These Terms of Service were last updated on: 6th December 2023
Risks of Attempting Repair
Electronics repair can be risky and unpredictable, and faults can be transient. Devices may arrive in a state beyond repair or, despite the use of best-practice and appropriate tools, become permanently damaged in the course of attempting a repair. Devices may be received reporting one fault and, upon physical inspection, this found to be a secondary issue and symptom of a primary fault that itself may or may not be repairable and/or may be much more complicated to resolve. For example symptoms such as “not turning on” may be easily resolved only to find that a power issue that prevented the device from powering on, also caused damage to sensitive components like displays or some integrated circuits. Before beginning a repair, we will carry out detailed diagnosis to gauge the extent and repairability of a fault and inform you of your options. Not all repairs are successful.
Some circuit board components are perishable and wear over time. This may lead to intermittent faults or sudden failures that can have ‘area effect damage’ that can spread to other nearby components. Liquid damage can have similar effects. These faults can be exacerbated by continued use prior to repair.
Some electronic components are very delicate making repairs risky. This is especially true of repairs involving displays that are glued down and faults to components with high power draws such as processors designed for gaming.
Some manufacturers employ anti-repair practices that artificially degrade functionality if the device detects that it has been repaired by anyone other than the manufacturer or their chosen partners. This is often achieved with software, meaning that despite the use of genuine, reputably sourced parts, devices may present errors or disable functions that would otherwise work upon repair. We will always try to inform you of this barrier prior to accepting a repair and redirect you to the manufacturer - our aim is always to provide you with informed choice and return your device in a more functional state than we receive it, if not good-as-new!
Repair Quotes
We will be as thorough as possible in assessing your fault, based on the information you provide us, in order to provide you as accurate a repair quote as possible, before we accept your device for repair. This quote is always an estimate. Once we receive your device, we will work to diagnose the true fault and fees will be payable on this work.
We are unable to guarantee that the quote you accept will be final and all-inclusive of the costs of repair that you pay. We are limited in the conclusions we can draw at the time of quoting by the information we receive remotely, given the complex nature of electronics repair. Thorough fault diagnosis almost always requires the device to be in-hand so that we can use our specialist tools and knowledge. Whatever is found following this diagnosis, you will be informed prior to us proceeding with an attempted repair and, if the estimated repair cost provided needs to be revised, we will let you know why and by how much as soon as possible so that you can make an informed decision. Without your express approval of these changes, we will not proceed to repair your device.
Quotes remain valid within their original limited scope and any information we provide after physical diagnosis work is advisory. Should a customer choose to proceed at the original quoted price, we will carry out only the work covered by this limited scope even if we have subsequently advised that we deem it unnecessary or unlikely to resolve the issue.
Repair Diagnosis Fee
Based on the information you provide, we will make an assessment and provide you with a quote for the repair. If you accept this quote and proceed to send us your device for repair, there is a £25 diagnostic fee (plus return postage) included in the quote that is payable if the repair is not completed. This covers our time spent working on your device, thoroughly investigating the issue, including any necessary disassembly, diagnostics and testing that we carry out. We will provide evidence of this work and any information duly uncovered (as this may be of value to you) and will return your device in the state in which we received it. We are unable to accept customer diagnosis as a basis for repair. If we carry out repair work on your device the diagnostic fee will not be charged.
Repair Time
We are painstaking in our work but we also try to be as efficient as we can be. Our goal is to get your device back to you working as robustly as it can as quickly as we can. While we aren’t able to guarantee a time frame for delivery of a quote or the completion of a repair, a rough guide of typical time frames would be:
- same or next business day to provide a quote
- one to two business days to diagnose fault
- one to two business days to carry out repair work
This rough guide reflects any mention of time frames we make on this website and we cannot make any guarantees otherwise. Postage times will always vary and are outside of our control - we will always use the same or equivalent courier service as used to send the device to us.
Limited Warranty
We offer a 90 day limited warranty on all our repair work. If for any reason there is an issue with the work we carried out as defined in your invoice and the fault reoccurs within 90 days, we will perform the service again at no extra charge. Any parts we supply and use as part of the repair work are also covered for 90 days from the date of the service. The warranty does not cover issues that may develop within the warranty period that are not related to the service provided or to the original fault or symptom(s) diagnosed and repaired.
