Student claims a technician initially charged $85 for his laptop repair but later billed him $50 more

SINGAPORE: A young man took to social media recently to air his dissatisfaction over how a shop at the Sim Lim Square complex on Rochor Canal Road handled the repair of his laptop.

In a post on the COMPLAINT SINGAPORE page on Friday (Jan 3), a netizen who goes by the name Tobias Gray on Facebook wrote that he had gone to the shop to have his laptop fixed and claimed that the technician told him it would cost $85 to replace the fan on his fan and reapply thermal paste.

To Mr Tobias’ surprise, however, when he returned to the shop to collect his laptop, the technician said the repair would cost him $130 instead of $85.

He explained that the customer had heard the quoted price wrongly and that the fan replacement alone would cost $85 and the reapplication of thermal paste would cost another $50.

As Mr Tobias had no record of the price the technician quoted originally, he decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, although he wrote that he had learned his lesson to “always record these things.”

Moreover, when he asked another repair shop nearby, he claimed he was told that the repair price was “absurd” as replacing the fan and reapplying thermal paste should have only cost about $60 to $70.

However, to add insult to injury, when Mr Tobias went home and tried to plug his headphones into his laptop, he discovered the port was damaged.

“I am just a student with limited funds, and I even visited the shop in my school uniform during the school holiday because I can’t afford new clothes. Despite my situation, I was still overcharged, and my laptop was damaged,” he wrote.

Thermal paste helps with a laptop’s insulation as it keeps the processor cool and helps prevent overheating. It should be replaced every three to four years, perhaps more often if the device shuts down regularly.

Mr Tobias added a number of photos to his post: one that showed the damaged headphone jack on his laptop, another of the receipt from the shop that showed he had paid $130, a screenshot from Shopee showing that a new Lenovo cooling fan costs $17.99, and one of the shop itself.

A quick check online shows that thermal paste costs between $6 and $17.

The Independent Singapore has reached out to the repair shop for further updates or comments. /TISG

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