Lapfix

A couple of months ago the DC jack on my Dell Inspiron 9300 began to show signs of impending failure. This was expected and I soon began to scour the internet for methods to fix the problem.

My first discovery was a bunch of mail-in places (via google and ebay) that would for a flat fee diagnose and repair the DC jack. My buddy had used one of these places in California in the summer and after 2 months was mailed back his non-charging laptop, which he ended up selling for parts (for $25 nonetheless).

Second was the big guy brick and mortar stores like Best Buy, Compusa, Circuit City and the likes. After reading the horror stories about their in-house tech departments on the Consumerist, I wasn't gonna go that route either.

Finally I decided to try out my favorite place of all, Craigslist! Initially I started looking on there for someone who'd be able to solder on a replacement jack that I had bought on ebay (the "free" instructions turned out to be not enough for my n00b skills!). Finally I just decided to search for "laptop dc jack" and came across a posting for Lapfix.

I decided to call the place up even though it was a saturday. A guy picked up the phone almost immediately and after listening to my problem, explained how their service policy worked ($110 total when problem is fixed only). I took the hard drive out and headed to Falls Church. They are located in a small building has a couple other small computer outfits like theirs. The guy there (Karim) tested it out and told me he would call me the next day when it was done!!

Got a call the next day and went picked it up, it had some problems with charging, brought it home and tried with another power brick and charged up just fine!

Overall I was very satisfied with the work and customer service, which is why I decided to write this post, just in case it helps someone else like me out there who's looking for a review of their work.

PS: If you still had any doubts, no, I am not affiliated with them!