Outrageous Repair Bill

[mmartell]

So this guy locally was selling a plasma, sound no picture, and I inquired about it. It was a Toshiba branded LG from five or six years ago, 720p and I figured it was a blown ipm on the ysus maybe but that even at the reasonable price he was asking it still wasn't worth my time and energy. He told me his intentions at that point were to scrap it.

In the course of a few follow up conversations he'd mentioned it was sitting at a local repair shop that has been in business here for ages and is an authorized repair facility for many major brands. They charged $75 for an estimate but he wasn't interested in authorizing the repair. Repair estimate ?

Wait for it...

$825

Now maybe they were going to gold-plate the stand and fit the bezel with diamonds or maybe they're just lazy board-swappers who should have retired twenty years ago ?

[tom66]

Re: Outrageous Repair Bill

This seems pretty typical of a lot of "chain" TV repair shops, including places like Geek Squad. Usually the smaller shops will be able to specify used parts or do component level repair.

[CapLeaker]

Re: Outrageous Repair Bill

I remember to have paid 600$ for a 2 year old 50 something inch Panasonic Plasma TV main board brand new from a Panasonic authorized repair shop. The original one got hit by lightning. Couldn't get the chip that does all the vid inputs, had to get a new board. But that was 3 years ago. So it doesn't surprise me. I don't think you would be able to find a new main board for it at that age of the TV.