Don't think this is how you repair a laptop

Back in November of last year, I [noted][LaptopReturn] that my laptop which was in service for a month, was finally returned back to me, and was as good as new! However, in late January, the laptop locked up, and would not boot anymore. So, it went back in for service, again under extended warranty. From what they told me, the motherboard in the laptop had died, and it needed replacing, but the part was on back order and would take some time to get shipped in. They kept me up to date with the latest on the status of the repair and waiting for the part, which was good, but was often the same thing, "Waiting on the part".

However, on Thursday I got a call in the morning to say that my laptop repairs had been completed and was ready for collection. On speaking to the person calling me, I confirmed with him that the Motherboard was the reason for the problem. I then discussed with him, my disappointment that the laptop had to be serviced again, for a problem that was supposedly fixed last time the laptop was in for service. He didn't seem to care, so I switched questions and asked if they were open on the Weekend. He said they were not, but could organise a Courier to deliver it for me.

It was at this stage I was hesitant, because I could just see them saying they would courier it, but only for $100, at my expense. So i asked the obvious question, "at my expense?". He assured me that it would not be. Great, I thought. About time they took some responsibility for their faulty repair, even if it was just delivery.

Today, the laptop arrived by courier, and I booted it up tonight, expeciting to be able to start reinstalling Linux back onto it.

But this is where the story goes sour..

I noticed as i was getting it out of the box they had shipped it back in, that the cdrom drive (which is slot loading), had some of the plastic facia coming away:

![You can see just how much it was coming off in this shot][OD1] ![and a side on photo of the same thing][OD2]

On seeing this, I was quite annoyed, because it seemed that they had damaged the laptop during fixing it. For now I figured, I would check to make it booted, before sending it back to get that replaced^. I was relieved when the computer started to boot, as they definately had fixed the problem. And this is where the relief finishes and ends for tonight.

The screen then came alive and I was greeted by the Acer bios prompt.

[<img alt="Something looks fishy here..." src="/stuff/images/highpoint-repair-mar08/screen1.jpg" width="392" height="285" />][SC1]

More photos of [the][SC2] [screen][SC3]

And then I became annoyed again, because it looks like the laptop that was supposedly fixed ... was not!

So now, on Monday, another call to the good old Extended Warranty place to tell them what has happened, and then to the repair ([Highpoint][]) on Wednesday to show my disaproval and get it fixed.

Wonder if I can get it replaced for a newer model this time.. atleast that way I can almost be sure they haven't broke it .. yet.

[LaptopReturn]: http://www.nullis.net/blog/2007/11/houston-laptop-has-landed/ [OD1]: http://www.nullis.net/stuff/images/highpoint-repair-mar08/opticaldrive1.jpg [OD2]: http://www.nullis.net/stuff/images/highpoint-repair-mar08/opticaldrive2.jpg [SC1]: http://www.nullis.net/stuff/images/highpoint-repair-mar08/screen1.jpg [SC2]: http://www.nullis.net/stuff/images/highpoint-repair-mar08/screen2.jpg [SC3]: http://www.nullis.net/stuff/images/highpoint-repair-mar08/screen3.jpg [Highpoint]: http://www.highpointaustralia.com.au