GainSaver Useless "Warranties" Signal Hill California

I bought an iMac 24” desktop with an Intel Core 2 Duo, a 40 GB hard drive, and some extras, for about $1,045 in October 2012. I paid extra for a 2-year extended warranty.

When I took it to my local Apple technician to get my applications and data transferred, he found glitches in the video, and the computer froze on him several times. I returned it to Gainsaver, meticulously following its instructions for UPS shipping and insurance.

Gainsaver sent me a second computer, ignoring my request for reimbursement of the $125 I spent transferring data and the $70 I spent returning the first one. I paid another $169 to get my data transferred to the replacement computer. That computer crashed in the technician’s shop; it had a “failing drive and no bootable system.” It cost me another $67 to ship the second computer back to Gainsaver in compliance with its instructions.

I told Gainsaver I wanted no more replacement computers, and demanded a refund of my out-of-pocket expenses, pursuant to the warranty.

Though its website “guaranteed 100%  satisfaction,” Gainsaver’s salesperson, Jonathan, required me to fill out a third (10/26/12) “service request” in order to ask for a refund of the money it had charged on my VISA account. Gainsaver took no action to refund my money until I had (a) contested the VISA charge it had collected, and (b) sued the company in Sonoma County Small Claims (Superior) Court, on 11/8/12. Though it eventually credited my VISA account for the $1045 cost of the defective computer(s), it ignored my demand for reimbursement of my $368 out-of-pocket expenses.

Gainsaver did not show up for the Small Claims Court hearing on January 18, 2013. After considering the evidence of Gainsaver’s recalcitrance, the Court awarded me $368 reimbursement and $736 “double damages” penalty for Gainsaver’s willful breach of warranty, under CA law, plus $40 court costs. Instead of paying or appealing that $1144 judgment, Gainsaver had its lawyer send me a letter threatening to sue me “for fraud, misrepresentation, harassment, libel, and slander.” When I contacted his office, Gainsaver’s lawyer refused to negotiate any compromise of the judgment against it.

In October 2013, the Los Angeles County Sheriff seized Gainsaver’s property to satisfy the judgment I had obtained, collecting from that company $1,444.