Compensation from Sinclair
SINCLAIR has now agreed to compensate QL customers, whose money is being held in a readers trust account. while they wait for their machines to he delivered (see PCW 1-7 March). This compensation is in lieu of returning the interest earned on the money.
According to a Sinclair spokesman. the company has now agreed in principle to compensate customers whose cheques have been cashed with a ‘gift’. The exact form or value of this gift is not clear.
It may, however, be possible to force Sinclair to return interest accruing from money cashed. The National Federation For Consumer Goods has devised a legal clause which can be used to protect your money and your interest.
It advises that Sinclair customers should write on the back of their cheque or postal order the folliming:
‘This money is sent on the condition that you will hold it as a trustee on my behalf and that it will remain mine until the goods have been sent to me. As from 28 days after you receive this money you will also hold on trust for me any interest which is earned on it. If you accept this payment you will be deemed to have accepted these conditions.’
Sinclair will then be faced with the choice of accepting the money and your conditions or sending it back and losing an order — very much the same sort of choice it has itself offered customers — carry on waiting or have your money back.
Sinclair has also admitted for the first time that it has been development problems with the QL that has caused the delay to deliveries, and not ‘phenomenal demand’ as was originally claimed.
When it launched the QL it had no OL machines in stock and design work was still continuing. The SuperBasic Rom was not finished and neither were four Psion software packages which are to accompany the machine.
Some sources also suggest that there may be problems with the design arising from the use of the Intel 8049 chip to handle the keyboard.
First deliveries of the QL are now expected at the end of March. Some customers ordering machines have now been notified by Sinclair not to expect delivery before the end of June.
For £1 the National Federation For Consumer Goods will send you its kit giving legal advice and stickers to attach to cheques.
Write to: NFCG, 12 Moseley Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne.
PCWs QL order: Week 7. Sinclair has confirmed it hopes to deliver before Week 11. The estimated interest gained by Sinclair from our money so far is £2.25.
