Terms & Conditions

Nothing on this page removes your statutory rights. If you are a consumer, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives you the right to have work carried out with reasonable care and skill, within a reasonable time and for a reasonable price, and gives you rights over the parts we supply. The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 give you cancellation rights on orders placed at a distance. Where anything below appears to conflict with those rights, those rights win.

These terms are written in plain English on purpose. If any part of them is unclear, ask us before you approve a repair rather than afterwards.

Who these terms are between, and when they apply

These terms form the contract between you and LaptopHaber.com, an independent laptop repair workshop trading from Unit 12, Riverside Workshops, 84 Long Lane, London SE1 4AU. They apply to every repair, upgrade, diagnosis, data recovery and mail-in job we carry out, whether you book online, by phone or by walking into the workshop.

A contract comes into existence at the point you approve a written quotation from us, not when you book and not when you hand the machine over. Booking a slot or posting a laptop to us creates only the diagnosis contract described below. How we handle the personal data attached to a booking is set out separately in our privacy policy.

These terms are written for consumers buying for personal use. If you are buying as a business, the cancellation and liability sections are modified where each section says so, and the Consumer Rights Act 2015 does not apply to you.

The diagnosis stage

Diagnosis is a flat £29 including VAT. It is a real piece of engineering work, not a glance at the machine. It covers intake and photography of the condition we received it in, a power and rail test on a bench supply, component and storage health checks, reproduction of the reported fault where that is possible, and a written report naming the failed component rather than the symptom.

That £29 is credited in full against any repair you approve, so a correct answer costs you nothing if you go ahead. Two further points follow from our no fix no fee position:

• If we cannot repair the machine, you pay nothing. We refund the £29 in full and return the laptop to you free of charge, including return postage on mail-in jobs.
• If we can repair it and you decline the quote, you pay the £29 and nothing else. We reassemble the machine to the condition it arrived in and return it free of charge. There is no separate handling, reassembly or restocking fee.

Occasionally a fault cannot be reproduced. Intermittent faults are real, and an honest not-reproducible-on-our-bench report is the outcome in a small number of cases. We will tell you what we tested and what we ruled out, and we treat it as a no fix: the £29 is refunded.

Quotations and approval

Every quotation is fixed and in writing, sent by email, and states the fault, the grade of part we intend to fit, the labour, the total including VAT and the expected turnaround. It is not an estimate and it does not move once you accept it. Indicative ranges published on our laptop repair pricing page are guide figures only; the emailed quote is the price you pay.

Quotations are valid for 14 days from the date we send them. After that, component and panel costs may have changed and we may need to re-issue the quote. We will always re-issue rather than quietly apply a different price.

Laptops sometimes hide a second fault behind the first. A screen assembly can conceal a cracked hinge mount; a liquid-damaged board can reveal further corrosion once it is cleaned and powered. Where that happens, we stop work and re-quote. We send photographs and a revised fixed price, and we wait for your written approval. We never carry out additional chargeable work on the assumption that you would have agreed to it, and you are never billed above the figure you approved.

If you decline the revised quote you pay only the original £29 diagnosis and we return the machine. Where the first fault has already been repaired and paid for, that work stands and the second fault is left unrepaired and documented in your report.

Backing up your data

Back up your data before you send or bring us your laptop. This is your responsibility and it matters. A drive that is already failing can die completely during a routine power-on, and no repair process can guarantee that a degrading disk survives being read one more time.

Our own safeguards: we do not wipe, reinstall or reformat anything without your explicit written instruction; we work from the original drive read-only wherever the job allows; and where a repair genuinely requires storage to be removed, we remove the drive rather than image it unless you ask us to. If we think your data is at risk, we tell you before we start and offer a separate data recovery quote.

If you cannot back up because the machine will not boot, say so when you book. We can usually take a sector-level copy of the drive first, as a priced item on the quotation, before any repair work begins.

Parts we fit, and parts we remove

We name the grade of every part on the quotation before you approve it. We use three.

• OEM — the original manufacturer's own service part, in manufacturer packaging. The most expensive option, and not always available for older models.
• OEM-equivalent — a new part built to the original specification, often by the same factory that supplied the manufacturer, but sold unbranded. Electrically and mechanically equivalent; the logo on the ribbon cable is what differs.
• Grade A+ — a genuine part recovered from a donor machine, fully tested and cosmetically as new. We use these where a new part is discontinued, and we always say so on the quote. They carry exactly the same warranty as a new part.

