August 1, 2006--went in to 215 Harbord St. and was told by Muhammed Bouazza that my order was one week late.
August 9, 2006--went in to 215 Harbord St. to pick up the laptop (and IBM R40 type 2682-MU3). It did not have the Firewire port, so I deposited $150 cash in good faith that it would be installed for the next day.
August 10, 2006--went in to 215 Harbord St. to pick up repaired laptop and was given a PCM Bus 6 pin firewire card for the card bus slot on the laptop's side. I bought an additional printer and two web cameras, and paid the remaining $315 cash. I took the laptop to my mother's home near Orangville to install a web camera on her computer and check my new laptop. I installed a diagnostics software to check the system and found that it was short RAM--it only had 768 Mb instead of the 10024 that a GIG would have. The drivers for the system wre not installed, and the firewire card would not allow me to use my external hard drive or my iPod hardware. When I tryed to install the web camera on my mother's computer, it brought up a blue screen of system errors and somehow turned the hard drive off in the BIOS, so I had to go into the system BIOS to have it be re installed.
August 14, 2006--came back to the city from Orangeville and brought all the goods traded for money back to the store at 215 Harbord St. I brought my friend A.P. for support in my request for a refund. Mohammed Bouazza was in the store. He told me that he could not do a refund, and that his boss was in a meeting and could not be reached. I told him that I would wait, that I was going to school in Newfoundland in three days and needed to get this laptop money refunded, or get the laptop I had paid for. He said to leave the laptop and that it would be fixed in the morning, or I would get my money back in full. I asked him to write that down and sign it, and he would not. I finally got him to write down that I was leaving the laptop, firewire card, and two webcams in his possession, and he was going to install the proper amount of RAM, the Firewire port, and install the drivers. This he signed and I have a witness. I took the printer with me when I left, as he said it was a seperate sale/purchase and not involved. It is missing the power cable, which he said he could not replace.
August 15, 2006--I called Mohammed Bouazza at around 11:30 am to find out how the repairs were going. He told me that everything was running, but that he could not get the proper RAM card put in before I had to leave for school on the evening of the 17th of August. He even told me that the webcam drivers had been installed and were working properly, and the firewire had been installed, and that he would show me that everything was working when I came to pick it up. I arrived with my friend V.C. just after 4:00 pm to pick up my laptop from 215 Harbord St. Mohammed was there. He came out from behind the counter and walked the three feet to the display unit, then back to behind the counter several times, before telling me he could not find it. He told me he had misplaced it, then was silent. Victor told him that I should be refunded the money I paid if the laptop was gone and Mohammed told Victor to get out. I phoned the number I had found online that was attached to the business (905-821-8846), at which point Mohammed Bouazza quickly picked up and dialed a phone and began talking in a language I could not understand. The voice on my line, after listening to my query on my money being refunded as my laptop was missing, gave me a phone number that took me to a recorded message with Mohammed's voice on it. I hung up and Mohammed asked me what game I was trying to play. I told him I just wanted the laptop I paid him for or my money back. He told us to get out and threatened to call the police. We asked him to call the police and began doing so ourselves.
We stepped out of the store to wait and Mohammed began losing the electronic, metal grating that covers the storefront in off hours. I put my arm up to hold it while we waited for the police. Mohammed Bouazza began to repeatedly open and close the grating on me while taking picures of me with his cell phone. Victor flagged down a police cruiser and the two officers took over the call from dispatch. Officers McKenzie (5136) and Dunlop (8531) from 14 Division (808-1400) began to take the information. The police were supportive of me. Mohammed told the officers that a friend of mine had stolen the computer, but as both of the friends I had brought into the store were present, quickly changed his story and admitted that I had paid in full, left my laptop there for servicing, but that it had been stolen from his 8X10 (approx.) store while was there. He refused to refund me or deliver an equal laptop before I was to leave Toronto. Ironically, I saw the plastic bag I had left my webcams and firewire card in when I had left the laptop the previous day sitting out on the display case still in their packaging. He made no mention of them being what I had been expecting to be in my laptop or that they were mine at all. Mohammed Bouazza just said 'I cannot help you,' and looked down.
The police informed me that my only recourse was to take legal action. Therefore I am making this affidavit so that my mother can persue this while I am in school in Newfoundland.
PEACE - Tristan
before || after
