Robert bought an extended warranty from Circuit City, but they won’t honor it to repair his broken computer because they claim it has water damage. Robert writes, “As God is my witness, this computer has never seen water,” and he sent us the photos Circuit City sent him.
I purchased a Sony Notebook computer from Circuit City and added the CityAdvantage extended warranty when I paid for it. One day it died and would not power up so I sent it in. They sent the computer back to me and denied the repairs stating that the computer shows signs of water damage.
This was April 2008 so I contacted CityAdvantage and the repair center, they said they would email photos of the alleged water damage. I waited 2 months and never received the photos so I contacted them again in June 2008, once again they said they would email photos proving water damage and once again I did not receive them.
In Sept 2008, I contacted them again and requested the photos but this time the person was very helpful and had me hold while they took care of the request to make sure it was done right. That night I received the photos and I am shocked that they are claiming this is water damage. To me it appears to be some type of electrostatic dust attraction rather than water damage. There isn’t a single dried up water droplet anywhere!
The type of damage they are claiming would mean that I literally submerged the computer in water. If I had been careless enough to spill water on it, it certainly would not look like this. Just to be sure, I ran the photos by every IT/computer tech geek I could find and all of them said that it is not water damage. Water damage shows up as dried up water spots, calcium deposits, corroded terminals, etc. The circuit board is clean, and as hard as they looked, they could not find a single dried up water droplet either.
As God is my witness, this computer has never seen water. I have a feeling this is a scam to deny warranty claims on computers they can’t repair or are too costly to repair. Here is a link to a similar story.
We’re not sure the link is much help, because it doesn’t have enough details about the “water damage” claim and there are no pictures. But Robert has plenty of pictures of his allegedly damaged computer, which we’ll share below. What’s your opinion? Does water damage ever look like this, or is Circuit City in the wrong?
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Jeezus, all you amateur sleuths. “Oooooh! Water damage!”
This isn’t anything more than condensation. And just give the guya new goddamned computer – by the time ny tier of customer relations has spent two hours on the phone with him, the company is is in the tank; they might as well mail out a replacement CPU with an attendant contract to prevent suit over the settlement.
Wimps People who are stupid about the law really drive the rest of us nuts.
I’m not a jump-to-conclusions PMITHA Federal representative, but I’m laughing my behing off at the “OMG this is TEH WATER!!!!” folks – who apparently have never cleaned a window in the south. Ever.
That’s OK. They’re wrong, and proving it to everyone. Nice job, frakkers!
That is not even necessarily from any form of liquid. Maybe that’s just how that material looks when they pull it out of the mold. (Juuuuust after that material was probably liquid, hmmmmaybe?)
I am a computer tech, and I immediately recognized this pattern. These panels before they are installed at the factory have a protective layer of plastic loosely adhered to them to prevent damage to them. Like I said loosely, and when they are left in a hot warehouse for a time the plastic wrinkles and leaves a faint mark where it is still attached. Water damage on these kind of panels are usually circular or follow the outline of neighboring components. Also water typically leaves the bare contacts discolored (with a whitish powder of corroded tin / aluminum). If there is water damage in this computer there would be other more obvious indications, these photos do not prove watter damage.
I’ve said it before, but I would never buy a computer via a third party (like BB, CC, Wal-mart, etc). Always buy the brand computer you want through the company that makes it and that will drastically cut down on your problems getting warranty work done.
Water damage? On the UNDERSIDE of the board? What BS. Especially since all they can show us is residue on the plastic insulators. They’d have to do alot better to convince me of water damage, like corroded contacts on a Circuit board. The only way water was going to get underneath the main board is if the system was dropped in standing water, and that would leave ALOT more evidence behind.
All this is is a bullshit cop-out from Circuit City.
Dunno if its been mentioned since I hate sifting through the hundreds of embedded comments, but it looks like the residue that a canned air duster can leave behind if the person is careless and lets some of the liquid shoot directly out of the can (usually because they are shaking the can while they are using it or holding it incorrectly).
That’s condensation from excessive use of “Dust-Off” compressed air. The longer you hold the nozzle open, the pressure drops in the can causign frost to build-up on the outside. The air coming out is chilled to the point where it is pulling moisture out of the air. The dope who worked on it likely sprayed tons on the machine to remove the dust.