Whatever their grade, all parts we supply must be of satisfactory quality, as described and fit for purpose under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Parts we remove from your machine become ours and are recycled through a WEEE-registered processor, unless you ask for them back at the time you approve the quotation. A few components cannot be returned because they go back to a supplier under a core-exchange arrangement and the quoted price depends on that exchange. Where that applies, we tell you before you approve.

The 12-month parts and labour warranty

Every repair carries a 12-month warranty on the parts we fitted and the workmanship we performed, running from the date we hand the machine back or the date it is delivered to you. This is a guarantee we give voluntarily. It sits on top of your statutory rights, not in place of them.

What it covers:

• Failure of any part we supplied and fitted.
• Any fault caused by our workmanship, including reassembly, soldering and cable routing.
• A return of the original fault we were paid to repair.

What it does not cover:

• Accidental damage after the repair: drops, impacts, crushed lids, snapped ports.
• Liquid ingress occurring after the machine left us.
• Work, opening or part-swapping by anyone other than us. Our seals and intake photographs make this straightforward to establish, in either direction.
• A new and unrelated fault in a different component. A replaced screen does not warrant a keyboard that fails four months later.
• Normal consumable wear. Batteries lose capacity with use; the warranty covers a defective cell or a battery that fails, not gradual capacity decline.
• Software, operating system and malware problems, unless we caused them.
• A pre-existing risk that we identified in writing on the quotation and you asked us to proceed despite, such as further latent corrosion on a liquid-damaged board.

To claim, email hello@laptophabers.com or call 020 7946 0958 with your invoice number and a description of what the machine is doing. We arrange free tracked collection or a workshop slot, re-test the machine at our cost, and either redo the repair or refund what you paid for it. You are never charged a second diagnosis fee on a warranty claim. If the fault turns out to be excluded above, we tell you before doing any chargeable work and return the machine free of charge if you decline.

Turnaround times are targets, not guarantees

Our average turnaround is 48 hours and most repairs are back with you inside two to five working days. The times quoted on this site and on your quotation are honest targets based on our own record, not contractual guarantees, because they depend on part availability and on what the machine reveals once it is open.

If a part goes on back order, or a repair proves more involved than the quotation assumed, we contact you with a revised date. You may cancel at that point and pay only for work already completed. None of this affects your statutory right to have work carried out within a reasonable time. Time is of the essence only where we have agreed a firm deadline with you in writing.

Mail-in repairs

Our tracked mail-in service covers the whole of the UK. These terms apply to it in addition to everything above.

• Packing. Use a double-walled box with at least 5cm of padding on every face and follow the packing instructions we email with your label. Remove sleeves, chargers and accessories unless we have asked for them. A laptop posted in a padded envelope or an unpadded box is the one real risk in the whole process.
• Outbound leg. If you use the prepaid tracked label we supply, the parcel is insured in transit up to £1,000 and we carry the risk of loss or damage, provided the machine was packed as instructed. Tell us before you post if your machine is worth more than that, so we can arrange additional cover. If you choose your own courier, the parcel is at your risk until we sign for it.
• Return leg. We return every machine tracked and insured, and the risk stays with us until the parcel is delivered into your hands or those of someone you nominated. Return postage is free on approved repairs, on declined quotations and on no-fix outcomes.
• Condition record. We photograph every machine on arrival and again before it is packed for return. Those photographs are how transit damage claims get settled quickly.

Payment

All prices include VAT at the prevailing rate and are in pounds sterling. Diagnosis is payable at booking. The balance of an approved repair is payable on completion, before collection or before we dispatch the machine on a mail-in job. We accept card, cash and bank transfer.

We do not ask for a deposit on standard repairs. The one exception is a special-order part we cannot return to the supplier, such as a made-to-order panel for a discontinued model. Where a deposit applies it is stated on the quotation before you approve it, and we explain what is and is not refundable.

We retain ownership of any parts we have fitted until the invoice is paid in full. Business customers only: overdue invoices carry statutory interest and compensation under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998.

Cancelling your order

If you booked online, by phone or otherwise without meeting us face to face, that is a distance contract. The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give you 14 days from the day the contract is made to cancel for any reason. You do not need to give one. Email us, or use the cancellation form linked in your booking confirmation.

Two things change that position, and you should understand both before approving work.

