Determining if something is salvageable is at least half of the job of fixing it. If it takes four hours to fix the laptop, and two of them are spent determining if it can be fixed, who should pay for those two hours (especially in cases where mistreatment is not only suspected but confirmed)?
This isn't any different than any other industry (most mechanics charge a "diagnostic fee"). In the case of consumer electronics the situation is compounded by the fact that most people will choose to forgo the repair (once they see that the cost of repair is a large percentage of the replacement cost), leaving the service company on the hook for the cost of the diagnosis.
This isn't any different than any other industry (most mechanics charge a "diagnostic fee"). In the case of consumer electronics the situation is compounded by the fact that most people will choose to forgo the repair (once they see that the cost of repair is a large percentage of the replacement cost), leaving the service company on the hook for the cost of the diagnosis.