Laptop Memory Upgrade Goes Bad

RALEIGH, N.C. — May Sherrod's 4-year-old Dell laptop worked great until last month.

That's when she took it to Intrex Computers on Glenwood Avenue to have more memory installed.

But when she went to pick it up two days later, she learned the computer crashed.

"I was floored," Sherrod said. "And I said, You mean everything? I mean, it's just dead?' And they said, 'Yes.'"

Intrex suggested the laptop had a "pre-existing condition" and told Sherrod she could pay $200 for technicians to install a used motherboard.

Sherrod, however, did not think that was right.

"I think if you're in a business, you need to be responsible for your staff," she said. "And if a member of your staff made a mistake and crashed the computer, then I think they should do something about it."

But Intrex is firm that is not its employees' fault.

"They were polite, but they were stubborn in their opinions, and I'm stubborn, too," Sherrod said.

Sherrod complained to 5 on Your Side and to the North Carolina Attorney General's Office's Consumer Protection division.

Intrex operations manager Ramsey Ziade told 5 on Your Side that his employees were not negligent and did not cause the crash.

He also pointed to the fine print on Sherrod's signed service order that says the company is "not responsible for any part that fails" while it has the computer, unless it was "directly caused by us."

Sherrod said she is just angered by the whole experience.

"If they're not going to do anything about it, I would like for other people to know that this is their practice," she said.

Ziade told 5 on Your Side he would do something for Sherrod but that he wasn't exactly sure. But then, in a letter to the attorney general, he offers nothing. He, again, refers to the receipt's fine print.

Sherrod said the Intrex employee told her the fine print simply gave the company permission to open her laptop for "privacy reasons."

She now says she won't ever sign anything again without reading all the fine print.