I have an Averatec 3270 Laptop I purchased from Sam's Club with a 3-year extended warranty.
I had a problem with my laptop three days after the manufacturer's warranty expired. I called Sam's club, who had me send my laptop to a company by the name of Cybertech for repair.
When my computer was returned, it was not the same computer. It was the same model, but in better condition than the one I sent them. The one I sent in had a check-mark-shaped cash in the cover, along with a pronounced line on the screen where the spacebar hits. The serial numbers on the bottom of Averatec computers are on a sicker that rubs off.
The one I had sent in had no bar code information on the sticker – it was completely gone. The one I received had a partial bar code. It also was returned with an operating system for a different model, and had the recovery system removed from the computer. The computer hardware came back better than I had sent it, but the hard drive itself was not the manufacturer's hard drive.
My problems started two and a half months after I got my laptop back and the laptop got a virus. Normally, you would be able to run the manufacturer's recovery CDs and be able to restore your hard drive. When I contacted Averatec, they informed me that the “recovery cds” were kept on a partition on the hard drive – and there is nothing they can send me. I found that this recovery information was missing.
When I contacted Sam's Club and Cybertech, they then informed me that my hard drive had been replaced. I asked Cybertech why they did not include that on the repair paperwork they returned to me, and Damian with Cybertest stated “Because you didn't ask.” That was a completely unprofessional answer for damage or replacement to property that I own.
Both companies then told me I was responsible for the software on my computer – which, for normal software, would be fine – except they removed the only restore option available. They do not have the manufacturer's specified recovery image, so they sent me a “generic” operating system that was produced for a different model, one that's two inches bigger and that did not support the hardware given.
The manufacturer has explained to me that there are several problems with what Cybertest has done:
1) If they replaced the hard drive, they would have had to replace it with one from the manufacturer – which would have been formatted with the correct recovery partition and operating system. Cybertest did not do this.
2) If they replaced the hard drive, the warranty stickers would have had to of been removed. Clearly they are still in tact.
3) Since the computer was sent in for a power supply problem, there was no need to reformat or replace the hard drive. Now, it's not completely unbelievable that the hard drive was damaged during shipping, but this is highly unlikely considering that the product was packaged very carefully in Styrofoam in the box that Cybertest had sent me. If the hard drive broke, it did so in Cybertech's care, and they should repair it back to the state it was sent to them, or at minimum to the factory defaults.
At this point, I have no way to restore my computer back to its original state besides sending it back to the manufacturer's warranty company and paying for the drive to be reformatted back to factory defaults. Although the fee involved is not unreasonable, the point is Cybertech replaced my hard drive (which may have been recoverable) without my knowledge or knowledge of how the restore system worked. They did not disclose this fact, and are now stating that it's my problem.
I have asked both Cybertest and Sam's Club for assistance in this matter. They both claim that this is a software problem, and if I send in the discs for recovery, they will fix the problem. Even after explaining this to numerous people in both companies, including Rob (((ROR REDACTED FULL NAME))), VP Business Development & Technology for Cybertech, that they have removed the only recovery option I had, they still insist that it's not their problem.
This "Software" problem would not have existed had they of used the 3200 hard drive from the manufacturer. I am taking the stand that this "software" problem was caused by the unnecessary actions taken, and if they had returned my laptop, I would have been able to recover the hard drive myself. Since they did not disclose the hard drive problem or return the hard drive to me, I believe that they are swapping people's computers without regard to condition, wiping the hard drives and sending them out to different users at their convinence.
Ironically, the people at Sam's Club Tech Support agreed that the actions taken were unapproprate, but are unwilling to find a new service provider who can service Averatec Laptops as inteded, such as Fremontek.
Now, it's not unreasonable to ask that if a product breaks while in the care of a company, they a) notify me of the problem (the paperwork they sent back did not state in any way that the hard drive was replaced), and b) return the product with the manufacturer's default settings. Instead, they returned the computer to me in a state that can not be repaired.
If a warranty service company breaks a product, shouldn't I be entitled for them to replace it with the same hardware for the correct model or fix it based on the manufacturer's recommendations? The hard drive that replaced mine was clearly not an Avertec harddrive for a 3200 model, otherwise it would have been formatted with the Phoenix Recovery system.
I would like a refund for the $65 + shipping I am going to have to pay to have this problem fixed – this problem that was not caused by me or anything I did.
If you search further on this website, someone complained that they received an Averatec Laptop back in worse condition than they had sent it. Do you think, after my experience, that perhaps they did not receive their own laptop back?
Jessica
Magna, Utah
U.S.A.
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