Should I ask a company to pay for my repairing laptop fee?

[Mr. Detective]

Hey all,

Last week, my laptop's keyboard has some keys that fell out. I asked the seller to send me a replacement keyboard. At first, they said they will send it to me so I can replace it myself. However, I couldn't put the keyboard back myself, so I had to bring it to a repair shop. The fee was $25.

I kinda feel bad paying $25 for the repair, since I didn't do anything to break the keys. They just fell out themselves, so technically, it was their flawed quality assurance. I don't know if it's appropriate to ask the seller to pay me for compensation. Not trying to be entitled or anything here, I'm just wondering.

Maybe I should just tell them that the repair cost was $25, which was expensive, so they should be more careful with their quality assurance? It seems like an indirect way of asking if they can compensate for the repair cost or not.

 

[boomy]

Did you buy online or in a store?
Is $25 more than the cost to send the laptop back to the manufacturer/distributor/seller and postage back to you?

 

[bhindi1224]

If they let you know ahead of time that they were sending you a new keyboard and that you would be installing it yourself, I don't see how they could be even remotely responsible for the $25.00. Even if they didn't do those things, you can't just decide to pay someone else to do something and have it charged to someone else. I mean in America you sometimes can, but I wouldn't think it would go your way.

 

[Poryg]

I'm not sure how USA works, but in our country they would have had to mount in the replacement keyboard if anything. If you're supposed to mount it yourself though, there's no way you are eligible for those 25 bucks though.

 

[Andar]

Did you inform the seller that you can not install the keyboard yourself?

The seller is responsible for repairs, but that also means he has the first choice of how to solve a problem.
If you offer to install the keyboard yourself, and then find out you can't do that, then your responsibility would have been to inform the seller and ask him how to proceed now.
Usually the answer would be to send in the device for repair, only if the seller tells you to have it repaired locally then he is responsible for the price.
If you decided on your own to bring it to the local shop without giving the seller the option to decide how to proceed, then the resulting costs are on your own responsibility.

You can ask the seller, but he has absolutely no obligation in such a case - on the contrary you might have voided your warranty by letting an unauthorized local shop work on it...

 

[Enigma_Productions]

They just fell out themselves, so technically, it was their flawed quality assurance. I don't know if it's appropriate to ask the seller to pay me for compensation.

Huh?
I'm sorry I just can't grasp the idea for a company paying YOU specifically because the item was poor quality.

Well what if it was false advertisement? Well how long have you had the item for. Did the item fail very recent? If it did then you can ask for a refund. If you had it for a while you might have exceeded the refund date. Even then you would be getting your own money back because that is a fair outcome.

Just to be clear you are not only asking them to give you $25 because you were upset of the quality, but then also have them repair your keyboard which is a $25 repair that you would be getting for free. That sounds very sketchy to me. Why want the extra $25 just because you felt it was poor quality?

I think what you wanted wasn't money but rather an exempt for that repair fee. Which you could've asked before you payed the repair fee. Now that you already payed for the fee it will be rather difficult to ask for them to give you a refund for the repair. It's not going to be easy to get a waiver fee for something you already payed for.

All in all I think you should just use this as a learning experience because all the things you could have done were already thwarted by your own doings. You could have asked for a refund instead and gotten all your money back from that keyboard. If it wasn't possible to get one then you could have asked before paying the money if you can get a exempt from this payment due to the quality being poor or false advertisement (which to be honest isn't very solid enough reason). But I think I hear that you already payed for the repairs.

But under no circumstances ever should the company just give you money for something like that. Maybe if the keyboard exploded and almost hurt you physically then I could see them giving you money for compensation since the keyboard was definitely not supposed to do that lol. They would have to pay medical bills and a certain amount of money for compensation depending the damage.

 

[Shaz]

Was it still under warranty?

 

[Mr. Detective]

I bought the laptop in July, still brand new.

Did you buy online or in a store?
Is $25 more than the cost to send the laptop back to the manufacturer/distributor/seller and postage back to you?

I don't know. The seller says that "since I am in CA, it would be easier to send me the parts so I can replace it myself."

If they let you know ahead of time that they were sending you a new keyboard and that you would be installing it yourself, I don't see how they could be even remotely responsible for the $25.00. Even if they didn't do those things, you can't just decide to pay someone else to do something and have it charged to someone else. I mean in America you sometimes can, but I wouldn't think it would go your way.

I didn't decide anything, lol. I was just wondering, since this seems like something they should be fixing instead. I did ask them if I was suppose to send the laptop in, but they offered to send the parts instead. Wish I was savvy with techs so I could have replace the thing myself.

Did you inform the seller that you can not install the keyboard yourself?

The seller is responsible for repairs, but that also means he has the first choice of how to solve a problem.
If you offer to install the keyboard yourself, and then find out you can't do that, then your responsibility would have been to inform the seller and ask him how to proceed now.
Usually the answer would be to send in the device for repair, only if the seller tells you to have it repaired locally then he is responsible for the price.
If you decided on your own to bring it to the local shop without giving the seller the option to decide how to proceed, then the resulting costs are on your own responsibility.

You can ask the seller, but he has absolutely no obligation in such a case - on the contrary you might have voided your warranty by letting an unauthorized local shop work on it...

I did let the seller know that I will have to take it to a repair shop since I myself can't do it. They agreed, and said that it won't void my warranty, but any damages caused by the shop won't be covered. I never said I would offer to do it myself. That's what they assume that I can.
But you are right, perhaps I should have asked him if I should just send it to a repair shop.

Huh?
I'm sorry I just can't grasp the idea for a company paying YOU specifically because the item was poor quality.

