I recently had a friend inform me about a repair he had done at a local computer service store. He brought in a laptop computer, because it would no longer turn on. The diagnoses fee was within the proper cost. They determined that the dc jack in the laptop was damaged. They contacted my friend and quoted in the repair cost, which consisted of parts and labor.
The labor was actually within the usual cost limits. You should generally see the labor cost be between $75 to $125 per hour. This would be the repair labor cost in the service store and not onsite. Now where the problem comes in, is how much they are charging for the part. The actual cost is determined by where the part is coming from. By this I mean is it a new part from the manufacturer or is it a refurbished part from Ebay.
This computer service center charged my friend about $35 dollars for the dc jack. This is way over priced as the usual cost of even a new dc jack is about $2 to $15 dollars. If you check out my link below, you will find that some dc jacks can be expensive due to who is selling it. Chances are is you shop around, you will find a much lower price and that is what the Computer Service Center will do to make the most profit they can. When my friend questioned about the part cost, they started lecturing my friend on how retail cost works. Well the problem is this is not retail as it is from a reseller on the internet. Most stores buy merchandise at wholesale prices and then sell them at the increased retail cost. This is how the store makes their profit.
They explained to him that this is how a store makes a profit. They also explained to him that parts are marked up a certain percentage. Well this price was way over priced and this is a case of profit gouging. The computer service store should be making their profit in a refurbished repair off the labor repair repair cost and not the refurbished part.
So my advise to anyone is find out how much a part actually costs whether it is refurbished off the internet from Amazon.com or Ebay.com . If you see this sort of thing going on, my advise is leave that computer store and never go back. I would also inform all your friends, so nobody else will be duped by these individuals.
I have worked in this environment and have seen it first hand.