Staples sent my laptop to the salvage yard instead of repairing it

[MarTN]

The “period” key didn’t work and the power plug was occasionally loose in the power port of my 1.5 year-old laptop. We had purchased a two-year extended warranty. The Staples phone tech said it would take 7-10 business days to fix and shipped me a box.

I made a copy of all of my documents and photos but did not copy the entire hard drive and did not erase the hard drive.

A few weeks later I received a phone call telling me they were unable to repair it at a reasonable cost to them (they told me this) so they had sent it to a salvage yard and would be issuing a gift card in the amount of the original laptop price (but not tax [9.75 here] or the cost of the warranty).

I was not given the option of having it returned to me. In fact, it had been sent to the salvage yard over week earlier.

No, they will not allow the remaining six months on the warranty to be used or refunded. I asked.

No, they have no way to retrieve it from the salvage yard. I asked. I tried speaking to Staples and the non-affiliated warranty company and the non-affiliated salvage yard.

So then I started thinking…

Do the guys at the salvage yard hook their iPods up to all of the iTunes libraries on the hard drives?

What if there’s a new weirdo employee who is going to take my hundreds of photos (including children) and photoshop them into who-knows-what-type of perversion?

If that original tech had even suggested they might not repair it I would not have sent it in… but he was sure a broken period key and a loose power port were no problem. I am so mad.

Added: I've had some people tell me I should have erased the hard drive, but others who say "erased" drives are still accessible to those that know how.

 

[timeos2]

Lesson learned. Take out the drive!

A correctly wiped (not erased) hard drive is not recoverable. But why would you erase a drive you planned to use? In this case since the OS/drive wasn't involved in the problems you would have been better off to send it in without the HD installed. But hindsight is 20/20.

It wasn't handled correctly and you had better hope the salvage guys use a better procedure than the store people did to ensure your data isn't stolen.

So now I assume you are in the market for a new laptop. If you want one that will last longer than 2 years I suggest you look at the Thinkpad line rather than Dell, HP, Compaq, Gateway et al as the Thinkpads will outlive all of them.

 

[pjrose]

Wow, I'd be furious. Definitely write a letter describing all the facts - not emotional, just facts - and send it to the head of customer service, the CEO, the warranty company, etc. Not much can be done now, but the complaint needs to be in writing.

I remember when we got an extended warranty through Staples for a Palm Pilot, the fine print said that a repair would satisfy the terms of the warranty. I asked what if it failed in a week, would that be the end of the warranty? The salesman didn't know, but it did clearly say that. (Actually the salesman was related to some TS salespeople - he said just bring it in to Staples any time and we will replace it - while the warranty clearly said it was mail-in.)

As a comparison, we have a heavily used 2.5 year old Apple iBook laptop. It rarely leave my teenage son's side - he takes it to school in his backpack, and uses it for everything. Our AppleCare extended warranty is for a total of 3 years. It has gone back to Apple several times for little stuff - power cord connector, trackpad, and something else. Every time they've shipped us a prepaid shipping box that has arrived overnight, we've sent it back, and got it back in 24-48 hours. Each time they fixed whatever the problem was. Once there was some question about whether the problem was damage due to use (remember - teenage son and backpack). We opted not to fix that particular problem that time, but next time we sent it in for something else they fixed that earlier problem too.

 

[grest]

Well that was mishandled, to say the least. I would echo what the last writer said: write a heck of a letter to Staples...this is just wrong. On the other hand, they had better give you a computer, a damned good one!
Connie

 

[MOXJO7282]

I would read the warranty langauge carefully and unless it said it could wipe your HD without your consent, I would make a huge stink about it. Aside from the possible compromise of your identity, In my case I would have lost critical documents if they wiped mine before I had a chance to perhaps back up somes files. For them to do anything with your HD without consent to me could pontentially be very damaging that someone should be accountable for.


