Evesham warranty outrage

 

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Posted on 15 Feb 2008 at 10:40

The former owners of Time Computers are trying to sell warranties to customers of Evesham Technology - the very company they bought out last summer.

Representatives of a company called Total Care and Support Limited are phoning Evesham customers, telling them that their current warranties have expired since the company went into administration and offering to sell them new cover.

"On Wednesday I got a call saying, did I know Evesham had gone into administration and were no more," reports PC Pro reader, David Lock from Wiltshire. "They were offering to sell me a new warranty to cover my PC."

Lock asked for details of the company, and was given the website address of Totalcaresupport.com. Alarm bells started ringing when he noticed the PCs on sale from that site.

"It was advertising 'megadeals' to sell Time products," he says. "I'd already noticed that the people involved with Time had taken over at Evesham. After reading the PC Pro forums, I thought do I really want to be involved with them?"

Burnley headquarters

A Companies House check on Total Care And Support Limited reveals that the company is based at the Time Technology Park in Burnley - the UK base of Tahir Mohsan, the former Time owner who invested in Geemore Technology, the company that has taken over the Evesham brand.

The Companies House records also reveal that Total Care And Support Limited used to be called Granville Care And Support - Granville being the name of the Time Computers parent company that collapsed with huge debts in 2005, and was the subject of an investigation by the Department of Trade and Industry.

When we phoned Total Care And Support for comment, we were told we had to speak to its managing director, Richard Singleton, who was unavailable. Richard Singleton is, coincidentally, the man who all enquiries about Evesham technology are now referred to since former managing director, Richard Austin, was ousted earlier this month.

Mr Singleton has declined to return several phone calls from PC Pro over the past fortnight.

Warranty U-turn

The situation is a far cry from the "business as usual" scenario painted by Austin last summer, when he justified the investment from Mohsan in an exclusive interview with PC Pro.

"This was the best to way to avoid everyone losing their jobs and everyone losing their warranties," he claimed. "That was my biggest fear - all the people that have bought from us would be let down in terms of support and warranty. When this option came along, this was the way out."

PC Pro reminds readers that we do not currently recommend that anyone buys PCs or any other equipment from Evesham Technology.

Author: Barry Collins