And finally, I actually went to get my laptop repaired.
The thing was, I was actually very scared to go get my laptop repaired.
My impression of SIM LIM was pretty much a cowboy town. So I was prepared to get myself totally conned and they would recommend me repairs that I didn't need and I wouldn't know better.
I bought this laptop at around $800. It's a simple laptop cos I use it mainly for watching movies and just surfing the net so there's no fancy stuff. And I have already used it for 3 years or so.
For my repairs, I hoped that I would be able to cheaply extend the life of the laptop for another 3 years plus and I would be probably happy with that.
And I was always hesitant to take the trip down to SIM LIM, cos, what if they quoted me $300 for the repairs. It would be hardly worth it, or what if they recommended other repairs which I didn't need, but I also wouldn't know. So I mentally gave myself a budget of $200 and hoped for the best.
So I told myself I needed to get my laptop fixed. Then I went online to research on some repair shops. OK so there was a repair shop which had quite a number of good reviews so I decided to go down to talk with them. I told them my issues, I had already did some research on my own on what could be the problem with my laptop. I likely needed to replace my hard disk.
And they said, "ok minimum 3 hours. We will investigate and if it is a hard disk issue, we will change the hard disk for you. A 1 TB hard disk plus service fee will cost you $120."
WOAH! That's under my budget. YAY...
So I asked them... hey wait, I don't need a 1 TB hard disk. How much is a 500 GB hard disk?
And they said... errm... it's only a difference of $10, why not just take the 1 TB hard disk...
And I thought for a while and said. Nope... I just need a 500 GB hard disk. And so the repairs cost me $110
For many people, it's only $10, but this $10 is wasted on me. I would not need this extra storage space. It's the same as flushing $10 down the drain cos... I don't store enough things on my hard disk such that I would use more than 500 GB. So why bother to buy a 1 TB one?
Few years later, I'll probably change my laptop so I might as well go for the cheapest repairs possible.
Anyway, it was late afternoon so I had to pick up my wife, so I went to retrieve my laptop the next day.
So far the laptop seems to be working well enough.
Lessons learnt.
1) Sometimes, things aren't as hard or complicated or scary as it seems. I lived without a functioning laptop for a couple of months. All I needed was to make one day effort to go down and get it fixed. It's not THAT hard. Should probably have done it earlier.
So I should have done some quick research earlier then made the effort to settle it and not live with such inconvenience for so long.
It's like settling your insurance. Most people procrastinate and don't get it done. Or they are afraid to look at their finances or they are afraid the financial adviser will cheat them.
It's probably the same. Just need to set aside some time to research then really get down to doing it.
2) Sometimes even though something has better value, it's still not worth buying.
1 TB Hard disk + repair = $120
500 GB + repair = $110
I think most people will feel an additional 500 GB for $10 is really cheap.
But if I wasn't going to utilize it, then there's no real point in spending that additional $10.
It's not like 1 chicken $5, 2 chicken $8... In this case, I can always keep the chicken for another day to eat. But a hard disk... I know I won't use it so... no point.
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