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Dom Robinson presents
Back in early April 2003, while I was thinking about buying a new PC, my attention was drawn to Aldi’s latest newspaper advert which showed a high-spec PC from Medion (Titanium MD8008, right) being sold in limited quantities that Thursday for a mere £799, containing an Intel Pentium 4 2.6GHz processor, 512Mb RAM, a 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics card, DVD-ROM and DVD re-writer and Windows XP. I was fairly fed up of a three-year-old P3 600 with Windows 98SE pulling all kinds of stunts it could get away with, bought from are-they-still-going RAM Computers in Fallowfield, Manchester.
However, I wasn’t able to queue up at the early dawn and learned that they were all sold within the first half-hour anyway, which was the equivalent of one-per-minute, but on going into the store a few days later (since Aldi have no phone or email contact details, and thus encourage you to make that trek for even the smallest enquiry), I found they were taking names for when stock was next in stock, 4-6 weeks later. Sure enough, after that time I got the phone call and went down to buy it.
Since day one I had a problem with it – the output from the graphics card to the TV through the s-video output. After extensive testing of all possibilities, I concluded the problem was definitely within the PC and not from any extraneous sources since I unplugged everything I could think of and also tried plugging the s-video lead into a VCR, so I knew it wasn’t the TV, the monitor, the Sony amp, the PS2, the TiVo, the Xbox, the DVD recorder, etc, etc.
Since the support comes from Medion and the store takes no part in organising this, it took some time before a call-out could be arranged initially because I first asked if a card could be sent to me to try out instead of taking a day off work to do a 5-minute job, which they refused. Then, then when a call-out was looked into the suppliers were out of stock of these for some time.
Medion were also often quite slow to reply by email, but while some of this could’ve taken place over the phone I wanted to keep it in written form in case I needed it for later, and that proved necessary in this case. Not all the emails listed below to and from Medion are date-stamped but I have listed them all in chronological order.
Since Medion eventually replaced the card once, in August 2003, and the problem was still there, it appeared after also doing meticulous research online, the problem was down to the build of the graphics card itself and thus gives a faulty display when viewing the s-video output on a TV, which looks like an iffy analogue Channel 5 picture with diagonal lines going across the screen.
This problem never occurred on my previous PC, and while trying to sort this problem out I saw Staples were selling the Cybercom 1571PC (right) for £598.99, recently discounted from £899.99. There wasn’t much info about it on the ticket that told me if it was any good, so I did my research online. On the down side, it turned out to be a Medion PC (it looked the same, but why the need for a different name?), but with Staples 14-day no-quibble return guarantee I had nothing to lose to at least take a look at it.
However, it turned out the one on display was the only one left – all the rest had been stolen in a break-in the previous weekend and there were no more of that model due in. It took some convincing on my part to allow them to sell me the display model, and I got it a day or two earlier than they’d have liked because of my insistence to look at it over the August bank holiday weekend, but I managed it. I did ask if there was any chance getting a further discount on it for being a display model but they couldn’t do it (to be honest, I was in agreement that it was already a bargain for the price, so that wasn’t a problem). All I had to do was boot up and get testing. I did have to do a System Restore, since it was still registered to Staples – but then I had rushed them into selling me the machine, but I was glad of this as it taught me how to go through one since I knew I’d need to do this eventually when taking it back to Aldi.
Upon switching on, everything worked a treat. The Cybercom PC, while being £200 cheaper, has a lower-spec graphics card in a 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 – but runs the heavily-graphics-intensive Tron 2.0 without complaint – and no TV capture card (although I have a DVD recorder so no real need for such a card), so all I had to do once I had copied across all my files was to reformat and return to store.
Given all the problems with it, I figured Medion would want this PC tracked back to them so they could find out what was wrong with it, but they didn’t want to know, as the emails below will show. I know my contract was with Aldi, but still gave them the chance to track it back and told them I was now rejecting the PC, but they still snobbishly insisted all they could do was to look at it in their HQ to see if they could isolate the problem, practically blaming my environment for the problem (which I knew there wasn’t) and then saying that in their labs there was no way they could recreate my environment, so by their own logic this extra testing would prove nothing!
After my last email from Medion, rather than take the PC back to Aldi initially, I wanted to put it in writing to them since I thought the problem would take too long to explain in person. After no reply to my letter for two weeks, I took it down on Saturday October 18th 2003, and was told that they’d tried to phone me twice (no messages on my answer phone, nor 1571) and that I was just better taking it straight in effectively because they don’t go into detail with such problems – they just give you a straight refund, which was all I was after but wasn’t sure if I’d get that straight off.
