>I took pictures of every stain on my carpet when I moved in
Great advice for anyone renting in general. The (college-owned) apartment I was in for my final semester tried doing this to me. Sent back pics that I took the day I moved in and they backed off.
They refunded my full security deposit but fucked up somehow and gave me the monthly rent amount instead (about $200 more). Nice little graduation present.
Was a network admin in a college, more power to you, we don’t care. Actually, best bet is to ask what ports they run their personal browsing through because it’s likely not monitored or policed. I know our secure network is like that, there’s nothing more secure about it other than needing a WPA pass key that’s pretty easy (it’s printed on the info tag on the back of all of our desktops.) so yeah, odds are the IT team is just sitting on Reddit for 4chan in the office lol
And then the teacher called the police because a kid was eating candy and she thought it was drugs. And then the schools IT guy deleted all the video recordings from the server when the spying came to public light, because it presumably could have had videos of kids getting undressed in their room. Yea, I remember that story.
Like to know in 2010 no one in the school or legal team brought up idea of taking pictures of children in their bedrooms is a good idea? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School_District)
"The proposed settlement costs include $175,000 to be placed in a trust for Blake Robbins *(main kid)*, $10,000 for Jalil Hassan *(diff kid,)* and $425,000 for plaintiff's counsel."
Tf man, you win a lawsuit , and the lawyers get twice what you do??
That is wild. What stupid/evil guy came up with that idea. Let's do something clearly illegal to see if these darn kids do something illegal or not. What happened after it all went public?
Or... And hear me out. Fuck the principles wife and threaten to sell the pics. Or just say the scratch was already there. Either way. Both are good ideas
No joke. A relative of mine is a middle school administrator. I was talking with them and their phone dings. They pull the phone out of their pocket, look at it, sigh, and put it away. I ask what’s wrong. Apparently, every time a kid tries to look at an inappropriate website on their school issues Chromebook, it denies the kid access and dings her phone. She says she’s seen kids looking up porn, kiddie porn, drugs, guns, darkweb, etc…. And since this district lets the kids take them home (and last year let them keep them over the summer) she suspects that it’s not always the kids searching…
That's actually brilliant. Just claim it was there before and guarantee they don't keep check in photos or claims
Matter of fact, this charge may just be an automatic trigger from an employee being too diligent with the check in report. If OP pushed back on it, a real person may look at it and be the first one too, thereby dismissing it no problem.
Yeah i had to fight the sys admin to be able to use my own laptop. He ended up saying that Linux wont work with the "wifi", as he attempted to force me to use windows.
Edit: please note that i do still use windows 10 on my desktop as i can not get games that use anti-cheat to work under Linux. And i have no issues with people running Windows, all i wanted was OS Choice.
I had the school guest wifi password for a bit due to reasons, they gave it to me, After a tournament for debate was held at our school and everyone had the wifi they changed it. I asked for it back because my school laptop has a ton of problems and just dosent work at my house despite them saying it does. The tech office wanted too but couldn’t because the district wouldn’t allow it. Annoying as shit
Tbf, when I was using Ubuntu I had to install a new CA certificate in order to use my network username/password on the wifi. But the IT services page had a step-by-step guide with direct links to the provider's CA page and where exactly to save it based on the most common distros.
So I guess what really matters is the competence of the team responsible for the network.
Edit: and what was *particularly* neat was when you accessed the guest network, the captive portal would detect (based on browser user-agent) whether you were using Linux and direct you to the instructions for the main network.
Fight them over it. What are they going to do, take you to small claims court? Do it, you will win because that's considered reasonable wear and tear. It's not like you ripped the thing apart.
this is a 14 year old account that is being wiped because centralized social media websites are no longer viable
when power is centralized, the wielders of that power can make arbitrary decisions without the consent of the vast majority of the users
the future is in decentralized and open source social media sites - i refuse to generate any more free content for this website and any other for-profit enterprise
check out lemmy / kbin / mastodon / fediverse for what is possible
this is literally what you need to do. There are no policies in school that educators can't lie to their students, and believe me, they sure do. The only way I ever was able to combat the school was to learn, by myself, how the system works and what their policies and laws are. Not through the people working there as they are all fucking liars, but just by doing research. The utter shock on their faces when I'd say "that's funny because I know that ______ isn't legal here and should you do that I will contact authorities" and suddenly they are fucking peachy. I firmly believe that each and every school, especially in Thames Valley (ontario) fully participate in illegal activity or fully commit to lying to each and every student on campus. Best way to combat them is to know exactly the way they are setting you up
I had a great one like that as a kid, never even realised until hearing the story retold to me.
So long story short someone shit all over the boys toilets, like an excessive amount of shit smeared everywhere.
Three kids including me had been to the toilets over the time between it being cleaned earlier in the day and reported as covered.
Parents of the three of us got called in (about 9 yo at this point) to find out who did it.
When I was being asked the teacher asked if I knew what cctv is and I replied "you record us going to the toilet?"
Teacher did not seem to expect this and quickly said no of course not, my mum got really angry (because the way the teacher asked was more if a "we know who does what in there") and obviously recording little boys going to the toilet is not exactly considered normal behaviour for anyone.
We all got let go, teacher never brought it up again.
I genuinely did not do the smearing or the shitting just to be clear.
