Laptop broken - warranty repair denied

altonb1

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2002
6,432
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Black Friday 2005 - I bought an Acer notebook from CUSA. About a month later, I had it sitting on the floor next to my bed and I inadvertently knocked a glass of Sunny D on to it. I quickly copied data to my desktop PC as the notebook started to flake out. I cleaned it up the best I could and packed it back in the box.

I bought the extended warranty through CUSA which included display repair/replacement, so my wife took the unit to CUSA to check out. They advise that there is signs of spillage, so they deny any repairs. Okay, I expected that...no problem.

A few weeks later, I take the laptop out of the box and it powers up fine. No problems at all, other than a few sticky keys, etc. (Yes, it was sticky from the sunny-d, wiseguys....) I used some rubbing alcohol & q-tips to clean the thing up a bit more, and all was great.

Fast Forward: November 2006, about a week before Thanksgiving. I came home from work, logged into the laptop and started surfing the web. After a few mins, I realize that the system tray icon is showing I am on battery power. I check the cable to make sure it is still connected at the power strip and at the brick, and all connections are secure. I unplug the cable from the back of the laptop and plug it back in without a change in status. I investigate further, and realize that the "pin" inside the notebook power slot has broken so that the adapter no longer is feeding power to the device.

My wife takes the notebook to CUSA, and they indicte it is still under mfr warranty--they send it to Acer for repair. After a couple of week at Acer, Acer advises that the device shows signs of spillage and deny the warranty claim. Even though the situations are completely unrelated, they refuse to fix the faulty part. (In this case, apparently a mobo replacement is in order)

They ship the laptop back to my home, but the power cables to CUSA. (WTF?)

I figure I'll take the unit apart and see if I can solder the piece, or see if one of my friends is comfortable making board-level repairs. I check the notebook out and realize the broken piece is nowehere to be found. At this point, I am stuck. I can not attempt to repair the notebook myself because Acer did not return the broken piece. Acer is not honoring the warranty. My device, if I have a charged battery, will work fine, but I have no way to charge it. Anyone have any advise on how to get this issue resolved?

CLIFFS:
1. spilled juice on laptop after a few weeks of ownership
2. after drying out, laptop works perfectly
3. Laptop power connector, while within 1 year warranty (approx. 11 months old), breaks
4. Acer refuses warranty repair because of previous spillage, even though requested repair is not related to spillage at all.
5. Acer returns laptop MINUS broken piece that was inside device.
6. Unable to perform board-level repair without missing piece.
7. How can I get Acer to honor warranty?

EDIT: this issue has been ongoing for over 2 months now.
 

maximus maximus

Platinum Member
Oct 17, 2004
2,140
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I would recommend speaking to the Acer customer support and see if someone can understand your problem and help you out with this.
 

dethman

Lifer
Oct 12, 1999
10,263
3
76
a power jack connector repair is only about $100-150 at most laptop repair shops. if you value your time, you should just go that route. as for extended warranties...especially from compusa...well you don't want to know what i think about those.
 

Slacker

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
8,623
33
91
In these situations you need to get to one of the top guys in the company or a consumer advocate type person/show.
 

Pacemaker

Golden Member
Jul 13, 2001
1,184
2
0
Could be worse, my wife (before we were married) bought a laptop from best buy and got the extended warranty. 3 weeks later it stops booting for no reason. She takes it back and after they had it for over a month they call her and say it was "water damage" and they won't fix it. I think the "water damage" thing is just a way for them to get out of paying legit claims. At least in your case you did actually spill something on it.
 

drinkmorejava

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
3,567
7
81
If they took something from your laptop without your consent that == theft. Just threaten them with the BBB and they'll either fix it for you (doubtful) or send a compatible replacement part--which is probably equally doubtful but they'll do something to keep you from pissing off.
 

dfuze

Lifer
Feb 15, 2006
11,953
0
71
At the very least contact them for the broken part they owe you. I think it's like a car repair center, where they have to give you your old replaced parts if you want them. If they can't send you your broken piece, then I would say they owe you a regular one.
 

TygGer

Senior member
Feb 20, 2003
393
0
76
Originally posted by: Pacemaker
Could be worse, my wife (before we were married) bought a laptop from best buy and got the extended warranty. 3 weeks later it stops booting for no reason. She takes it back and after they had it for over a month they call her and say it was "water damage" and they won't fix it. I think the "water damage" thing is just a way for them to get out of paying legit claims. At least in your case you did actually spill something on it.


But did someone spill anything on it? I had the power problem on my laptop and bestbuy sent it somewhere and got it covered free under warranty. They even gave me a new replacement battery since I was almost out of warranty and I never had it replaced.
 

Matthias99

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2003
8,808
0
0
...kind of lame, but this is why I recommend getting accidental damage coverage for laptops.

Your best bet, if you want Acer to help, is to see if you can talk to a second- or third-level technical support person/manager and explain the whole situation (that you know it had water damage, but you just want the power connector repaired and it has nothing to do with the water damage earlier).
 
