Complaint Review: Square Trade - Internet

 In January 2017 i purchased a new Lenovo 'All in One' computer from Amazon. Within the following week I purchased a 4 year 'repair/replace' from Square Trade. In April 2017 I the Lenovo power button would not allow me to turn on the computer. I tried the standard trouble shooting techniques, e.g. unplugging the power cord from the electrical outlet; unplugging the power cord from the Lenovo. The Lenovo never powered up. I first contacted Lenovo tech support (LTS) and we tried the same trouble shooting techniques. LTS surmised that there was a hardware failure, probably within the motherboard - LTS told me to file a claim with Square Trade (ST) since I had a 4 year service contract. I contacted ST and after covering the same trouble shooting tips, ST opened a claim and said they'd send me a shipping carton with a prepaid label and a repair form to allow me to send the computer to their repair facility. Within a week a box arrived containing only styrofoam slats and a return shipping label. The styrofoam slats conformed to a computer desktop tower, not a flat screen All in One computer.

I called ST again and explained the box they shipped was the wrong size and it was impossible to use to send the flat screen. The SQ tech support person (strong India accent) said he Googled my computer to determine its exact size and configuration; we reviewed the dimensions and he said a new shipping box would be sent to me. He told me not to include the power cord and also to remove the computer stand when I shipped the computer to their facility. Within a week, I received the very same style box as they had shipped before, again with no repair form included, just the return shipping label. I removed the stand and using the styrofoam slats from both boxes, securely packaged my computer. I added a note to the package providing a description of the problem as well as the password. I took the packaged computer and dropped it off at a main FedEx facility.

With in a few days I received an email from ST advising they had received the computer and I would be notified when the item had been repaired. Within a week I received another email from ST - the email said the computer had been damaged and they offered to refund the total amount I paid for the four year contract. I immediately replied and said the only problem that I noticed with the computer was that it would not power up when the power button was pressed. SQ replied the computer was damaged and they would only refund the cost of the warranty contract. I immediately called Lenovo and we again discussed the problem I had initially reported to them. Lenovo recommended I take the computer to any Best Buy store and have their Geek Squad repair the computer at my expense. I received my computer back from ST in the same style box that I had used to initially send it to their repair facility. When I opened the box, I noticed the repair facility had placed a new stand on the computer and in this configuration, it was not possible to securely position it in the box; instead the computer had leeway to move around inside the box instead of being tightly secured to prevent any movement. I removed the computer and noticed the top right corner of the computer screen was severely cracked and someone had placed a few strips of clear packing type tale over the cracks which kept the broken pieces in place. There was no way the computer could have been damaged in this fashion when I initially packaged it for shipment to the ST repair facility.

I took extra precautions and utilized all pieces of the styrofoam slats to ensure all four corner of the computer where tightly secured in place before I sealed the box for ship,net via FedEx. My only regret is not doing more research about Square Trade's reputation to include examining 'ripoffreport.com' complaints lodged against ST, before buying their worthless warranty. My only desire is to inform the public about ST and see how many people have lodged similar complaints. Hard lesson learned on my part....now I'm out $600 and still need to buy a computer or see if the Geek Squad can repair the computer at a reasonable cost.