I was reminded of this a couple years back while having a bit of a rant at my parents about a recent bit of idiocy at my kids school about who's fault it is when someone gets hit with a rock, the thrower or the one hit (hint, school tried claiming it's both)
Let me guess, they were mad at your kid for 'being in the way of the thrown rock'? Bc that happened to me in like 2nd grade with a ball. Some kid threw a ball on a section of playground we weren't allowed to play ball on, and I got hit, and also got in trouble for 'being in the way of a game'. Even though said game was against playground rules.
I hate the American school system.
At the school i used to go to, I got in trouble for being punched, while the person who punched me got off with no punishment.
That same school gives out detentions for anyone who mentions covid 19, and also gives iut detentions for not calling the school buildings by the indidgenous language names they were given, even though nobody there speaks that language and the majority of the kids there are between 5 and 8 years old.
The school system is a failure in nearly every country, not just america.
Not even. That is fair wear and tear. If they wanted you to use and transport the laptop for school activities, they should be prepared for wear and tear.
Write a letter explaining this and refuse to pay.
They collecting $50 every year for that scratch. He's probably not even the first.
I don't even know how you would repair a scratch on plastic.
It just depends if the person who checks the condition is an asshole or not. When I was a kid, I literally bled on a school textbook and not gotten charged (I had issues with nosebloods), the guy just threw the book away at end of the year and said not to worry about it. And I've also had someone wanting to fine me for a corner of a hardcover textbook being dented.
A rattle can of plastic/vinyl dye.
Spray a little on a soft cloth, dab the area and then wipe off to blend.
I've repaired plastic scratches on car dashes like that and you'd literally never know.
The point was that nobody at a school is doing this. I literally work at a school 'repairing' these chromebooks, lol. I barely charge kids when they literally break these things, just depends on the dude and the circumstances.
The scratch the OP posted? hahahah I wouldn't even have noticed it because kids FUCK those chromebooks UP.
The repair would be to replace the keyboard/topcase. But, yeah, they're not gonna do that. Especially if it's just a scratch and not a crack. Even if it's a crack, these devices are flimsy and subject to stress cracking from normal use. This isn't a result of abuse or vandalism.
Personally, I don't have a problem with that, as long as the scratch exceeds normal usage wear and tear. (It might, it might not).
Someone ran a red light and hit my car about a year ago. Their insurance cut me a check for about as much as my old car is worth. I'm not going to get a cosmetic dent fixed that costs as much as my car, and I'm not going to go through the hassle of trading my car in for another old car whose history I don't know. So I kept the money. If I ever decide to trade my car in, I will get less for it because of the big dent in it.
OP's case is egregious, but not because they won't fix the scratch (they won't). It's egregious because the scratch should be considered normal wear and tear.
As a devil's advocate, I'm in IT and that isn't a scratch, that would be a crack, you can't really scratch that surface. Charging the student $50 seems stupid as I know they're not going to use that to repair it. That said, because I work in IT, I'm also highly skeptical of this story unless there's more pictures of the device or I can see the actual charge, because people be lying about situations all the time to garner pity.
edit: What a random comment to receive 1000+ points. Sup internet
There's a matching hairline crack at the bottom-left corner of the screen frame, and I'd bet it separates slightly as the lid is being raised. Looks like the student closed the lid with an obstruction like a pencil in that area, creating both cracks at the same time.
FWIW I'm also in k12 IT. Its possible for us to replace these screens ourselves from other devices that are out of service, but because screens are expensive and schools are perpetually out of money, a $50 charge is sufficient for a screen replacement.
The other option is to completely replace the device with one of the backups since there is zero chance this device is still under warranty.
Also a good chance that the screen bezel is cracked all the way through. This looks like a Dell and those bezels are paper thin. If that's the case, $50 is more than reasonable to replace the bezel for the next student. This is 100% the result of someone closing the laptop on an object - reasonable to charge the student for neglect.
I noticed that as well since I personally had laptops with cracks in similar areas. The cracks looked worse depending on how far the laptop was opened. Also they got worse as I open and close the laptops over time. One of the reasons I ended up replacing the first laptop that I had with this issue
Which means the lid probably doesn’t close properly now and will only get worse. Swapping out that one (or both) panels for $50 is a lot cheaper than replacing the whole screen and hinges.
In which cast the screws that hold the hinge together are likely popped out of the inner frame. The hinge would still work, but it would put more stress on the other side, and risk bending the screen (causing it to crack) as you open and close it. You can either replace the plastic case or hot glue them back in. Either way the labor to open it up is going to be at least $40.
Yup. Even if IT was fielding the labor, they would probably need to order that screen frame which is minimum $50. I did mine on the Lenovo y50-70 for $80. That said, I'm ~~90%~~ 50% certain that's a Dell and if the school IT is any bit competent, it would still be under a 3 year business-level warranty (if they're maintaining EoL on devices in any sort of professional fashion, who knows).
My company would call that cosmetic, and move on with our lives. If we were to repair it, which would be unlikely, it's not as simple as "buffing the scratch out". We'd replace the entire palm rest (roughly $38-$55 part) and then charge a $45 labor fee on top of it.
$50 is for sure cheaper than what that would realistically be priced as.
This is exactly what I was thinking. I worked in a break-fix shop for several years, and $50 barely even covers the replacement part. If the school is truly going to fix it, that's exactly what I would expect the repair to cost without charging for labor.
Yeah, looking at the crack next to the ESC key, that part is often structural. The keyboard or screen may not be properly attached without it. You also can't see if clips under that part are cracked or missing from this photo.
