That’s crazy, surely it would have been cheaper to buy a new laptop at that point. I mean if you combine all the costs of those people trying to problem solve, plus the opportunity cost of you not being able to do your work…

Your assumption is that such big companies operate in a logical manner, the employee is a ball-bearing in a huge machinery, why should they care. IT support is probably outsourced, so for them is likely good to bill more hours.