We’re not going to pretend we understand why this would be the case, but reader Meredith writes in to report a slip of the tongue by one of IBM’s CSRs. Secrets were revealed: If your laptop is still under warranty, but the part you break isn’t covered, the repair costs 36% more. Read Meredith’s email inside.

Hi,

Here’s a ridiculous laptop repair question you may enjoy for the Consumerist.

I accidentally somehow broke the LCD display on my 2-year-old IBM T43 laptop. It needs to have the display replaced, so I called IBM/Lenovo to find how much it would cost to have them replace it – since they are supposed to have such fabulous customer service, etc.

The guy I talked to on the phone told me some interesting things. First, he said the repair would cost $475. Then, he told me no, it wouldn’t cost me anything because it’s still under warranty (I have a 3-year warranty). Great! Then he told me, oops, sorry, the warranty doesn’t cover the broken display, and it will cost $750 to repair.

I was confused. Why $750 instead of $475? I insisted on speaking to a supervisor, since this guy’s English wasn’t so great. The manager explained to me that yes, it really does cost more to do the repair *because the machine is under warranty*. If I waited for the warranty to expire, the repair would be cheaper.

Best of all, the supervisor then apologized to me for the confusion: he told me that the customer service reps aren’t supposed to tell people about this difference in pricing, so there usually isn’t this confusion. In other words, he was apologizing not for their strange pricing policy, but for admitting that this pricing scheme exists.

Pretty bizarre.

Meredith

Yes, that does sound a little strange to us. How about you? Is this normal? —MEGHANN MARCO

(Photo: Kansir)

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