We bought a Sony Vaio laptop online from a company called Clearance Club (.com) for $999, and we've had excellent customer service from them. We've had to send it back two or three times to get it serviced, but each time, they fixed the problem quickly and well, and returned the computer to us in less than two weeks. And they paid the shipping each time.

One of the reasons JtS bought the Compaq at Best Buy is because the sales person at Best Buy told him the extended service contract covered accidental damage. He says he would have paid more for a different computer at Circuit City had the sales lady at Best Buy not told him that. He's had good experiences at Circuit City.

At Best Buy, you can't read the fine print in the service contract until after you buy it (smart of you not to buy it for your microwave, Sinsull), but you find out, long after you've bought the extended service contract, that it does not cover accidental damage. I did a little looking around online to see if other people have had problems with being mislead about the extended service contract, and it looks like a pretty chronic problem for them.

We didn't ask them to fix anything related to water damage, because there was no water damage when we brought the computer in for service. All we asked them to do was fix the ports and the power inlet. We are willing to just take the computer back in the same condition it was in when we dropped it off. But we will know better than to shop there ever again. They have been very dishonest with us evey step of the way, from the false claims about the service contract, to the form they wanted us to sign saying things that were not true. Based on their track record of dishonesty, and the fact that there was nothing wrong with the computer besides the ports and the inlet when we brought the computer in, we have every reason to expect they are lying to us when they say there was water damage to the computer (or that they caused the damage themselves).