Charged for no repair

eevie

I took my daughter's laptop into the local computer shop for repair, it was turning on and fan and lights were on, but no screen. She had been having a few problems with it turning itself off. I phoned the shop today to ask about the repair and was told it was not economically viable as the motherboard, memory and hard drive would all need replacing. Worse to come was they were going to charge me £35 for diagnsosing the faults. When I dropped it off they never mentioned any charge. Can they do this? I did not see any notices in the shop whern I left the laptop. Also do I have any recourse with a repair from Fujuitsu as although it is out of warranty it is only 18 months old. This seems rather a catastrophic fault for a laptop of this age. Any help appreciated.

Tozer

Possible recourse against the retailer. As for the £35 charge, well it all depends on whether you were made aware that there would be a charge.

a11waysindebt

A bit annoying I know,But on the other hand they could have charged a small fortune for the repair nearly as much as a new one.

You should always ask for a price first.

Jakg

If the mobo, HDD AND the RAM are all faulty either the laptop has been dropped in water or beaten with a hammer, or they are conning you....

The odds of all 3 failing at once is low (esp with the HDD).

simpywimpy

if your daughter has dropped it or got it wet without mentioning it, it could be covered on your house insurance if you have accidental damage. I recently dropped mine and they replaced it no probs.

eevie

A bit annoying I know,But on the other hand they could have charged a small fortune for the repair nearly as much as a new one.

You should always ask for a price first.

Thanks for the replies. The understanding was that they would let me know the fault and cost and then I would agree to repair, at no time did they tell me it would be £35 to diagnose the faults. If I have to pay the £35 to get it back I could perhaps insist they provide a written report to include their opinion as to how such catastrophic damage occured and then try the insurance root.

Lip_Stick

A few years ago my old computer started switching itself off. My dad took it to a local place for repairs, as I don't have a car, and was at work. My dad got told that it was riddled with viruses and it was suggested that the comp had windows reinstalled for £25.

I'm quite savvy I like to think when it comes to viruses and all that, and I knew it didn't have a virus. I got the comp back without anything being done to it and found out myself that it was shutting because of a new broadband modem. I was furious, I think the guy thought he could con my dad. I really wish I'd gone into his shop and given him a piece of my mind, but I never bothered. :mad:

pulliptears

I had no end of problems with a Fujitsu...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=306736&highlight=fujitsu+amilo

A few years ago I know, but there are many many people who have had problems with the Amilo range. I never updated my tale there, but in the end it went back for repair where it stayed for 5 weeks, I argued with Currys and finally got a refund.

pulliptears

d.edna wrote: »

Ahh I remember the Amilo debacle as I had one, ram panics, hdd panics, sent it to currys for repair, they lost it!! The Amilios are a good range of machine, but the recent faults have put alot of people off them,

When I went back into Dixons/Currys to use the vouchers they had given me to replace the machine, the manager was full of apologies and told me that they had stopped stocking amilo's the xmas before because of their appalling failure rate and he was amazed when they had new stock of them! Ive posted on a few threads in grabbit when these come up cheaply, in one case having a few replies saying "Well mine is ok".....for now maybe....

I replaced it with a Toshiba, which I gave to my DD (still going strong, never been a moments trouble) and I bought myself a MacBook.

Im doing a Graphic Design Degree and havent got the time to deal with computer failures lol

Jem8472

Jakg wrote: »

If the mobo, HDD AND the RAM are all faulty either the laptop has been dropped in water or beaten with a hammer, or they are conning you....

The odds of all 3 failing at once is low (esp with the HDD).

Thats what I thought when I read this thread.

If the screen did not work one of the first things I would try is plugging another moniter into the video out that most laptops have on them.
You just unually need to plug in the new moniter, turn the laptop and moniter on then there is usually a function button to press to switch between the LCD display and the external moniter.

pulliptears

d.edna wrote: »

The vouchers they give make me laugh out loud, they sometimes (Ive had 3 lots of vouchers off them) seriously overvalue the machine or under value it.

But Toshibas are work horses not really a "stylish" machine in my opinion, they keep going and going, had one for 8 years, failed due to a fault ribbon cable which ment a new screen and a power charge point issue, I would seriously recommend toshiba, even Sony machines are good, but Toshibas are the best

It is a workhorse, DD is 11 now and its her main machine, if it can stand being dropped, covered in my little pony stickers, filled with crappy games and still run then thats fine by me

I think the vouchers were for slightly more, but as I said on the liked thread they mis described the product and knocked me £100 off (from my hazy memory they advertised it with a TV out port which it didnt have and was one of my primary reasons for buying the thing!) , the vouchers didnt take that into account