Published 15th Oct, 2021

By Abdullah Tijani

Two weeks ago, Ogechi Ekeanyanwu, a Lagos resident, approached Office Everything, an office accessories store in the Surulere area of the state, to buy a laptop for her son. When she visited the shop, an HP 15 i3 laptop with 500 GB internal storage caught her attention.

She bought the laptop at the rate of N270,000. However, when her son started using it, she discovered the laptop was not what the company had advertised.

“My son could not use it as it was hanging. He could not do anything on it,” she told FIJ. “Then I found out on the laptop that it does not have an operating system. Meanwhile, it went with the price of a laptop with an operating system.”

On learning that only a laptop with an operating system sells for N270,000, she returned to Office Everything.

“I informed them the laptop does not have an operating system, and they said, ‘Yes, it’s true’. It turned out the man that sold it to me knew all along. They took it from me and brought a replacement,” she said.

Though there was an improvement compared with the former one on which she could not do anything, Ekeanyanwu said, the laptop was not at its best.

“I called Williams, the Office Everything worker that sold it to me, again to let him know. He didn’t say anything,” she said.

When she visited the second time, all the company did was update the laptop as they did the previous time. After spending more than four hours while the system was being updated, Ekeanyanwu could not wait any longer.

“So I said to him, ‘Give me a refund’. At the time, I even suggested they charge a fee. Then Williams went to get the manager who insisted that no refund should be given to me.

“I disagreed, then the manager said he could not help me and did not know me since he did not transact with me.

“When I told him contracts are not binding if goods and services are not provided as contracted, he told me to go to court.”

Then the manger stopped interacting with her until she called her dad and brother who is a lawyer to intervene on Thursday. After spending several hours trying to update the laptop again, Office Everything workers said the problem had been rectified. However, nothing changed.

“My son tried to use it in school, but it just kept failing him. I wanted him to use it for what we bought it for, but he simply couldn’t use it.”

In an interview with FIJ, a representative of Office Everything confirmed Ekeanyanwu’s complaint but said the office can only replace and rectify the problem.

“The day she bought the laptop, she came back to complain and they changed it for her,” the representative said. “The only thing we can do is change the laptop and rectify any problem she might be having with it. She cannot get a refund.”

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