Laptop XChange Tim Smith, Manager Laptop XChange destroyed my laptop! Henderson, Nevada

On 3/10/10, I brought my Gateway laptop to the Laptop Xchange store in Henderson, Nevada (near Galleria mall at Sunset and Stephanie).  I just wanted a missing keytop replaced.  Their technician, Mike, opened my laptop.  Then he took my laptop and disappeared into the rear service area so that he could hunt for the part.  I was not able to observe him, so I don't know if my laptop was treated roughly.  About 15 minutes later, he brought the laptop back.  He said they couldn't fix the keytop because they didn't have the part, and that I'd have to go to the other Laptop Xchange store over on Spring Mountain in Las Vegas.  

Mike put my laptop down on the front counter, and it was still open.  The other employee at the front counter, who was Asian, carelessly pushed the corner edge of the laptop lid down so that it would close.  The laptop lid must have flexed abnormally, because one of the hinges suddenly broke, and tiny parts were sprayed two feet up into the air.  

Now the hinge was broken and nothing was holding that corner together.  They collected some tiny parts on the counter and put them in a bag for me, but there may have been more on the floor.  I was very upset that my laptop was now broken, and told them that they needed to fix the hinge that they broke.  Mike refused, saying that the laptop should not have broken, that they would have to take the entire lid apart to fix the damage, and that it would probably cost me about $200 to repair the hinge.  

I wanted to talk to the manager, Tim Smith, but he was unavailable.  I am disabled, and it took me some time before I finally managed to track him down.  I brought the laptop in, at Tim's request, on 5/6/10 -- only to have him refuse to help me.  He said that his technician, Mike, still remembered the entire incident.  But the manager's position was that the laptop should not have broken just because they closed the lid, that this was a Gateway manufacturing defect, and therefore Laptop XChange should not be responsible for the repair.  I told the manager that I was very unhappy with their service, and he responded quite rudely, saying that I was not a service customer!  

My position is that they broke my laptop, so they should fix it.  After all, they are a repair shop, and they should have known better than to close someone's laptop in that manner, instead of holding the lid carefully in the middle when closing it.  It now appears that my laptop will never get fixed, unless I can get them to take action and finally make this right.  The laptop is four years old, and I can't justify putting another $200 into it, just to get the hinge fixed.  So, in effect, with the broken hinge, my laptop is now worth nothing.  They have destroyed all the value that I had in the laptop.      

I feel that the Laptop Xchange store on Sunset, near the Galleria mall, ripped me off.  The other Laptop Xchange store, over on Spring Mountain, seems very honest and reliable; that store was able to replace my missing keytop in just a few minutes without any further incident.  But I would never recommend that anybody use the Sunset store!  Watch out for them!