about Thinkpad Protection Plan

i accidentally damaged my screen, and luckily i have the 2 years thinkpad protection plan.
i'm going to send it for repair, my question is how could i ask for some cosmetic repair, or somehow weasel my way for that...
and could i take out the harddrive coz i need my data and i don't have an external harddrive and right now in a tight budget to get one.

thanks alot

 

Never send anything to EasyServ that isn't part of the problem.

 

Are they really that bad? I've sent machines in to other manufacturers before for repairs and never lost data.

 

No, they're not necessarily that bad, but why take the chance? Some of us have been around long enough to have been part of IBM's ThinkPad forum on CompuServe and remember the guy who lost his HDD in a FedEx plane fire on the tarmac. There's a reason that the FAQs for the ThinkPad Mailing List and
Bill Morrow's Thinkpads.com forum have included the following for years:

Q. Does EasyServ need my HDD to fix my ThinkPad?
A. Never send anything to EasyServ that isn't part of the problem. Period.

 

My laptop has been in the depot for the past 44 days and it is supposedly being shipped from the depot back to me today. I've had to make 20+ calls since the beginning of May to push them to get the repair done after they've given me over four different excuses (don't have right shipping address, billable repair, old case number, back-ordered part). And to imagine this is over a $40 palmrest and the fact I have accidental protection. I don't hold much faith that they'll ship it to my new address (which I've told the depot/lenovo support about five times yet every time they give me my old address). I'll probably have to spend an additional 3-4 days trying to obtain the tracking number, travel 60 miles to the depot and finally getting my laptop back.

Update Fri May 30: Put on conference call between depot and Lenovo support this afternoon, apparently the Lenovo support person I called in yesterday gave wrong information as the laptop was not shipped nor confirmed to be repaired. Looks like I will be going into Day 48 of an absolutely absurd case.

Update Sat May 31: Purolator called me at 11am and said my laptop is at their pick up location. Unfortunately they shipped it to my old address, which is over 60 miles away and they close at 1pm. I cannot make it there in time. Now I have to call the depot (again) and tell them (for the 4th time) to update my address.

 

ouch...
i hope i will have a better service. i'm always told that IBM have a very good costumer care

 

I just always make sure my important stuff is backed up before I send my machine in for repairs. That way I don't have to worry if HP blows up my hard drive.