repair nightmare @ Gsmireland.com help!

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Merlot

New Member
Nightmare laptop repair experience.
Hi.
I brought my laptop in to a company called gsmireland.com near o 'connell street in Dublin.The problem I has was it kept powering off for no reason
First they tell me it it needed to be cleaned and a new heatsink put in for 100 euro.
I think fair enough, if it sorts the problem out i'll pay 100 euro.Bring it back into to them.

Then they told me it needs a new motherboard which will cost another 200. This is very annoying because they gave me the impression that the initial cleaning/new heatsink would fix the problem.

I reluctantly agree however thinking it's still probably cheaper than sending it back to the manufacturer.

When I picked it up it didn't seem to work on AC power so they tell me they have to keep it a bit longer to sort this out. This starts me wondering if there was any need to replace the motherboard in the first place- was it just a simple problem like the charger.

I ask them to fix it for once and for all and tell me exactly what the problem is when they finally do (so i'm not paying for unnecessary work) but they're being obtuse about this, saying the motherboard needed to be replaced (why???).

To top it all, they misplaced the charger so they can't give me back the laptop until they find that anyway.

Btw,This place gsmireland is located at the back of a pub down a laneway with no signs that it is a business except for a name on a doorbell. You meet a guy in a hallway and thats's it! .I know that I am stupid still going ahead with going to this place but I have never ever been scammed in my life so I just believed all the things that he said,he seemed to know his stuff!!! Lesson learned :(

Has anyone else had an experience similar?

What recourse do i have if they give the laptop back to me in a worse state than that in which i sent it in?:eek:


Thanks
 
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link8r

New Member
Well it sounds like you should be protected by Consumer Law - which is quite comprehensive and on the side of the consumer to a large degree - which is good!

However, as to what you will get is another story.

I wonder if they keep replacing all the parts, how many laptops they could build at your expense....:rolleyes:

No, seriously, I don't know. I'd get a second opinion from another shop at this point.
 
C

Coyote1

New Member
Laptop shutting off

have seen that problem before if its a slightly older laptop the heatsink can cause problems if the fan is not running right. The machine shuts down when it reached the thermal shutdown temp.

Simple fix that has worked for me and a few people - Bigger rubber legs for the bottom of the machine! more room under the laptop more airflow better heat dissapation.

Cheaper than one of those bases with the fans built in!

That crowd do sound a bit dodgy I would ask for your machine back in the condition it was dropped off in ( with your power supply ) check the ram as I have heard of a few places that nick the sims out of laptops in for repair!

Best of luck!
CCSL
 
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ashburner

New Member
This is always going to be a problem taking a laptop to a smaller repair shop unless the problem has a really obvious solution. Anyone who's been repairing their own PC's for a while has done similar things:
1. Replace the thing that you think is most likely first.
2. When that doesn't work replace the item you think is next most likely
3. Check the obvious
4. Hide the credit card bills from your wife for a while.

If the guy reckoned that the MB was most probably the cause and replaced it, he can't afford to not charge you when it was something else.

I'm not condoning his actions at all, especially losing the power supply, its just one of the problems of using smaller repair shops. Mind you, a whole host of manufacturers just charge one whopping bill and change everything as its cheaper for them than actually searching for the problem
 
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