Camera and Laptop Exchange, Marylebone, London

I’m surgically attached to my laptop. Really. I’m a freelance writer, and i use it in my office as well so it’s in use roughly 15 hours a day. Workaholic? Perhaps.

Unfortunately, with this much use, it’s likely that it’s going to need a bit of maintenance. So when the power connection became loose, off i went to the laptop repair shop near my office.

After scouting around online, their price of £70 to get it taken away was reasonable, cheaper than most actually so i was happy.

So I waited. And waited some more. They told me it would be back within a week. That was almost two weeks ago. They have had it in the shop since Friday, they just decided not to tell me. If they’d have called first thing this morning, I’d have understood, but i went back at one and they insisted they were going to call me today. What’s the point if it’s half way through the day?

Things went from bad to worse then. i was overcharged. They tried to charge me £80 after saying “he said it would be about £70” which really annoyed me! either you quote a price or you don’t! She shouted at me and told me i could pay £70 if I wanted to as she wasn’t going to argue over £10.

I might have considered paying £80 if my charger wasn’t broken. They may have fixed the problem, but I’ve come back with a whole new one. Of course she tried to sell me an adapter for £40… and she wonders why I said no.

I’m pretty certain that the fuse just needs changing. But if this place can get more money out of someone, they will. Unfortunately, after being laptopless for way too long and feeling like my left arm was missing, she got a bit of a mouthful from me. I’m disgusted that she got angry with me when they were clearly in the wrong. I wouldn’t go back if it was the only laptop shop in London.