"In July of 2004 I bought my first Thinkpad," a reader recently wrote. "While it was not the most expensive Thinkpad made, it was still my Thinkpad. I knew IBM had a reputation for quality unrivaled in the Wintel world and rested comfortably with this knowledge. All was well until one cool morning when it appeared the CMOS battery died."

The reader had a bit of trouble finding the warranty support phone number for his laptop that he could get through on, but eventually found himself speaking to a support tech who sounded quite knowledgeable. "Good, at least IBM has quality staff to handle this isolated incident," he wrote. "I felt certain that I would soon be on my way to happiness again with my Thinkpad. We discussed the issue with the laptop no longer keeping time and he came to the same conclusion as did I that the CMOS battery was dead. No big deal -- he would send me a new one, as it was deemed user repairable by IBM and under my EasyServe warranty. He asked me a few questions about my shipping address and told me to just remove the memory access panel and replace the small battery when it arrived via UPS."

The reader, who in case you haven't guessed has mostly been an Apple customer historically, was quite pleasantly surprised to see the CMOS part show up the very next day. "It certainly looks like IBM has its act together, I thought," he wrote. "I open the box to find only a replacement CMOS battery and no instructions. No biggie, I have had my PowerBooks apart many times and they were simple to repair and this would be also. After all, the support tech had said just pop it out and back in with the new. Two minutes later I was done ... or so I thought. I pressed the power button looking for the welcome screen that would return me to my work files -- I'm in sales and depend on my customer files - but, oh, no! It won't take my system password. I always use available security features to secure my files and had enabled the administrator password when I first set up the computer six months ago. Hmmm, that's odd, I thought. Oh, well, I'll just call IBM and they'll help me out. Wrong, wrong, wrong."

This time when he called IBM support, the tech support rep he wound up speaking to did not seem nearly as knowledgeable and friendly as previously. "Instead, I got a sarcastic individual who seemed to regret that he was in customer service," the reader wrote. "I informed him of my situation and he proclaimed that 'oh, you have a big bill coming.' What gives? This was under warranty, and I just did what I was told to do, didn't I? The rep told me that any time the user password is forgotten that the unit has to come in to be reset, and it would cost me $183."

Not if the reader could help it. "After explaining my predicament to this rep and his supervisor, I was told that they would ship me a box for EasyServe repair and I should send it back for possible motherboard replacement," the reader wrote. "For a friggin' password? I knew my password, of course, it was simply that the machine would not take it after the CMOS was changed. Nice that they told me that. Actually, they asked why I had not told the initial service rep that I had a system password. What, am I the tech and am I supposed to know what to tell him?"

After five days had passed, the reader called IBM to track his repair order. "I was told it was fixed but has been put on finance hold," he wrote. "Oh, no, what now. I get transferred to the finance folks and am told that the motherboard was replaced and my bill is $725 plus tax. NO FREAKIN' WAY! Number one, it is not my fault they sent me a part to put in and did not tell me to disable system passwords. And they now have replaced a motherboard without my consent, as I had told them if the were not honoring the warranty to call first. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told that I would have to talk to a grievance staff member. Of course, they could not connect me to one and told me that they must return my call. I cannot just ask to speak to one of them. This is expletive deleted. I need my computer for work, so I'm back on my old Apple PowerBook and like it better anyway. IBM is responsible for this, not me, and I sure won't pay $725 when I only paid $799 for the thing when it was new. I am frustrated, poor and feel like the small guy is not important to Big Blue."

Several weeks after I first heard from him, the reader says IBM is showing no signs of willingness to even talk to him about his warranty coverage for this problem. Well, it seems to have worked with HP, so let's see if it will work here. As it would take me a couple more months at best to work my way through the PR channels to get action on a case like this, I asked the reader for a support incident number. He reports it's reference # 33QMHYB. Should anyone at IBM want to respond, either by helping him out with the finance department or by disputing the facts of the case as the reader has recounted them, write me at Foster@gripe2ed.com, or, by all means, post your comments below.