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Laptop company has been holding my property hostage for 5 months

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piccolo

Junior Member
I am in Nevada.

I bought a laptop from powernotebooks.com a year and a half ago with a 3 year warranty. After a year or so the video card died on me and after running some tests they instructed me to send it in to the overnight and fully insured at their expense for free repair. Once it got there they diagnosed it and told me the video card would be replaced. Then a few days later all of the sudden they decided it was broken due to a liquid spill, which is BS, and that my warranty was void. They told me they would get back to me about how much the repair would cost and I let them know that I never spilled anything on my computer and that what they're doing was very suspicious. That lead them to refuse to make any repair, even at my expense, because the people at this company behave like little children. They told me I needed to send in their $89 diagnostic fee and that they'd return it to me. This fee was clearly stated as a possibility in their return instructions for items that were found to be out of warranty, but no other fees or stipulations were mentioned. They also told me that if I wanted to escalate my complaint I should do so through the BBB.

So I told them I'd like to see what the BBB says about it before I give up and send them their $89 fee to get it back. Now they tell me that contacting the BBB (even though they told me to) constituted a rejection of their "offer" and that I now had to pay the $89 fee PLUS the entire cost of inbound and outbound shipping!!! I write them asking why they changed their terms and begged them to go back to their original "offer." They say they can do it but I have to make a statement claiming I understand my warranty is void due to liquid spill. Obviously I do not want to do this since I've never spilled a drop of anything on it, but I suck it up and make my own statement anyway in an effort to get my property back. I say that I understand they have voided my warranty, though I do not agree with their reasoning. This is unacceptable to them and after some more back and forth they change their terms YET AGAIN. Now they are demanding the diagnostic fee, shipping fee AND a notarized dispute settlement agreement. By the way, the BBB was entirely useless in this process and only served as a means for me to communicate with the company further, which I could have done on my own anyway.

All of this is 100% the work of the sadistic owner of the company who for some reason chose to behave like a spoiled 5 year old throughout this entire process. It's not even about the extra terms at this point, it's been reduced to a battle of egos. He will not back down nor will he grant any sort of leniency. I cannot allow him to bully me into succumbing to all of his extra demands that were never mentioned as a possibility in the return instructions they sent me. If I had known that I'd be asked for all of these things duped and at this point, seemingly robbed of my property.

When discussing this problem on a laptop review forum someone mentioned I should take them to small claims court and the owner showed up to post that he's fully prepared to go to court and that he actually can't wait for it. He claims he has pictures of corroded parts from my laptop, which of course could easily be faked, but I still got the feeling a small claims court over the warranty issue would just be a waste of even more time and money for me.

At this point, I have given up on having them fix it and I simply want my property back for the price that was stated as a possibility in their return instructions. I don't feel I should have to pay for their expensive overnight shipping, make statements I don't believe, get things notarized, hop on one leg while rubbing my belly or whatever else this creep might demand of me.

What can I possibly do here? Should I call the cops in their area and report that they refuse to return my property? Should I try to take them to small claims court strictly about the issue of having it returned to me at a reasonable cost (not about the warranty or them having to fix it)? I'm totally lost here and feel i mustn't allow this guy to have his way on principal.

Thanks a lot everyone!
 


BL

Senior Member
Or , you could make a formal complaint with your local Attorney General Office of consumer affairs .

They have the Co./warranty consumer contact info. and will forward a copy to them .

You may be surprised on the outcome .
 

piccolo

Junior Member
Senior Judge, can I sue them just on the basis of getting it back for a reasonable price? They claim they're within their rights to charge me for shipping whether they mentioned it as possible or not. Or do you think I should sue to try and get them to fix my laptop? Either way they sounded extremely confident about it and my goal right now is just to stop them from forcing me to spend extra money, which is all I believe they're really trying to do at this point. Small claims court costs money right?

BP, that sounds like a great idea! I will look into where they are first thing.

A question though. Should I complain about the warranty issue, or just about getting it back reasonably? Because I feel like even if my gut is right and they just made up the whole liquid spill thing, they could easily swap in corroded parts, switch the serial #s and and "prove" there was a spill. So I sort of feel like disputing that might actually hurt my cause. Also given how immature they've been throughout this process (not to say I wasn't immature at times too, but I'm the customer, that's expected occasionally right?), I'd be worried about them doing any "work" on if at all if I somehow got the powers that be to force them to do it.

Geekess... I was always under the impression that Dells and HPs sucked compared to most custom built machines or smaller brands. Boy was I wrong. Never again will I deal with any company this small. They take things WAY too personally and seem to have no guidelines whatsoever as to their professionalism and measures of extortion. Where were you a year and a half ago? =/

Thanks for the tips guys, I really appreciate it!
 
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BL

Senior Member
BP, that sounds like a great idea! I will look into where they are first thing.

A question though. Should I complain about the warranty issue, or just about getting it back reasonably? Because I feel like even if my gut is right and they just made up the whole liquid spill thing, they could easily swap in corroded parts, switch the serial #s and and "prove" there was a spill. So I sort of feel like disputing that might actually hurt my cause. Also given how immature they've been throughout this process (not to say I wasn't immature at times too, but I'm the customer, that's expected occasionally right?), I'd be worried about them doing any "work" on if at all if I somehow got the powers that be to force them to do it.

Geekess... I was always under the impression that Dells and HPs sucked compared to most custom built machines or smaller brands. Boy was I wrong. Never again will I deal with any company this small. They take things WAY too personally and seem to have no guidelines whatsoever as to their professionalism and measures of extortion. Where were you a year and a half ago? =/

Thanks for the tips guys, I really appreciate it!
You deal with the warranty issue , and how many times they changed their stories , and their inconsistencies .

You be aggressively assertive .

You state you demand the warranty be honored and if they can't fix yours , you want one of comparable quality or better , even if it's refurbished .

This is how I got the one I'm using now .

Don't get into an argument with them out side the facts and stick to your demands in a business fashion .

The old fluid spill , is the oldest trick/reason it the book for denials of repairs .
 

piccolo

Junior Member
But what's to stop them from swapping in corroded parts and "proving" the liquid spill? I want to listen to you but I just don't see how I could logically win a case like this if they have "proof" like they claim to and I have none. I wasn't smart enough to photograph my laptops guts before shipping it off.
 
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BL

Senior Member
But what's to stop them from swapping in corroded parts and "proving" the liquid spill? I want to listen to you but I just don't see how I could logically win a case like this if they have "proof" like they claim to and I have none. I wasn't smart enough to photograph my laptops guts before shipping it off.
Are you smart enough to file a complaint with the OAG ?

It doesn't cost anything , and in the end the PC Co. may just agree to do something for you as " a good gesture " for consumer relations .

With the OAG forwarding the complain on your behalf , it has more power than you standing alone .

You can take it or leave it , your choice .

Good luck .
 

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