Regards.
Joe

 

[DebBrown]

Mary, I don't blame you for being upset. You should have gotten a choice in the matter. I'm not sure what your recourse is now but I don't think I'd be paying Staples for a warranty again.

So do you think it was the period key that stumped them?

My son has a Dell laptop and while I don't usually purchase extended warranties, I did in this case because I knew he would not be particularly careful with it. When the display was trashed because his roommate shot it with a BB gun, Dell actually sent a tech to our house to replace it. I was impressed with the level of service.

Deb

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

My son has a Dell laptop and while I don't usually purchase extended warranties, I did in this case because I knew he would not be particularly careful with it. When the display was trashed because his roommate shot it with a BB gun, Dell actually sent a tech to our house to replace it. I was impressed with the level of service.

Deb

As a general rule, I never buy extended warranties on any items. An extended warranty is really just an insurance policy, and it only makes sense to insure against risks you can't afford to experience.

That being said, laptops are one item for which I always purchase an extended warranty. I've probably owned about eight laptops during my life (including one's supplied by employers) and only two of those units have not required repairs more than justifying the cost of the warranty.

 

[MarTN]

I emailed Staples (having already called them twice). Here is their reply.

I appreciate the time you have taken to contact Staples, Mary.

I am sorry that there was a problem with your laptop and that you didn't want to have it sent for
salvaged.

You may contact Staples Corporate Headquarters at: 877-235-9088.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Please contact us if you require
further assistance.

Thank you for your patience concerning this matter.

Susan,
Customer Service Representative

e-mail: support@orders.staples.com
phone : 1-800-3STAPLE (1-800-378-2753)
fax : 1-800-333-3199
online: http://www.staples.com/sbd/content/help/contact/index.html

 

[TUGBrian]

ah the old "this isnt my problem call this other number" routine...

nice :/

 

[pwrshift]

I'd be furious if that happened to me too. One good thing is that laptops have come way down in price over the last two years and what you get from them might buy a much better laptop today.

Brian

 

[Karen G]

We added a rider to our home owners' policy to specifically cover computers. The cost annually is minimal. I think there's a $100 deductible, but it has been worth it because my son accidentally spilled a soft drink on his laptop keyboard and my daughter accidentally knocked her laptop off her bed and messed up the screen. My husband damaged his laptop by accidentally dropping it.

The insurance company paid to replace (in our son's and my husband's case) and repair (in our daughter's case). Of course, this insurance covers only accidental damage or loss and not technological problems.

 

[JudyS]

Not getting your hard drive back is certainly an issue if you didn't have a back-up copy of your data and program files. As for someone doing something with the data on your hard drive, though, I wouldn't worry about it. Whomever got your laptop as salvage likely got many many thousands of them (there's a town in China that does nothing but salvage old electronics -- I hear they have terrible pollution problems.) The salvage workers probably don't have the time to go data-mining on the hard drives they get, especially since they probably don't know English.

I've never shipped a computer out for repair (DH does all repairs himself), so I've never thought about the privacy issues involved. I think for insurance I would want to wipe or remove my hard drive before sending my computer for repair. I would actually be more concerned about someone mining the data while they were trying to repair the computer than after it had been sent to "the knackers." It would be a lot easier to go data mining when your computer is sitting on a workbench, powered up and and maybe on a LAN, than with it sitting with a dead battery in a pile of 1,000 computers in some junkyard.

I think they should have given you the choice of getting your computer back & fixing it yourself before junking it. But, I don't really see junking the computer as more of a privacy risk than just sending it out for repair in the first place.

And, I'd say you came out ahead financially. Even without being reimbursed the tax or the cost of the warranty, you almost certainly got enough money to buy a computer more powerful than your old one (computers drop in price all the time), plus you'll be able to buy a new computer rather than having an old one that was wearing out.

 

[Nancy]

Local News

How about getting the local newpapers, TV stations involved in this? I think it is terrible.

JMHO
Nancy