Last week was one hell of an experience. First of all, I sleepwalked and stepped on my laptop, crushing the poor thing. It was…unexpected of me. But at least it cost me only 98 dollars to change the screen. Now the second thing is an expected one.

It took me half a day in order to find an “honest” repairing service to change my laptop’s screen in Ho Chi Minh city. And this was the first time I’ve ever had a chance to compare the different “layers of services’ quality” in my own home town.

Normally, it’d take only half an hour to do the work. However, at the first building I came into, the one who’s in charge tried to take advantage of the situation. He mumbled “Hmmm… I wonder what size this screen is.” and took my laptop upstairs. I was told by a friend before, that in this kind of situation, most likely the guy is trying to cheat you (aka. take the good components inside your stuffs and replace them with cheaper or broken ones). And to my surprise, when I told him that I’d come upstairs with him, he refused immediately, returned my laptop, and said: “Sorry, we don’t have this screen size here.”!!!!

I thought to myself: “If you’d known there hasn’t been any spare here in the first place, then why the hell did you want to bring my laptop upstairs?”, but couldn’t say it out loud. I took my leave and went to the second building.

There’s a young guy who threw an ice-cold statement at me: “Leave it here for 1 day, or we don’t take the job.”!! Oh, now this one is much, much more obvious. “Noob. I’ve seen worse. Bye bye then.”. Again, I thought to myself and said to the guy “Ok, then I’ll take my leave.”

The third one I came into was on a different street. This is a real honest firm. 40 minutes, 3 months guarantee, no tricks, no pretenses, just plain laptop preparing service. Here’s a shot of this lovable firm.

In the end, I think it’s true that my home town still has many vicious firms like the 1st and 2nd ones I visited that day. But there are always good and honest businesses here. We just need a better system (online, most likely) to record and inform each other. For now, if you ever visit Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam; and if your laptop ever need some repairing or upgrading, remember to come to this one.