Computer vendor not honoring warranty. What's the next step?
"You're probably best off going to a different store to fix the computer. Right now you don't have ""damages.""  You could sue him but, there's no thing to sue for.  If you sue for your original costs, you'd have to return the computer and probably only receive a portion of your original costs, less court filing fees. If you have someone else fix your computer you can sue him for the cost to fix your computer.  You'll take him to small claims court, win or lose you probably won't get anything from him.  If you win, you'll have a piece of paper (judgement) that says, ""Yep, that guy owes you money"" if you lose you won't even have that. You could report him to the BBB or some other business agency but that doesn't help you fix the computer." The issue yo have to consider is that under many state laws, you must give a merchant three opportunities to correct an issue before you can sue them, so check with your state before considering that option. Here's a link to the Federal Trade Commission's warranty information page, which may give you some ideas about what your options are. Keep in ind, if you let someone else work on the computer rather than the store you bought it from, you might give the guy a valid claim in court to throw out your lawsuit!  Many times, warranties will spell out the conditions under which repair work can or must be done, so make sure you follow every step to the letter in order to preserve your claim. I would strongly suggest that you start creating a paper trail for your claim.  Start by writing a very precise and detailed letter to the store owner, with copies of all relevant documents (your receipts, warranty papers, etc.) included.  Explain the entire history, including what steps you've taken to date to get him to honor the warranty.  Offer him the option to let you take the computer to another shop for repairs at his expense.  Then, send the letter by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the store owner so that he can't deny receiving your letter.  This is all in order to make the best case you can for your claim just in case you do have to sue him. Do not take the computer to anyone else until or unless he tells you in writing that he is willing to let you do that.  You don't want to risk him arguing that the other shop is responsible for the problems now. I hope this helps. Good luck! "Give him a second chance to fix it.  Some computer problems are hard to nail down.  THIS:  So you're a tech.  It's common to work a problem, do procedure A and B   that should've fixed it, test repeatedly to make sure it's fixed, and   hand it back to the customer... and then the customer, under his   operating conditions, has it fail again.  If it comes back to you, you have the foreknowledge that A and B   didn't work.  And you immediately try C and get it fixed.   This   knowledge does not magically transfer to other shops.   So the user goes into Yelp Mode and storms off angry to another shop... they   blindly try A and B again, burn in, send him home, it fails again,   user's even madder.  This is how computers DON'T get fixed. 5% discount for cash is reasonable. If you want to know why that's normal, sign up for Square.  Credit cards and checks have a significant overhead, including the risk of bounces and chargebacks, and that adds up to about 5%.  Only a few businesses actively solicit it, but many family-owned businesses would accept it if you offered.  So firstoff, does the shop give you a creep factor other than your feelings about him not fixing it the first time?  If so, cut your losses and bolt. You will definitely need to pay cash to have this fixed properly.  Otherwise take it back to him and give him a chance to fix it properly. Having dealt with a lot of customers, what you say sounds an awful lot like ""problem so minor I was able to use it for 9 months before bothering to get it fixed which I'm only doing because the warranty is ending"", and therefore, ""I am resentful about having to give it up for an extended period of time to have it fixed because the problem Just Isn't That Important"".  If that's true, you're in a values conflict and you might just be better off recognizing that.  Cheap PCs are cheap.  But the vast majority of niggling PC problems are not in fact hardware problems, they are just MS-Windows being MS-Windows."
