Spilt Coke on Laptop ...... (Direct Line)

thumbandit

So being the clutz that i am i have cleverly spilled a full glass of coke (approx 1 pint) over my lovely Samsung M55 laptop . Complete horror show ... over the keyboard, in the side vent and upon picking it up it all ran out of most of the openings :eek: which wasnt fun to say the least, Steam or Smoke came out of it and it just pretty much died within 2 minutes.

I phoned up Direct line and was happy to find out that i was covered (Despite being clumsy) and that someone will contact me within 5 days.

Im wondering what happens now ?
also the laptop was worth about £1500 a year ago what will i get back ?
Anyone else spilt coke on a laptop ... what damage did it do ?
Will they be able to repair it or is coke the evil destroyer to laptops that it is to teeth and dirty coins ?

Any advice on this appreciated ... thanks

tinkerbell84

You should NEVER EVER drink coke anywhere near any kind of electrical equipment. It is the WORST liquid to pour into a laptop - it's sticky and corrosive all in one. It's not very good for humans either, but that's another thread!

Very rarely can anything be saved when it's been coked - hope you had everything backed up! You may not be able to get anything off the harddrive.

I daresay if the model is still available, DL will replace your laptop with the same kind of laptop, or the value of replacing it (so if they can buy it for £700 now, that's what you'd get) less your excess.

soolin

Oh and be warned Direct line load future premiums an awful lot after a claim as we found out to our cost last year.

thumbandit

so does that mean if i move insurer at the end of the premium then i will not get stung or is it like car insurance ........

jonesMUFCforever

If you move insurer you have to declare the present claim (and any others within a 2-3 years timeframe) and they will quote you a premium based on this information.
If you lie you will find your insurance policy voided and you will be unable to get insurance anywhere.

thumbandit

obviously yes but it was made out direct line were worse than others ....

Also i still havent heard from Direct Line and i have no idea what to do with the laptop i havent cleaned it for fear of further damage and its just sitting there now .... im sure i wont hear till tuesday now so what does that mean for the laptop ... is the coke happily rotting away my lovely laptop ?

pinkemsy

I did the same a couple of weeks ago, the insurance company were great and refunded almost the same amount of money, minus excess, that my new laptop cost so I was really pleased. From spillage to cheque coming through the door was 6 days. However, I am waiting for my computer guy to sort the hard drive out, he is putting it on my back up Maxtor hard drive.

nickcardwell

what you can do is:
take out the battery.

Run the laptop keyboard over water from the tap (what your doing is getting rid as much coke as possible)
then shake the laptop (get rid of excess water)
finally leave it in the heating cupboard for at least 3 days (do not attempt to switch it on)

did something similar (dropped a mobile phone intoa pint of beer) did all of the above and it did switch on and worked ok afterwards.

tinkerbell84

Rather pointless to do anything after this amount of time, I'm afraid. Coke doesn't stay wet for that long!!

thumbandit

Still awaiting a call from the claim department .. .gave them a call and apparently they have to arrange a phone appointment (9am tomorrow) to discuss the claim.

Anyone had anything like this before ?

chloe1705

i have just claimed with natwest spilt coffee all over laptop i rang them they said they would ring back 3-5 days for more info then after that call i had a call from whoever deals with the insurance claim this was 24 hours after natwest called then next day i had a card loaded with full value of laptop drop through my door iwas very impressed at the speed of all this.