At the end of all this, I now have the PC I wanted and at £200 cheaper than I was expecting. If both Staples and Aldi were selling the same PC in future then I’d lean towards Staples simply because of the fact that the 14-day no-quibble return guarantee for PCs (30 days for other products) is in writing and up on the wall. I would, however, still consider Aldi as the next choice because when I went in with the PC, I got my refund within minutes after speaking to the manager. I was told at first that such refunds normally took 48 hours, but I’m presuming it was due to my letter setting out the emails to and from Medion that he had alreay discussed this with the area manager and after he went to make a quick phone call, all I had to do was produce my Switch card to enable the refund.
Would I buy a Medion PC again? Well, the Cybercom machine is working fine, so that’s a good start, so I think yes, I would. I’d just get it from Staples first, then Aldi second, and take it back if it wasn’t fully functional without giving Medion a shout due to their incompetent attempts at customer service, the emails below proving that their attitude matches the quality of some of their products.
I’d never buy Time/Tiny, due to their unbelievably appalling track record of how the promised contents are never up to scratch. I’d never buy any PC from Dixons/Currys/PC World (all part of the Dixons Stores Group, along with The Link) as their know-nothing work-shy staff won’t even have heard of the Sale of Goods Act, let alone know how to switch a PC on or fit a component. I’d also be loathe to build my own PC again, since I tried this several years ago and it didn’t work at all. Even after getting the mail-order company in question to put it together, on return I switched it on and the power supply unit started to burn! Maybe I was just unlucky, but although I’m told that building your own PC means you can have exactly what you want inside, you wouldn’t save much money these days – if any – and I can easily do my own research on the contents of pre-built systems as to whether the components are branded (as in the case with the Medion/Cybercom PCs) or unbranded, as are often found in others.
As an aside, I think the Medion MD8008’s soundcard also had an issue with recording via the line-in as the sound was always distorted, even on the lowest setting. I had no such problems with my previous PC, nor the Cybercom.
- Website links:
- From: Dom Robinson
- To: Medion Hotline
- Date: 14 August 2003 17:35
- From: Medion Hotline
- To: Dom Robison
- Date: 18 August 2003 14:58
- From: Dom Robinson
- To: Medion Hotline
- Date: 20 August 2003 17:01
- From: Medion Hotline
- To: Dom Robison
- From: Dom Robinson
- To: Medion Hotline
- Date: 08 September 2003 16:04
- From: Medion Hotline
- To: Dom Robison
- Date: 15 September 2003 10:18
- From: Medion Hotline
- To: Dom Robison
- Date: 15 September 2003 11:37
- From: Medion Hotline
- To: Dom Robison
My first email to Medion after the repair:
“Dear Medion,
I’m emailing back about the engineer visit I had yesterday (13.8.03). He came at 11am, looked at the output on the TV (via s-video) and said he could replace the graphics card but that it wouldn’t make a bit of difference as that’s the kind of picture you can expect when putting the PC through to a TV, due to a TV’s standard refresh rate. (Even though I had no such problem with the ATI Radeon 8500LE 64Mb), and said he would change it and it would only take 5-10 minutes.
Overall, there has been an improvement on the previous picture, but not a complete one. The engineer thought I was referring to the sharpness of the picture, which I know won’t be perfect since PC text displayed on a TV never is, but he didn’t realise I was referring to the horizontal and diagonal interference-style lines that were onscreen. At first, when he rebooted the PC with the new card in, the problem had appeared to have gone and I was very pleased and the engineer left with the impression of a job well done.
However, over the next 30 minutes, as the new card warmed up, the problem returned, not as bad as it was with the previous card but it’s still there to a degree and so I’m reckoning it might be some technical issue with the ATI 9600TX cards in general (information about these cards on the internet is fairly scant). Also, the composite output isn’t working on this one either, even with the s-video unplugged in case there was a conflict (should there be? or is there somewhere in the display properties that allows me to switch this on? I looked through them but couldn’t find anything specific to it.)
Please can you look into this query for me and tell me where we go from here, since I don’t think another ATI 9600TX card would solve it so can a replacement for the next card up be arranged?
Thanks in advance,
Dom Robinson
Editor, DVDfever.co.uk”
Their reply:
“Dear Sir
I think we should have the system unit in for testing, please can you phone our Hotline 0870 7270370 to arrange this.
Regards,
David
Medion Electronics Ltd.”
(address/email details omitted)
My next email to Medion:
“Dear Medion,
After emailing with ATI about their graphics cards, I’ve come to the conclusion that the ATI Radeon 9600TX isn’t up to the job in terms of TV output as it’s clearly got a technical issue that, while the replacement card gives an improved performance, it has not removed the problem entirely. I feel this may be because this card is a “Powered by ATI” card as opposed to a “Built by ATI” card like the ATI Radeon 8500LE card in my previous PC.
