Travel Technology - Laptop and BestBuy Extended Warranty

Hello,

I did some cleaning today and found my BestBuy receipt and warranty information. Come to find out that my three year extended warranty does not end until May 5, 2004. The laptop, HP N5310, has a bad battery, keyboard keys are coming off, Windows ME is throwing numerous errors and the LCD screen is showing signs that it will go out soon. Also with the three year mark coming up, I wont be surprised if the hard drive does not go out soon. Not to mention that this computer needs an upgrade to 256MB Ram badly. I use this laptop every day and I'm surpised that I have not had more problems. BestBuy's policy is that they will replace the parts or if unable to be repaired or I guess the unit needs a lot of repairs, they will replace the laptop with a comparable unit or issue a voucher for the purchase price. Does anyone have any experience with the BestBuy service? Does this laptop have enough problems that it would just be completely replaced by BestBuy? Any comments/advice would be great. Now that Microsoft has decided to no longer support Windows 98 ME, will this have any effect on replacing the model?

Thanks

I wouldn't think so.

The keyboard keys would probably just get a replacement keyboard, hopefully, or a few drops of crazy glue.

The battery most likely is not covered.

The Software issues mose likely is not covered. If it is, the only think that they will do is run the restore disk on it to bring it back to the image it was when you took it out of the box. You can do that yourself if you wanted to. If it boots up after they do that, then it's gee, sorry you had to lose everything you had on it for three years.

And the LCD probably won't be covered until it's not working.

If they were to repair they would probably just spend the $60 or so on the new keyboard.

If the drive were to go they would just put in a refurbished one and run the restore disk on it, and again say Gee, sorry you had to lose everything you have been doing on it for three years.

If you want to give it up for a while then let them have it for the keyboard replacement, but I wouldn't expect them to do much more, nor do I think they have that keyboard sitting around waiting to go into it.

The battery should be covered b/c when I purchased my laptop last year, the salesperson kept saying I should get the extended warranty b/c batteries don't last long and it is a covered item.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by dknn:
The battery should be covered b/c when I purchased my laptop last year, the salesperson kept saying I should get the extended warranty b/c batteries don't last long and it is a covered item. </font>

I would be sure to read your terms and conditions. Sales people at best buy are known to say whatever it takes to get people to purchase the extended service plan.

http://www.bestbuysux.org

[This message has been edited by Tummy (edited Jan 10, 2004).]

Go to Best Buy and see if they'll replace the battery and other things.

If they don't, you can get a pro-rated refund of the warranty.

If you got 3 years outta it you done good. I doubt if you have much of a case to get a new computer. Be happy for a new keyboard. Most batteries have a max warranty of one (1) year except I believe Sonys are still 3 months regardless of what the sales guy sez. Some HDD have 3 year warranties but most are 1 year. You can buy many newer faster quieter HDD for $70-$100 (10GB-60GB). RAM for 3 year old models is cheap. You can get Win XP for about $120 and it sure beats 98ME.

MisterNice

Yes, battery is covered by the warranty. HOWEVER, one issue is that you do have to send away your laptop so that the "authorized" technicians can determine that the battery life has indeed degraded. Your laptop could be gone for as long as two weeks.

That policy may have changed. They also had this same policy for cell phones (yes, cell phones). Nowadays, you just call a phone number, and they will send you a brand new battery.

Signed,
a former Best Buy employee

[This message has been edited by pseudoswede (edited Jan 11, 2004).]