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!
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!