• If you ask us to start within the 14 days and we finish the work, the cancellation right ends. We ask you to acknowledge that in writing when you approve a quotation, and it is stated on the quotation itself.
• If you ask us to start and then cancel part-way through, you pay a proportionate amount for the work already done and for any non-returnable part already fitted or ordered. You do not pay for work we have not yet carried out.

Cancel before we start and you pay nothing beyond the £29 diagnosis, and that is refunded too if we had not yet begun the diagnosis. Where a refund is due we make it within 14 days, by the same method you paid with. Repairs arranged in person at the workshop are on-premises contracts and do not carry the statutory 14-day right, but you may still cancel free of charge at any point before we start work.

Unclaimed equipment

We store completed machines free of charge and we chase you rather than sit on your laptop. If equipment is not collected and we cannot arrange its return, our process under the Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977 is as follows.

1. We contact you by email, phone and post at the details you gave us, repeatedly, over the first 30 days.
2. If we still have no response we send a final written notice by recorded delivery to your last known address. It identifies the equipment, states any sum owing, and gives a date at least three months away after which we intend to sell or dispose of it.
3. If that date passes with no contact from you, we may sell the equipment or recycle it responsibly. We keep a record of the sale and account to you for the proceeds, less any unpaid charges and our reasonable costs of storage and sale. That balance remains available to you.

Any storage drive in an unclaimed machine is securely erased before sale or disposal. Keeping your contact details current with us is the simplest way to make sure none of this ever applies to you.

Our liability to you

We are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking this contract or failing to use reasonable care and skill. Loss is foreseeable if it is obvious that it will happen, or if we both knew it might when the contract was made.

We do not exclude or limit our liability in any way for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, for any breach of your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, or for anything else it would be unlawful for us to exclude. No wording anywhere on this site changes that.

Subject to that, our total liability arising from any one repair is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us for that repair and the market value of the equipment immediately before we received it. Market value means what the machine was actually worth at that point, not what it cost new. We do not accept liability for loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption or lost opportunity. We supply repairs for domestic and private use; if you rely on the machine commercially, hold your own insurance and keep a spare.

We are not liable for a pre-existing fault we did not cause, for damage arising from a repair you declined, or for a machine failing to meet an expectation we never set. Technical information in our laptop repair guides is general guidance rather than advice about your specific machine, and acting on it yourself is at your own risk.

Liability for data loss

We take data seriously and we will not hide behind this section, but the position needs to be clear.

We accept liability for data loss we actually cause by failing to take reasonable care, for example wiping a drive without your instruction or damaging storage through careless handling. In that situation we pay the reasonable cost of professional recovery, up to the liability cap set out above.

We do not accept liability for data lost because the storage device was already failing, because the operating system was already corrupt, because the fault we were asked to repair had already destroyed the file system, or because you did not back up when we asked you to. Data recovery is a separate service with its own success rates. It is quoted separately and never bundled into a repair by assumption.

We cannot value your data for you, so please do not rely on us to. If a document, a photograph archive or a project is irreplaceable, copy it somewhere else before the machine reaches our bench.

Events outside our control

We are not liable for delay or failure caused by something genuinely outside our reasonable control, such as a courier network failure, a component shortage at manufacturer level, a power or network outage, fire, flood, civil emergency or government restriction. If one of these happens we tell you promptly and agree a new date with you. If the delay is substantial you may cancel and receive a refund of anything paid for work not yet carried out. We will not use this section to excuse an ordinary backlog of our own making.

Complaints, changes and governing law

If something has gone wrong, tell us first. Email hello@laptophabers.com with your invoice number. We acknowledge every complaint within two working days and aim to resolve it within ten. Escalations go to the workshop manager, and if we cannot agree an outcome you remain free to pursue alternative dispute resolution or a claim in the courts.

We may update these terms from time to time, for example when the law changes or when we change how a service works. The version that applies to your repair is the one published on the date you approved your quotation, and the date of the current revision is shown alongside this page. Changes are never applied retrospectively to work already agreed.

Nobody other than you and us has any right to enforce these terms. If a court finds any part of them unenforceable, the remaining parts continue to apply. Not enforcing a term on one occasion does not waive our right to enforce it later.

These terms, and any dispute arising from them, are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland you may also bring proceedings in your own courts. You can read more about how we work and who does the work on our about LaptopHaber page, or contact the workshop with any question these terms leave open.

Questions about this page? Write to hello@laptophabers.com or post to Unit 12, Riverside Workshops, 84 Long Lane, London SE1 4AU, United Kingdom. We reply to every written enquiry within five working days.