Warranty Exclusions
We do not offer warranties or guarantees, explicit or implicit, on any of the following:
- Any repair using parts not supplied by USEBREAKLOVEFIX
- Any software issues (including operating systems and malware)
- Any loss of data
- Any previously unmentioned symptoms or issues that are immaterial to the original repair
Any hardware modification of the repaired device within the 90 day warranty period will void your warranty.
Replacement Parts
We will always try to repair devices in situ however occasionally replacement parts will be required to carry out a repair. If a repair requires replacement parts, we will inform you of this need prior to ordering them, explaining which replacement part(s) is required, their cost and how it relates to your repair. We only use reputable sources for our replacement parts and will prioritise OEM parts when available. In most cases we will not have stock of the part(s) to hand and so will need to procure them before fitting. We cannot guarantee a time frame for this as it is out of our control, however we will provide you with all the information we have regarding any lead times.
If there is an extensive lead time for a replacement part we will discuss alternative paths forward with you. This may include:
- Cancelling the repair and returning your device to you in the state it was received (diagnosis and return shipping fees apply).
- Temporary returning your device to you while replacement parts are procured. In this case we will require a deposit for the ordered replacement part(s) and you will be responsible for the cost of return postage.
- Carry out remedial work that returns the device to ‘working order’ without necessarily restoring full function. This option can only be offered at our discretion and subsequent warranty is limited to only cover workmanship and not device function.
Any replacement parts used in a repair that are not supplied by USEBREAKLOVEFIX are not covered by any kind of warranty from us (manufacturer warranty may apply). In providing their own parts, customers acknowledge that they understand and agree that any work provided making use of these parts is not covered by our Limited Warranty and comes with no other guarantee or assurance, explicit or implicit. Customers also agree to waive any liability for damage to their device caused by faulty or incompatible parts they provide.
Postage and Packing
Use of appropriate packing materials and postage service for the sending of repair items to USEBREAKLOVEFIX is the sole responsibility of the customer. Item condition will be inspected amd documented on arrival and compared to the information provided by the customer at the time of quoting and we reserve the right to reject repairs and nullify quotes where it is clear that the repair item’s condition does not reflect the information provided.
The best packaging to use to safely and securely send us your broken device is the packaging it came in when you bought it. This was designed specifically to get it to you in one piece and so should do the same job getting it to and from us (we will always use the packaging you send us the device in to return it to you).
If you haven’t got the original packaging then you should make sure you use an appropriate amount of padding and protection to ensure the device doesn’t arrive to us in a worse state than we are expecting as this may effect the cost or feasibility of the repair - if things don’t match-up on your devices arrival inspection we will inform you immediately and will not proceed with the repair until we hear back from you.
In most cases we are able to provide you with appropriate packaging materials (charges apply) should you wish, just let us know and we will include this in your quote. We cannot be held responsible for incorrect usage of supplied packing and any damage in transit remains the responsibility of the customer.
Payment Options
We use a well-known and trusted third party payment provider and accept all major credit and debit cards.
Data
While we take every precaution to avoid the unnecessary loss of data from storage devices in electronics being repaired, we cannot assume liability for any lost data as a result of services performed by USEBREAKLOVEFIX. Our first step in undertaking a repair will be to disconnect and safely store any storage devices unrelated to the repair work. We will not access any storage device provided with the device for repair (other than the system access required to briefly boot an operating system to check relevant core functionality).
If we are aware that a repair procedure may result in the risk of data loss, we will inform you of this, and will offer to backup the data at risk for an additional fee. Under GDPR this will legally require additional consent beyond that given to our Privacy Policy. We strongly recommend baking up any data you deem irreplaceable prior to sending us your device for repair as given the complex nature of electronics, and storage devices in particular, we cannot predict the impact of repair work on file integrity.
Unclaimed Devices / Unpaid Repairs
We reserve the right to dispose of or recycle any repair items that are unclaimed or with outstanding charges 90 days after the invoice date.