Big problem with PowerNotebooks, need advice please

Hello all,

I just want to make it clear before I begin that I am not posting this to persuade people to take sides with myself or PN. I am not posting this as an attempt to slur PN, I simply need advice on what to do next because I am out of ideas. I will now list the facts of my situation in chronological order.


--I bought a PowerPro L 8:15 FORCE from powernotebooks.com about a year ago including a 3 year warranty.

--My video card appeared to die on me several weeks ago. I called PowerNotebooks about it, they had me run some tests and concluded that I should send it in for repair.

--They sent me return instructions that stated I should ship the laptop overnight, fully insured, and to charge it to their fedex account #.

--The instructions clearly stated "any out of warranty services will be charged an $89 estimate fee, which will be waived if you authorize the repair." They never made any mention that I could possibly have to pay for their pricey shipping methods. I will post the complete return instructions upon request, I just wasn't sure if anyone would want to read them and I believe I posted the only important part.

--Laptop arrived, they diagnosed it and claimed the card was damaged due to a liquid spill and thus my warranty was void. I know for certain that I never spilled anything on my laptop, so naturally I became quite agitated. I searched google for "laptop" and "liquid spill" and saw from various stories from other people in my situation that this is the "oldest trick in the book" for companies that do not wish to honor warranties. Perhaps taking any of that to heart was wrong of me, but I did respond with a few anger fueled emails with insinuations that PowerNotebooks did not appreciate. I completely admit to this, although I do not think my comments were nearly as bad as their reaction to them would suggest. It's not as if I went on a swearing tirade or made direct accusations of wrongdoing. During my back and forth emails with one of their representatives, he suggested that I contact the Better Business Bureau and attempt to have them resolve this dispute. I decided to give that a try.

--PowerNotebooks informed me that now I could no longer exercise their offer from the return instructions to have the diagnosis fee waived since they are no longer willing to repair my laptop at all. This seems wrong to me as I understand it's best to have laptops repaired by their specific manufacturers, but obviously I'm unable to change their mind. They request their $89 diagnosis fee upon which they would ship back my laptop. I inform them that I would like them to hold on to the laptop until the BBB process is completed. They agree.

--Their very first reply to the BBB claimed that I rejected their offer to return the laptop for the $89 fee and that I now owed that plus the full costs of inbound and outbound shipping! For starters, I clearly never rejected their offer. I challenged them to provide evidence of my supposed rejection and they ignored it. More importantly, if I had any clue that I might be forced to pay for the shipping, I NEVER would have shipped it overnight, that is just craziness.

--I wrote to them asking why they were playing hardball and trying to get more money from me since they're the ones who told me to contact the BBB in the first place and I basically begged them to restore their original offer. They replied saying they could do it, but that now I also needed to inform the BBB that I understood my warranty was void.

--In light of the fact that the BBB didn't seem to be very useful and in the interest of saving hundreds of dollars, I submitted to their demands and let the BBB know that I understood my warranty was void. In the interest of honesty, I made sure to include at the end of my statement that I may not agree with their reasoning, but that I do accept it. Powernotebooks says they cannot accept my statement because of the last part I mentioned. I'm fed up now because I did make clear to the BBB what they asked me to, so I shut down and refuse to make any further statements on the matter. They say if I will not make a new statement, I will have to pay for the shipping. I tell them whenever they're ready to fulfill their half of our agreement, I will reluctantly give them the $89, which they now say they will only accept in the form of a check or money order for some reason. That is the level of monetary risk stated in their return instructions and it is clearly all they ask for as per standard operating procedure. I don't think it's right that they're trying to get more money out of me now simply because I took their suggested course of action and contacted the BBB.


It has been 11 days since I sent in my last email and they have not replied. I tried starting the BBB thing back up again but I haven't heard anything back from them yet and don't see any good coming from it anyway. I don't know what to do. All I know is that I want to avoid being their ***** (for lack of a better word) anymore than I already have been...