Don't confuse a home warranty with homeowner's insurance.  Insurance will cover disasters.  Warranty will cover lesser repairs that insurance doesn't cover. You can warranty your own home with a liquidity fund.  Stash 1-3 months of salary in a savings account that you can tap out at any time.  Water heater blows?  Just call a plumber.  Leaking roof?  Call a roofer.  No need to argue with a warranty company for reimbursement. Chances are, you will spend less on warrantable repairs than the cost of the warranty itself.  If you're handy, it'll be even cheaper. I think the debacle they are referring to for Facebook's IPO is the Nasdaq debacle.   Nevertheless, Wall St ripped off retail investors pretty good with Facebook's IPO.   * Step One: Hype up major online company * Step Two: Overvalue IPO * Step Three: Sit back and watch the money roll in * Step Four: Watch all those suckers take losses and maybe even short the stock to make more money.  * Step Five: Repeat with next IPO.   Just business as usual with Wall St, when will America ever learn? For a real estate transaction there are multiple stages: From the sellers viewpoint: From the buyers viewpoint: If both parties are comfortable skipping some of the steps the role of the agent can be minimized. How will a fair price be determined? Some realism might be needed, to make sure that the loan appraisal will not be a problem. Will an inspection still be needed? What warranty will exist if the A/C dies this summer?  If you still want help from an agent one should be able to help for far less than the normal commission. The seller normally interviews three agents before selecting one, do the same in this situation. Ask how much they would charge for a sale between friends. They can complete their task in just a couple of hours. If the home inspection comes back relatively clean, the transaction should be very easy. The paperwork is the biggest hurdle. You should jointly identify a local settlement company. They will be the ones actually filing the paperwork. They have lawyers. They will check the county records office for existing liens, plats, mortgages and address all the issues. They can send the proper paperwork to the existing mortgage companies and arrange for mortgage insurance. The cost will be the same regardless of the presence of real estate agents and other lawyers.  When they say a lawyer is required, it is only because of the paperwork. "Comission is a must when doing sales. That is the best (and only good) incentive to sell more. How much you want to give all depends on margins, the salary level that is accepted in your state/country and what sellers you have (young or old).  Salary costs at 30 - 35% of total order value is normal including salary tax and all tax oriented costs around that employee.   There are 2 ways of doing it. Only high commission and fixed salary + lower commission. Even if you use fixed salary + commission you can have ""restrictions"" so they have to sell above a certain level to get that commission. That means that you don't take any risks.   An example of a salary model that I found was popular. (The numbers are just made up according to what is normal to have in Sweden). It's a step-model. If you sell for:  Step 1: 0 - $3000 you get high commission 20% of everything you sell  Step 2: $3000 - $4000 you get fixed salary of $1000 + 10% commission  Step 3: $4000 - $6000 you get fixed salary of $1700 + 15% commission  And so on.  Your weakest points are when going to a higher step. You have to change the steps so it works with your salary statistics so you have most people under a step to motivate them to go to the next instead of having them exactly above one step. As you can see, with a step model, you just put a disquise on the commission model but make it more attractive. What the seller think is that they have a fixed salary. If a seller is happy, he/she is selling a lot.    I have also had a criteria saying that if you can keep youself at 1 step for more than 3 months you will start there each month. Then it's up to the team leader to warn if that seller IS good or just LUCKY." "Pick up that straw. Your Apple/Amazon examples have nothing in common with the subject at hand.  If you can't tell the difference between ""licensed, underutilized professional equipment/drivers"" and bending/breaking:     1. Labor laws     2. Vehicle registration categories     3. Driver licensing rules     ...and engaging in auto insurance fraud, I've got nothing else to say." I quit the company during the Nadella transition.  I was a Site Reliability Engineer, and my entire discipline was gutted and tossed at the company, as were the testers. Maybe it's been good for consumers, but the way it was handled internally, with an indefinite stream of reorganizations and middle management competition, just made it a terrible place to work.  When I left, I had been through 9-10 reorganizations in as many months. Every time I'd get a project or a service to work on, we'd get moved. Most of my coworkers left for Amazon, some left the field entirely. I hope it's better now, nobody deserves that.  Windows Server 2016 was one of the worst builds I've ever worked with, and I have been really happy to stop supporting the OS entirely. The docker gaps in particular in the windows ecosystem seem pretty significant, and languages that don't run on Linux seem antiquated and useless because of pressures from cloud platforms. When I worked there we had a '10 Foot Rule', you had to acknowledge any customer within 10 feet of you. This rule was rarely followed as you were usually busy with something else and didn't have time to acknowledge everyone within 10 feet of you at all times. And as someone else already pointed out, they have a 'No Pressure' sales approach. This is a businesses way of telling you that they don't pay their employees on commission. So I couldn't give a crap if you bought that computer at my store or another Best Buy or at the Circuit City across the street (whoops looks like I dated myself.) I didn't see an extra penny if you bought from my store. The only thing they did pressure you to sell was extended warranties, and it was negative pressure, in that if you didn't sell enough of them you were warned and then eventually let go. Couldn't get out of that place fast enough. Ideally, warranty returns should be handled by the manufacturer because in theory returns give them feedback to improve their products. If a certain model of DVD player is always being returned 6-12 months after sale, there's a problem with it, and having the returned, failed units on hand provides the engineers with evidence to improve their products.   Of course, with razor-thin margins and price pressure, the ideas above are a luxury and pretty much a thing of the past, I guess.