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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