Liquid Damage and Insurance

[MJ98]

Hi,

I recently had a drink spilt on my Macbook pro. I let it dry for several days and then opened it up to find quite a lot of liquid still inside. I dried it out and cleaned the logic board with isopropyl alcohol and left it a further day to dry.

Unfortunately it is broken and won't work, however the HDD is still functioning (I have transferred all the data using an enclosure).

I found out today that my insurance will cover accidental laptop damage which I did not pay for (which is why I opened it up) and therefore was certain I wasn't covered for.

Do you think me opening up the laptop has risked them voiding the claim, as I could have damaged it further than it was or done it in order to guarantee a new laptop? Obviously this is not the case but i'm not sure if they find evidence of me being inside it, they may void a claim?

Thanks,

Martyn

 

[Commy1]

You'll have to talk to the insurance company. Who knows but them what policy they have.
My first instinct is to say that they would likely not appreciate it being opened under any circumstance, but try explaining and see what can be done.

If that does end up being the case say that you needed vital data off the harddrive at the time and decided that opening it to see if the harddrive was still functional was your only option. Hopefully they'll symapize?

 

[pricej636]

I dont think the fact that you were inside the laptop should affect your accidental warranty, but the fact that you cleaned it with alcohol might. The good news is that the alcohol obviously evaporates, so there might not be any evidence of that. Best advice is to try your accidental warranty claim and see what happens. I wouldnt say anything about the alcohol, if they ask about accessing the internals I would be honest about removing the hard drive and accessing your data. Good Luck!

 

[Crugga]

I had a successful claim a few years ago, I opened it and removed the hd. I put a note in with it when they collected it saying the hd had been removed for obvious reasons and was no mention of it. Call a couple of days later saying they would pay out. Its exactly what insurance is for but its amazing how many people never claim.
As said isopropyl is pretty much impossible to trace, I use it for cleaning my records as it leaves nothing.