Over the last 7 years, Peterborough Custom Computers has built and supplied hundreds of gaming systems across the UK. In all that time, we’ve maintained a 100% commitment to getting people up and running safely, reliably, and affordably.
Today, for the very first time in 7 years, we had to say “no” to a refund request on a system built late last year. We wanted to share the story behind it—not to complain, but to be completely transparent about how we handle warranty, repairs, and software support.
What Happened:
- The System: A budget £500 gaming build delivered almost a year ago with a standard 90-day hardware warranty.
- Going Above & Beyond: Months after the warranty had expired, the owner experienced a hardware failure. Despite being well out of warranty, we sourced replacement parts and repaired the system completely free of charge as a gesture of goodwill.
- The Problem: Recently, the owner contacted us reporting severe frame drops and stuttering while running heavy community-made game mods and multiplayer add-ons online.
The Diagnosis: We guided the customer through industry-standard diagnostics (including Unigine Heaven benchmarks and CrystalDiskInfo storage health checks). The physical hardware passed with flying colors—100% healthy.
The issue? Unoptimized community mods streaming huge amounts of data on the fly, overwhelming the system’s memory and driving storage usage to 100%.
When custom mods, skins, or background apps cause a game to stutter, that is a software bottleneck, not a hardware defect.
Why We Drew the Line: After dozens of hours of late-night messaging and technical advice, the owner took the system to a third-party shop—who claimed the PC wasn’t worth what was paid—and demanded a 50% refund on a year-old system.
As a small business, we pride ourselves on exceptional customer care:
- We cover hardware defects when they occur.
- We offer free advice and out-of-warranty goodwill where we can.
However, we cannot issue refunds on year-old, healthy hardware due to third-party opinions or game mod performance issues.
The Takeaway for Gamers: If you love modding games, remember: community mods are created by independent creators and aren’t officially tested. If your game starts stuttering after adding mods:
- Run a hardware benchmark to confirm your graphics card and CPU are working fine.
- Perform a fresh reinstall of the base game without mods.
- Add your mods back one by one to find the culprit!
Thank you to all our loyal customers who have supported us over the last 7 years. We remain 100% dedicated to building reliable, high-value PCs and giving you honest, straightforward support!
— Freddie, Peterborough Custom Computers