What would you do in my situation? Would you make the statement? Pay for the shipping? Refuse to do either? It has been close to 2 months now and I REALLY want my laptop back. Thanks a lot for reading and I appreciate any and all advice.

 

You owe them $89. The laptop is solely your property and they can't hold it hostage. If they attempt to do so, you have full right to file a small-claims lawsuit for the price of your laptop. Since they did not stipulate shipping charges, they can't add them on after they receive your property. That would be similar to the old scam where movers give you a low-ball quote, pack up your belongings, and refuse to give them back without adding on inane extra charges.

 

So should I threaten them with the lawsuit before I file it and give them a chance to do right? Or should I just go ahead and file it at this point?

Does Compal have any reps on these forums? Is there anything else I could do to avoid legal hassles (and costs I presume)?

 

Powernotebooks cannot legally refuse to honor their 3 years warranty which includes shipping, that is a trade law violation and you can bring them to court. They know that.

I would say, try one more time but this time talk to the President of the company, many times some customer services people think that the own the company (they hold a relative position of power) and when they get sued they are hypocrital, so make yourself a favor, talk to the President.

With regards the liquid spill, I would suggest you ask them how they came to that conclusion. Water could have got inside during transportation may be, who knows.

Once again, try to do things the friendly way, because powernotebooks has a good rate of satisfaction and I'm sure they don't want other people get the perception that they are just a sweet talking. I'm actually positioning myself to buy my next laptop from them.

 

Check here for the Consumerist's guide to fighting back. You might also want to email them to publicize this catastrophe, so people will avoid PowerNotebooks. This will definitely associate PowerNotebooks with negativity, and in light to end it they might just stop the child game. Tell the BBB everything you've just posted here, and give them proof of everything done.

 

If he goes to war, they will be both losers, if he try to solve the issue the amiable way, then is a win win situation.

Plus do not minimize the factor TIME and MONEY when you pursuit a legal battle.

 

He's not going to war, he's just doing everything in his power to get what he paid for. This might also prevent this event from occuring to others. Ask them for proof of water damage, and tell the BBB everything.

 

I just share my experience, it's always better to try the easy way first, which he did, but I don't think I'm reading he scalated the issue higher.

 

Thanks guys, your posts are very reassuring.

Wirelessman, do you mean they can't legally deny just the shipping part, or the entire warranty? How do you suggest I reach the president of the company? I hate live confrontations so I'd rather email him than call if possible. They said they came to their conclusion about the liquid spill because of visible corrosion. They sent me pictures of corroded parts, as "proof" but it's not like I would know what my video card looks like in the first place. By the way, if all of their notebooks are similar to the one I bought I'd strongly recommend against, not only because of this but because mine shut down from overheating countless times which is probably the real reason my video card died. I definitely got most of the memory and other specs maxed out, but that doesn't excuse them for poor ventilation or whatever the reason is. And yes, I kept it on a flat surface at all times. I even bought a cooling pad for it which helped a little but it STILL crashed when I had too many programs running. Not really "too many" though, my desktop handles it fine and it's 5 years old.

.

 

....which is what the Consumerists suggest he does.

Start off with basic customer support and escalate if they can't help you. This makes you seem like you are really trying to make things right instead of going on a tantrum demanding the company president.

 

Use this info to contact the president if you really don't wanna call.

 

@Piccolo: Just call and ask to connect you with the president, be direct and calm, you may say that is confidential.

I'll try to help you with an insider, I don't promise you anything but If I exaust all my resources I'll let you know.

 

Good job man!

 

ACK! That's who I've been in contact with from the beginning... lol. Thanks though!

Thanks for the offer Wireless, I really appreciate it.

 

Uhh wait, why don't you just PM Donald? He lunks these forums (just saw a sig saying it) here is his profile. He's helped me and other people out of these forums, seems like a logical guy, just talk it out with him.