But under no circumstances ever should the company just give you money for something like that. Maybe if the keyboard exploded and almost hurt you physically then I could see them giving you money for compensation since the keyboard was definitely not supposed to do that lol. They would have to pay medical bills and a certain amount of money for compensation depending the damage.

I think you... misunderstood how I used the word compensation. I am not asking the company to pay me simply because their item was faulty. I think that since their item was faulty, which caused me to take it to repair and cost me money, they should be responsible instead. Not that I am demanding anything here. If they compensate with a gift card or whatever, cool. If not, then I'll take the loss and move on.

Let me clarify: I am upset because I have to pay $25 to repair something that wasn't made well, while it was supposedly under warranty. Perhaps I should have asked them before hand. Honestly, if the repair cost was something like 10 bucks or so, I would have let it go. But $25 was a bit more than expected.

Was it still under warranty?

Yes.

 

[Enigma_Productions]

@Mr. Detective
I think I understand what you mean now lol. I seriously thought about it for a good few minutes since I don't usually enjoy misunderstandings

I did actually misunderstand something. Something rather easy to spot.
You wanted to be compensated or rather have them pay for fee of the repair since technically the warranty should be the thing covering things like this to begin with.

Darn lol Now I look really silly. I am really upset how I thought I was correct in writing that. It's actually really cringey now that I read it back
I would say I was at work and didn't really understand but geez it really is my responsibility to make sure I understand before I post.

Getting back on topic I don't think it's selfish to ask for that compensation at all. It's not even entitled. If you have the warranty then they should cover stuff like this to begin with so try and ask them to refund for your money.

 

[Shaz]

If it's still under warranty, you should have contacted them again after you received the keyboard, to let them know you couldn't install it. Then they would have the choice of either having you send your laptop to them so they could do it, or of nominating someone local to you who could do it under warranty.

Because you went ahead and found someone to do it, without checking with them first, you probably don't have any recourse now. There is nothing to stop you contacting them and asking if they will reimburse you the costs - they might be generous enough to do that, but they'd certainly be within their rights to say no, as they don't know the person/company who did the fix and they don't know what their quality of work is like - so you should not expect or demand any compensation from them. In fact, getting someone else to do the job may have voided the warranty completely - might be something you need to check on with the warranty paperwork.

 

[Rukiri]

If the seller sold it used it's as is, they do not have to supply any warranty what so ever "period"
If you bought this as new "still sealed" you can probably still use the manufactures warranty, if not well out of luck.

It's the cost of take out, suck it up

 

[Zizka]

Fortunately, 25$ isn't too bad, right?

 

[Mr. Detective]

Fortunately, 25$ isn't too bad, right?

Well, I guess not really, but a bit high just to replace a keyboard. I know labor doesn't come cheap, but shouldn't this be cake for professionals? XD

I would say I was at work and didn't really understand but geez it really is my responsibility to make sure I understand before I post.

You hurt my feel feels. Now pay up the compensation.

Well, unfortunately, I won't be getting any money. I emailed them and, well, let me just quote our exchange so it's easier to understand.

Hi,
I have replaced the keyboard and will be sending back the old one soon. Perhaps by Monday.
Thanks for your help.
Just one comment though: The repairing cost was a whooping $25. Hope you guys be more careful with the quality assurance process so other customers won't be inconvenienced in the future.

Hello,
Thanks for your message and update. I'm not certain I understand in regards to the quality assurance process. Your PC shipped with a working and fully functional keyboard in June. For a key to come off, especially two right next to each other, it would of had to have been removed accidentally or pried off during use. Broken keys is not technically supported under warranty, but we provided a free replacement keyboard.

Name,
I am glad to have received the keyboard. I honestly barely touched those two keys, and I had no reason to pry them off. As much as I am happy with the laptop, it has had two issues so far. First is the battery that shipped with the laptop didn't work, so I had to ask for a replacement. Now, it's the two keys that fell out. I'm just saying your quality assurance process could use some extra care, that's all.

After that, he simply said thanks for the feedback, and glad to hear the system is running well. Did this guy imply that I somehow broke the keyboard myself? I get that they they were nice enough to cover this, but it bugs me how it sounds like the guy didn't believe me. I could see why, but still... Did I accidentally sound like a jerk or something?

 

[ChampX]

While not intended, you did basically insult their QA. These things happen as they are human and sometimes things slip through the cracks and they are generally overworked and underpaid employees. While I am not saying you did break them, it is more often than not that users break things whether they were aware of it or not and you would also need to prove that you weren't at fault (which isn't easy, nor really worth the battle). Sometimes people are one of the unlucky customers and get the short end of the stick, these things happen and there really usually isn't too much you can do but just move on usually. I would of course pay attention if this was frequent with customers as opposed to rare flukes and then choose not to spend money with them, but that's another discussion. They were nice enough to send a replacement keyboard -- free of charge no questions asked. Yes they didn't install it for you, but depending on their services and policies they might not offer that or even be responsible for it. Even if you did send them the laptop, they may have still put the burden of shipping costs on you (and many will), and if you package it poorly that it gets damaged upon being sent to them, you'll blame them when it comes back with the new damages. You could say that this wouldn't be you, but believe me that there are people who will try this. Does it suck you had to pay $25, yes, but I think it is very rare for companies to offer services (especially online) where they cover everything without you spending anything.

 

[Mr. Detective]

Well, I get that sometimes, things happen. But I don't think it was unreasonable to kindly tell them to be more careful with their quality check. After all, two incidents in just two months is not a good sign. Like I said, I barely touched those keys so I have no idea how they fell off. What could an average user like me ever bother with F9 and F10 keys for?

Not that I complain about their customer service; it's great. They seem to be a good company.