Scott’s Acer Extensa broke, but he had an Office Depot extended warranty plan. Hooray! However, he writes, Office Depot’s repair staff have a strange idea of what it means to repair a computer, and went right ahead and rendered his computer non-functional.

My parents bought me an Acer Extensa as a High School graduation gift
roughly a year and a half ago. While I love the laptop, a minor issue
occurred, the power port on the laptop broke. So I of course sent the
laptop in to be fixed. I got it back, and it worked for a few months,
then broke again. Again, I send the laptop in to be fixed, however
this time, the fix was less satisfactory as they simply glued the port
back to the system board. I laughed, knowing it would need to be fixed
again, however, I proceeded to use it because I needed the laptop for
my school work and research. I also started to notice the power port
was getting hotter than normal, and one night, while writing a paper,
it could no longer be connected to a power source. Thus I fiddled with
the power cord and port hoping it would give me some more time on my
laptop. After a few minutes I gave up, and pulled the cord out of the
laptop. The glue had melted to the cord and was rather hot. I got some
on my finger thus resulting in a minor burn. I’m pretty sure power
ports are not supposed to get that hot. At this point I decided I
would have to send the laptop in again.

I detailed the issue to the Office Depot Warranty operator, and he
specifically wrote “Problem: AC port loose. glue melted from last fix.
AC adapter gets extremely hot” on the work order. I again sent the
laptop off hoping the problem would be fixed. My hopes were too high.
Turns out, glue the power port so it is usable is a masterful fix when
compared to the attached photo. As you can see… again the service
people glued the power port back into “place.” Though this time it is
glued in off center, and can not be plugged in. Obviously whoever
office depot sends their laptops off to for service does not even
check to see if their “fixes” are functional. An added bonus is that
my expansion slot cover is now missing. So not only do I receive a
broken laptop, it also has a part stolen. Gotta love office depot
extended warranty so far.

Hence, I call Office Depot Warranty support and ask for a supervisor
immediately. I am redirected to one rather quickly. I discuss the
situation with the supervisor, who explains to me that she will issue
a complaint with the service department and that the expansion slot
cover is a cosmetic issue and there is probably nothing they can do.

Yet, alas, the main issue, the power port. The two
options are send in the laptop AGAIN and hope it is fixable (by now I
am betting the system board is shot and hoping the dolts who failed to
fix it will magically become competent does not seem like a good idea)
or file a request for a replacement…. obviously, I want a new laptop.

Even if they don’t deal directly with the warranty claims, we’re sure that Office Depot’s executive customer service could be of assistance in this case. Good luck, Scott.

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