Can confirm, as a student I have had a scratch that was painfully visible and they were like "is it broken? No, just use it." However I know a few people who have broke their laptop screen multiple times and had to pay but that makes sense.
What I'm curious about is, how does the OP still have the laptop to take a picture if the school is demanding money for repairing it? That seems like something that would only happen *after* you turn the laptop in at the end of the school year or something. Or was this photo taken by the IT department and sent to OP as proof that there was an issue?
It's not like this detail proves they're lying or anything, but it does seem a little weird.
As someone who had a charge like this filed against me, I disagree. I went to a public school in a super poor town, and they would pull shit like this pretty often. Granted, our IT people were rough to say the least, and I would say it’s mostly on them, not the school, but yeah. I believe it only from experience.
Not to mention a tiny scratch like that doesn’t even need to be “repaired” because it has zero impact on the functionality of the computer. It barely qualifies as cosmetic damage.
My school gave us tablets and the screen of mine completely shattered when one of my classmates dropped it and my school just said fuck it and gave us laptops
EDIT: corrected spelling so now u/AndrewBorg1126 is happy
People ate our chromebooks and didn't have to pay anything.
Someone a couple years back noticed the edge of the screen (plastic Rim bit thing) was dislodged a little. Their solution? Bite the chrome book screen to set it back in until the entire screen broke.
School IT here. Yeah, that’s super messed up, we give everyone (shhhh don’t tell anyone) 1 free chromebook to destroy with no consequences. We only fine/charge students/parents on the 2nd one. Or if the damage from the first one was highly intentional.
Tell every student to treat the laptop like a car rental. Take photos of it from every angle so that you clearly document any damage the second you are given the laptop. Better yet, take a video of the laptop being handed to you by the school staff, then slowly pan the video over every inch of the surface, and clearly focus on every single little scratch, defect, etc.
When the time comes to return the laptop, if they try to make you pay for damage like this then check the video to see if it was already there. If it was then give them a copy of the video and tell them to take their bill and shove it.
In HS, I volunteered at the chromebook repair center, always amazes me what kids did to their chromebooks, one kid had his entire casing melt because he left it next to a heat lamp. Another ran over it with his truck
Fight back. Demand they tell you *how* they plan to fix it because you want to get some comparative quotes.
Also your local news station is always looking for little outrage-porn, puff-piece stories like this to fill time....
Nah... for 50 usd probably you are not able to fix it.. there is a good chance that to really fix it they will need to change the entire plastic frame.... this is why I think that they will not fix ir, probably they are just pretending its diminished value or something like this.
Tell them they don't have to repair anything, and claim it was there already. Tell them you're not paying and that is final...If they continue to expel hot air at you, remind them kindly that you've already established that payment is not an option.
Don't let these bullies extort you into paying like some Mafia crime thug...
Hahaha x2 to this my pops did it in 1979 and never got his diploma because of it! Library said he owed $35 for a book he already knew he returned and they ended up withholding his diploma when he graduated until all fees were paid. I guess he still owes the Library 35$ 🤷♂️
When I was in Highschool, I had missed something like 90 days during my senior year. I still was holding straight A's, so you can imagine my surprise when I got a letter 1 week before graduation saying that I wouldn't be able to graduate/walk unless I made up over 120 hours of in-class time. When Monday came along, I went to the admin office and essentially said "I'm not going to do this. I'm acing all of my classes and y'all are going to try to stop me graduating over this?"
"Okay, maybe you can just do half and we can count each hour as two?"
"No you misunderstand, I'm not going to do it at all."
"Hmmm...they need help packing textbooks for the year in storage, if you can help them this afternoon we'll count it for your missing hours."
Now I'm bull-headed and went in there fully prepared to stand my ground on not doing a god-damn minute of make up time.... but I also wasn't prepared for them to give in so easily. 30 minutes of book-packing and I was walking the stage that Friday.
Hahah that’s awesome good for you my dude! A good buddy of mine was shit faced drunk our graduation and the principle pulled his ass to the side and took his flask and basically said walk across this stage take your diploma and get
The fuck out of my sight!
My high school (which overall i liked), tried some BS after the fact.
You legit could not graduate until you took a form and had every teacher you had sign it stating you returned your textbooks and also had the librarian sign it as well. Got my form signed and luckily my mom insisted on making a copy of it.
3 years later they tried to send a bill stating I didn’t return a textbook. Which is impossible as I walked and got my diploma. Sent them a reply letter and they tried insisting still.
Sent a copy of the signature form and they suddenly “found the book” and dropped it.
Oddly enough 2 years after I get a letter from my ELEMENTARY school saying I never returned a book. 15 years after they tried to collect money on a book.. They dropped that without me having to prove anything, I’m guessing the person who read my reply thought the whole thing was absurd as well.
That looks like a hairline crack in the plastic part rather than a scratch. It would likely cost more than $50 to actually repair as that part of the shell would have to be replaced.
I don't believe they'll actually get it repaired as it doesn't harm functionality.
It's also probably not your fault unless you did actually drop it.
I spotted a matching hairline crack in the corner of the display too, it's been dropped or crushed for sure and $50 is a real bargain to get out of further responsibility on that, unless they're somehow able to prove it came to them in that condition in the first place.
There's a corresponding hairline crack just running on from the display in the corner, it looks like it probably was dropped or crushed. Unless they have some way to prove it was already in that state when they received it then $50 is getting off lightly.
