My New Laptop - Replacing the Broken One
At the end of last month I mentioned my broken laptop. Well, it's fixed now, in that I have a "new" one. I probably should have just bought it as soon as the old one went capput, as it's been a big old faff in between.
As mentioned in the first post I dropped it off some step ladders and suspected the backlight of the screen to be broken. First thing I did was source one on eBay. There's a "shop" on eBay UK that specialises in CCFLs.
Using the tiniest screwdriver I own I managed to get in to where the CCFL live and it was immediately clear that was the problem:
There's little wonder it broke. It's like a flourescent tube that's 2mm wide. If anything's going to break after falling 6' then this is it.
Using Karen's soldering skills (never thought I'd let Karen and a soldering iron anywhere near my laptop but she assured me she'd picked up the skill in a part-time job at some point!) we managed to install the replacement. On first boot the screen worked, which was a real woop-out-loud "Yes!" moment, followed shortly by a few expletives when the screen went weird and then refused to work again.
At this point I resigned not to try another CCFL but to chance it with a replacement inverter (also sourced off eBay). This didn't work either and so I resigned to leave it at that. There's only so much you can do for a laptop of its age. Sadly I had to let it go.
This is where I took Karen's advice and called our home insurance providers. As we're covered for accidental damage to our belongings it made sense to. In Karen's words "What's the point of being covered if you're never going to claim!?".
What surprised me was that they agreed to pay out. Especially as it's a "business tool" and our policy is a domestic one, which doesn't cover such items, apparently. Not trusting insurance companies I expected them to use any excuse they could to avoid shelling out.
A couple of days after the "field agent" had visited to assess the laptop I had a call from the company they use to replace IT equipment and they offered me some crappy HP laptop worth less than half what I paid for mine, which it's listed on our like-for-like policy as being worth. Apparently they "can't source Lenovos".
While I considered what to do with their offer I carried on looking on eBay and managed to find a T42 with the same screen (15" SXGA for 1400*1050 res) which are farely hard to come by. It was in mint condition and up for £250. It arrived the next day. Despite it being a 2373-N1U and my old one a 2373-F7G I managed to swap the hard drives over and it started perfectly first time. That alone saved me a day's time in migrating to and configuring a new laptop. It also meant my current port replicator still worked!
After swapping over the DVD bay and the spare RAM module I'd added to my old one I had, in effect, a brand-new laptop. From what I can tell it's never been used (still got the protective bits on top of the glass LED display). I'm a happy bunny once more. It's got an American keyboard but I can learn to live with that. What I've got now is my old laptop back but in sparkling condition.
All that I need to do now is make up my mind about the insurance offer. Do I cancel the claim and protect my "clean slate" of never having claimed, thus reducing my premium (I presume?) or do I call back and haggle? It is after all a like-for-like policy and what I really want is a Lenovo T61. Maybe I just accept the HP they're offering and let Quinn and Karen use it. Maybe I accept and sell it on eBay?
Where I'll have trouble is in arguing against what they've offered me, as it is the same spec on paper. I just don't want a HP. It leaves me wondering why Thinkpads are so pricey. How can I argue I need a laptop that costs more than twice the one they're offering me when they have the same spec?
Skip to the 
You can subscribe to an individual
Will your home contents insurance premium go up as a result of the claim (I don't think it normally does for a single claim)?
You could argue that a Thinkpad is not like an HP despite the similarities in spec. If nothing else the support from HP will differ from Lenovo, your docking station thing won't work, and since your customers are principally IBM customers they'll expect to see you with a Lenovo/Thinkpad won't they?
In the worst case you could ask for the cash which will compensate you for your outlay to date at least or allow you to put it toward your next (**cough** mac) laptop.
Jason
You might have a hard time. Try giving them examples of things with similar specs that are clearly different in value. BMW vs Ford?
I don't know if the premium will go up or not. Who knows how they work!?
I'll give them a call and try convincing them. The cars analogy worked on Karen, so it might on them...
Ah, but the point about the cars is clarified thus: You drive a BMW. You crashed the BMW. You do not want the offered replacement Ford. It's not the same even if the spec is the same.
It's not like you crashed the Ford and they are offering you a Ford but really you want a same-spec BMW.
And Jake, I think you should cancel the claim unless they settle for cash to cover what you've done. That should cost them less, too? Can you not swap the keyboards over so you still have a UK one? The chances are the premium will go up. Ask them. Tell them you want to take it all into account. If the premium will go up by £250 is it worth the claim, especially if you are to lose x% discount next year for claiming this year. After similar deliberations with a claim for the house roof last year I went ahead because the maths was in my favour to do so.
Couldn't you swap just the screen over, instead of all the other bits etc?
Thanks Caroline. I'll keep that in mind.
Ian. Yes, probably. That would take a lot longer than the way I did it though and would have no real benefit. Do you mean so I kept my UK keyboard? Much easier to swap that over too than take screen off (virtually involves a complete strip-down!).
I had a similar issue after a incident involving a glass of wine and a Sony.
I accepted after some haggling a reasonable replacement, for my machine.
But talking to a friend who often does insurance work for soft furnishings that they try to get you to deal with some one like Empire direct, who are there proffered supplier.
His advice was if you are stuggling with there prefered supplier,is to find an equivalent machine and its price then go back to the insurance company, not the preferred supplier. And say this is an equivalent machine this is the price from a couple of places and ask them to either supply the machine or provide the cash so you can go and buy it.
Often people end up not talking to the insurance company, but there preffered supplier and you dont get what you want.
That's the great thing about having a Mac. When my 3 year old Powerbook G4 was recently stolen the "like for like" insurance replacement was a "basic" MacBook Pro - which is still a 2.4Ghz dual core with 2GB of RAM and 180GB disk.
The Lenovo has a much better keyboard than the HP. To prevent a Repetitive Stress Injury you will want to replace the laptop with the same brand.
Also, what David Wall said.
Jake you were at UMIST for 4 years doing an M/eng degree and in you hols worked for an electronics firm and you have to get Karen to do soldering for you?????
you can perhaps see now why your mother and i admire her so much!!!
one more thing what happens if some one from the insurance co reads your blogs?
dad