Help! Stolen Powerbook G4 15.2 / 1.67Ghz

Good luck, man.

How about not leaving a PB in your car next time. I know it's quite safe in NZ, but you should still be careful.

Damn I know how you are feeling! My beloved powerbook (see sig) was stolen 3 weeks ago when travelling by train from Berlin to Vienna. Had my bag secured below my feet... I thought. Fell asleep and one hour later - gone. The thieves didn't even know what was inside my bag. I had it insured and called insurance next day. At first they say they'll pay and I buy a new one since I need one for work (freelance graphic designer). Last week they call me and tell me I only get 1000 € instead of 2600 (the full price in Austria). Better than nothing but I'm so pissed, both at the insurance and at the thieves.

Thought I'd tell you my story for you to know that you are not the only one to whom **** happens....

Sorry for your loss.

That really sucks. I hope it was insured.

speaking of insurances...

mad jew said:

That really sucks. I hope it was insured.

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Not related to this thread completely (still sorry to hear about the teft), but related to insurances...

About a year ago when I was on train someone managed to give a little push to my iBook while he was walking on the train corridor. That didn't seem to do anything, but once I put my iBook to sleep and exited the train, the next time I opened it I noticed that instead of sleep it was turned off. Well, I tried to turn it on again, but got only missing startup disk icon.

Back in home I booted from CD and everything seemed to be "fine" at HD, altough I had lost several files, but eventually I didn't managed to get it to boot again, even after formatting it again. So it was time to buy a new HD.

Cost of getting new HD bought and installed was about 200 Euros, but when I called the insurance company they said that my insurance covered only losses over 180 Euro. I tried to argue to them that I had also lost important files, not just material costs, but they said that the insurance didn't cover the files! So I got 20 Euros out from them. There were several important client files, over 10 hours of work, plus some email. When getting insurance, read *very* carefully the contract terms!

chaosbunny said:

Damn I know how you are feeling! My beloved powerbook (see sig) was stolen 3 weeks ago when travelling by train from Berlin to Vienna. Had my bag secured below my feet... I thought. Fell asleep and one hour later - gone. The thieves didn't even know what was inside my bag. I had it insured and called insurance next day. At first they say they'll pay and I buy a new one since I need one for work (freelance graphic designer). Last week they call me and tell me I only get 1000 € instead of 2600 (the full price in Austria). Better than nothing but I'm so pissed, both at the insurance and at the thieves.

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I think your insurance should have covered the entire cost of the PB if the contract says they cover thefts. I would have argued until they gave me the 2600 EUROs, unless there's something you're not telling us. What was their reason for not giving you the full amount?

Ignis said:

\Cost of getting new HD bought and installed was about 200 Euros, but when I called the insurance company they said that my insurance covered only losses over 180 Euro. I tried to argue to them that I had also lost important files, not just material costs, but they said that the insurance didn't cover the files! So I got 20 Euros out from them. There were several important client files, over 10 hours of work, plus some email. When getting insurance, read *very* carefully the contract terms!

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I wouldn't give you insurance on "files" either. That would be ridiculous.

I'd kill myself if I lost a 15" 1.67GHz Powerbook.

I read a story in one of our local papers that police said that thieves were using some sort of bluetooth scanner to detect notebooks in the boots (Americans read 'trunks') of cars parked at train stations. I don't know if the bluetooth module of the powerbooks is still on whilst the machine is asleep but maybe the thieves used one of those?

I guess in the PC world it's only newer or more expensive notebooks that have bluetooth.

kalisphoenix said:

I'd kill myself if I lost a 15" 1.67GHz Powerbook.

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Don't be so melodramatic. Just insure it against theft and back-up regularly then if it gets stolen you can get a new one. No suicide required.

Abstract said:

I think your insurance should have covered the entire cost of the PB if the contract says they cover thefts. I would have argued until they gave me the 2600 EUROs, unless there's something you're not telling us. What was their reason for not giving you the full amount?

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in a lot of cases insurance will only pay you the "current value" of what you lost and not the original cost.......it's usually spelled out in the policy but a lot of people dont even check to see what they're actually buying so they end up getting an unpleasant surprise

Macky-Mac said:

in a lot of cases insurance will only pay you the "current value" of what you lost and not the original cost.......it's usually spelled out in the policy but a lot of people dont even check to see what they're actually buying so they end up getting an unpleasant surprise

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The current value of his lost laptop would be far greater than 1000 euro though 2000 is about what he could get from amazon probably 2-3 hundred more.

AP_piano295 said:

The current value of his lost laptop would be far greater than 1000 euro though 2000 is about what he could get from amazon probably 2-3 hundred more.

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well....most insurance policies have deductibles of course .....plus an insurance company will have their own depreciation schedules for products which you can be sure is not going to be the same as what you might get if you sold it yourself.....there are a lot of factors, usually none of which are in favor of the consumer

anyway, I was just pointing out that insurance policies generally don't provide coverage that means they're going to buy a brand new product to replace your old and used item if it gets stolen

I feel sorry for you man. Now I am kind of a encouraged to set a Firmware password as well as Logging in. So if those bastards even steel it, it would be useless to them.