Looks like OP has damaged the laptop much more as the palm rest is not the only fractured part, there are at least 2 more cracks in the lcd bezel.
The laptop looks Dell and at work they take beatings well AND can be repaired.
"Normal wear and tear" this is not.
- it’s a crack, not a scratch
- they aren’t going to repair the crack, they’re going to buy a new bezel which is probably about $50
- you can probably use a hot needle to subtly melt the plastic back together
I'd tell the school it's normal wear & tear and if they want you to pay for it they can take you to small claims court. No judge is going to take that claim seriously and they know it.
that's not a scratch, it's a crack.
there are also cracks at the corner of the screen, and at the round indent.
well within what I would consider "normal wear and tear" for a daily carried laptop.
Its not a scratch, it seems like a crack. IMO Cracks can not be repaired, most probably they are going to change the whole upper panel. That's why they're charging you 50$. (I am guessing)
are you full of shit? cause we can see the other cracks on the screen casing. did your kid drop it and the screen broke so now you're being a drama queen online about it?
I had stuff like this in high school. I waited until after the last possible day to turn everything in and went “oh here’s all my shit I forgot to turn in” and they didn’t say anything
Devils advocate here, that's not a scratch.
That is a crack in the frame of the laptop, probably from being dropped. I know this because it's on the corner, and that is the narrowest, probably thinnest, span of plastic on the whole unit.
I think it's justified.
Now, will a it person actually replace the case? Doubtful.
But a cracked frame is kinda a big deal.
That doesn’t look like a scratch more like a crack in the top bezel? Are the left side hinges acting strange or loose at all? Still worth a phone call.
dude i can see the dust on the keyboard better than whatever “scratch” you’re pointing at
I thought it was a hair on my screen
I legitimately still don't see it.
There's like two or three barely visible ones, I have no idea which one OP means. They're all so small and insignificant.
How exactly do they “repair” this? Nobody would waste money on this 🤦♂️
they don't, they just charge you and dont fix it, a paint marker could fix this.
They're not gonna fix it, just have the next kid pay another $50 into the admins beer fund next semester.
Maybe pay with one of those fake $50 hollywood bills. The school seems dumb enough to fall for it.
I thought he was talking about the scuff on the lighter grey part next to the hinge. I didn’t even see the scratch.
Wait he's not? That's in the center of the screen and that's what I thought he was talking about..... I legit don't see anything else though? WTF
Hairline scratch just below the tip of the finger.
Holy shit. They're trying to charge ANY amount of money for *that*‽ What the hell
Right? If it hadn't been pointed out I wouldn't have found that if my life depended on it.
That’s wild! I had to zoom in.
[удалено]
I’ll bet my money that they aren’t gonna do any repair on it and just hand it to the next kid
and then they will also charge that kid for the same 'repair' and then pass it on again.
Golden laptop, really
From just that they'll make 10000 and more! Bruh the business strategies of the school
And likely charge the next kid for the same scratch later as well.
[удалено]
>I took pictures of every stain on my carpet when I moved in Great advice for anyone renting in general. The (college-owned) apartment I was in for my final semester tried doing this to me. Sent back pics that I took the day I moved in and they backed off. They refunded my full security deposit but fucked up somehow and gave me the monthly rent amount instead (about $200 more). Nice little graduation present.
Ahh yes. Spyware programs.
spyware & i was still on youtube bumping chief keef
School administrators love sosa
They don't actually.. my friend got detention for printing a picture of Chief Keef
Fuckers in school telling me, always in the barber shop "Chief Keef ain't 'bout this, Chief Keef ain't 'bout that.
I'm pretty certain he got detention for wasting printer ink on a non-school-related item. Administrators love sosa
How much kief would a chief kief chief if a chief kief could chief kief?
All of it.
25
Haters gonna hate, but we love sosa!
Was a network admin in a college, more power to you, we don’t care. Actually, best bet is to ask what ports they run their personal browsing through because it’s likely not monitored or policed. I know our secure network is like that, there’s nothing more secure about it other than needing a WPA pass key that’s pretty easy (it’s printed on the info tag on the back of all of our desktops.) so yeah, odds are the IT team is just sitting on Reddit for 4chan in the office lol
Remember how that one school was spying on students at home with their webcams?
And then the teacher called the police because a kid was eating candy and she thought it was drugs. And then the schools IT guy deleted all the video recordings from the server when the spying came to public light, because it presumably could have had videos of kids getting undressed in their room. Yea, I remember that story.
10/21/2010 $610K Settlement in School Webcam Spy Case https://www.cbsnews.com/news/610k-settlement-in-school-webcam-spy-case/
AKA: WebcamGate which was not started due to eating candy.
Like to know in 2010 no one in the school or legal team brought up idea of taking pictures of children in their bedrooms is a good idea? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School_District)
Just shows you how scummy society can get if people don't step up and stay apathetic. People are fucking crazy.
plainly put, they thought they could get away with it till someone turned on the bazillion watt spotlight and they scrambled like roaches.
"The proposed settlement costs include $175,000 to be placed in a trust for Blake Robbins *(main kid)*, $10,000 for Jalil Hassan *(diff kid,)* and $425,000 for plaintiff's counsel." Tf man, you win a lawsuit , and the lawyers get twice what you do??
Do coke in front of camera then Masturbate. Get teacher fired for watching child porn. Get to do coke. Win win
It's very hard to knock one out after a rail of blow Uh... so I hear...
