A Surrey computer shop was implicated in a civil suit after a customer made some claims about an open box and “essentially new” MacBook she purchased from it.
According to the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal, a resident purchased a MacBook from a company named Gigatronics Computers and operating in Surrey as SaveOnMacs, and claimed that the company misrepresented the laptop.
The applicant made additional claims that the laptop contained a switched-out logic board, which caused repeated crashes.
She asked the tribunal to order a full refund.
Gigatronics says that the applicant had the laptop for three months before any issues were reported and that it did not switch out any parts. It claimed it actually offered to replace the logic board as a “goodwill gesture.”
It added that the laptop was sold through Best Buy and suggested that the claim should have been against Best Buy, adding that it only shipped the item.
The tribunal didn’t agree.
“While the order receipt says ‘Best Buy Marketplace’ on the top, it also shows that the item was ‘sold and shipped by’ the respondent. The receipt also says that items could not be returned to Best Buy stores, but were instead subject to the seller’s return policy,” the tribunal said.
On Sept. 29, 2023, the applicant bought a 2020 MacBook Air for $1,007.99, including tax. It was delivered on Oct. 3. The respondent also offered a one-year warranty with the product.
She took it to Simply Computing to transfer her data from her old laptop to the new one.
Sometime in October, the tribunal decision states the applicant started having “kernel panics” where the laptop would crash. She initially thought it was a user issue.
After the panics got more frequent, she took it back to Simply Computing on Dec. 14, where the panics were confirmed. Simply Computing determined that the logic board was switched, and a previous Apple ID was used on the computer. Simply also claimed to the applicant that the laptop was originally bought in Mexico.
In a wild turn of events, when Simply tried to reset the laptop to fix the kernel issue, the MacBook got locked by the previous Apple ID.
In early January 2024, the applicant asked for a refund. The tribunal inferred that the respondent refused because the MacBook was outside the return period. As mentioned, the respondent did offer to replace the logic board, but the applicant refused due to a loss of trust in the company.
The tribunal turned its attention to determining whether or not the respondent misrepresented the laptop.
The respondent did not address the argument that it sold a used MacBook instead of an open-box item. It instead claimed that the applicant must have switched out the logic board. At one point, the respondent believed the applicant had just forgotten her Apple ID or someone else had put their Apple ID in.
The respondent claimed to have cleared any Apple IDs before the sale.
“I find the respondent represented the MacBook as essentially new. This is consistent with the ‘open box’ wording on the respondent’s invoice and the fact the respondent provided a one-year warranty for the MacBook. I find the applicant relied on this representation when she purchased the MacBook,” the tribunal said.
Turning to damages, the tribunal said that because the applicant has used the MacBook for three months, a full refund wouldn’t be appropriate.
Instead, it used approximate repair costs to determine that the respondent owned $700 in damages. After tribunal fees, the respondent was ordered to pay $897.73.