 

He is the one behind the scenes throughout the entire OP =/

 

Yikes...you should still try to make one last attempt to resort this before escalating.

 

Donald has PM disabled.

 

Bottom line, "don't piss off your notebook supplier and warranty provider"!

 

How did he piss anyone off? Sure, he sent some emails with a little anger, but that's expected with that kind of treatment. He did everything they demanded, and got nothing from it.

 

Because human imperfection, is hard to always state who is really at fault, that's why I believe you must (vendor/consumer) get disagreement solved in a professional way.

But, what happened to that saying: The consumer is always right?

So I think is better for vendors to let go and hoping a consumer will come back and even recommend the vendor to someone else.

 

What I know is that PowerNotbooks has a great reputation, and Donald really knows his notebooks. It's hard to imagine Donald not honoring a customer's warranty unless he really found an honest reason not to. Maybe something did get spilled into the notebook, it happens all of the time, it's not that uncommon. It could have happened when the OP was away from his notebook, or it could be that he's not being truthful about this and he spilled something himself and is trying to get PowerNotebooks to pay for his mistake. It's obviously not an accidental warranty to begin with, so... It's a pretty tragic situation either way at this point, but I think it's only fair to offer Donald the same benefit of the doubt that has been offered to the OP. Why would Donald just all of the sudden turn into this evil corporate monster, it just doesn't make any sense. Why would he do something to harm his own business, over anything, let alone just a piddly GPU? He was even willing to go through the whole BBB process, which costs him time, which in his case is probably equal to money. There's just something wrong with this picture.

 

But again, I'm not saying that Piccolo is telling lies, but we also need to hear powernotebooks version, may be they have their own viewpoint of the situation, and if you look at it from their angle, it might sound good too.

And most likely they are both right in some respect so it just a question of walking half way and reach an agreement meeting both requirements, for the sake of the current and future relationship. Don't forget, Piccolo will have their laptop for a couple years to come, so he might need them later, who knows.

 

Was the laptop and warranty service paid for with a credit card? Sometimes the credit card's card services can be a big help. Wells Fargo kind of kicked the crap out of PayPal for me on fraud eBay sale. You have to have documentation and be on the level with them. They did a charge back and got the rest of the money that PayPal said wasn't recoverable from the seller.

 

There is more to this than getting his gpu fix. The OP has to pay money for "out-of-warranty" estimate fee. He said he bought a 3yr warranty and he's had his laptop for 1yr, so even if the OP was dishonest, he still shouldn't have been charged the $89 because he is still under warranty, not only because he has two years left but because PowerNotebooks hasn't given any physical proof, or any evidence that it was indeed liquid on the gpu. If it were indeed liquid, it wouldn't have just all accumulated onto the gpu only, it would have gotten everywhere and anything and nothing owuld have started, and from what the OP wrote it seems the only problem is that nothing shows on screen.

 

Aren't keyboards the first to take a hit in a spill. I have fixed a couple that were spill damaged successfully except for the keyboards. They don't seem to ever come out of it and need replacing.

 

We have to be careful here, we are making many speculations, we don't know both versions.

 

This situation has to be a tough one for Mr Stratton. He probably doesn't want to confront a customer publicly (anyone else remember the Voodoo PC/Kimble fiasco?). I'd guess that he also probably doesn't want to take part in a public debate concerning his company's well-established and highly rated policies. This has got to be tough for both sides, because each "account" (yes, I know we haven't actually heard PNB's side yet) seems plausible to me. Never before have I heard of a customer so dissatisfied with this company, and I've never before heard any accusations such as this.

@OP: if this is truly the full extent of the story and nothing was spilled on your laptop, it seems to me that PNB should take care of you and your machine. If anything is left out deliberately, or something about the story isn't as you say here, I'd say you owe Mr Stratton and PNB a huge apology.

I hope you're able to work out an agreement with PNB satisfactory to you and the company. Good luck.

