Diagnostic & Stripdown Charge- What You Pay For (and What You Don’t)

Although the majority of our repairs are successful, it sometimes turns out that it’s either impossible or impractical to repair some devices. Typically, this is because the damage is simply too great, because the parts are unavailable or because it’s likely to be uneconomic. Often the customer themselves decides not to go ahead with the repair (usually due to the potential cost).

Where this applies, we only charge a moderate diagnostics/stripdown fee. This is generally far lower than the cost of a full repair (£20* in most cases at the time of writing), and is intended to cover the cost of our technician’s time (and associated overheads) needed to track down and diagnose the problem.

Note that:-

  • We don’t charge for any quick inspection of your tablet, smartphone or computer (or whatever) when you first bring it in. It’s only when our technician needs to spend time with it on the bench after book-in that this applies.
  • If it’s clear when you first bring it in that a particular repair isn’t likely to be practical or would cost more than it was worth (e.g. screen replacement for a budget £50 tablet), we’ll let you know straight away. (You wouldn’t be charged for that).
  • The charge doesn’t apply if your device is actually fixed– it’s included in the cost of the repair.
  • We always let you know about this- and any other potential charges- in advance and will contact you to agree with and confirm any necessary changes.

* Subject to change, and may vary if more work is required, but we will always inform you of the current rates beforehand

Why Don’t We Offer “No Fix, No Fee”?

You (Don’t) Get What You (Don’t) Pay For

“No Fix, No Fee” is sounds like it should be great for the customer- a no-brainer choice… right? Many of our rivals offer it, so you might (understandably) think we have a vested interest in saying why we don’t!

Here, we’ll try to explain why we don’t offer it, and why we don’t believe it’s as good a deal for you, the customer, as it first appears. This repair we carried out on an iPad 4 shows the potential problems.

To summarise, the iPad appeared to be dead- no power, most likely- and another repair centre had already tried (and failed) to fix it. They’d checked the battery and the dock connector, and that was it. Those were two likely causes- but they were also ones that are quickest and easiest to check if you’re working on a “no fix, no fee” basis. Unfortunately, neither of these was the problem.

The iPad was then passed to us. We were able to spend a bit more time on it, and eventually tracked the problem down to a damaged USB/Power chip. We could then repair the iPad, after which it worked as good as new.

However, this particular job was only passed on to us because the business owner needed to keep a particular customer happy. In most normal cases, a “no fix, no fee” company would simply have returned it to the customer as an unfixable write-off, and they’d never have known that their expensive iPad could have been repaired after all.

The Important Points

  • Our diagnostics/stripdown charge covers our time where a device turns out to be unfixable after investigation.
  • The charge is typically much lower than the cost of a successful repair. (Usually around £20).*
  • We’ll always keep you informed of any possible charges.
  • “No fix, no fee” companies are less likely to risk the time needed to properly track down (then repair) any faults if they’re not obvious.
  • This means they’re more likely to return your device as “unfixable”– even if that wouldn’t have been the case had you brought it to us.

 

Microscope view of the iPad 4 repair

Microscope view of the iPad 4 repair. Don’t expect this level of work from every repair centre!

Simple Economics- They Can’t Afford the Time Needed to Investigate Properly

Here’s the problem- there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Repair centres that operate on a “No fix, no fee” basis aren’t going to spend more than a few minutes trying to figure out what’s wrong with your tablet… because they can’t afford to!

Say they spend an hour tracking down the fault (and some jobs will take much longer), but it turns out not to be fixable. That’s an hour of technician’s time and overheads they’re not going to be paid for. As a result, most such companies can’t- and won’t- take the risk of spending that much time on your iPad.

It doesn’t help that most “no fix, no fee” companies compete mainly on price (and low margins with little leeway). In general, such companies lack the skill and experience we have, as well as the equipment needed for more advanced repairs. In short, even if they’d had the time to track down your problem, they might not have been able to fix it.

It makes more sense for them to cut their losses as soon as possible, tell the customer that any potentially difficult or risky job is simply “unfixable”, then spend the time doing some quick and easy screen replacements (or whatever) instead. That’s just how the economics of “no fix, no fee” work. If that was your iPad, well… too bad for you, unfortunately.

(One other catch- make sure you know what the “no fee” deal covers. You might find out in the small print that you’ve already agreed to pay if you want them to go ahead with certain checks).

In Most Cases, It’s Better for You

In cases where your device truly is unfixable- and this does happen, even for us- it’s true that you’d have saved £20 or so by going with “no fix, no fee”. On the other hand, you have to balance this against the chance of a repairable device (possibly worth hundreds of pounds) being incorrectly written off as unfixable because the problem couldn’t be found within a few minutes.

We appreciate that having to pay anything when your phone, tablet or computer can’t be repaired is frustrating.

However, knowing that we’ll be covered for our time in advance means that we have a much better chance of finding out what’s wrong with your device and successfully repairing it– because we can afford to give it the time it deserves. That- along with the fact that we have the advanced equipment and years of experience they don’t- means you stand a much better chance of a successful repair with us than most of our rivals.

If you’ve spent several hundred pounds on an iPad, Samsung Galaxy or similar tablet it doesn’t make sense to have to throw it out as “unfixable” just to maybe save a few pounds with a cut-price “no fix, no fee” centre. Trust Disc Depot- we’ve been in digital repairs since 2001, long before most of the competition even knew what a fuse was!