Just passing along information - do whatever you want with it. Here's my story...

I bought a digital camera about a year and a half ago at CompUSA. My main reason for buying a digital was fishing and my main concern was it's resistance to moisture. I asked the salesman about it and he said they have this two year extended warranty policy for $80 that will cover anything. I told him I will be using it in my kayak (didn't want to explain what a float tube was). I went on to ask him if I dunked the camera in the ocean and brought it back in would it be covered. He told me it would. I wouldn't have bought the camera or the warranty if it wasn't.

A couple of months ago I flipped my float tube in the surf. The digital camera was in a sealed zip-lock baggie which barely got wet. It was quite cold and there may have been some condensation in the bag but it wasn't much. The camera had stopped working. I took it back to CompUSA. After a week or so they called me and told me there was nothing they could do. The warranty doesn't cover water damage. Water damage!? Were they serious? This wasn't water damage at best it is condensation damage.

That was it! - basically I was SOL and had not only thrown away the cost of the camera but the $80 for their worthless extended warranty as well. On top of that once I started arguing they were extremely rude. It was like talking to a brick wall. They told me was how they can not be held responsible for something that one of their employees says while on the job? WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Needless to say I will never buy anything from CompUSA again and I will seriously question any "extended warranties" offered by other stores.

It's a well known fact that CompUSA's warranty policy covers kayak incidents only, not float tube related violations. ;)

I've been going through similar problems with my cell phone. It got splashed by a wave, through my pocket (hardly wet) and dried off right away, but broke anyway. I take it to the att store and ask them to replace it since it's under warranty. Well, the att store can't do warranty replacements, and they give me the card to some car stereo installation place, about 20 miles away that does cell phone replacement. They are conveniently closed on saturday when I call, and driving 30 miles south during a weekday down the 15 is not exactly a good time. I really hate dealing with these people.......
-Brian

Im not sure it would work.. but get the number to their corporate headquarters and explain the situation to them... It seems that the corporate headquarters are usually more responsive to complaints than an individual store...

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Pretending to be a swimbait fisherman since 2001.

I am not a lawyer, but I believe that there is a legal principle called "agency", whereby an employer can be held responsible for a promise made by an employee, especially if it is a promise that a purchaser would consider to be credible.. I suppose that in law an employee is considered to be an "agent" of the employer, acting in its behalf. I guess this approach would be negated if the warranty expressly excluded water damage. You might want to write to corporate headquarters telling them that you would prefer that this matter be settled amicably, but suggesting that you are considering taking this matter to one of the media consumer complaint services that might make the complaint public. You might also tell corporate hq that there will be very favorable publicity for them on a fishing website if they settle this matter to your satisfaction. However, you might be walking a fine line between legitimate pressure and blackmail if you threaten or imply negative publicity for them if they are not cooperative.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

Bob

I don't know if this will work bt my buddy has a nikon digital camera. Same thing happened with the warrenty, he dropped it in the stream though? Anyways after being told it was not covered and could not be fixed he took the camera apart blew the condesation out with an air can, the camera is still working a year later.
Go Figure??? And Good Luck?

I have it on good authority that these kinds of problems don't exist at Best Buy. They have a very good return policy and their warranties are top notch.

Something to consider - next time...