 

Wow, to think that an issue with a company with a reputation such as PNB's is surprising. Like others have said, I do believe that PNB's story is essential in coming to cut a path to a mutual agreement. If Donald ever sees this thread, I'd deem it best that he talk to Piccolo over email (assuming the fact that Piccolo sent PNB a decent chunk of emails).

@Piccolo: I understand that PNB wouldn't want much publicity on this issue assuming that your story is an exact account of what happened. Perhaps you could post the pictures that they sent you which were claimed as being damaged by liquid spill. I may not be able to infer much from it, but there might be somebody here who can. Also, I have a few questions: can condensation occur inside the card? Like maybe through the vents or something? If so, would that be the culprit to this issue? At this point, if I were Piccolo, I'd be satisfied to get a working notebook back without me coughing up a lot of money. And once I have it, maybe resell it and salvage some money which can be used toward the purchase of another notebook from another reseller/manufacturer.

 

To OP sorry to hear of this unfortunate situation. And am not going to take either side but throw a couple things out. I believe you might not be aware of a "spill happening" but there could be a moisture issue. I thinking swearing at them likely would of offended them less than you accusing them of being crooks. You should of paid the return charge $89 and taken it for a second opinion. I highly doubt they have a bin of corroded GPU's to swap with your non-corroded one to deny coverage.

The whole issue of can they charge you for the shipping even though they did not mention it? Anyone who is not a lawyer should be very careful making sweeping legal opinions. The warranty is a legal contract and as such clearly outlines rights and obligations of both parties. And while as a business practice PN may eat shipping on non warranty repairs made in good faith they may reserve the right to not do so. And they could likely withhold return until fees are paid, think "mechanics lean". Your warranty is the "magic document"/contract not shipping instructions. You were free to send uninsured but would of been a fool to of done so.

The moisture issue, I am not an electronics expert but but have multiple certificates in water restoration. And what I see just makes it more of a mystery as to what is going on. I am confused as if OP spilled or water happened in shipping? Well if OP spilled liquid serious damage immediately sends and no time for corrosion. Picked up moisture in shipping? Same not enough time. OP spills but nothing happens immediately. I do not see it causing corrosion it is a mini dryer in there, You have heat and you have substantial airflow. If OP wants to explore, if PN being truthful (I think likely) what kind of environments do you keep it in. is the indoor RH substantially above 50% I have seen this raise the moisture level of drywall above 17% enough to allow mold to grow.

They want you to amend you BBB statement? Well clearly because it does not meet the criteria set by the BBB for satisfactory resolution. Don't blame PN blame BBB or change statement. PN should not have a black mark on their record for something they feel they do not deserve so you can save on shipping. You want the benefit of resolution for your gain but want to deny them the benefit of the resolution for what they seek, does not sound fair to me with the facts that you have brought to the table.

As to money order, what you want to use a credit card? You and I both know you likely would dispute and at a minimum delay payment and possibly get it denied. Can he do it? Call Visa and tell them, in most cases merchants are restricted from doing. Do I recommend? No look what you already got yourself into.

The more I think about it PN is willing to put you back in the place you started at prior to things going out of control. Remove the BBB they will send it back for $89. Then get a second opinion but don't be surprised if they say not a warranty issue. Until then you are accusing them of being crooks without evidence, not very nice even if you are mad. You are wanting your cake and eat also.

I do believe you are sincere and confused but that does not make PN dishonest.

 

This is really not the best place to discuss this, but since the OP has brought it here I think it is better to hear both sides of the story...don't you agree?

The fact is that we took pictures of his laptop showing corrosion and water stains on several places on the laptop. Several of these pictures clearly show his serial number on different components of the laptop confirming that it was indeed his. We sent these pictures to both Piccolo, and later to the BBB.

He claimed that he had never spilled any liquid into his laptop, and that it must have either been our technician that did it, or that the pictures were of someone else's laptop, or that somehow we were fabricating the whole thing, and that his research had revealed that this was the "oldest trick in the book", along with several other false accusations and derogatory comments.

