A mechanical keyboard with rainbow-lit keys photographed in a dark room.

Phones · laptops · anything with a motor

We will tell you what it costs before we open it

A look is free and takes about ten minutes at the counter. If it is not worth mending we will say so, and we will say what it would cost anyway.

The price list

Unit 4, the parade

Two benches, one soldering iron each

We are Sam and Ife. Between us we have thirty years of taking things apart, most of it in a warranty depot where we were paid by the unit and told not to talk to anybody. This is the opposite of that.

Every job gets a number, a shelf and a line on the board by the door. You can walk in and look at the board without asking anybody, and you can ring and quote the number instead of describing yourself.

Parts are ordered on a Monday and a Thursday. If yours has not arrived we will text you on those days, even when there is nothing to report, because silence is the thing people actually complain about.

A black smartphone lying face down on a pale speckled stone surface.

Screens

Two hours if the part is in, which it is for the eleven phones we keep glass for. Anything else is Monday or Thursday. The old screen goes in the recycling bin by the door unless you want it.

From £54, quoted before we start

Machines

Washers, dryers and dishwashers, on the bench only — we do not come to the house. Bearings, pumps, door seals and the belt that goes at about year seven.

From £48 plus the part

Everything else, with what it costs

These are the jobs that walk in every week. Anything not on this list gets quoted at the counter and written on the ticket before we touch it.

A desk with a monitor, a wireless keyboard, a notebook and a tablet showing coloured app icons.

Laptops

Battery, most models£62

Keyboard£58

Fan and a full clean£36

Data off a dead one£40

A red cordless drill lying on a bare concrete floor with dust around it.

Power tools

Brushes and a service£28

Switch£32

Chuck£34

Battery pack rebuild£44

A backlit mechanical keyboard glowing in pink and blue in a dark room.

Keyboards and the rest

Switch replacement, each£4

Full strip and clean£30

Cable or port£26

Verdict only, no repairfree

The board by the door, this morning

The bench

Nine jobs, in the order they came in. We do not move anything up the list for money, and the only thing that jumps the queue is a job that turns out to be ten minutes.

0431Laptop, no power · waiting on a board, ordered Monday

0432Phone, cracked glass · on the bench now

0433Washer, drum bearing · stripped, part due Thursday

0434Drill, dead switch · done, on the shelf, texted

0435Tablet, will not charge · port, tomorrow

0436Dishwasher, leaking · waiting on a seal

0437Keyboard, eleven switches · Friday

0438Laptop, fan noise · Friday

0439Phone, water · opened, drying, no promises

What we will not take

Televisions over 32 inches, anything with a CRT in it, microwaves, and any phone that is still under a manufacturer's warranty — opening it would end the warranty and you would be worse off than when you walked in. We will tell you where to take all four.

A hand holding three handwritten sticky notes reading To do, Doing and Done.

A tidy desk with a monitor, keyboard, plant and a tablet showing a grid of app icons.

“They told me not to bother, and then told me what it would have cost.”

Six-year-old laptop, a board fault, £190 of parts against a machine worth £120. They wrote both numbers on the ticket, charged me nothing, and got the photographs off it while I waited.

Ticket 0388 · March

Bring something in

Patch

Unit 4, Halfpenny Parade,
between the chemist and the chippy
+44 7700 900 315

Counter

Mon–Fri 09:00–17:30
Sat 09:00–13:00
Parts land Monday and Thursday

On this page

Patch is a fictional example. The shop, Sam and Ife, the prices, the ticket numbers and the queue do not exist, and nothing here is electrical safety or repair advice. Photographs are stock images and were not taken at this shop.