Burnout

Went to see Gwynny at the tow & salvage yard today.......just to see the full extent of the damage.  It's not pretty :(  Hard to see how she could be salvaged with so much dust, burns & water everywhere, but the insurance assessors will decide that in due course.  I'm beginning to feel the loss a bit more now.......

So.....to answer a few questions about what happened......

The short story is that a laptop battery was left on the passenger seat and caught fire.  

The long story is that 6 months ago I bought a new battery for my laptop which I installed.  I'd bought it as a 'genuine HP' replacement battery but when I received it I immediately noticed a number of differences between it and the old one, including the absence of the HP logo.  Added to that, the battery only charged to 70-odd percent so after a week or so I let the suppliers know in no uncertain terms that I was unhappy with their misleading advertising and sub-standard product (I was told the HP logo was there.....'just lift the sticker that's over it'.  Seriously?!

The supplier told me to throw that one away and they'd send a replacement, which they did.  I installed that and all was good........until this weekend.  

I'd been using my laptop at school to monitor student's doing digital exams and it had worked fine.  When I went to use it at home though I couldn't use the click-pad which was very odd.  After a bit of humming and hahing I noticed the bottom of the laptop had a mild bulge....... I removed the cover to reveal an 'expanded' battery and once the battery was out, the click-pad worked just fine.  

Another email was sent to the supplier this time venting my dissatisfaction with 6-months of life from a 'new' battery.  I indicated I would not accept a replacement this time and asked for a refund.   His reply was quick and simple - send it back to us and we'll arrange a refund, and that's exactly what I did.  I packed it into a box (the one it was sent to me in......yes!  I save boxes to reuse!), attached his delivery label then left it on the car seat to remind me to take it to the PO when I'd finished exams.......only I never got that far!

It wasn't until one of the firemen asked what I'd had on the front seat that I remembered about it.  I told him (the key parts of) the story and his jaw dropped.  "He did what?!  He asked you to send a damaged lithium battery in the mail?  That's like asking you to send a bomb in the mail."  

It never crossed my mind when he asked me to return it that that would be a stupid and dangerous thing to do...... :(   Needless to say, I'm even more suspicious of the suppliers dealings now but friends have suggested I let the insurance company sort it all out which I will happily do.   

At the end of the day I'm just thankful that none of the people who had raced to deal with the blaze before the firemen arrived suffered any serious harm and I'm also thankful that I wasn't in the car when the battery burst into flames.  The rest will be sorted in good time.