We suggested that maybe someone else might have spilled liquid into it without his knowledge to which he replied that any of his friends or family that might have had the opportunity to do so would have told him about it. Nevertheless we gave him the benefit of the doubt that he was unaware of the liquid spill.

Our factory is an ISO 9001:2000 facility and you can be assured that there is no liquid anywhere near our technicians during the initial build or any repairs. There was no evidence of a liquid spill on any of the packaging. It was only evident on and in the laptop itself.

Further, corrosion takes considerable time to develop after a liquid spill occurs. It could not have happened while in our possession.

Since a liquid spill is physical damage which is not covered by the warranty, and there is no way to ever be sure you have repaired all of the damage done by a liquid spill without replacing virtually every component in the laptop, we have no obligation to do an out of warranty repair of this type. However we generally accommodate our customers and do the repair, but it does eliminate any further warranty coverage.

However after receiving the brunt of his denial and several false accusations and derogatory comments we concluded that we were not interested in doing the repair for him. At this point we had already paid Next Day Air shipping to bring it back to the factory, invested about 2.5 hours of technician’s time (plus my time) into the case, and had no obligation to repair it or to pay the shipping cost to return it to him unrepaired.

To simply settle the matter we told him that if he paid the $89 estimate fee we would ship it back to him and waive both incoming and return shipping costs. He declined to accept our offer at which time we suggested he submit his complaint to the Better Business Bureau because we had gone as far as we were willing to go and there appeared to be no other way to resolve the dispute.

In his BBB complaint he said the only way to resolve the dispute was to have us repair his laptop including replacing his video card and anything else that would be required to have his laptop “…fully repaired…” and for PNB to continue to honor his warranty for the remainder of the 3 year term. That is pretty clearly a rejection of any previous offers we made to him.

At this point I requested that he submit that matter to the FREE binding arbitration that the BBB offers. This way a disinterested 3rd party arbitrator who is trained to examine the evidence, including that laptop itself along with the statements of both parties, would be able to settle the matter. It is free and is really an as good or better way to resolve this kind of dispute.

He declined to take advantage of the binding arbitration at which point I told him that PowerNotebooks.com would settle the matter on 2 conditions:
1. That he close the BBB complaint with his statement that: “…you...agree that your warranty is now void because your laptop arrived at our Service Center with physical damage caused by a liquid spill. Even though it may not have been you that actually did it, it was done while it was under your custody, not ours, as evidenced by the corrosion and liquid stains in the pictures we have presented. That corrosion could not have happened during the short time we had it in our possession, and that is simply a scientific fact.”
2. That you send your personal check for the $89 estimate fee (we waived the other 1.5 hours labor charge and all shipping charges).

So, he went to the BBB and made the following statement: “I hereby understand that they have voided my warranty. Let it be known far and wide. I may not agree with it, but I understand it. Feel free to close this case now.”

I told him that was not in keeping with the intent of our request in that it appeared that somehow we had arbitrarily voided his warranty, when in fact the physical damage caused by the liquid spill is what voided his warranty, and further that his two following exculpatory sentences were simply an attempt to continue to place all of the blame for this situation on PowerNotebooks.com which would not settle the matter once and for all.

Notwithstanding this, in an attempt to settle the matter completely, I then asked him to simply reply to my email stating: “…that you understand that your warranty is now void because of physical damage due to a liquid spill. That is a fact and not a subject for debate.” and send us his check for the $89 estimate fee. I told him that if this was not acceptable that our offer would be revoked and our only remedy will be his payment of the $39 return shipping charges as well (we were still willing to waive the incoming Next Day Air shipping charges), or submitting the matter to a 3rd party Jurist.

His email reply contained a rejection of our offer in which he refused to make any statement, pay for return shipping, or submit it to a 3rd party Jurist. He stated that he would only send us $89 for the estimate fee.

