MBP bricked after servicing - Keyboard disconnected

Question

Sorry ahead of time for the long story, but I appreciate any help and suggestions on what I could do about this.
A few months ago (back in march) I had spilled a little bit of liquid on my 15inch mbp. The small spill area was on the bottom right hand part of the mbp and a little bit had gone into the arrow keys/bottom of the speaker. I turned off the computer and wiped off the liquid and waited to turn it back on. There appeared to be no damage done to the computer aside from a slightly sticky arrow key, but a week or two later the computer started turning off by itself randomly (with and without the power cord plugged in). My brother had had this problem with his mbp (due to the battery, and after having the battery replaced his was fine), and after reading many of the discussion forums was led to believe that it was just a battery issue. I called apple support and told them the problem and they said it was probably the battery, but since I was unable to make the computer turn off by itself by doing what they told me, they told me that I could either have them send out a new battery or see if it would stop turning off by itself, and if it did it again to just call them back. Since I was still in school at the time I decided not to deal with the hassle of continuing to talk to customer service so I elected to just wait and see if it happened again (back choice on my part).
A week went by without it turning off but eventually it did, so I called apple support again to take up the offer of having a new battery sent out, except this time instead of being offered the new battery, I was told to go through the tests again to try and make the computer shut off (once again the tests were unsuccessful), and was then told that I would have to send the computer in so that they could see what was wrong with it. After trying to tell them that the week before I was told it was just a battery issue, I gave in and agreed to send in the computer since I had no real need for it since I only had a few weeks left in the semester and none of my classes required computer work. Up to this point customer service had been relatively helpful and seemed to want to help me out with my problems, but here's where everything went wrong. Keep in mind that at this point the computer is perfectly fine aside from randomly turning off, a minor and inconvenient annoyance.
I got the box they sent out to ship my mbp in, and I sent it away to be repaired. A few days later after they received it I got a call from them saying that they would be unable to repair it for free since they found evidence of liquid damage on, I believe what they said was, the motherboard, keyboard, speakers, optical disk drive, and power supply. Now I was dumbfounded on how the little bit of liquid that I spilled could've managed to cause all that damage, especially since it seemed like had there been 'damage' on all those parts there would be a bigger problem then just randomly turning off. Their estimate for repairing the computer was around $1250. Since the computer was still completely useable when I shipped it off, I asked if any of those damages would really affect the computer, and the lady I was speaking to at the time told me "no, but it will most likely eventually die." I figured it would come back in a useable condition, and since I was told there would be no real issue with it, I elected to not have it repaired and told them to send it back.
A few days later I get my mbp back, and excited to have it back I open it up and hit the power button but it wouldn't turn on. I figured the battery must be dead so I plugged it in and hit the power button again, and once again it didn't turn on. Since it was late, I decided that I'd call customer service once again the next day. When I was sleeping that night and the mbp was closed, I heard the chime it plays when it turns on, which woke me up and I looked over and saw the glowing apple. I went back to sleep and when I woke up in the morning the computer was still on. I opened it up and saw the screen saver up, so I touched the trackpad to wake it up but that didnt work either. I tried to turn it off with the power button but it didn't work, so I took out the battery and put it back in which shut the computer off and then it turned back on. The computer seemed like it was booting up normally, and then a totally different desktop popped up with PhoenixCE running (their diagnostic program). The keyboard did not work at all so I called customer service, told them the problem, they told me I just needed to reinstall the OS. I asked about the keyboard not working at all and that I couldn't control when the computer turned on and off other than taking out and putting back in the battery, and they told me that it would be fixed by reinstalling the OS, which I thought was kind of odd, but ignored it. They sent out the OS discs since I didn't have mine with me, and I put the discs in, but was unable to do anything with it because the keyboard didn't work. I went and borrowed a usb keyboard and mouse from my neighbors which both worked fine with the computer and attempted to reinstall the OS, but apple had partitioned the HD into two segments both less than 3 gb so there was not enough space to install the OS. I called customer service again and told them the new problem, and I was told that there was nothing they could do about it. I was dumbfounded by how I could send in a relatively fine working computer to a repair center, and have it sent back in worse (NON-WORKING) condition. Naturally I asked this and the guy I was speaking to kept implying that it was my fault that they sent the computer back to me in non-working condition. Eventually I hung up out of frustration. After trying to figure out how to get my HD back, I had clicked on some buttons and after clicking on ok for some button (I don't remember what it was, real smart, I know) the computer shut off. Unable to figure out what happened I figured the computer was completely dead. I had no way to to turn the computer on and off, removing the battery and putting it back in no longer worked, and the keyboard was still out of commission. I was now computer-less and had to go out and buy a new computer because of all this. I got a new mbp because I liked my old one so much.
Here's the kicker, last night a friend and I decided to take apart the "broken" mbp to see if we could salvage anything from it. After following directions on how to take it apart, and noticing that you're supposed to be careful removing the top part of the case/keyboard because of the ribbon attaching the keyboard to the motherboard, we looked and conveniently, the reason why the keyboard didn't work, was because they never reattached the keyboard. They never once suggested that this could've been a cause for the keyboard not working. To top it off, the "liquid damage" that they said was on everything, could only be found on the metal casing of the optical drive, a place were it most likely did not cause any damage, and slightly on the protective tape that covers the back of the keyboard. Cleaned off those two areas (looks good as new), reattached the keyboard, and like magic we were able to turn on and off the computer. We figured out how to reset the HD and reinstalled the OS, and the computer worked completely fine. It's been on all day today without a single problem so far (waiting to see if it'll turn off by itself at all). The whole process of fixing the computer took maybe 10 minutes (longer if you include the time it took to reinstall the OS) and they wanted around $1250?
I went out and bought a brand new computer because of this whole ordeal, thinking that my original mbp was dead. Is there anything I can do to get some sort of reimbursement? I unnecessarily went out and bought a new computer, because they sent mine back in non-working condition when it worked when I sent it in, and implied that it was my fault. Does anyone know apple's policy for any sort of situation like this? Is there some sort of way to file a complaint? I don't really know to do, but I'm $2000 down the hole because I thought I needed to buy a mbp when I didn't need to buy a new one. Thanks for any help ahead of time, and sorry for the long story.

Answer 1

Since this is a user-to-user forum nobody here is going to be able to give you a definitive answer. You could call Apple Customer Service and see if you could return the new computer, which would be the simplest solution.
Your keyboard cable may have been disconnected and not reconnected by a service technician, or could have dislodged during shipping, but I seriously doubt it was related to your "minor" problem of the computer turning itself off. That would indicate a major issue that would only get worse with time. I also think you may be understating the amount of liquid that went into the computer, but remember that ANY amount of liquid is bad for a computer. I've opened countless laptops and iPods where the person spilled just a little liquid, or only dropped it into water for a minute and each time there was evidence of a considerable amount of liquid in the computer.
A call to customer service might solve your issue:
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?nnmm=br owse&mco=MTE2Mzc&node=help/contact
<Edited by Moderator>