My daughter's Nintendo DS gave up the ghost recently. It was only around 18 months old.
We took it to a local computer shop to enquire about a repair. We explained the fault and the man said he "thinks it's probably the motherboard" and would cost about £60 to fix. But he didn't think it was worth it and would offer us a new DS for £80, provided we gave in the broken one as part exchange.
We decided against this because :-
1. We can get a brand new DS for around £80 - £90 now anyway.
2. I am not entirely convinced that it is the motherboard. I have sufficient knowledge in faults on computers to suggest that the fault is battery or contact based, in which case the repair would be just a few quid.
3. Quite simply, I didn't trust his opinion as he didn't even take the DS to have a look at.
I felt he thought "two mugs I can overcharge here for a simple repair". I may be doing him a disservice, but with the best will in the world, I don't see how you can diagnose a fault using telekinesis or "the force" as opposed to a screwdriver and a bit of knowledge.
My feeling was, he wanted us to take the trade in. Spend £80 on a new DS (saving us about £10, but he'd still make a profit on wholesale prices), he then spends £10 maximum getting the old DS fixed up and sells it for £50-£60 second hand (that's what they were priced at in the shop).
Or am I just a tired, embittered old cynic?
We took it to a local computer shop to enquire about a repair. We explained the fault and the man said he "thinks it's probably the motherboard" and would cost about £60 to fix. But he didn't think it was worth it and would offer us a new DS for £80, provided we gave in the broken one as part exchange.
We decided against this because :-
1. We can get a brand new DS for around £80 - £90 now anyway.
2. I am not entirely convinced that it is the motherboard. I have sufficient knowledge in faults on computers to suggest that the fault is battery or contact based, in which case the repair would be just a few quid.
3. Quite simply, I didn't trust his opinion as he didn't even take the DS to have a look at.
I felt he thought "two mugs I can overcharge here for a simple repair". I may be doing him a disservice, but with the best will in the world, I don't see how you can diagnose a fault using telekinesis or "the force" as opposed to a screwdriver and a bit of knowledge.
My feeling was, he wanted us to take the trade in. Spend £80 on a new DS (saving us about £10, but he'd still make a profit on wholesale prices), he then spends £10 maximum getting the old DS fixed up and sells it for £50-£60 second hand (that's what they were priced at in the shop).
Or am I just a tired, embittered old cynic?
