4:25am UK, Wednesday July 22, 2009

Mark White, home affairs correspondent - Sky News

The performances of other shops in London tested by Sky News during the investigation reflected very poorly on some of the industry's major names:

Although Digitech in Putney, west London, fixed the fault, they also spent a while snooping. The webcam reveals the technician takes a quick look over his shoulder before flicking through the holiday pictures. He then attempts to 'clean up' what he's done by deleting the 'recent documents' folder. In a statement Digitech said their technician had simply been checking the memory was working when he looked through the photos.

PC World in nearby Brentford demanded an advance payment of £230 for a new motherboard. However, on collection Sky engineers discovered that only the loose memory chip had been replaced. PC World have since apologised and refunded the £230.

Micro Anvika, Tottenham Court Road charged £145 for a full examination of the laptop, despite the fact the surveillance sofware indicated that the laptop had been fixed before ringing to diagnose the need for further tests. Micro Anvika have since apologised and refunded some of the fee.

Technicians at Evnova Computers in Barbican also discovered the loose memory chip and fixed-it, but not before they too said the motherboard needed replacing. When the offer of a new motherboard was declined by our undercover reporter, it appears someone from Evnova soldered the memory-bus pins together in an effort to recreate the original fault. They later claimed they believed our undercover reporter was from a rival repair company.

Only one shop was genuinely honest. Pix 4 in Shepherds Bush took their time to carefully examine our machine while we waited. They promptly discovered the loose chip, popped it back into place and told us there would be no charge.

Original Story