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Why "No fix = no fee" is dangerous nonsense. Our diagnostics charge – a proper service at a fair and honest price

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We are professional pragmatic engineers, not showman or IT cowboys. We want to be honest and practical with all our customers.

 

Spekaing techincally almost any fault can be fixed and the unit returned to full working order. The only issues for the customer normally are cost and timescales inolved.

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In 96% of cases our repairs are entirely successful, in part because we’re good at what we do and thanks to our vast experience spanning more than 23 years. We want to be totally upfront with our customers about the chances of success, what is involved technically and what can’t practically or economically be fixed. However, we don't do guesswork of any kind, nor we will make wild speculation without first performing proper detailed diagnostics. That would be unprofessional and could easily be the wrong outcome leading to an expensive mistake for both us and the customer.

 

No engineer can tell with any degree of certainty that something is repairable or not simply by looking at it from the outside. It can sometimes happen that an item is near-impossible or impractical to fix (e.g. non-availability of replacement parts, lead-times etc) or it might simply be beyond sensible economic repair. Particularly in the last case, the customer (nor engineers’ guesswork) can tell if the fault is being caused by a simple £5 internal cable/connector, or a £400+ motherboard fault – after diagnosis we can, with confidence. Our diagnostic service provides the customer with a fully informed choices before proceeding. It will provide you with the final cost, the parts needed, the time involved, and avoids guesswork. It's often the most basic faults that look so terminal, just like a cheap 50p blown fuse can stop your car dead in its tracks. So, would you risk scrapping a £1,800 Apple MacBook Air for a £5 cable and some labour?
 

With our diagnostic service, you don’t pay the full repair charge - only a fixed fee appropriate to the time required to strip down, test and check parts availability, costs etc. Typically, diagnostics is a fraction of the repair charge and covers the technician’s time and overheads involved in thoroughly diagnosing your device. We’ll always keep you informed about charges including this one– if we need you to agree to anything, we’ll contact you first to confirm.

 

“No Fix, No Fee”- it’s a very bad and risky idea!
Why?  If the risk is all theirs, how much time will they actually spend (waste) Investigating your fault in any detail?
It’s undeniable. “No Fix, No Fee” seems as if it really ought to be a "no-brainer", and a good deal for the customer, right? Well, it’s a great selling point, and some of our rivals will offer it. Let’s explain why we won’t offer no-fix no-fee and why it’s not a sensible choice for you either.
“No-fix, no-fee” means companies are unwilling to risk their time diagnosing your device unless the problem is plainly obvious, i.e. not needing diagnostic equipment, detailed workshop tests and skilled labour time. This means your device is more likely to be written off as “unrepairable”– which might not have been the case with proper diagnostics. They can’t afford to diagnose anything less than obvious faults, we do, because it’s the proper, prudent, and professional approach.  
 

Simple answer - they probably couldn’t afford to. Let’s say they spend an hour on diagnosing a problem (and believe us, there are jobs that take much longer than that). Now imagine that it turns out the problem isn’t fixable practically or financially - something they, us nor you could have seen in advance. That means they won’t get paid for the wasted hours of technician’s time needed to uncover the facts. Most companies using the “no fix, no fee” trick won’t take the risk, because they can’t afford to waste their time. It’s more sensible for them to cut their losses and run after basic quick checks, and then return it to you as “unfixable”. Of course, it may well have been entirely fixable with a little more time and prudent technical skills....and you’ll never know that your expensive device was easily repairable as you condemn it to the bin from cavalier guesswork by an unprincipled engineer - let the buyer beware!