I've had shit like this happen before.
Once, I was having trouble connecting to the internet. So I went to a company that fixed Toshiba laptops, like the one I had. They said "Well, something's wrong with the hard drive". I tried explaining that the hard drive wasn't an issue, but they went on a long-winded and highly technical (probably needlessly so) rant about how it must be the hard drive causing the trouble, and how it had to be reformatted. So, several hours and $80 later, I got my laptop back in working condition - and still no internet.
So I went to the tech help desk at Robarts Library in U of T. They took a look at it. 5 minutes later, after a few clicks and types, the internet was back.

Those motherfucking crooked Toshiba technicians stole 80_fucking_dollars and 6 hours of my life.

So don't trust companies that specialize in "fixing" things. And if they do such extras, don't pay them as much. Take 'em to court if you need to - then they'll be revealed as the money-grubbing scumbags they are.

That sucks, dude. Fortunately for me, I'm a programmer -- calling them out on their technical jargon is pretty easy.

Mine was under warranty, so it didn't cost me a dime... just two hours on the phone.

I already knew the problem was with the power supply when I sent in the laptop. I even asked the support guy over the phone not to re-image the drive. Repair technicians like to format hard drives. Get's 'em off, or something.

I actually fix and build computers in my spare time, so I do the repairs myself whenever possible.

glad your back,too bad they took it upon themselves to nuke our HD :/

The worst part was seeing Windows Vista again. I promptly remedied the issue with a fresh install of Windows 7.

*shudder* ugh vista D: so glad im still using XP,even if my desktop is starting to not work so good