Dodgy computer repair and missing parts

[indie_chick5]

About a year ago I had a HP laptop (afraid I can't remember the model). It used to just switch itself off all the time until one day it didn't turn on at all. I took it to a computer repair shop where I was told a few days later that my motherboard and C-drive were "dead". I hadn't backed up anything and was told all my work, photos, music etc were lost for good. A family friend then took my laptop as he is an expert with them. He said that when he took the computer apart, a "memory card" was missing, and everything looked like it had been shoved back in badly, the fan was all mangled and crumpled and there were many loose connections. Apparently that particular model of HP laptop used these memory cards and this was stopped, making them hard to get hold of and therefore potentially valuable. I suspect the computer repair guy nicked it, but I wanted to ask a wider range of expects - what do you think? If he did take it, what can I do? I feel like I've been taken for a ride because I'm a 23 year old female with little knowledge about computers! Thanks for any help/advice you can offer.

[ChuckFickens]

You'd probably be better posting this in law as it's not really a technical problem. But I'd imagine that after a year you'd have a hard time proving anything.

[VHG]

I agree with Chuck, after all this time you are going to have a hard time proving anything.

The guy who took it apart will just say it was all there when he gave it to your friend, and if that is what he says you will not have a leg to stand on.

It was up to your friend to prove it was all there when he took it off this guy, if he did not do any sort of check then that is probably the end of the story.

Why has it taken you this long to raise the subject?

You needed to do it a year ago, not now.

[VHG]

One other thjng, it is very unlikely that if the motherboard was "dead" it would stop the hard disk working.

The hard disk could easily have been removed and the data copied off it onto another computer.

I did this for a friend recently. Their laptop was playing up so I took the hard disk out, put it in an external caddy, and copied the files off the laptop hard disk on to my computer.

This is VERY easy to do and the computer repair shop would have been able to do this themselves.

While it does sound as though this computer repair shop was not too good, I dont think you can do much about it after all this time.

If they are that bad they have probably gone bust by now anyway.

[chrisrob]

A few years ago, I made the mi8stake of taking my computer to P* ****d to sort out a problem. They said it needed a new graphics card and charged me to fit one. However, not only did it not solve the problem, they also dislodged connectors to the DVD drives.
I took it back and was thrown out by the manager when I tried to tell them what they'd done. (I did get an apology later but no refund.)
I had to repair it myself, I discovered the original problem quite quickly too.
Moral: don't use that store. They can try and sue me if they like. I have documentary evidence.

[indie_chick5]

Thanks for your comments - I have only just learnt about the missing components, hence the reason I was unsure what I could do. Obviously if I had known earlier I would have chased it up. After talking to friends, I have learnt that they too have had bad experiences with this shop, and other than tell people via word-of-mouth that it's dodgy, I guess I'll just have to put it down to bad luck.