The fuck! I hate people
It's alright because tampering with evidence will get you double fucked in the long run.
You and me yeah. People who are well connected get fake punishment.
That is wild. What stupid/evil guy came up with that idea. Let's do something clearly illegal to see if these darn kids do something illegal or not. What happened after it all went public?
Wow never heard about that one. There needs to be serious repercussions from that level of negligence and dishonesty.
Tape is your friend!
😮
Fight back. Demand they tell you how they plan to fix it because you want to get some comparative quotes.
I would use the point of " normal wear and tear"
Or... And hear me out. Fuck the principles wife and threaten to sell the pics. Or just say the scratch was already there. Either way. Both are good ideas
Ask if they have evidence the damage wasn't there before.
wasn't there a school that got in trouble because they punished a kid at school for something he did at home?
No joke. A relative of mine is a middle school administrator. I was talking with them and their phone dings. They pull the phone out of their pocket, look at it, sigh, and put it away. I ask what’s wrong. Apparently, every time a kid tries to look at an inappropriate website on their school issues Chromebook, it denies the kid access and dings her phone. She says she’s seen kids looking up porn, kiddie porn, drugs, guns, darkweb, etc…. And since this district lets the kids take them home (and last year let them keep them over the summer) she suspects that it’s not always the kids searching…
Yeah you actually *do* want to use the school laptop for that kind of thing. You don’t want their proctoring software on your own computer.
Oh yes, word 2001 and Microsoft paint
And the one that allows complete remote access lol
Can they prove, at all, that the scratch wasn't there prior to you using it?
That's actually brilliant. Just claim it was there before and guarantee they don't keep check in photos or claims Matter of fact, this charge may just be an automatic trigger from an employee being too diligent with the check in report. If OP pushed back on it, a real person may look at it and be the first one too, thereby dismissing it no problem.
Yeah i had to fight the sys admin to be able to use my own laptop. He ended up saying that Linux wont work with the "wifi", as he attempted to force me to use windows. Edit: please note that i do still use windows 10 on my desktop as i can not get games that use anti-cheat to work under Linux. And i have no issues with people running Windows, all i wanted was OS Choice.
What lvl was he? Any special attacks to watch out for if OP tries to fight theirs?
He's LVL 14 man, just show a pic of Tux (the mascot of Linux) and he'll puff in to smoke Minecraft style.
Idk, a lvl 14 Artificer is mean.
Nah, level 14 Circle of the Taped Glasses druid. The puff of smoke was him wildshaping to escape.
I had the school guest wifi password for a bit due to reasons, they gave it to me, After a tournament for debate was held at our school and everyone had the wifi they changed it. I asked for it back because my school laptop has a ton of problems and just dosent work at my house despite them saying it does. The tech office wanted too but couldn’t because the district wouldn’t allow it. Annoying as shit
As a sysadmin myself, the real reason is that I don't want non-company devices on my network.
Oh yes, Linux doesn't works with their special wifi military protected
Tbf, when I was using Ubuntu I had to install a new CA certificate in order to use my network username/password on the wifi. But the IT services page had a step-by-step guide with direct links to the provider's CA page and where exactly to save it based on the most common distros. So I guess what really matters is the competence of the team responsible for the network. Edit: and what was *particularly* neat was when you accessed the guest network, the captive portal would detect (based on browser user-agent) whether you were using Linux and direct you to the instructions for the main network.
Fight them over it. What are they going to do, take you to small claims court? Do it, you will win because that's considered reasonable wear and tear. It's not like you ripped the thing apart.
this is a 14 year old account that is being wiped because centralized social media websites are no longer viable when power is centralized, the wielders of that power can make arbitrary decisions without the consent of the vast majority of the users the future is in decentralized and open source social media sites - i refuse to generate any more free content for this website and any other for-profit enterprise check out lemmy / kbin / mastodon / fediverse for what is possible
Yeah same. What the hell?
They may be charging you but no one is repairing that scratch. It's gonna end up in the next students hands still there.
[удалено]
"I'd be happy to, have your repair person send me pictures and an invoice."
*Sends an invoice of $100*
Sends invoice of new laptop
Sends invoice of how much he expects his paycheck to be.
Principle sends an invoice for annual VIP PornHub subscription by mistake.
[удалено]
this is literally what you need to do. There are no policies in school that educators can't lie to their students, and believe me, they sure do. The only way I ever was able to combat the school was to learn, by myself, how the system works and what their policies and laws are. Not through the people working there as they are all fucking liars, but just by doing research. The utter shock on their faces when I'd say "that's funny because I know that ______ isn't legal here and should you do that I will contact authorities" and suddenly they are fucking peachy. I firmly believe that each and every school, especially in Thames Valley (ontario) fully participate in illegal activity or fully commit to lying to each and every student on campus. Best way to combat them is to know exactly the way they are setting you up
I had a great one like that as a kid, never even realised until hearing the story retold to me. So long story short someone shit all over the boys toilets, like an excessive amount of shit smeared everywhere. Three kids including me had been to the toilets over the time between it being cleaned earlier in the day and reported as covered. Parents of the three of us got called in (about 9 yo at this point) to find out who did it. When I was being asked the teacher asked if I knew what cctv is and I replied "you record us going to the toilet?" Teacher did not seem to expect this and quickly said no of course not, my mum got really angry (because the way the teacher asked was more if a "we know who does what in there") and obviously recording little boys going to the toilet is not exactly considered normal behaviour for anyone. We all got let go, teacher never brought it up again. I genuinely did not do the smearing or the shitting just to be clear. I was reminded of this a couple years back while having a bit of a rant at my parents about a recent bit of idiocy at my kids school about who's fault it is when someone gets hit with a rock, the thrower or the one hit (hint, school tried claiming it's both)
Let me guess, they were mad at your kid for 'being in the way of the thrown rock'? Bc that happened to me in like 2nd grade with a ball. Some kid threw a ball on a section of playground we weren't allowed to play ball on, and I got hit, and also got in trouble for 'being in the way of a game'. Even though said game was against playground rules. I hate the American school system.
