Shop broke my laptop while in for repair

simpywimpy

I have this in the techie section but feel I need to know my rights now.

I took my laptop in to a local repairer for its charging socket to be replace because it was loose. The laptop was fully working apart from this problem.

They replaced the connection but then told me that the keyboard wasnt working. They have investigated it and say its a motherboard problem and there is nothing they can do.

Seeing it was fully operational when I gave it to them I want it either repaired (which they say is not possible) or replaced with a like for like product.

They are offering a cost price replacement (quote £85 for a secondhand basic laptop with windows xp)but Im not sure I should accept this. Their argument is that they have no way of knowing that the laptop was working when I gave it to them.

What should I do? Take the offer or hold out for a replacement FOC?

simpywimpy

does anyone think this offer is fair or should I be getting a new laptop of the same standard as before without having to pay?

Bowling_4_Gold

If the actual laptop they have repaired works except for the keyboard, I would tell them to let you have the laptop back and not charge for repair, then you could just buy an external keyboard and use that (unless you need the portability)

I had a similar problem with a mobile once - let the local market repair it, they (after weeks of stalling and excuses) admitted they gave it to some dodgy guy in London to repair, and said we could have a similar (but not as good) model for £20 (the original price of the repair). I was having none of it, and he let me have the replacement for free which I was happy about

simpywimpy

they did say it would work with an external keyboard but that's not suitable for us. My son uses it for work as a singer so needs it to be the one piece it should be for running his backing tracks.

He did say he wouldnt charge for the original reason it went in which is fine, but Im still left with a laptop that now has a greater fault than it did when it went in and the cost of repairing that fault elsewhere would be far in excess of the saving on the minor repair

Norant

In august last year i had to send my daughters Laptop in for repair,before sending it in as i do with most things i send in for repair i took a photograph.

This would not have helped you in this situation,however if you need to send anything of value in for repair in the future record its state by photographing it at as many angles as you can do,make sure that the time and date are recorded on the photo aswell.

Good luck.

Anihilator

It entirely depends.
Did the laptop actually genuinely have a fault or where they neglient. If its the former then you arent entitled to anything and their offer is fair, if its the latter they should sort the problem.

I don't fancy your chances of getting an expert to confirm they broke it though.

pmduk

As the others have said, unless you can prove the shop broke the laptop you are on a hiding to nothing

simpywimpy

the techie thread seem to think there is no way that the connection fault could have caused the keyboard to break so something has happened while they have had it

Anihilator

Or the fault was pre existing.