Hi I recently came in to possession of a photography light, through my works. It was broken so they let me have it. I assumed the repairers my company uses was overly priced without really knowing or trying them first.

The problem occurred when I called upon another photographic retailer who also offers repairs. Again assuming it would be cheaper than where I work.

Broken photography equipment is something I am familiar with and although my store does not actually fix anything we send it off to our sister company that completes our repairs and is quite well regarded in the industry. Part of our process involves us informing customers there is a charge for the estimate prior to the actual repair.

This camera shop I took my light to, neglected to tell me there would be any estimate costs. Optimistically expecting a saving I was shocked to discover the repair was not only pricey but in addition almost 4 times as expensive to have my light inspected to get an estimate.

As nothing was mentioned about the estimate cost initially and I have no paper contract. What would you say my consumer rights are?

It is your property to yu are entitled to get it back without charge as they dint tell you there is a charge for examining the equipment. Now this really should be given to yiu as pert of the receipt/job sheet you were given whenh you handed it to them. If not do they have a sign in the shop saying they make a charge for providing estimates?

Let us now consider what an estimate is. It isnt a quote and that is presumably what you wanted so you are not bound by its conditions and nor are they. Is this a nationakl cahin or a single outlet business? If the former you start at the bottom and work up to the CEO of the business pouinting out the deficiencies in their operations regarding safe custody of your kit and accountability no to mention the lack of a contract offering those sepcifics. If it is a single outlet you put in a letter to the owner and state that they have faied to tell you about their supposed contractual charge, failed to give you any paperwork mentioning it and dont advertise it as a contractual condition by way of signage in the shop so under s62 of the Consumer Rights Act it isnt a term that is enforceable and you will be having you light back untouched or you will be after them via the county court

If they still want to argue NAME THEM HERE and you will find that others will speak oftheir experiences and make suggestions as to what happened to then amd how they resolved the problem if there was one