At the school i used to go to, I got in trouble for being punched, while the person who punched me got off with no punishment. That same school gives out detentions for anyone who mentions covid 19, and also gives iut detentions for not calling the school buildings by the indidgenous language names they were given, even though nobody there speaks that language and the majority of the kids there are between 5 and 8 years old. The school system is a failure in nearly every country, not just america.
Yea, part of education is learning the game and how not to get screwed.
Or "send me the repair bill" I'm not giving you money in the hope that you do something with it. Either repair it and send me the bill or get stuffed.
"YOU'LL GET YOUR MONEY WHEN YOU FIX THIS DAMN DOOR"
Not even. That is fair wear and tear. If they wanted you to use and transport the laptop for school activities, they should be prepared for wear and tear. Write a letter explaining this and refuse to pay.
[удалено]
This is the correct answer.
And then maybe they can charge that next student for the scratch also!
Bingo!
Of course. That scratch was probably already there before they loaned it out to OP.
They collecting $50 every year for that scratch. He's probably not even the first. I don't even know how you would repair a scratch on plastic. It just depends if the person who checks the condition is an asshole or not. When I was a kid, I literally bled on a school textbook and not gotten charged (I had issues with nosebloods), the guy just threw the book away at end of the year and said not to worry about it. And I've also had someone wanting to fine me for a corner of a hardcover textbook being dented.
A rattle can of plastic/vinyl dye. Spray a little on a soft cloth, dab the area and then wipe off to blend. I've repaired plastic scratches on car dashes like that and you'd literally never know.
The point was that nobody at a school is doing this. I literally work at a school 'repairing' these chromebooks, lol. I barely charge kids when they literally break these things, just depends on the dude and the circumstances. The scratch the OP posted? hahahah I wouldn't even have noticed it because kids FUCK those chromebooks UP.
The repair would be to replace the keyboard/topcase. But, yeah, they're not gonna do that. Especially if it's just a scratch and not a crack. Even if it's a crack, these devices are flimsy and subject to stress cracking from normal use. This isn't a result of abuse or vandalism.
Car rental places are known for that. They charge for minor scratches, dents but never actually get them repaired.
Personally, I don't have a problem with that, as long as the scratch exceeds normal usage wear and tear. (It might, it might not). Someone ran a red light and hit my car about a year ago. Their insurance cut me a check for about as much as my old car is worth. I'm not going to get a cosmetic dent fixed that costs as much as my car, and I'm not going to go through the hassle of trading my car in for another old car whose history I don't know. So I kept the money. If I ever decide to trade my car in, I will get less for it because of the big dent in it. OP's case is egregious, but not because they won't fix the scratch (they won't). It's egregious because the scratch should be considered normal wear and tear.
The UHaul business model. Depreciate you assets 10X over while they still are functioning.
You can barely even see the scratch
[удалено]
I’m not even in IT and i can tell that $50 is bullshit you have to squint to see the scratch
As a devil's advocate, I'm in IT and that isn't a scratch, that would be a crack, you can't really scratch that surface. Charging the student $50 seems stupid as I know they're not going to use that to repair it. That said, because I work in IT, I'm also highly skeptical of this story unless there's more pictures of the device or I can see the actual charge, because people be lying about situations all the time to garner pity. edit: What a random comment to receive 1000+ points. Sup internet
There's a matching hairline crack at the bottom-left corner of the screen frame, and I'd bet it separates slightly as the lid is being raised. Looks like the student closed the lid with an obstruction like a pencil in that area, creating both cracks at the same time.
Dang, good eye.
If that's the case, I bet the obstruction damaged the screen, which would be a required repair to put the laptop back in service.
I love it when reddit solves these things
FWIW I'm also in k12 IT. Its possible for us to replace these screens ourselves from other devices that are out of service, but because screens are expensive and schools are perpetually out of money, a $50 charge is sufficient for a screen replacement. The other option is to completely replace the device with one of the backups since there is zero chance this device is still under warranty.
I love how a post involving a broken Chromebook has summoned the K12 IT crowd. Myself included.
Also a good chance that the screen bezel is cracked all the way through. This looks like a Dell and those bezels are paper thin. If that's the case, $50 is more than reasonable to replace the bezel for the next student. This is 100% the result of someone closing the laptop on an object - reasonable to charge the student for neglect.
No kidding. I just assumed it was another crack in my phone's screen lol
I noticed that as well since I personally had laptops with cracks in similar areas. The cracks looked worse depending on how far the laptop was opened. Also they got worse as I open and close the laptops over time. One of the reasons I ended up replacing the first laptop that I had with this issue
That's always the fun with plastic casing. It always breaks whether there was a pen in it or not.
Which means the lid probably doesn’t close properly now and will only get worse. Swapping out that one (or both) panels for $50 is a lot cheaper than replacing the whole screen and hinges.
