Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2002/07/10/dan_technology_two_concerned_customers/

Dan Technology – two concerned customers!

Bulging postbag. Kinda

By Drew Cullen

Posted in Personal Tech, 10th July 2002 15:39 GMT

Dan Technology - how big was it anyway?

On July 4, we noted the deafening silence of punters, following the collapse of Dan Technology, the veteran PC builder. We received only three emails, including one from a creditor, on the matter.

Our piece prompted 14 more emails, comprising two tip-offs, eight telling us how wonderful Dan machines were, two, including one from a former Dan RMA engineer, telling us how crap the kit was, - but at different times (in the mid 1990s and and just before the company went titsup). and two very concerned customers.

We reprint the following from Bruce Chanter.

Further to your article in your web-site (4th July), please note that I am one of the silent punters. I have remained silent, because there has been no concrete news coming my way - good or bad, so it has been difficult to get too publicly worked up! I have been unable to get any response from the Dan telephone line that I have been using until recently.

I have taken some free legal advice about what to do next, and was advised to write to the finance company, which I did. Presumably, they are still in touch with Dan, so I wrote to ask them what will happen to the following facilities (perhaps naively asking them what they are going to do to maintain the cover):

1) My 3 year on-site maintenance contract - 2.5 years to go.
2) My lifetime helpdesk arrangement.

Any further advice you can offer would be most appreciated.

Well Bruce, BDO, the receiver, says it hopes to sell Dan as a going concern and has told Computer Buyer that there's a unnamed buyer lined up (which we think is Hemini PLC). If the company is sold as a going concern, the new owner will assume all the liabilities, including warranty support.

If, as happened with Tiny, only the assets are bought, then the warranties may stay with the receivers, who would then become liquidators. The status of this will depend upon whether or not Dan properly insured the warranty support (which Tiny did not), or ringfenced the money to pay for support (which Tiny did not). Secondly, people buying through finance companies and or credit card companies should be covered for the return of the money they spent on warranty support. That's not much use if you need your PC fixing, though.

For the future, consider very carefully if you really need extended warranty support. Most things that can go wrong with a PC do so in the first few months. ®

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