Costliest Brainfart

I doubt homeowners will pay for a mishap, a coffee got spilled on a new computer 

and the agent jerk at Allstate literally laughed.

many of these workers are not exactly M.I.T grads .

My first system all used adcom gear and snell c2 speakers all bought used almost 60 years ago. I had the big adcom amp and crossed speaker wires so strands were crossing from + to - terminals no more sound from amp. Adcom was in NJ near me I called and for a box of donuts repaired the unit while I waited!!  

AH, my brother, I feel your pain. I have murdered a few styli in my day. 1 from dusting (Shure V15VxMR). 2 (Ortofon 2M Black and Soundsmith Zephyr MIMC *) from clumsily knocking the tonearm, sending it careening across the record and banging the cartridge into the record clamp.

The last 2 may have been influenced by consumption of whiskey...allegedly.

I also had a Cayin tube amp. I decided to change the tubes from  EL34 to KT88. After the switch I turned on the amp to wam up and realized that I forgot to change the tube switch setting on the back to KT88.  I reached behind the amp and flipped it up without turning the amp off. One of the tubes started smoking and popping. Turns out it blew out the bias meter and several resistors. I took it in for repair and it cost $600 to fix. The worst part is that it took 6 weeks to get it back.

I would say think of these unfortunate mishaps as educational. Education always comes at a cost.