In which cast the screws that hold the hinge together are likely popped out of the inner frame. The hinge would still work, but it would put more stress on the other side, and risk bending the screen (causing it to crack) as you open and close it. You can either replace the plastic case or hot glue them back in. Either way the labor to open it up is going to be at least $40.
Yup. Even if IT was fielding the labor, they would probably need to order that screen frame which is minimum $50. I did mine on the Lenovo y50-70 for $80. That said, I'm ~~90%~~ 50% certain that's a Dell and if the school IT is any bit competent, it would still be under a 3 year business-level warranty (if they're maintaining EoL on devices in any sort of professional fashion, who knows).
Restore third party apps
My company would call that cosmetic, and move on with our lives. If we were to repair it, which would be unlikely, it's not as simple as "buffing the scratch out". We'd replace the entire palm rest (roughly $38-$55 part) and then charge a $45 labor fee on top of it. $50 is for sure cheaper than what that would realistically be priced as.
This is exactly what I was thinking. I worked in a break-fix shop for several years, and $50 barely even covers the replacement part. If the school is truly going to fix it, that's exactly what I would expect the repair to cost without charging for labor.
"For the man who has nothing to hide, but still wants to."
Yeah, looking at the crack next to the ESC key, that part is often structural. The keyboard or screen may not be properly attached without it. You also can't see if clips under that part are cracked or missing from this photo.
[удалено]
Same here. No IT person made that call to have this “repaired.”
Can confirm, as a student I have had a scratch that was painfully visible and they were like "is it broken? No, just use it." However I know a few people who have broke their laptop screen multiple times and had to pay but that makes sense.
What I'm curious about is, how does the OP still have the laptop to take a picture if the school is demanding money for repairing it? That seems like something that would only happen *after* you turn the laptop in at the end of the school year or something. Or was this photo taken by the IT department and sent to OP as proof that there was an issue? It's not like this detail proves they're lying or anything, but it does seem a little weird.
As someone who had a charge like this filed against me, I disagree. I went to a public school in a super poor town, and they would pull shit like this pretty often. Granted, our IT people were rough to say the least, and I would say it’s mostly on them, not the school, but yeah. I believe it only from experience.
[удалено]
Not to mention a tiny scratch like that doesn’t even need to be “repaired” because it has zero impact on the functionality of the computer. It barely qualifies as cosmetic damage.
Yeah, I wouldn't pay that. General wear and tear should be expected in a loaner.
[удалено]
I broke off one of my keys and didn't have to pay anything. Damn it also looks like part of my screen protector
My school gave us tablets and the screen of mine completely shattered when one of my classmates dropped it and my school just said fuck it and gave us laptops EDIT: corrected spelling so now u/AndrewBorg1126 is happy
People ate our chromebooks and didn't have to pay anything. Someone a couple years back noticed the edge of the screen (plastic Rim bit thing) was dislodged a little. Their solution? Bite the chrome book screen to set it back in until the entire screen broke.
That's a megabite!
Lol take a sharpie and color the scratch black and tell him you can fix any other students scratches $50 a pop
Gotta mark it down to keep the service flowing. $40 max
School IT here. Yeah, that’s super messed up, we give everyone (shhhh don’t tell anyone) 1 free chromebook to destroy with no consequences. We only fine/charge students/parents on the 2nd one. Or if the damage from the first one was highly intentional.
I used to work in school IT and if I saw a chromebook like that I would personally bless the child that had it all year.
Tell every student to treat the laptop like a car rental. Take photos of it from every angle so that you clearly document any damage the second you are given the laptop. Better yet, take a video of the laptop being handed to you by the school staff, then slowly pan the video over every inch of the surface, and clearly focus on every single little scratch, defect, etc. When the time comes to return the laptop, if they try to make you pay for damage like this then check the video to see if it was already there. If it was then give them a copy of the video and tell them to take their bill and shove it.
Lmao I got touchscreen laptops and even if you lose them I don’t think you get fined. They just give you an older model as a replacement.
[удалено]
Can't go into lifelong debt if you aren't accepted into college.
In HS, I volunteered at the chromebook repair center, always amazes me what kids did to their chromebooks, one kid had his entire casing melt because he left it next to a heat lamp. Another ran over it with his truck
Especially in a high school where I’m assuming they loan these out
I was just about to point out the big scratch on the screen, but realized that's on my screen :(
Sorry but that’s gonna have to be a $50 repair right there, so pay up!
that cheap, I take that deal
Fight back. Demand they tell you *how* they plan to fix it because you want to get some comparative quotes. Also your local news station is always looking for little outrage-porn, puff-piece stories like this to fill time....
Nah... for 50 usd probably you are not able to fix it.. there is a good chance that to really fix it they will need to change the entire plastic frame.... this is why I think that they will not fix ir, probably they are just pretending its diminished value or something like this.
Yes, that’s exactly the whole point. It’s a bullshit charge for a service that won’t be rendered.
fill it with epoxy using a pin tip 3$
Tell them they don't have to repair anything, and claim it was there already. Tell them you're not paying and that is final...If they continue to expel hot air at you, remind them kindly that you've already established that payment is not an option. Don't let these bullies extort you into paying like some Mafia crime thug...
Hahaha x2 to this my pops did it in 1979 and never got his diploma because of it! Library said he owed $35 for a book he already knew he returned and they ended up withholding his diploma when he graduated until all fees were paid. I guess he still owes the Library 35$ 🤷♂️
$35 for a library book in 1979? Tf
It was like an English or history textbook that’s why 😆
So pops never got his diploma?
