My AmigaOne Experience

[Argo]

Should have just gone with your gut and sent it back with the package they sent you and a letter.
Or you could have taken it to a PC repair shop to have trained personel change out the ROM chip.
If you don't know what your doing, get help.
You could try taking it to a PC shop now and see if they can repair it by putting the socket back on then installing the ROM.
Alway check every nook and krany of a package. Turn it inside out if you have to. Little things tend to hide in the least expected places.

P.S. This is from experience. I bent the pins in my 2.04 ROM installing it in my A500. Luckly everything was fine when I straightened them out and eventually got it in. Oh, I also destroyed the Agnus socket when I tried to install a Fat Agnus. The local PC repair shop was my savior that day. So, it's not dead until you try every thing or give up.

[Argo]

Yup, they can be. Check your policy.A few years ago, my gf's cousin got a new laptop that way.  Fell off the dinner table when he moved something else. Shattered the screen. Instead of just paying to have a new screen connected, they paid for a new laptop. They totaled out his old laptop and told him he could keep it as unrepairable junk. So, he took it into a repair shop for a new screen and ended up with two.

[Argo]

No it's not. I just had to do the same thing with my ASUS board. I had a BIOS flash go bad. I call ASUS tech support they told me to send in the BIOS, nothing about how to get it out.
I've done this before and was comfortable in my ability to remove the BIOS ROM and reinsert it once I got it back from being reflashed. If I had not felt comfortable removing the ROM or did not have the proper tools, I would have taken it to a local PC repair shop for removal and reinsertion.
oh, yeah, they told me not to send in the whole motherboard only send the BIOS.

[Argo]

But Unclewilli, my battery has a 5 year warranty. So, that means you'll replace it (and the cable) for free and make sure it works correctly, right? :-D