About a year ago I purchased a laptop computer from Staples. Against my better judgment I was suckered into purchasing their "extended warranty" for any possible problems down the road.
Sure as shit, one morning my laptop just wouldn't turn on. Weird. It was working perfectly the night before. Soooooo... with the receipt and all paperwork in hand, I took it into the local Staples store to be fixed. Hey, this is Staples, right? I'm supposed to walk out of there thinking, "That was easy."
Or so I thought....
I received a call on my cell phone Christmas Eve from the third party contractor doing the repair on my laptop. The obviously scripted line of bullshit I received was, "I'm very sorry to inform you, ma'am, but we can not honor your warranty because the technicians detected there was a liquid spill on it."
What a load of crap. I treat my laptop better than my KIDS. Plus, I'm not an obnoxious asshole who tries to get something for nothing. There wasn't a spill, and I knew it... It was just an excuse not to do anything and to rip me off.
When the laptop came back to the local Staples store, I went in to collect it and give them a piece of my Quiet Rage mind. Along with me I had my computer geek son and his friend who make Bill Gates look illiterate when it comes to computers. In fact, my son and his friend build and repair their own computers.
Let the fun begin.....
I began with, "The repair center told me there was a spill on this computer, and I know there wasn't. I take care of this computer extremely well."
The Staples rep tried to feed me a line of bullshit, but it was quickly intercepted by my Techno-Geek kids and rebutted as to why the Staples rep was wrong. The Staples rep went onto to say that for an additional "fee" I could purchase yet another "extended" warranty that included liquid spills.
I snorted back, "Forget it. I've been burned. The extended warranty is obviously a scam to get you to purchase a warranty that ultimately ends up costing more than the computer itself. I don't have time to negotiate or fight with you for a lousy computer. My time is worth more than that. Besides, I'm in the market for all new computers in the office and a new laptop as well. I won't be buying them from here. AND... the thousands of dollars I spend here purchasing supplies for my business will gladly be picked up by a local, independent supplier. If my Computer geek kids can get this laptop up and running, they can just keep it for gaming, so hand it over."
The Staples rep looked like a fish out of water flopping around on the dock gasping for what to say next. He was obviously anticipating that I would engage in their warranty "dance" and asked if I would consider having it resent and speaking with their general manager and other assorted protocol. Like I mentioned, I'm a busy woman and I don't have time for such trivial bullshit. If somebody rips me off, I take my business elsewhere.
I grabbed the laptop, handed it over to my Computer Geek kids and told them it was theirs if they could get it up and running. Less than an hour later I received a phone call from them stating they had it working -- it was simply a loose cable.
