Thipwajee asked:
My laptop and my desktop crash at the same time. Both computers can’t turn on. I went to the small local shop around the house. Then they give me a piece an unofficial invoice saying that the diagnostic was $40. Then we talked on the phone and he said that both mother board are broken and the costs of installing the new mother board for labour was $150, so I decided not to fix the computer since the costs of everything will end up the same price as buying the new one. One week later, I went to pick up my useless computer and the guy give me an invoice of $250? He told me that he had to charged $60/ hour for 4 hours of working. This is such a rip off. The guy did not tell me from the beginning that he has to charge me this much and we been talking about the progress throughou the week. Can I report this to consumer protection? What should I do? Should I just pay the guys or report this scam?
Elmer
My laptop and my desktop crash at the same time. Both computers can’t turn on. I went to the small local shop around the house. Then they give me a piece an unofficial invoice saying that the diagnostic was $40. Then we talked on the phone and he said that both mother board are broken and the costs of installing the new mother board for labour was $150, so I decided not to fix the computer since the costs of everything will end up the same price as buying the new one. One week later, I went to pick up my useless computer and the guy give me an invoice of $250? He told me that he had to charged $60/ hour for 4 hours of working. This is such a rip off. The guy did not tell me from the beginning that he has to charge me this much and we been talking about the progress throughou the week. Can I report this to consumer protection? What should I do? Should I just pay the guys or report this scam?
Elmer
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Posted under Consumer Protection
This post was written by admin on June 27, 2009
Bernice
Do you have an agreement with him to carryout the repair if not pay him the $40 for the Diagnostic and thats it. Ask him to put the faulty part back.
Whats the fault anyway as it may not have been the Motherboard.
Glenn
Yes you can definitely object to that.
I would threaten to take him to small claims court & then he would be charged for your court expenses as well.
This is a common practise among shady repair shops.
Go in there with someone else (so you have a witness) & make it very clear that you know the law.
NO ONE gets billed for estimates & unless he has a signed work order from you he cannot bill you that way.
regards,
Philip T
Roberto
I’m an IT technician myself and i wouldn’t every charge that much in just labor, besides between diagnosis and installing a new motherboard shouldn’t take more than 2 hours max, look into reporting this
Glen
You should buy another motherboard YOURSELF. Asking people to do this for you are such rip offs. Also check the motherboard you are getting to see if it is your same bus type bus speed.
Brenda
I’m in the business. I build sell and repair them. I will do a diagnostics for free but contrary to what someone else said, most won’t. Time is money. Don’t expect the man to work on your computer then not charge you anything unless you get that agreement up front. Reason being is like, in car repair, lawn mower repair etc etc a lot of people get estimates with no intention of having the person who spent their time doing the diagnostics repair it then go out and buy whatever part they need, like a board in your case, then put it in themselves. What is odd about this is that he said it would be $40 then turned around and wanted $250. He may be able to get you for 80 if he did a diagnostics on 2 computers ($40X2) but if you have some type of invoice quoting $40 you may want to file a complaint with the BBB and send a copy of that invoice along with your complaint.
People need to realize that, just like they pay their bills with money they earn from their jobs we in the business aren’t going to pay any bills wasting our time figuring out their computer woes for free. $80 is reasonable for troubleshooting 2 rigs and $60 an hour is less than I charge althou I do give free estimates. 2 hours per computer to figure out its a bad board is too long thou. Some shops charge a flat fee for troubleshooting while others charge by the hour with a 1 hour minimum. He should have pegged both those boards in well under that hour. I’d offer him $80(that $40 invoice he gave you X 2 computers) and if he doesn’t accept it tell him youre filing a complaint with the BBB because he is charging you way more than what he quoted you. If that invoice shows $40 to troubleshoot 2 rigs, then, of course, just offer him the $40 he agreed to take before you gave him the ok to do the work.