PC Company customer calls in the police

By RICHARD PAMATATAU


A disgruntled customer of The PC Company has contacted police after the company failed to locate his machine, which was in for repair.

Wellington's Ross Mcleod took the machine into the company in August for repairs after experiencing software glitches following the replacement of the hard drive. He had a CD writer and more memory added to the machine.

Several weeks later The PC Company collapsed. Founder Colin Brown said customers would be looked after.

According to Mcleod, police may regard the machine going missing as theft and he is considering laying charges.

PC Company receiver Kim Thompson said when the company went into receivership all assets were shipped to Hamilton.

The important thing was to find out whether the machine went missing before or after the receivership.

Mcleod said being without a PC was not only inconvenient, he had also lost his software and the information on the machine.

Thompson said Mcleod was technically an "unsecured creditor", but Mcleod said that was a stretch. "I have lost heaps of stuff on the hard drive for teaching ... I have some copies on floppy [but] there's a lot of material there."

He said it may have been lost, or possibly stripped down for parts.

Consumer Institute director David Russell said if the machine had been lost then Mcleod was an unsecured creditor. He could take action and say the company was negligent, but it would be a hollow victory.

Russell said the case highlighted the inadequacy of consumer law in this area.

The PC Company collapsed in September with debts of about $3 million, including $2 million to unsecured creditors, $300,000 to former employees, and $800,000 on its debenture.