Since I use my PC on a daily basis, partly to run my website DVDfever.co.uk and rely on it as often as some people rely on their mobile phone, I would not find it acceptable to be parted with the unit for that length of time because everything else I have used in the unit works fine apart from this graphics card issue.
I would like to be considered for having my graphics card replaced with the next model up of a “Built by ATI” card, since I understand the ATI Radeon 9600TX is based on the ATI Radeon 9500 card with some extra features, or I may consider replacing the PC altogether and having a refund on this PC. I’d prefer not to have to hunt around for a new PC because, apart from this graphics card issue, it does represent much better value than any other PC I’ve seen on the market, and it would be a shame to lose out on that just because of one model of graphics card that’s causing the problem.
I shall look forward to receiving your reply.
Thanks in advance,
Dom Robinson
Editor, DVDfever.co.uk”
Their reply:
“Dear Sir
This graphics card is the same as any ATI graphics card as in it is “Powered by ATI”, in other word it has an ATI chipset. If you check any ATI graphics card you will find it is manufacture by someone else (like sapphire or gigabytes).
If you will not let us have the PC back for testing and as we have already replaced the card, there doesn’t seem much else more we can do.
Regards,
David
Medion Electronics Ltd.”
My next email to them, sent after I had bought the Cybercom PC and fully tested it throughout Staples’ 14-day no-quibble return period, although I had spent a couple of days away:
“Dear Medion,
Thanks for your reply. I haven’t been able to reply since as I have been away on business for some of the time.
What I would like to do, since one repair has been attempted and things aren’t fully resolved with it, is to return it for a full refund under the provision that it is not fit for the purpose for which it is sold.
I understand my contract is with Aldi and that I should take it back to them at the branch from where I bought it. However, since you are supplying the support directly does this make a difference and I should claim my refund from you and have you collect the unit? Or, since it would be being returned as faulty, should I inform you first before taking it back to Aldi so you can let them know a PC is coming back, as presumably you’ll want this one being returned to you marked as faulty, and they will thus be expecting it? (and it’ll save an unnecessary lengthy explanation from me)
I am now looking for a new PC and will transfer my files between them which I wish to keep and then do a System Restore to return the Medion PC to its original state before returning it, but this should all only take a couple of weeks at most so there’s plenty of time to arrange things.
With regards to the problems within the PC itself, after some research online, the only two possibilities I came across are either a faulty power supply or the build of the ATI 9600TX cards in general not being up to the job to provide clear s-video output, so once I have got my refund and you have the PC back and investigated it, I would be interested to know what the problem was from a technical point of view.
Thanks in advance,
Dom Robinson
Editor, DVDfever.co.uk”
Their reply:
“Dear Sir
Firstly we would not agree with the statement ‘it is not fit for the purpose for which it is sold’.
What we would suggest is that the PC is returned to us for evaluation (of the TV out), we will replace any faulty parts found and if the PC is found to be un-repairable we will replace the PC. If you agree to this we will send you instructions about returning the unit (at no cost to yourself) and will endeavour to return the same to you within 14 days.
We will of course be unable to duplicate the environment you have, which would mean that once we are totally certain that the unit is operating perfectly and return the unit to you, any malfunction would be down to the environment and not the PC.
Regards,
David
Medion Electronics Ltd.”
My last email to Medion:
Dear Medion,
Thanks for your reply.
As I have gone through the procedure of having had one attempted repair, I am within my rights to now reject the PC and return it for a refund, and this is what I intend to do.
I will not agree to any more attempted repairs.
All I wish to do now is to return the PC to the Aldi store for a complete refund. I am contacting you first about this as I presume you would like to contact them first yourself to let them know it’ll be returned to them to forward on to you, and there’ll presumably be a RMA reference number I’ll need to make clear on the box so they’re aware of this.
I have spent approximately four months in trying to sort out this PC and do not wish to take any more time over it, so I would be grateful if you would contact Aldi and let me know what RMA number I need to make clear on the box for when I take it back to the store for the refund.
If you reply without having contacted Aldi I will take it back anyway, but I am sure it would be far easier for all concerned to go down the route of the RMA number.
Thanks in advance,
Dom Robinson
Editor, DVDfever.co.uk”
Medion’s final reply, which was sent to me on Thursday 2nd October – since they didn’t reply to the above email and only replied once I forwarded it again to them on Monday 29th September:
“Dear Sir
We have offered to test and repair this PC on a 14 day turnaround. there is little more we can do if you are not willing to return the PC to us, so that we can take a look at the problem. We cannot speak on behalf of Aldi, but we are not willing to make any arrangements as suggested by yourself.
Regards,
David.
Medion Electronics Ltd.”
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2003.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.