It’s not water-damaged at all. Bring it back to the drones and tell them to fix the damn machine “right” this time.
God, I truly hate the morons they hire at these places as “computer experts”. On the plus side, I get all kinds of tasty stuff and cash from people who bring me their computers afterthey deal with these companies.
I think the repair depot it trying to get out of a warranty repair here.
Any water damage I have ever seen on computers usually results in some form of calcified edge where the water was (or maybe we just have really hard water in our area). We had a water pipe burst above one of our computers last year, luckily the power was off to the rack, and the computer died out, and has been working ever since.
That being said, from my experience water doesn’t specifically kill hardware, water combined with electricity does.
Disclaimer: I worked at Geek Squad and am a manager at Best Buy.
This is a close call, OP, as you can tell by the disagreement among the more tech-y readers of your post. It’s difficult to tell from the pictures. I’ve seen this type of marking on both spilled-on computers AND just dirty ones. Take to another CC, have them send it again. It will be taken in by a different tech at their service center and you may get a different resolution.
That said, I have heard many a “I’ve never spilled anything” story and it turned out the boyfriend/roommate/brother did spill something and kept mum. One funny instance when I pulled the HDD out to show the client after she swore up and down and there was caramelized Coke inside… Mmmmm…
Partner with a store manager, if you’re super nice and it helps of you’re a loyal customer, you may get some sympathy.
Sorry for your luck… but buying extended warranty is just not worth the money or time.
Take that money put it in a jar, label it warranty repairs and place the jar on a high shelf in your kitchen cupboard. Add the extended warranty money for everything you buy that has the option of extended warranty and quickly you will have enough in the jar to cover your own warranty repairs… and likely much more too.
I continue to advise my clients not to bother with the extended warranty the stores pressure them to buy. It is well known to be almost 100% profit for them because it doesn’t offer the customer any real or claimable protection.
Question: In the case of a company trying to get out of a warranty repair, would it be possible to get the repair done by a reputable geek and send the company the bill?
The copper pads look oxidated but otherwise there is no evidence of water damage.
No one ever spills anything on their computer and no one ever smashes their screen.
I used to work as a technician in CompUSA, and i’ve taken apart TONS of notebooks with and without liquid damage and this is most definitely NOT liquid damage.
i’ve seen these kinds of markings on machines all the time. even new ones right out of the box.
What everyone else is saying is true thoug, those extended warranties are a joke…
If the device was not on or plugged in when it came into contact with said water, water would not cause damage to the device. It could be that the device was not properly cleaned at the factory. I’m sure some parts of the system has labels like stickers on them. You would clearly be able to tell damage from those. You would likely also see caked on dust from it getting wet and then drying.
I’m going to say your system is not water damaged. Of course, this is just my opinion from blurry images. Seeing it in person might be different.
Looks like someone tried to damp up some kind of liquid with a towel or cloth and maybe a vacuum cleaner as well. Definitely got wet at some point.
Funnily, the first image almost looks like someone with a very sweaty complexion smushed their face up against the board.
This is what I would recommend you do. Get a second opinion, take the laptop to a circuitcity, ask them to open it up and show you personally where the water damage is. Ask them to match the picture with your laptop. Also, try to talk to the store director, MOST of the time, the store director usually helps out as much as possible in situations like this. Work like this is contracted to a third party IT team.
I made a mistake (actually, several many years ago) of a) Buying a laptop from Circuit City and b) buying the extended warranty. During its lifespan (while I was in college), the mechanism which held in the battery and CD-ROM broke which meant if you picked it up both would fall out. I took it in to get it serviced, they took it from me, kept it two weeks, then called me when it was “ready”. When I picked it up it was exactly the same. I asked why it wasn’t repaired, they said it was because they do not ‘cover damage caused by the consumer’, and they had decided that I had caused this “damage” myself. I told them there was no way I could have caused this damage, and they said that the decision by their service department was final, and basically I was now forfeiting my warranty.
This is not water damage. The black surface you see is Mylar and what you see on it is just it heating up over time. I worked with this material when I repaired servers and that’s the marks you see all the time because of heat. Water damage would look like there are white dried up calcium deposits like he said in the article. This is for a fact not water damage from my own personal experience over and over again.