Sending in my dv9000t for repairs, can I get another HD caddy?

Long story short, my laptop died and tomorrow I will be sending it back to HP to have it repaired.

The dv9000t has two hard drive slots. In order to utilize them, you need a 2.5-inch hard drive (obviously), a SATA connector, and a drive caddy (as well as four screws to install the caddy). I ordered my laptop with only one hard drive, and I only got one SATA connector and one drive caddy, effectively making my second hard drive slot worthless.

Since I'm sending my laptop to HP anyway, is there a way for me to get them to give me another drive caddy? I'm considering calling by phone and just asking but I'm not sure if the phone rep could give me that information (the rep I talked to by phone today when arranging the repair didn't seem too knowledgeable). I'm seriously considering just removing the hard drive caddy and SATA connector before sending it, but if I did, would they charge me extra for it? And if I did, should I send it with or without the hard drive?

I don't care about getting another hard drive at this point; I can buy one from newegg for pretty cheap. It's just that the caddy is very overpriced and I'd like to see if I can get that without having to pay any extra money.

Edit: I'm open to all suggestions as to how I might acquire an extra caddy, however please do not make suggestions that involve lying to HP or engaging in otherwise legally dubious activity. Thanks.

 

umm...i think asking advice on fraud is against the forum rules?

 

They will either:
-not repair it
-send it back to you
-charge you alot more for the missing caddy
-void your warranty (probably not, but they are idiots over there)

Either way its not worth trying to score a free caddy.

 

flipfire has graciously re-opened my thread, so I'd like to make it abundantly clear that it is NOT my intent to obtain the caddy through fraudulent means. If anyone can make suggestions as to how I might approach this, it'd be appreciated.

As things stand, I think that I'll try to brave HP's tech support line again when I have a sizable chunk of time open (most likely tomorrow afternoon).

 

When you send the drive back to Hp, include with the laptop a letter stating something like this:

"Greetings HP, For a while I have been meaning to install a second harddrive into my hp dv9000t. I want to upgrade but I cannot because I do not have a caddy to hold the second harddrive. I want to get the most performance out of my laptop, so if possible can I buy a secondary caddy for my system?
I will provide the second harddrive, all I need is the caddy/interposer, so I can connect another drive.
Please contact me at phone number: 123-4567, so we can talk about price and so forth.
~ kikuichimonji~"

K-TRON

 

I just got off the phone with HP's customer care line and the rep I talked to added a note to my record indicating that I wanted the parts needed to support another hard drive, HP's repair center should get back to me when they receive my notebook. There's not much for me to do at this point but hope for the best.

 

Yes you take out the hard drive before sending it in. I do it ever single time i send a laptop in i remove the hard drive i even asked a case manager he told me it was ok

No this is wrong i send mine in without a hard drive every time. The hard drive is considerd user upgradeble by HP and dosent void the warrenty