Am I being mugged off?

hadders93

So I handed in my laptop (HP DV6) to my local computer servicer yesterday because it had a noisy, grating fan and I didn't trust myself to fix it properly.

Got a call back from them saying they've sorted the problem (cleaned the dust out, oiled the fans, cleaned the heat sink etc). The job reportedly took them 1 hour - for which they're charging £80. This seems very steep to me - is it overpriced, and if so is there anything I can do to get the price down? I'm off to uni in a few days, so really can't afford exorbitant fees - but similarly can't go without a working laptop!

visidigi

you should have set a price first, based on a number of eventualities, unfortunately they can literally charge what they like because you didn't.

£80 is a bit steep if it was just cleaning...although don't underestimate the work required to get inside some laptops (I have an HP ULV laptop that took me much sweat and many hours to get apart recently - all to put it back together and ship off to HP as it wasn't a servicable fault).

InsideInsurance

Many places will also have minimum charges or only bill by the half hour so if its 35 minutes you pay for 2 half hours (aka an hour) etc.

Having not clarified the price first your a little at their mercy.

Hammyman

hadders93 wrote: »

So I handed in my laptop (HP DV6) to my local computer servicer yesterday because it had a noisy, grating fan and I didn't trust myself to fix it properly.

Got a call back from them saying they've sorted the problem (cleaned the dust out, oiled the fans, cleaned the heat sink etc). The job reportedly took them 1 hour - for which they're charging £80. This seems very steep to me - is it overpriced, and if so is there anything I can do to get the price down? I'm off to uni in a few days, so really can't afford exorbitant fees - but similarly can't go without a working laptop!

If their hourly rate is £80 then it is £80. Did you bother to find out what their hourly rate was before they did the work?

To do a heatsink and fan properly you need to take the fan out to clean out the wad of fluff that sits in the gap between the heatsink and fan. On the DV6 it means taking it partially to bits because AFAIR it isn't just handily placed under an access cover like Acers are.

I would say 1hr is the correct time to be charging and may actually be a little short on some models.

mluton

Our Hourly rate is £80 + VAT

and not all laptops are easy to gain access to internally.

Mista_C

We charge £40 for a full hardware service. That covers 'ingredients' thermal compound, contact cleaners, etc, and labour. For £55 we do a complete service which includes software side maintenance, i.e. virus & malware scan, stress testing and basically a general spring clean of the whole unit without having to take it back to factory.

I suppose it depends on a few factors though but where I'm based £80 would be considered too much for a dust-down. Our charge is a flat rate for this kind of work but that's on principle due to the varying models of laptop and the massive jumps in cost if we were to charge by the hour. I don't see why people should be penalised due to poor casing/air flow design when they've bought equipment to suit there usage needs.

Hammyman

Mista_C wrote: »

Our charge is a flat rate for this kind of work but that's on principle due to the varying models of laptop and the massive jumps in cost if we were to charge by the hour. I don't see why people should be penalised due to poor casing/air flow design when they've bought equipment to suit there usage needs.

You charge along the same lines I do although I do have a small list of laptops that I don't apply that to for certain jobs - such as hinges and screens on Compaq CQ series of laptops which require half the base taking apart as well which doubles the time of the job.

Mista_C

Hammyman wrote: »

You charge along the same lines I do although I do have a small list of laptops that I don't apply that to for certain jobs - such as hinges and screens on Compaq CQ series of laptops which require half the base taking apart as well which doubles the time of the job.

Yes, sorry I should've said we do charge per laptop when it comes to screen/hinge assembly for the reasons you've outlined above. If we didn't we'd be at a serious loss.

chodjade

I think that is way too much, you could of done that yourself really easy job (well for me anyway and im no expert) and only takes ten minutes to clean my fan and heatsink full off dust out, but like someone above said some laptops are harder to get to certain parts where you have to take the hole laptop apart to get to it

Sooler

chodjade wrote: »

I think that is way too much, you could of done that yourself really easy job

easy ... once someone has diagnosed what needed to be done

letsbehonest

What's "mugged off" ?