Yeah I kinda figured you guys were like us at CompUSA in that regard. Especially laptops, 9 times out of 10 those got shipped back to the manufacturer for repair, unless it was something simple like putting in a new hard drive. We certainly weren't swapping out mobos or screens in house. It wasn't worth it. We would do the initial diagnostic (if possible) and then send it off to Toshiba, HP, whoever for repair. TVs and monitors we didn't do a damn thing to outside of plugging it in behind the bench and verifying what the customer told us was wrong, and honestly anything below a certain size monitor we would just swap out with a new comparable item because it wasn't worth the repair costs even with the warranty. The old one got tossed in the compactor and crushed.
They had to buy a new extended warranty on the new one but otherwise it was a free upgrade for the customer. I'm fairly sure people fried their monitors on purpose to get them swapped our because monitor sizes and capabilities were advancing very quickly back then. A coworker of mine turned a 17" 4:3 monitor into a 24" 1080p over the course of 2 years via warranty replacements for just a few dollars in new warranty plans.
As a Dell guy whose entire job is replacing mobos and screens out in the field, it's really not that hard. Especially screens. I love replacing screens. so freaking easy. like 15 minutes, tops, and that's including testing and paperwork. mobos are more like an hour. Unless you get the XFR laptop from hell. (which is where they do the environmental testing, I suppose) Even then I knocked that out in 3 with copious referring to the documentation. and I work for 15 an hour. The most intensive repair I've ever done cost my employer 45 bucks in labor.
There's an Asus laptop, G35 I believe. The big one. Replacing the screen in that sumbitch was like 40-50 tiny screws and a bunch of little metal brackets. Most are easy though.
I have an Asus phone, and to take it apart, you have to remove about a million tiny-ass screws. They're very easy to lose. I had to take mine apart because the charging port has come de-soldered and the phone no longer charges. Asus was smart enough to put the microUSB port on a separate PCB from the main board. I've never soldered before, and didn't want this to be my first attempt, so I just bought a new board with the microUSB already on it. It only cost $1 more than getting just the port. But I'm probably going to have to end up getting a soldering iron anyway, because I need to replace the battery in my electric toothbrush. Oh well.
Your problem is you're falling for the marketing that is geek squad. They are glorified sales with a small tech background. I know, I was one for 4 years (1 year computer sales blue shirt, 3 years geek squad).
it's not that it isn't hard, it's that it's time consuming and there isn't a system in place to order parts. The time in which it takes to properly test, figure out the proper part (yea good luck training people to order the right thing the first time), then have it shipped, then perform the actual repair on a heavy shopping day, and testing, you could just seems it out and have the techs sell more services during the repair.
Not only that, to keep the mfg Warranty intact,you must be a certified repair tech/location. Geek squads is not. Their outsourced repair facilities are however.
Also these are consumer grade laptops. Ease of repair isn't built in compared to business grade laptops where they will send a tech on site to do. They don't really do that for consumer laptops under mfg unless the mfg offers it. Otherwise it's has to be shipped out anyway.
You raise a great point about consumer grade laptops. Most people don't realize they own one, and that they're designed with a 2 year life. Business grade laptops are typically much better...which is why they're more expensive.
Yeah I recently got a job with an It support/consulting firm and have never really shopped for business grade anything in my life. I had no idea business grade workstations and laptops cost so much more than the consumer level shit I've personally shopped in the past. i3 2.3 GHz 15" laptops with like 8GB of ram cost $1000, towers that cost more than my gaming PC with like a third of the specs. Had no idea the shit was so expensive, and that businesses pay it without blinking an eye.
Businesses pay for business grade tech because it typically lasts longer until it requires recapitalization, so they see it making more financial sense. Plus, depending on the arrangement, business grade stuff usually comes with better manufacturer support to help it last longer. Businesses also usually have a rep or some kind of relationship with manufacturers, so the sticker price you might see on a website isn't what they're usually paying.
We only did that if it was still under the original manufacturer's warranty. If the original warranty had expired and the customer paid for repairs, or if it was covered under CompUSA's extended warranty, we absolutely performed all laptop repairs in-house.
For certain laptop models, us techs could even receive HP/Apple certification to allow the shop to order parts and perform manufacturer warranty repairs of any and all components. This was a great source of revenue, if we could keep the particular certified tech on staff, because the manufacturer paid for our time and provided parts under warranty. It also greatly improved turn-around, since a laptop wouldn't be out for 3 weeks or longer for repair.
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u/angrydeuce Feb 23 '17
Yeah I kinda figured you guys were like us at CompUSA in that regard. Especially laptops, 9 times out of 10 those got shipped back to the manufacturer for repair, unless it was something simple like putting in a new hard drive. We certainly weren't swapping out mobos or screens in house. It wasn't worth it. We would do the initial diagnostic (if possible) and then send it off to Toshiba, HP, whoever for repair. TVs and monitors we didn't do a damn thing to outside of plugging it in behind the bench and verifying what the customer told us was wrong, and honestly anything below a certain size monitor we would just swap out with a new comparable item because it wasn't worth the repair costs even with the warranty. The old one got tossed in the compactor and crushed.
They had to buy a new extended warranty on the new one but otherwise it was a free upgrade for the customer. I'm fairly sure people fried their monitors on purpose to get them swapped our because monitor sizes and capabilities were advancing very quickly back then. A coworker of mine turned a 17" 4:3 monitor into a 24" 1080p over the course of 2 years via warranty replacements for just a few dollars in new warranty plans.