Shameful scammers whose incompetence is only trumped by their dreadful attitude.
Needed SIM reader replaced, and supplied part and stipped phone down to motherboard myself. Should've seen how this was going to turn out as soon as I walked in – a dark, dingy newsagents with mail order repair packaging literally all over the floor. However, was told on the Saturday, it would be done same day or next for only a fiver, so went ahead. Phoned every day (usually don't answer) asking for update, repeatedly being told it would be fixed that day. By the Wednesday, it still hadn't been fixed, so visited in person. Spoke to the dodgy, dirty-looking "repairman" who then guaranteed it would be fixed that day –
"Why has it still not been done?" I asked.
"Oh, just haven't gotten round to getting the soldering iron out. I'll do it tonight," he replied.
"Yes, but will you actually?" I said. "I've been lied to for the last four days."
"You tell me," in a rude, ambivalent tone, was the reply.
Should've walked then and there, but made the mistake of giving him one more chance to actually do the job he said he would four days before and pick it up that evening – only because it suited me to do so, with my other repair option already closed, meaning it would've been an extra two days.
Went to pick it up that night and was surprised to find he'd actually "done" the job. Soldering work looked extremely amateur – what you'd expect from a high school technology class. Tried it in shop and SIM card couldn't be read by phone. Waited for 4 days a "repair" that didn't work. Refused to pay and left.
Then took the phone to another, far more honest repair shop where the owner was visibly shocked by the nature of the soldering work that had been carried out. Initially thought it might be repairable, but then informed me the internal motherboard bus connecting the sim reader location to the CPU had been irreparably damaged, commenting in these exact words:
"What f**king amateur idiot did this to your phone?! He's f**ked your motherboard beyond repair and it can't be fixed."
In short:
– They repeatedly LIE about repair timeframe
– They repeatedly LIE about actually bothering to do the work
– THEY BREAK YOUR PHONE BEYOND REPAIR.
– Shop is a complete filthy mess.