You know you've had a bad repair experience when y...

You know you've had a bad repair experience when you have to call the police to protect you from the owner.

My Sony Vaio laptop was taken apart for a cleaning but wouldn't start afterward; the culprit was a ribbon connection that had come loose during the cleaning. Pretty common problem, but not one I have the finesse to fix myself. I took it to Comdoctor for repairs but was surprised when the bill came to nearly two hours of labor. When I asked about it, I was told that it took 45 minutes just to get the laptop open. Puzzled - it's taken other technicians 10 minutes tops, and it's been done in five - I asked the repairman if he had to look anything up for the job; he said "no" - he simply had to check a few ribbon cables. He tried to impress me by saying it was "a complete gut job" (nearly every internal laptop repair is "a complete gut job," i.e. you have to open up the computer; that's like complaining an oil change was difficult because you had to get all the way under the car) and argued that Sony was an obscure laptop manufacturer - that it wasn't a popular make "like a Dell or something." I knew the price was inflated, but I went by to settle up anyhow.

When I arrived at the shop, the owner claimed he'd been listening in on the phone conversation (?) and shouted that I was "out of my mind." When I asked him about the extended time it took for his tech to open up the laptop, he claimed that it was extremely rare for laptops to have to be opened up to be fixed (which is like saying that it's rare to have to open the hood to fix a car) and that it was miraculous that his technician was able to reattach the ribbon (which is like threading a belt buckle. It can take a bit of dexterity, which is why I can't do it, but it's a very routine task for a tech).

He also said a lot of other things that I don't think Google will let me print here. He was shouting all the time.

I engaged him for a bit - it's aggravating to be ripped off AND screamed at about it - but soon decided that I just wanted to check to see if the repair had been done, pay up, and get out of there. The owner, though, would not leave me alone while I booted up the computer, continuing to shout nonstop at me and going weirdly in & out of my personal space, as if trying to make up his mind whether he wanted to attempt to intimidate me physically. He then accused me of being this customer who defrauded him in 2008 (??? he kept shouting: "WE HAVE RECORDS!") and had made obscene phone calls to the shop, or something, and claimed that he was going to take me to court for being a thief (?!?!). He was just unhinged at the end, and he was being so aggressive that I felt threatened: I didn't feel safe being in the shop any longer, so I stepped out, called the police in the parking lot, and waited until a sheriff's deputy came by to accompany me while the bill was paid.

The deputy didn't seem particularly surprised to be there.

Look, this'll probably make an entertainingly insane service experience to tell my friends about in retrospect, but it really wasn't fun at the time - and, shrieking aggression aside, it was a grossly inflated price for a routine job. I'd had previous repairs done at Comdoctor (it don't know whether it was 2008 or not; you'll have to pardon me - I don't have records), and they went off without a hitch, so I don't know what's changed here - whether new, not-as-competent techs were hired, or someone decided that they didn't like taking their antipsychotics anymore, or what. I do know, however, that I can't recommend stepping into the shop without a parent, guardian, or good amount of pepper spray.

Actually, you'll have to deal with the incompetent service techs even if you don't get assaulted, so just don't step into the shop at all.