High street repair stores are misdiagnosing basic computer
problems and overcharging confused customers, a survey has found. *
Researchers for Computing Which? found a “staggering” difference in
repair prices across the seven PC World outlets and 13 independent
computer stores.
The bill for correcting a simple software problem ranged from £20 to
£260, while the cost of repairing a loose cable was between £10
and
£139. One store even wrongly advised buying a new computer instead of
fixing a simple fault.
Computing Which? described the
inconsistencies as “a big problem”
for repair stores and called for urgent action to protect computer
owners.
“Consumers rely on PC repair shops to solve a problem and to do so at
a fair price,” said Abigail Waraker, the magazine’s editor.
“It is shocking that simple problems, such as a loose cable, can be
misdiagnosed and stores are getting away with charging for their
mistakes.
“PC World is the only big chain that repairs PCs it didn’t sell,
making it the first port of call for many PC owners. We think they
should overhaul their training - they could learn a lot from independent
retailers.”
Researchers deliberately 'broke’ computers before taking them for
repairs.
They deleted a file that helps start up the Windows system on half of
the PCs and loosened a cable connecting the hard disk to the rest of the
computer on the other machines.
One London branch of PC World surveyed by Computing Which? wrongly
diagnosed the software problem as a corrupted hard disk and quoted £350
for repairs.
The staff member advised buying a new PC.
The same store also failed to spot a loose cable and again advised
buying a new PC.
Another branch of PC World in Oxford misdiagnosed a computer with a
loose cable as having a corrupted hard disk and quoted £300 for a
repair, the magazine said.
Two branches of PC World and three of the 13 independent stores visited
by researchers opted to reinstall the Microsoft Windows operating system
to fix the software fault.
That would have wiped any information on the computer which had not been
backed up.
* Since that survey was published, we heard recently on the
radio of a person who took their machine to a PC World branch with a
minor fault and was told he needed a new motherboard (not true) and was then told that it
would cost a staggering £305 to replace. That suggests that they are
charging their engineers' time at around £500 per hour - or thinking of
the first number that came into their heads.