18 volts that could not possibly electrocute you second off you said that there was a spark did you not totally unplug the computer from the power and drain off the power from the power supply by holding in the power button for 40 seconds did you not use a wrist clamp no there is no way that you can sue the computer shop didn't do anything wrong to you ram is not expensive it's only $10 a stick and really you have demonstrated by your question that you don't really have any knowledge to be inside that cabinet you said there was a spark there can't be a spark if it wasn't plugged in I can't believe you unplugged Ram well it's still energized that can blow the whole computer out

Answer 9

You just got a brick for a computer.

Answer 10

nope you should have checked all that before you took it home. and not disconnecting the power before removing the old ram was your fault.

Answer 11

AYRTFS? You sound like the customer nobody wants.

Answer 12

I think the person who asked the question is so mad she is downvoting everyone who says no lol. But they are all correct. Stop trying to profit off of a small computer company. You should've consulted with someone who understands how computers work before you started to fiddle around with it.

Answer 13

No you cannot.



While you may have received a custom built computer that was inadequate and quite frankly, probably built incorrectly to begin with; the weight they hold on you is that you made modifications to the computer yourself when the malfunction occurred. So essentially, you could not prove fault to them in a court of law.



However, you could tweak your story a little bit. Assuming there was no damage to the new RAM that you installed, it would be just as easy to say that the computer began to spark when using it, and then the malfunction happened. If the hardware they built the computer with overpowered the Power Supply's load capacity, this could happen, or if they wired the Power Supply to the motherboard incorrectly. Did you happen to notice where the spark originated? Was it near where the wiring connects to the motherboard, or in a different location?



I hope this helps! I'm sorry this happened!

Answer 14

You killed your own computer by trying to change ram while the computer was still plugged in (and probably turned on). This can be detected by burnt ram contacts (from the sparks).

You have no recourse at all, you damaged your own system....

Answer 15

You killed it. RAM is not hot-swappable, which means you can't remove/add any while the computer is turned on. And it's absolutely necessary to unplug it and ground yourself before touching anything on the inside. Some combination of trying to add RAM while it was plugged in and the discharge of any static electricity you had built up fried at the very least the motherboard and possibly everything else in there. Suing the computer shop for this would be like sticking a fork in your outlet and then suing the electric company for damages because of it.



Just as a side note, 4GB RAM is plenty for everyday use like browsing the internet, streaming video, using MS Office, etc. The PC in my dad's office has 4GB RAM and it still handles everything he does. You don't need more than 4GB right now unless you're going to use it for gaming (8GB minimum, 16 if affordable) or workstation use (16GB minimum, more is better).

Answer 16

You'd have to check what you signed with them but usually doing any work on electronics yourself voids any warranty on any product so that would be on you.

Further to that, if you had expectations for your computer, such as 8GB of RAM, you should have expressed that. If you didn't specify what you wanted, they weren't required to meet any specifications in the build of the computer. Again, that was on you. Many computers on the market today only have 4GB of RAM. It's quite common. You should have verified that the computer met your needs before taking it home.

If you needed a computer for general, everyday use why wouldn't you just buy a generic computer instead of going through the fuss of getting one built?

Answer 17

No you do not. You didn't have the brains to power down the computer and ground yourself.