There’s an old saying that states it’s sometimes cheaper to replace than to repair. There’s also the classic “you get what you pay for.” Put them together for what should have been a simple laptop repair, and what you get is a good warning for consumers. Names are changed to protect the not-too-innocent (and to prevent us from getting sued), but my name hasn’t been changed; I can’t protect the stupid.
My wife’s Toshiba A70 laptop was her workhorse for two and a half years. Eventually, the power connector for the plug became loose – anecdotally, a common problem – and tried to take it to an authorized Toshiba dealer. While I’m lousy at this kind of finicky work, I figured the connector simply needed a quick soldering job. After visiting two big box stores who wouldn’t bother talking to me, I visited three indie-yet-reputable - and more importantly, authorized - stores. I was told that the only method of repair was to send it back to Toshiba and replace the motherboard. That was going to be about $500 (Canadian). They weren’t allowed to do that kind of soldering repair job in-house. Considering the computer can be had on eBay for less than that, I figured it wasn’t worth the cost.
The last guy I spoke to, however, said, “There’s a place that will probably do it for you. They’ve done this kind of thing before.” Off I went to location #6. The guy behind the counter told me that it was a common repair job, and he could do it in two days for $40. Count me in. I took the hard drive out (since the computer will still boot to a BIOS without it, and the guy didn’t need it to ensure that the power plug was doing its job) and left, thinking I just dodged a bullet.
Big mistake. People, this is where you have to learn from what we went through.
When I returned, he tried to power on the computer. Nothing. The fan whirred, and the screen was black. Befuddled, the repair guy told me that he needed a couple of hours to see what happened. Dutifully, I waited. And waited. Eventually, he returned, telling me he needed another week. In the meantime, he was willing to loan my wife the store’s laptop. Warning bells should have gone off when he said, “Don’t let Windows try to authorize itself online.” The laptop, incidentally, looked to be a gutted Acer laptop with no Acer logo upon bootup, and problems handling basic sites like Gmail. Every file that was downloaded became corrupt. It was a nightmare.
Three months later (yes, you read that right), having gotten the runaround and the store laptop being an utter failure, my wife had enough. I arranged to meet the repair guy and give him back his laptop and leave the broken carcass at his place in exchange for $500 cash. Thankfully, he agreed with this proposal, as I know he was getting sick of my yelling at him. I went with my wife and my big-as-a-tank father – just in case – and we’re now left with a small stack of twenties but no laptop.
In the meantime, I have to share my desktop, and my wife now faces the daunting financial task of having to buy a new laptop. The lesson in all this: If the authorized stores tell you to send it to the manufacturer, listen to them. They’re probably right. In the laptop world, it seems there’s no such thing as an easy fix. If I can stop one person from being as dumb as I was, then the world will be a better place.
January 25th, 2007 at 10:14 am
Such is the way with laptops. We just bought a new desktop last week after having a laptop for three years, because we can’t upgrade the thing. The motherboard went out on ours a couple years ago (thankfully we had an extended protection plan thingy) but it took ‘em three weeks to get it back to us.
So what’s the lesson here? Milk. Does a body good.
January 25th, 2007 at 10:37 am
so then the laptop broke, and it would be cheaper to replace it than repair it. regardless of that, you took it someplace that couldn’t fix but gave you more money than it would take replace the laptop. so in the end you get a replacement, get to keep your data, and get the money left over after replacing the laptop with a similar one. so whats the problem here? other than the hassle.
January 25th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Because the laptop, other than the power cable problem, was still working well. Theidea of $40 versus over $1000 is why I wanted to get it repaired. Even with the $500, it’s STILL going to be aton of money to replace the laptop.
February 4th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Our Nationwide Laptop repair company www.LaptopGuy.com handles power pin repairs every day. Although the job of replacing a power pin seems like a simple solder job it’s not We have many “do it your selfers” that try to this repair and send it to us after the machine no longer works when they put back together. Whether you choice a company like ours or someone else I recommend asking how repairs like this you a week. You really want someone that does motherboad level work as it’s very easy to damage the board if not done correctly. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Thanks
The Laptop Guy