Staples Inc. Assurant Denial of Service (Staples Technical Support & Protection Plan) Framingham, Massachusetts

Firstly, I am an employee with Staples. And this just makes matters worse.

Less than one year ago, I purchased an HP tx2-1270us which was a display model. Because I knew the manufacturer warranty would run out sooner being a display model, and knowing how a touch screen laptop may have more issues than the average laptop, I purchased the two-year protection plan.

About a month ago, the touch screen was not receiving any inputs from hand gestures or the digital pen. So I put in a request for repair, and a prepaid box was sent to me. After a week, I received an email stating my laptop was repaired and is out for shipping back to me. Four days later the laptop arrives with a notice stating my laptop was not repaired because of liquid damage. It also stated I was contacted and refused their repair quote, and a warranty representative would be contacting me for further discussion.

There are several issues. One, I live alone and liquids are never near my laptop. When not used, it is placed in a laptop case. Because I live alone and know I have never spilled anything on or near my laptop, I know there is no liquid damage to the laptop. The warranty company has always provided photo evidence of the liquid damage to the customer and the store it was originally brought into for repairs. This evidence cannot be provided by the warranty company, leading me to believe it was a false claim.

Besides, liquid damage would not cause the digitizer in the touch screen to go out and nothing else. In my original call to the warranty company, I also included information from HP that the digitizers were defective from a firmware issue, but my warranty had expired and HP could not repair it under warranty. The warranty company was given the reference number from my communications with HP, which detailed these facts and HPs denial of warranty due to expiration.

The next issue is that I was never contacted, nor did I ever refuse a repair quote. The warranty representative never contacted me, either before sending the laptop back to me or after I received it.

My biggest concern is that false information was included in the status report sent to me by email stating the repair was completed and shipped back to me. But then I receive it and the repair was not completed, and now does not function the way it should without the touch screen working. This is the very reason I purchased the laptop.

To be told I would be contacted by the warranty representative and then never receive any type of communication also upsets me. Especially when I know how well the warranty company keeps up in communications with customers I interact with everyday. I know have an $800 paper-weight because the warranty company is not living up to their end of our agreement.