We saw no purpose to yet another reply to him that would just continue the circling with no resolution. We have not received any check from him, and we have not heard from him since that last email until his post here today.

Now, having read both sides and looking at the pictures linked to in the second paragraph above, what advice might you have for us.

 

I stick with my original statement. Pay the $89 and stop wasting your time and PowerNotebook's time.

Granted, that should have been done long ago, but the OP sure isn't going to pay more, he's expressed his refusal to pay many times. PN doesn't need any more trouble or wasted time either, and by keeping his laptop, opens them to a lawsuit, which - and this is where I love the American legal system - even if they win, they still lose money.

A good way to avoid this in any future situation is to stipulate that the customer pays for return shipping if it is found that the warranty is voided on the system. I've seen this quite a few times while I worked at the Geek Squad, where a customer would claim that warranty voiding damage was caused by the repair factory (quite frankly, a few of them could have been telling truth. I swear some of the people who worked at the repair center could have been replaced with two monkeys and a screwdriver). However, it's clearly stipulated in a signed contract that the customer is responsible for $25-70 depending on what the item was, which included shipping, if the item was found to have damage that would void the warranty.

 

One question Paladin, what is the current "best" position of PN towards this situation?

To keep the laptop until OP pays, not repair the laptop and terminate the rest of the warranty?

 

@ paladin44 I tried to be balanced and as suspected you do try and do care. But coming up with alternate explanations and not calling out either side was the best I could do. Did not mean to add any undeserved bad rep on PNB. Hope I did not offend with my post as not meant to, actually either side. But thank you for inputing and it sounds as usual you did what you thought was best. Sorry you got dragged out on a private business transaction that likely should of been resolved in private. I work with the public and damn if you can try to make everyone happy but somehow have not got there yet.

 

Wow, spills really make a mess of system!

I hope I never have that happen to mine. If it did, I'd try to get it disassembled and cleaned ASAP, if this was done I doubt it would have corroded like that.

Thanks for posting Donald, I know this is a difficult situation for you.

My suggestion to Piccolo would be to accept any kindness Donald is willing to show you, pay what you owe, and be done with it.

 

I can't help but note that the laptop is very unkempt. Is it just the liquid spills that is doing so much damage? After reading both sides of the story, I would say that Piccolo should go back to square one, and accept that $89 offer and close the case. Whatever damages that have been done have been done, and there's no fixing it. Saving time, money and effort would be the best way to go.

 

What does it get the OP with paying the $89?

 

It's a bargain price for the the labor involved in the work that was not covered by the warranty. It's very fair, especially considering all of the time the OP took away from the business in general.

 

OP gets his laptop back, and case closed. I don't know if he'll get a warranty back or not.

 

I understand, but does OP get his laptop working, with the video card repaired?

 

Not quite. IMO, he just got his backside handed to him by Mr Stratton. The OP wasn't straight with us (NBR members). Seems to me that he was trying to over on PNB and get something (repair work) for nothing (read: undeserved warranty work).

 

Get off the bike! Too fast for you, you can't ride and type at the same time! It gets him where he says he can't get. He just has to not make unfounded disputes. I would of opened my notebook when GPU failed and would of known if issues. OP didn't and now wants to say no way! Has no clue and paladin44 explained very well I thought. He runs a good business and follows standards and guidelines and builds reputation and for a warranty repair, does what OP accuses? No! PNB is willing to settle but of course does not want to deal with him as explained, look at from their angle? You smart monkey I know, you will agree. Monkey feel bad for OP but think PNB, monkey no cry everyone no happy.

And to the MOD's, closing might not be a bad idea as the issues have been aired and all the rest of us are doing is taking sides on things none of us know of. Just a thought? I think something about further discussion is unlikely to result in productive insight? I smell smoke.

