The Saga of the Broken Laptop Converter Thingie - Part 1

I took my laptop and my power converter to this notebook place in the city. I plaintitively raised the universal adapter I bought yesterday and began to cry.
"It's not working! It's not long enough."
Gangly Nerdling Guy looks at plug. Looks at my laptop. Inserts plug in laptop. "Oh, it's long enough. It's not WIDE enough. Not even close."
(weeping hysterically) "So... Like... Now what?"
"Well, we can try to order a new power adapter..." Here gangly guy makes a hand gesture that roughly translates to the metaphorical equivalent of 'we can try to pray to Saint Anthony for a miracle' or we can GO TO TOWN on your power converter."
"Go to town."
"Oh yeah. Rip it apart, soder it together, piecemeal."
"Is that even possible?"
"Let us find our service guy and talk to him about it."
(7 minutes pass) I stare at GNG expectantly.
He stares back. Blinks. Speaks. "Well, what did the service guy say?"
"Uhm. Who is the service guy?"
GNG raises fingers the length of the Alien's claws. "There."
I stand patiently in line for Service Guy (SG).
I produce the powerchord-adapter.
SG: "Hahahaha, you have a US power adapter."
TWP: "Yeeeessss... I do. Now, my problem is... (I describe the problem. Again. For 10 minutes the store staff are staring and fondling my power adapter, making derisive comments about the WEIRDNESS of those bloody American components). "So, can you help me?"
"I don't want to. There will be a short and your machine will CATCH ON FIRE. Then you or your house will CATCH ON FIRE."
"But I can't work without my Precioussss...."
"Okay, I will fix it."
"Huh?"
"It will cost you a fortune but I will fix it. Leave it here."
"Okay. Okay. Bye now."
"Bye Bye."