First, a post summary:
YES, THIS GUY SUCKS. Just needed to make that clear. Now for the actual post...
Hi, everyone. I created my account just to share my current ongoing frustration with SR. I was miffed enough to be tempted to start a whole new thread, but I'll just post it here.
I had a T42 mobo with an ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 that started showing the dreaded GPU problem. The screen would inevitably go black or become filled with colorful artifacts; I put foam between the GPU and palm rest to allow me to press it back in, but eventually this would stop working and I would have to restart to temporarily fix the display.
I knew to be cautious of this guy based on what I had read, but I had two other IDE hard drive/DDR RAM laptops and could use the leftover parts if it didn't work out. He responded to my earlier inquiries within a day, and after I shipped him the motherboard and e-mailed him the tracking number on November 19, he replied, "Great!! Thanks for the business!! I will let you know when we receive the motherboard. Thanks for the business!!"
According to tracking, it arrived a few days later. He never notified me of anything. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and waited a few weeks. He never replied. This is from someone who said in an earlier e-mail, "Our turn time is five business day's from the time we receive your IBM. We may be able to get the repair completed faster." On December 8 and December 16, I sent two e-mails asking for an update. No answer.
I finally made a phone call today. He answered, and I asked about the status of my laptop. After a minute or so, he said something that really made me suspicious. To paraphrase, "Ah, here's what's wrong. You don't have an ATI. You have an Intel GPU. Usually Intels don't have this problem. It's weird that yours does." Well, I knew that was wrong, but even if that was the case, why the hell couldn't he tell me that without me having to ask him three times?! I said, in either case, I'll take it back. He said he'd either have it fixed or shipped today.
Anyways, I did some research (mostly on these forums) to confirm my suspicions that he either mixed up some mobos or is deliberately lying. So I made my case in this e-mail:
"I'm sorry, but you may have mixed up motherboards. I did some research and I'm just about certain that I had an ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 (definitely an ATI at least).
This picture matches the grey unit I remembered seeing the when I reapplied thermal paste, including the distinct ATI logo. I remember installing ATI Catalyst drivers. T42's only come with ATI GPU's. R51's come with Intel GMA GPU's, but those only support XGA displays, not the 15" 1400x1050 SXGA+ display that I have. R52's and T43's do have Intel GPU's that support SXGA+, but requires DDR2 RAM rather than DDR (still, if you were going to send an R52 or T43 mobo, I'll gladly take it, as I have some spare DDR2 RAM). The model number was 2373-8ZU, matching an SXGA+ T42 with an ATI Mobility Radeon 9600. Even in the case that this number was wrong, the other evidence suggests an ATI GPU."
So if I don't get a reply to this I'll call him tomorrow. It's a good thing I'm only out $10 shipping and an old, half-working computer, but I'm still mad as hell at this guy.