Took my Levinson amp in for repair

Abruce do you know if the electrolytic from the caps has gone all over the circuit board(s)?
In my working on these types of problems I find that the leaking caps cause shorts;any chance you know if the area involved is large,small and what other types of components are in the affected area.
Maybe the board can be removed and cleaned in a solvent tank to aid in better troubleshooting of the affected area;thats even if the repair shop has that capability or you can find another source for repair.

Unless you signed a waiver of responsibility here is what I would do.

Find out exactly which capacitor was leaking. Email the manufacture describing the problem and the leak. Ask for an estimate for repair.

Send the amplifier to the manufacture and get an estimate for the repair of the catastrophic failure.

File a claim in your local Small Claims Court. Testify with both estimates and the verbal, "pretty much blew it up,," as well as the admission they plugged it in after they noticed the leak.

Detail all your costs such as shipping, travel, and time spent.

Your showing due diligence for a minor problem and they're returning you their failure.

Vicdamone, you need to prove that the dealer was negligent in their actions and their actions alone caused the problem.

Sending the amp for repair estimates and filing a claim in small claim court does nothing to further the OP cause unless you can substantiate your claim with “proof” that the technician was negligent in his actions. The “burden” to prove that the repair depot was negligent is on the OP and his proof must be in the form of unbiased expert testimony.

I have an example of "proof" of negligence for you.
My computer just stopped working. Brought it to the service center where I bought it new (major computer company). They tried to bring it back, but couldn't and said I needed a new hard drive. So they installed the new hard drive and charged me some $375.00.
Before sending the "bad" hard drive across the country to one of those expert hard drive restoration places I though I'd bring it to a local service guy. He called me later that day and said he put the old hard drive back in and got the computer working without too much effort. But, whoever just worked on it put the long screws back where the short screws were supposed to be and subsequently poked holes right through the back panel.
So he put all that information on my invoice (that was for $100.00) and I took that to the first service center. They had no problems issuing me a full refund for their screw ups and told me I could keep the new hard drive.

01-23-13: Markpao
Before sending the "bad" hard drive across the country to one of those expert hard drive restoration places ....

Mark, back up regularly and you won't have to worry about using data recovery services, which are expensive and very often are only partially successful.

Better yet, use a drive imaging program (e.g., Windows 7 Backup, Mac Time Machine, Acronis True Image, or what I use, Terabyte Unlimited's Image for Windows), and you won't even have to spend significant time reinstalling software following a hard drive replacement.

Best regards,
-- Al