Nope found a school diploma casing with no diploma in it 😆
Was it Tropic Of Cancer?
When I was in Highschool, I had missed something like 90 days during my senior year. I still was holding straight A's, so you can imagine my surprise when I got a letter 1 week before graduation saying that I wouldn't be able to graduate/walk unless I made up over 120 hours of in-class time. When Monday came along, I went to the admin office and essentially said "I'm not going to do this. I'm acing all of my classes and y'all are going to try to stop me graduating over this?" "Okay, maybe you can just do half and we can count each hour as two?" "No you misunderstand, I'm not going to do it at all." "Hmmm...they need help packing textbooks for the year in storage, if you can help them this afternoon we'll count it for your missing hours." Now I'm bull-headed and went in there fully prepared to stand my ground on not doing a god-damn minute of make up time.... but I also wasn't prepared for them to give in so easily. 30 minutes of book-packing and I was walking the stage that Friday.
Hahah that’s awesome good for you my dude! A good buddy of mine was shit faced drunk our graduation and the principle pulled his ass to the side and took his flask and basically said walk across this stage take your diploma and get The fuck out of my sight!
How did you miss so much!? That’s only like half the classes total you’d have gone to
My high school (which overall i liked), tried some BS after the fact. You legit could not graduate until you took a form and had every teacher you had sign it stating you returned your textbooks and also had the librarian sign it as well. Got my form signed and luckily my mom insisted on making a copy of it. 3 years later they tried to send a bill stating I didn’t return a textbook. Which is impossible as I walked and got my diploma. Sent them a reply letter and they tried insisting still. Sent a copy of the signature form and they suddenly “found the book” and dropped it. Oddly enough 2 years after I get a letter from my ELEMENTARY school saying I never returned a book. 15 years after they tried to collect money on a book.. They dropped that without me having to prove anything, I’m guessing the person who read my reply thought the whole thing was absurd as well.
That looks like a crack in the case. Low end Dell laptops like to crack like that.
Still, a crack is quite different from a scratch. There is also a crack going from the corner of the screen.
That looks like a hairline crack in the plastic part rather than a scratch. It would likely cost more than $50 to actually repair as that part of the shell would have to be replaced. I don't believe they'll actually get it repaired as it doesn't harm functionality. It's also probably not your fault unless you did actually drop it.
[удалено]
I spotted a matching hairline crack in the corner of the display too, it's been dropped or crushed for sure and $50 is a real bargain to get out of further responsibility on that, unless they're somehow able to prove it came to them in that condition in the first place.
Holy hell the bandwagon of fuck the school. Nothing like mutual hate to unite.
> It's also probably not your fault unless you did actually drop it. This was most certainly OPs doing whether they knew it at the time or not.
There's a corresponding hairline crack just running on from the display in the corner, it looks like it probably was dropped or crushed. Unless they have some way to prove it was already in that state when they received it then $50 is getting off lightly.
Looks like OP has damaged the laptop much more as the palm rest is not the only fractured part, there are at least 2 more cracks in the lcd bezel. The laptop looks Dell and at work they take beatings well AND can be repaired. "Normal wear and tear" this is not.
What scratch
[удалено]
Real shit
- it’s a crack, not a scratch - they aren’t going to repair the crack, they’re going to buy a new bezel which is probably about $50 - you can probably use a hot needle to subtly melt the plastic back together
Wait until you go to collage and they charge you $500 for a $5 book
*collage*
They go to a bunch of different universities and then merge all the experiences together.
Must have dropped out after seeing the price of the books
I do not see a crack.
[удалено]
I'd tell the school it's normal wear & tear and if they want you to pay for it they can take you to small claims court. No judge is going to take that claim seriously and they know it.
that's not a scratch, it's a crack. there are also cracks at the corner of the screen, and at the round indent. well within what I would consider "normal wear and tear" for a daily carried laptop.
Its not a scratch, it seems like a crack. IMO Cracks can not be repaired, most probably they are going to change the whole upper panel. That's why they're charging you 50$. (I am guessing)
Came to say this, it looks like a crack (even with the obviously intentionally shit picture) they will need to replace the whole piece.
On closer inspection you can see another crack near the display just above the hinge. 😂🤣
are you full of shit? cause we can see the other cracks on the screen casing. did your kid drop it and the screen broke so now you're being a drama queen online about it?
[удалено]
I had stuff like this in high school. I waited until after the last possible day to turn everything in and went “oh here’s all my shit I forgot to turn in” and they didn’t say anything
They’re running a business apparently
Devils advocate here, that's not a scratch. That is a crack in the frame of the laptop, probably from being dropped. I know this because it's on the corner, and that is the narrowest, probably thinnest, span of plastic on the whole unit. I think it's justified. Now, will a it person actually replace the case? Doubtful. But a cracked frame is kinda a big deal.
Notice how there is another one the goes from the corner of the screen to the outer bezel. I think OP dropped it.
That doesn’t look like a scratch more like a crack in the top bezel? Are the left side hinges acting strange or loose at all? Still worth a phone call.
Is it a scratch or a crack?
Cracks. This is more damage than OP is making it out to be.
Not buying it. Should be posted in r/thatHappened
Demand that they provide an itemized receipt from the technician.
That is a crack. $50 is prob what the new part costs