screen not working on my laptop

That isn't too far out of the way to be fair @pete - the part itself ranges between £35 and £50 depending on the source and type, and you'd be into two hours labour at least (doubt it could be done and tested inside an hour even with experience, so it would be more like two).

I don't think you've been done, lets put it that way.

 

Hmmmm..... About half hour or so to open it up and diagnose is about right, but having a screen in stock is a bit odd, unless he does quite a lot of work? The screen itself is not specific to your laptop, so will be fitted to many other makes and models, so if he does quite a bit of work then it is not beyond the realms of possibility that he will carry one or two screens in stock. Fitting is easy, and that would require all power (including the battery) to be removed for safety and to prevent damaging anything, so that bit doesn't worry me. Having it in, tested and buttoned up in half an hour is good going though - although, thinking about it, if he had a screen in hand he may have taken the soft option and fitted the screen to diagnose the fault, so it could very well have been already mostly fitted when he rang you.

 

Ah, that makes sense then - in a way, he will be glad to get rid of a part that he has paid out for and then the customer has decided not to go ahead. Been stuck that way a few times myself in the past (there was a time when I had loads of video recorder heads knocking around in my workshop!). It can be a risky strategy chucking a part in to see if it solves the problem, but with screens as long as the driver voltages are stable it is a pretty safe bet.

Happy days anyway, glad you got it fixed.