Computer woes

[Armorel]

I'm a new member and this is a complicated question so please bear with me and here goes

Last August, I purchased a custom built computer from a company in the north of England. I had specific requirements and this company could fulfil them. I live on the Isles of Scilly so I had to pay extra carriage to have it shipped here.

It was purchased with Windows Vista Business 64 bit OS installed and part of the deal was an upgrade voucher to Windows 7. The day after the computer arrived, I emailed the company to say I couldn't find the upgrade voucher. First they said it was in the WinVista DVD case. I said it wasn't. Then they said it would be sent on to me by post. It didn't appear.

I waited until mid November (a month after the release of Windows 7) to give them time to send me the voucher but it still didn't come. I contacted them again to repeat my question and they returned to their original assertion that it was in the WinVista DVD case. I told them we'd already been through that and it wasn't.

They then claimed that the Windows 7 upgrade vouchers were 'locked into' the Windows Vista installation and couldn't be used for any other machine. So they said that SINCE I COULDN'T FIND THE VOUCHER (???) I would have to return the computer to them and they would format the C drive (I had specified three hard disks in the computer), install Windows Vista Ultimate and return the computer to me with an upgrade voucher for Windows 7. They also said they would 'deactivate' the original WinVista installation (which they claimed could be used on another computer - I checked with MS and they said this was not possible) thus rendering my original DVD unusable.

I'd spent six months setting up this computer with our programs and data so it took me a whole weekend to back up gigabytes of data, back up and remove emails and other personal data and password protect the four profiles that we use on the machine. I was not happy

I stressed that it was vital that this work was done quickly and the computer returned to us as soon as possible (they had agreed to pay the carriage costs in both directions).

Checking the progress of the RMA that they opened for the computer on Feb 4th (nearly two weeks after it was collected from us), I now see that they are intending to install Windows 7 Pro on the computer because 'the upgrade promo has ended'. Actually MS says that the vouchers can be redeemed until February 28th 2010. So I will be deprived of the two operating systems that I should have had as part of the original package.

Not only that but their technician is reporting that the PC has "not shown a display" since it was back with them! The computer was working perfectly when I packed it up, in the original box and packaging, securely labelled and plastered with FRAGILE notices in red.

To my mystification, the technician has then entered data that the "CPU will be swapped with a BIOS CPU" and then retested. Apparently the computer was then working with the BIOS CPU (presumably this means that there was a display?) so the original CPU was replaced but the technician says there is still no display.

The last entry shows that a new processor has been fitted and the system has been sent for testing again.

Now I've built several computers over the past ten years and I would have checked the graphics card first if there had been no display - not the CPU. It's possible that the high end (and rather heavy) nVIDIA card might have become unseated in the journey back to the north of England.

What really worries me is that the company will now turn round and try to charge me for the new processor which is a top of the range AMD 64 bit quad core 'Black Edition' processor currently retailing at about £150.

The sad thing is that the computer itself is/was fine and worked really well for six months I was just really cross that they were coming up with endless excuses and, frankly, spurious reasons why they couldn't send me the Windows 7 upgrade voucher which was part of the original package.

I wish now that I hadn't gone to all that trouble to send it back (and my husband was against sending it back anyway but I was determined to get what we'd paid for).

We paid for it in full using a Lloyds TSB Mastercard and we are scrupulous about clearing our credit card account every month. Is there any way we can get the credit card company to put pressure on this computer firm to get the situation resolved to our satisfaction?

I'm just at my wits end and getting more and more concerned at the way this company is handling this miserable situation - sorry this is so long