 

I love your smile and lack of teeth

Your thought would suggest to atribute bad motives to the OP, which NOT even PNB did. Donald aluded to the fact that the humidity could have gotten inside the laptop without the OP been aware of, (e.g. someone accidentely made fall a glass of water). By observing the energy consumed by the OP defending his case, this might have been very well the case.

My question remains, does the $98 pays the OP a repaired laptop or just a returned laptop?

 

Man, you are the only one who understand monkeys. The only reason I'm playing here the devil's advocate, is because I would like to put myself in the OP position for a moment and think this could have happened to me. Let's see my younger brother was playing around and triped and push my coffee and.......now he calls big sister, and they clean everything so big brother OP doesn't breake the whole house or send to Iraq the young brother, whatever.

I personally think that if $98 pays the OP a laptop working, repaired and at his house doors, then I would take it, now with regards the balance of the 3 years warranty, I think it should remain in a full force because he didn't open the laptop, and the only thing affected was the video card since now the laptop would be repaired.

Do you see where the monkey is coming from, and BTW, do you see me behind the helmet or not?

 

lmao!

I agree, but I think we should at least give the OP an opportunity to respond, IF he has the "stuff" to do it!

 

$89 gets a returned laptop. If it's water damage, most of the parts need to be swapped out, it'd be more cost effective to buy a new one.

 

So then I assume wirelessman's question would now be if he'll get a replacement/refurb? If he does, then I assume that his 3-year warranty will be flushed down the drain.

Now if that were to happen, IMO the OP is getting a deal and should be happy with it.

 

??? Where do you guys get this stuff from?

PowerNotebooks must give the OP his laptop back. The OP owes at least $89 for services rendered. The laptop will be returned in the same or similar state of when it was sent in. The OP is then free to do as he pleases with his broken laptop, either getting it repaired from another service center or purchasing a new/refurbished one.

The 3 year warranty is gone. It went away the second that liquid damage was observed in his computer.

 

Me also but at this point I would charge S/H as I think he was over? Come on, paladin44 suddenly decided to be a jerk to some guy? I doubt very much!

Edit: But I would, S/H but that is me!

 

Oh my gosh, so many things to respond to.

I did remove the BBB, I just refused to imply that I agreed with their decision because I don't. I'm not going to lie for them. I am NOT accusing them of being crooks, I don't see where you got that from.

Here are my exact words regarding this supposed "claim."

"look at it from my point of view. I know for a fact that I never spilled anything on it and have no way of knowing if these people are telling the truth or if some tech guy who opened the box spilled his drink on it by accident and didn't own up to it.".

Clearly I was not claiming that it MUST have been their technician, I simply stated it as a possibility. I'm not goign to search all my emails for each comment, but this is the same case for all of the "claims" I supposedly made.

I never refused your offer. Please show me where I did.

This is false. You suggested I take my complaint to the BBB on February 17th. You first informed me that you would not repair my laptop on the 21st.

I didn't say that was the "only way," I simply put it as my desired resolution. Did you really think I would request anything other than that from them? You knew exactly what my dispute was, suggested I take it to the BBB, then were surprised when I said to them what I had been saying to you from the beginning? I don't get it... And as stated above, we agreed I should take this issue to the BBB 4 days before any mention of the $89 return offer, so how is anything I said to them a rejection of the offer?

Saying I don't agree with your actions isn't the same as placing blame, nor does it invalidate my statement that I understood my warranty was void. The BBB had no problem with the statement and happily marked the case "resolved."

At this point I am more than willing to do this, but they are not.

Again, this is what I would like to do. And the case is already marked closed, FWIW.

Wait... what? How was I in any way not straight with you? There is nothing contradictory in either side of this story. And I thought I made it quite clear that I'm not even trying to get repair work done at this point. I just want my laptop back for the original price they stated.

Oh and by the way, all of the other components on the laptop work as far as I know. I was running graphics off the motherboard before I sent it in and experienced no other problems that might suggest liquid damage.