Aug 23, 2000
15,509
1
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haha, bend over, CUSA will pound you hard on this. if it's still under MFG warranty, get your money back on the extended and apply that towards getting the laptop fixed. Since it has "spill damage" in the notes of your laptop history, that will be the excuse they use any time you bring it in for repair. Basically they are stealing the money you paid for the warranty.
 

mztykal

Diamond Member
Apr 21, 2000
6,708
48
91
Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
haha, bend over, CUSA will pound you hard on this. if it's still under MFG warranty, get your money back on the extended and apply that towards getting the laptop fixed. Since it has "spill damage" in the notes of your laptop history, that will be the excuse they use any time you bring it in for repair. Basically they are stealing the money you paid for the warranty.

How are they stealing his money when he admits he spilled something on it? And by bringing it in and having it inspected when he spilled something on it they put notes down that he did spill something on it.

I bet if he had a legit claim they'd fix it without the liquid damage. Cus they fixed mine. *shrugs*
 

altonb1

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2002
6,432
0
71
I admit that something was spilled on it. However, after completely drying out, the device works fine--until this issue came up. If every claim is going to be denied, then I would say at the minimum, CUSA owes me a refund on the extended warranty since I never have any hopes of getting anything repaired.

I'm pretty aggravated, and in my eyes, since they did not (and apparently CAN NOT) return the piece that broke, they should have to replace the mobo or find a way to repair it themselves.
 

daveymark

Lifer
Sep 15, 2003
10,573
1
0
You should have taklen it completely apart and cleaned all signs of spillage on it before turning it in.
 

Raduque

Lifer
Aug 22, 2004
13,140
138
106
Situations like this is why I always buy crapusa's "No Questions Asked" replacement warranty.
 

xcript

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2003
8,257
1
81
Damn power connectors. They're always the first thing to go. :|

It was a big problem with the R3000 series Compaq Presarios. One solution was to use an XC1000 media cable which attaches to and provides power via the docking port. Maybe there's something like that for your Acer (?).
 

Sphexi

Diamond Member
Feb 22, 2005
7,280
0
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Go to Radioshack, buy a coax jack that matches your adapter plug size (if it's a coax type). A local repair guy near the store I used to work at would buy a few dozen at a time, for like $1.50 each, and charge $50 for the 10 minutes it took him to solder them onto people's laptops as a replacement.
 

ScottAD

Senior member
Jan 10, 2007
735
77
91
I've got a Dell Latitude and made sure to have the gold warranty thingymajig I cant think of its name at the moment, anyhow. About two weeks ago I spilled something on the keyboard, was soda. I admit I fibbed and told them it just stopped working, they sent Me a replacement keyboard no questions asked. I've never dealt with CompUSA, infact I've never lived anywhere near one. Always around a CC or BB. I'd just get it repaired by someone who knows how to or if you can do it yourself...less hassle in the end.
 

dman

Diamond Member
Nov 2, 1999
9,110
0
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Originally posted by: Sphexi
Go to Radioshack, buy a coax jack that matches your adapter plug size (if it's a coax type). A local repair guy near the store I used to work at would buy a few dozen at a time, for like $1.50 each, and charge $50 for the 10 minutes it took him to solder them onto people's laptops as a replacement.

Wow. It takes like an hour to rip apart the components to get to the part that needs to be soldered (maybe quicker if you've done that particular model before). Probably another 30minutes to reassemble. So, $50 is a damn good deal if that's included. A shop around here charges $125ish for similar service, at least they did for someone I knew.
 

SagaLore

Elite Member
Dec 18, 2001
24,036
21
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Originally posted by: Matthias99
...kind of lame, but this is why I recommend getting accidental damage coverage for laptops.

Yup - the extended warranties are pointless unless you get full accidental as well. My last company used Dell laptops, and more repair issues were from physical damage and spillage than anything else.
 

mattlear

Senior member
Jun 2, 2000
349
0
76
I'm not sure if this will apply, but I -think- it does.

There is a federal law which may be able to work in your favor:

Magnuson-Moss

The example I have always seen used is if you bought a car and decided to put a supercharger on it. Well, the supercharger generally voids the warranty - on the engine. If the transmission goes, or something else not related to the supercharger, they cannot legally deny you the warranty claim on that unaffected part.

Here's another link to the Magnuson-Moss Act:
Wikipedia entry

If you review your limited warranty, does it state that damages due to spilling are not covered? If so, you can argue that this damage / break had NOTHING TO DO with you spilling liquid on the device.

Hope this helps out and good luck!

-Matt
 

ShOcKwAvE827

Senior member
Jul 28, 2001
950
0
0
GL, doubt they'll give you anything, big companies are shady. Just like when I had a IBM drive that had a partially bent pin. When the deathstar failed like all of them did, they denied it because of a bent pin.