Nightmare! Very anxious, I rang the support guys the next day. They said they were looking into it and would get back in touch ASAP. They asked me to ring them back in 48 hours. I rang them again 48 hours later and they informed me they had good news! The hard drive was packed in and they had replaced the hard drive free of charge and sent the laptop on its way back.
Well that sucks. He should have bought an island while he could. 8>)