This weekend I found the most expensive thing in my house (projector), took it apart, and broke it.
My Epson 3010 had developed a dust blob. Epson warranties against this, and would have mailed me a replacement projector for free. But I didn't want to be a problem customer.
So I opened it up and intended to fix it myself. In my defense, I did this with my old Panasonic projector and it turned out great.
But this time, I managed to totally destroy the connectors between the main board and LCD panels. I lost a clip, couldn't figure out how to replace the remaining two clips, and broke a cable trying to make it work without the clips.
I spent two days just sick over the mistake. I apologized to my wife a lot.
On Monday, I decided to call Epson. "I did something really stupid..."
They put me on hold. Then came back "Normally that would void the warranty. But we'll make a one-time exception and overnight you a replacement for free."
I was totally amazed. I said thank you, cried a little, and promised not to "fix" the replacement myself