Computer store charges

[Kohaashi]

Hi

My mates HDD recently failed on his laptop so he took it local computer store to have it replaced. They haven't replaced the drive. I agreed with my mate that I could replace it for him for the cost of the replacement drive, so my mate went to collect the laptop today only to find they are charging him £25 for a diagnostic check, which simply means they've ran a disc-check app and left it for a couple of hours, at most!

He signed an agreement with them that he will responsible for their charges, however he never agreed for them to supposedly do a diagnostic.

Can they legally get away with this or should he just refuse to pay and demand his property back? They've done nothing worth getting paid for. I just hate seeing people get conned.

 

[Kohaashi]

They didn't change the drive because they told him to get the disc with the drivers first (the one that came with the laptop). They could have just got these off the internet though.

I know it's not loads of money, but I doubt they've even turned the thing on. He already knew the HDD was broken that's why he took it there.

I just though there was a law where you could refuse to pay if the charges were unreasonable. Is that not correct?

 

[Kohaashi]

So...

1. He knew the HDD was broken.
2. Took it in to be fixed.
3. They later(?) said they needed drivers before they can do anything.
4. He changed his mind.

So if they didn't replace the drive because of drivers (lol), why didn't they ask him for the drivers along with the laptop at the time?

Seems pretty fair for him to ask for his laptop back for free as they haven't done anything with it.

He took the laptop to them to be fixed which is when they asked for the drivers cd. He left the laptop with them and was returning with the drivers cd a few days later which is when I told him not to as they were going to charge him £150.00 which is ridiculous considering a HDD is approx £50.00 and doesn't take long at all to replace.

I'll go with him and double check the signed agreement. I was just wondering if they can actually get away with this if they had already implied to him that they were waiting for the cd's before they'd do anything. Would they not need to advise him of the diagnotic charge before hand?

I know what these little computer stores are like over charging people. I worked in one for a short period and the store would charge £30 to scan a photo into a word document, and £70 for a virus scan. The store would get away with it as well because some people don't have a clue, which is wrong.

 

[Kohaashi]

basically if he took it in , asked for it to be fixed then signed an agreement then he should pay for the work they've done

there would probably be a minimum charge of £25, did he think they would fix it for free?

Of course he didn't expect it to be done for free. Personally though I believe they are over charging him because they think they can get away with it.

It wouldn't even take 5 minutes of their time to run a diagnostic even if they did do what they claim. These are like solicitors charges.

Thanks for your responses guys

 

[Kohaashi]

£20 minimum charge sounds very cheap to me. You're going to look a right fool if the drive itself turns out to be fine, or if there are other significant problems with the laptop, and you've told him you can definitely fix it with no problems for the price of a new drive.

Well they've told him what he already thought, that it is the HDD. He didnt ask them to check; he had agreed for it to be replaced, which is why they had previously told him £150.00, which is why i told him not to pay them to replace it.
I don't work in IT repair anymore but I'm pretty confident I could do what they can do from personal experience alone. Thanks for the concern though.

That's meant genuinely, not sarcasticly.