[Resolved]  eTechies — Poor Service & More Expensive than IBM Service Center

Address:

Karnataka

I've an IBM Thinkpad R51 series laptop. As the power connection was lose, I placed a request on Sulekha for laptop repair. I got a call from etechies Gurgaon office, where the sales person made a fancy pitch - that they operate out of 7 cities, they have an ex-Microsoft CXO level executive working with them etc. He also said, that they'll send an IBM certified engineer to my place who will try to fix my laptop at my place. If the problem persists, he'll take my laptop to his service center and will try to fix it. If it can't be fixed, they'll replace the part as a last resort.
Fees for all this would be 1050 for visit and part charges extra.

Here is my experience:

Lie # 1. When the etechie representative came to my place, he refused to check my laptop, stating that he is not authorized to open laptops. He said, he'll have to take it to his service center for getting it checked.

Lie # 2. etechie guys called me after a day and said that there is problem with my stub & they'll charge Rs. 1300 to replace this. Basically they had no intent of repairing the existing part. I had checked with IBM thinkpad official service center ealier and they had quoted Rs. 1600 for the entire IBM original power kit. Considering that etechies use parts provided by some malaysian manufacturer there is no cost advantage of going to etechies. I would have rather paid Rs. 300 extra for a genuine IBM thinkpad part provided by their own service center

Lie # 3. After 1 day, etechie rep called me again to inform that, there is issue with my charger pin as well. Replacing that with a genuine thinkpad charger would cost me 4500 or else i can go for a cheap replacement for Rs. 1500.
By this time they had already taken Rs. 1050 at the time of visit and had asked approval for 1300 for the 1st part. I refused to pay any further, as the quotation provided by IBM was cheaper than the overall cost these people were asking me to pay. Getting power socket fixed for INR 7000 is definitely not a good option for an R51 series thinkpad, with market value of <10k.

Lie # 4. When i refused to pay additional amount for charger, they said the problem is partially fixed and they'll return my laptop with new stub. However, when their rep came to my house today with my laptop the problem was exactly as it was when they collected it from me. Basically they werer asking me to shell out 1050+1300 for visiting my place twice and making a fool out of me. Plus, there were quite a few scratched on the body of my laptop.

Now that i've already paid 1050 (non-refundable) to them, i've asked them to return my laptop as it was when they collected it from me. Their rep has taken my laptop back, but am not sure if they'll ever return it without looting me for some additional amount.

I wish I had given it directly to IBM service center who had asked me for INR 1600+1500.

Going through etechies is definitely not worth 200-300 bucks you are planning to save (though the probability of even that is very low)...