Ed W.

Having done all the due diligence, I decided to take the risk and order a Dell E6500 from UK Laptops. The price quoted was more than £300 less than the equivalent spec on Dell's website. Other than a few minor scratches the laptop was advertised to be in very good condition.

The laptop was delivered just two days later. I received a couple of emails notifying me of the delivery: the first notifying me of the day and the second the hour of the day the delivery was expected. The delivery occurred exactly as promised.

The laptop was exactly as described in the advert: excellent condition except for the minor scratches on the lid. The only item included with the laptop was the Dell power adaptor, which was also in excellent condition. Unfortunately I was also expecting an XP Professional installation CD and a Microsoft certificate of authenticity for the OS, but neither were included.

I immediately contacted UK Laptops. They apologised for the oversight and immediately dispatched both the COA and the installation CD. They were sent recorded delivery and arrived a couple of days later. I was very impressed with their service at this point. Unfortunately, having received the CD I went ahead and repartitioned my hard drive in readiness to reinstall the OS. The CD is unreadable! It has been very badly scratched and even after careful cleaning cannot be read. I've tried three PCs.

I contacted UK laptops again and I was assured they would send a new XP Professional Installation CD. It's been a week now and I'm still waiting. Fortunately I was able to obtain an XP Pro installation CD from my workplace's IT service department