Opinion on laptop estimate service fee

[Ivo]

Hi all,

I would like to run this one by the community for opinions. It is a bit long.

Back in the summer I had a work trip to the U.S. and my laptop was cracked in the trip (airline's fault). To get reimbursed they told me I needed a repair / replacement estimate which must include an official letterhead.

I looked up some stores in the net and phoned one, explained what I needed and asked if I could drop by the store (address found in the web). The guy said he wasn't in that address anymore and instead asked me for my address saying he could pass by where I was staying in his way home (I got the impression he works mobile now).

So the guy basically had a look at the cracked screen, we discuss that repairing it is not worth it, he looks up some prices for similar netbooks on the web, produces a "replacement invoice" that he mails me, and charges me 25 USD. On the next day I contacted him asking him to 1. make it a "replacement estimate" as I needed to send it to the airline and I didn't want to risk them being fussy about it and 2. if he could include his service fee in the billing so I could try to get that reimbursed as well. The guy replies saying that if I'm getting reimbursed for his fee then he would charge 50 USD instead as that is his normal rate. Personally I didn't like that (I mostly wanted the "replacement estimate" instead of the invoice and as I already had paid him some cash didn't want to go somewhere else). Anyway I told him that he could do that, bill it for 50 USD and if the airline did reimburse that - which I was clear I wasn't sure they were going to - then I would wire transfer the rest of his service fee from Europe.

In October I get the check from the airline (in Euros) but even with the fluctuating rates there is no way that the amount corresponds to them having reimbursed the service fee. I scanned the check and sent an e-mail to the guy saying thanks for your help, they didn't reimburse it though. The guy replied in a friendly fashion thanking me for letting him know and I thought that was it.

Now today I just received a new e-mail from him where he writes that it is not his fault the airline didn't reimburse, that he only charged me half the rate charges for a repair (!), that I would not have been reimbursed by the airline had it not been his service, and so that it is only fair if I paid him the rest.

Now, not only I had to absorb his service fee, laptops in Europe are pricier than in the US and the estimate was based in the US prices so I did not come out of this ahead by any means (and I was clear on this to him).

What do you think I should do now? Personally I already thought the payment was quite fair - looking at a cracked screen, looking up some prices from amazon / best buy and then producing some documents with a letterhead from an existing template... 50 USD seems too much for that but I wanted to know what people in the US thought about this.

[irixith]

$25 is too much, let alone $50. He should be happy he scammed $25 out of you and let it go.

Me, I run my own retail store and computer repair is one of the services I offer. If you had come into my store, I would have done it for the low price of $0. That's customer building stuff, not something you charge an arm and a leg for. If you insisted on paying something (as some do), I'd have gone one of two ways -- let you pay what it was worth to you, or my minimum fee of $5. That's exactly the reason I run my business like this, because I can't stand people charging outrageous fees for basic services.

Seriously, tell the guy to get stuffed (albeit politely).

[CRTGAMER]

What do you think I should do now? Personally I already thought the payment was quite fair - looking at a cracked screen, looking up some prices from amazon / best buy and then producing some documents with a letterhead from an existing template... 50 USD seems too much for that but I wanted to know what people in the US thought about this.

Fifty dollars for looking at you computer and goggling online? Even a dollar is not a fair price for basically doing nothing, the computer is still in the exact same state. You can get FREE price quotes at most repair shops, even copy paste prices from online sellers and repair specialists.

I second this:

Seriously, tell the guy to get stuffed (albeit politely).

[Hobie-wan]

Even ignoring everything else, trying to charge you an extra $25 months later is bullshit. I would not only tell him that you aren't going to pay him, but I would make sure and tell others to beware and not use his services in the future for his shady practices. Even if one makes a mistake billing someone for something, you don't go back months later and ask for the rest.

[J T]

You already paid the originally agreed upon rate. He can't up the price after the service has been rendered and paid for. You're in the clear. Just ignore him or tell him to get stuffed (and I don't know if I'd be so polite about it).

I'm not an expert and I could have told you that it's more trouble to fix a broken screen than it is to buy a new laptop. His "service" required no technical skill and minimal time. It's not worth $25, let alone $50.

[Ivo]

Thank you for your opinions.

To be honest I did feel a bit swindled paying 25 at that time - I wanted to go to a store and ask in advance before "hiring" the service, but because the guy is currently doing service from a car / van and going to customers' homes and having been recommended by the place I was staying at I thought maybe I was being a cheapskate as usual - I've read that in Europe we tend to be cheap with tips and so on so I wasn't sure. I wasn't very surprised when I noticed the airline didn't cover it, glad I did not pay more out of my pocket.

If it was me I would have done something like that for free as well.

Ivo.

[ExedExes]

I'm not an expert and I could have told you that it's more trouble to fix a broken screen than it is to buy a new laptop. His "service" required no technical skill and minimal time. It's not worth $25, let alone $50.

Depends on what type of laptop you have. I replaced my screen this summer -- was only $120 for a new LCD on Ebay -- was not going to replace this 2 year old quite yet

BUT -- this is what I had to do -- same model and everything -- this guy just speeded up the process