This is why I don’t like extended warranties or accidental damage protection coverage for computers — the whole “we’ll replace your machine with a machine of similar specs” clause isn’t in your favor one bit when dealing with things that rapidly depreciate.

Case in point, a guy dropped his year-old $2000+ VAIO TZ laptop and sauntered into Best Buy to get everything sorted out with the accidental protection damage he purchased on the machine. Best Buy was about to give him a $2,000 gift card for his troubles, but at the last minute decided that the Asus Eee PC would be fitting instead since, spec-wise, the VAIO TZ and Eee look somewhat similar on paper.

After some hemming and hawing, Best Buy finally decided to give the customer a $1,200 gift card towards a lumpy, heavy Dell with a 15-inch screen. The fine print found in some of these service plans allow such exchanges to take place, so make sure to read over all that stuff first despite what the salespeople tell you.