My Creality K1 Max Extruder Damaged the PEI Bed—Warranty Still Denied

I own a Creality K1 Max 3D printer, and it's still under warranty. A few weeks ago, the nozzle got clogged during a print. I paused and shut down the printer to clear the blockage. When I turned it back on, it asked if I wanted to resume the print. Since the job had just started, I pressed "yes."

That’s when things went terribly wrong. The extruder started behaving erratically and ended up damaging the smooth PEI bed. At first, I thought it was just filament residue because both the bed and the filament were black. But once I took a closer look, I saw the PEI surface had been scraped.

I contacted the vendor, and they were helpful and responsive. But Creality itself refused to take responsibility. I emailed them directly (c*@creality.com), explained everything in detail, and provided both my receipt and serial number. I truly believed they were going to help—until they replied saying the bed only has a 3-month warranty and that it had expired.