It doesn't matter how it got there, stop playing semantics.

[sld72382]

Guy calls in and when he said "I have been dealing with the corporate office on this" I knew I was headed for trouble.

Backstory: The store sells service plans on laptops that have accidental damage protection. It covers a lot.... except if the laptop is completely submerged in liquid or run over by a car. This is to prevent people from destroying the laptop in hopes of getting a new one.

Apparently, this guy's idiot son slipped on his deck and dropped the laptop in the guy's miniature pond. Laptop lost the battle.

SC: I need to have this covered. I bought the accidental damage warranty for a reason.

Me: The service plan you purchased does cover accidental damage but complete submersion is considered abuse, that's why they told you it's not covered.

SC: They told me at the store it covers everything. Therefore, that does not apply to me.

Me: I'm sorry for being misinformed, but once the service center deems it abuse it will not be covered. I wish I could say something better.

SC: Does the accidental damage plan warranty cover the unit if it's dropped?

Me: Yes....

SC: *Cuts me off before I could finish.* Well my son dropped the laptop into the pond. Therefor, it should be covered!

Me: It does cover drops and if it just dropped into the ground from a short distance in the air that would be a different story, however the end result is that it went into a pond and became completely submerged.

SC: No. My son dropped the laptop and it happened to go into the pond. You MUST cover this.

Me: *At this point, I know I'm just going to go round and round with him.* If you want to dispute the service center's findings I can transfer you back to the corporate offices. I can't do disputes like that here.

SC: Fine, get me back over there, I'll just hassle them until this gets resolved.

*Transferred.*

One word to this SC: It doesn't matter if it dropped out of someone's hands, fell out of a briefcase, or fell off a table. Once it gets dunked in water, that's it. End of story.

[underemployeed]

It makes me sad to not be able to find a real accidental damage plan anymore, because people tend to purposely destroy their laptops towards the end of the warranty to get a "new" laptop.

[Sheldonrs]

I'd be happy to replace your laptop. Let me just check if we have any in stock that have also been submerged in water. After all, the agreement doesn't say the replacement will work. Just that we'll replace yours.

[Exaspera]

That's why they've begun to put the equivalent of black boxes on rental cars.

[bsaana]

That's why they've begun to put the equivalent of black boxes on rental cars.

Aren't those on just about any and every car now, and not just rentals? If my memory hasn't failed me yet, I remember reading they keep the data from 20 to 60 seconds before a wreck.

[RestaurantDude]

Aren't those on just about any and every car now, and not just rentals? If my memory hasn't failed me yet, I remember reading they keep the data from 20 to 60 seconds before a wreck.

Most modern OBD II compliant cars keep a record of various parameters for X # of seconds prior to airbag deployment.

[Exaspera]

^^^^^Well, color me just learning something!

Only one of our cars was made in this century. Haven't kept up.

[Midorikawa]

Most modern OBD II compliant cars keep a record of various parameters for X # of seconds prior to airbag deployment.

...wait...airbag? :-P

kidding of course. I just didn't know OBD II recorded that information...I guess as exaspera said, we only have 1 car from this century. Even better, that's also the only car out of 3 that was manufactured since the wife and I were born. :-D

[ExiledV20]

My favorite story about covering laptop damage comes from when I worked for IBM in their Thinkpad division. A guy calls in for repair on his laptop, says he dropped it a couple of feet and now it doesn't work. After saying that, he immediately had to go into a meeting and passed it off to his secretary. I start trying to lead the secretary through the trouble-shooting process and am getting NOWHERE. She can't see the screen, she can't find the power switch, etc, etc. Finally:

Secretary: You know it's in a bag, right?
Me: In a bag?
Secretary: Yeah. It's all in pieces, about 40 of them.
Me: ....
Me: Ma'am, how is it in pieces? He said he dropped it a couple of feet. It shouldn't be in pieces. [This was in the late 1990s; Thinkpads were BRICKS back then. You had to be damn rough to crack the carbonite casing.]
Secretary: Oh, well he was at a construction site and he dropped it. It fell a few feet, hit the board that he was standing on, and then bounced off and dropped six stories.
Me: ....

Quickly confirmed with my supe that it was not covered under warranty and then transferred to him to explain...

[Exaspera]

Secretary: You know it's in a bag, right?
Me: In a bag?
Secretary: Yeah. It's all in pieces, about 40 of them.
Me: ....
Me: Ma'am, how is it in pieces? He said he dropped it a couple of feet. It shouldn't be in pieces. [This was in the late 1990s; Thinkpads were BRICKS back then. You had to be damn rough to crack the carbonite casing.]
Secretary: Oh, well he was at a construction site and he dropped it. It fell a few feet, hit the board that he was standing on, and then bounced off and dropped six stories.
Me: ....

So he sort of minimized that problem, huh?

The pager refurbishing company I worked for got an Advisor Executive in a Ziploc baggie in about the same amount of pieces. Guy had run it over with a lawnmower and what could we do for him. It stayed pinned up on a bulletin board in the Super's office.

[mattm04]

I'd be happy to replace your laptop. Let me just check if we have any in stock that have also been submerged in water. After all, the agreement doesn't say the replacement will work. Just that we'll replace yours.

Yep. Got one that was left on a car fell of the room into a puddle and got run over by a cement truck. Where do you want the trash bag of laptop pieces sent to?

[Sonoma]

SC: *Cuts me off before I could finish.* Well my son dropped the laptop into the pond. Therefor, it should be covered!

Sure, we'll take care of the damage from the fall. However, there is no coverage for the water damage. The pretty cracked plastic can be replaced, but the fried internal components are still there.