Frequently Asked Questions

There are two things you can book on the booking page: an in-person visit (we come to you, whether that's a home, rental, church, or small business) or a repair drop-off. Pick one and choose a time. Route operators, schools, and mail-in audio start with a message instead, so send us the details.

An in-person visit is a $95 first-visit fee for the first half hour ($135 outlying areas), then $37.50 per additional half hour. Of that, a $20 deposit is charged when you book and applied to the visit; that deposit is specific to in-person visits and isn't charged on other bookings.

A repair drop-off is a $50 diagnostic, billed on your final invoice rather than up front, and nothing at all is charged when you book one. If you'd rather we collect the device than bring it in, a pickup fee by location covers both the collection and the return, and it goes on that same final invoice.

You don't have to book anything to ask. If you're not sure the repair is worth doing, send us the make, model, and symptoms or call (509) 708-2953 first, at no charge.

Yes, and that's often the right first step. Send the make, model, and what the device is doing through the contact form, or call (509) 708-2953. There's no charge for that conversation and nothing to book. From the model and the symptoms we can usually tell you whether a repair looks worth pursuing, roughly what it would involve, and which diagnostic fits, so you can decide before spending anything. What we can't do sight-unseen is name a firm repair price or actually troubleshoot the device; that takes having it in hand, which is what the $50 drop-off diagnostic or the in-person visit fee covers.

Both. Computer, WiFi, smart-home, and TV/AV work happens in your home. Bench repairs like laptops, tablets, consoles, and control boards are drop-off. The $50 diagnostic applies either way, with no transport charge if you bring it to Leavenworth yourself, or a pickup fee by location if you'd rather we collect it and bring it back. Some small fixes can be done on the spot during an in-person visit.

We're based in Leavenworth. The Wenatchee Valley corridor is Leavenworth, Peshastin, Dryden, Cashmere, Wenatchee, and East Wenatchee; Plain, Lake Wenatchee, Chelan, Manson, and other nearby communities are served as outlying areas. Mail-in audio and amp restoration has no geographic limit. See the Service Area page for detail.

Usually within the week. You get a realistic date when you book, and that's the date we work to.

Someone 18 or older needs to be there to let us in and start the visit. For a rental property you don't live at, we coordinate access with your cleaner, property manager, or lockbox, so you don't have to be on-site.

Use the link in your confirmation email. The $20 in-person-visit deposit is the only thing we charge at booking, and it's refunded in full as long as you cancel or reschedule 24 hours or more before your appointment. A cancellation inside 24 hours, or a no-show, forfeits it. A repair drop-off takes no payment at booking, so there's nothing to refund if you change one. That 24-hour rule is the only cancellation policy we have.

Have the device and any passwords handy, know where your router and modem are, and jot down what's failing, roughly when it started, and anything that changed just before. Photos of error messages or the setup help us arrive prepared.

An in-person visit is a $95 first-visit fee for the first 30 minutes in the Wenatchee Valley corridor, or $135 for Plain, Lake Wenatchee, Chelan, Manson, and other areas outside the corridor. That covers the trip and the diagnosis. $20 of it is charged when you book; the rest is due at the visit.

A drop-off diagnostic is $50 no matter where you're located, billed on your final invoice, with no transport charge if you bring it to Leavenworth yourself. If we collect it instead, that adds $20 in the Wenatchee Valley corridor ($40 for Plain, Lake Wenatchee, Chelan, Manson, and other areas outside it), billed on that same final invoice, and that one fee covers bringing it back too.

After the first 30 minutes it's $37.50 per additional half hour ($75/hour), billed in 30-minute increments, with an estimate and your approval before any work or diagnostic time beyond the first 30 minutes. So an hour-long visit in the corridor comes to $132.50, and about two hours comes to $207.50. Parts are at cost on top of that, including any shipping, and you hear the actual cost before anything is ordered.

There is no universal booking charge. The $20 deposit belongs to one option: the in-person visit. It's charged through the scheduling page when you book, isn't an extra charge, comes straight off what you owe for the visit, and is refunded in full if you cancel or reschedule 24 hours or more before your appointment (a later cancellation or a no-show forfeits it).

A drop-off takes no payment at booking at all, whether you bring the device in or we collect it. The $50 diagnostic, and the $20 or $40 pickup fee by location if we collect it, are billed together on your final invoice once the work is finished. The pickup fee is a transport price rather than a deposit, so it isn't credited against the repair. Asking a question costs nothing at all.

Yes. The first-visit fee (in-person) or the $50 drop-off diagnostic pays for the trip and the first 30 minutes of assessment no matter how it turns out, including when the answer is that the repair isn't worth doing. What you won't get is a bigger bill for chasing it: if the diagnosis needs longer than that first 30 minutes, we tell you what it will cost and wait for your approval before going on. If the repair does go ahead, that first 30 minutes counts toward it.

Yes. The starting fee is a fixed number you know when you book. Anything beyond the first 30 minutes gets an estimate first, whether it's more diagnostic time or the repair itself, and nothing past that point is charged without your approval.

For an in-person visit, the $20 booking deposit is paid by card through the scheduling page; the balance is due when the work is finished. For a drop-off, nothing is due when you hand the device over; the $50 diagnostic and any labor and parts beyond it are billed together on your final invoice when the work is finished. A pickup fee, if you use one, appears on that same final invoice ($20 in the Wenatchee Valley corridor, $40 outlying areas, covering both directions). If you have a question about accepted payment methods for your job, just ask.

Not on top of an in-person visit. Travel is already in the fee ($95 for the first half hour in the Wenatchee Valley corridor, $135 for Plain, Lake Wenatchee, Chelan, Manson, and other areas outside the corridor). The separate pickup charge follows the same two zones: $20 in the corridor, $40 outside it, billed on your final invoice, and one fee covers collecting the device and delivering it back. It only applies if you'd rather we come get your device than drop it off yourself. Dropping it off at our Leavenworth location never carries a transport charge.

Yes. If the repair we did fails within 30 days, bring it back and we'll make it right. Replacement parts carry whatever warranty the manufacturer offers.

Probably not. What you're paying for is reliability: showing up, communicating honestly, hitting the turnaround, and documenting the work. Not the lowest hourly rate.

Almost always, yes. We start non-destructively with malware removal, cleanup, and tuning, and only raise reinstalling the system if that's genuinely the fix, with a backup first and your approval.

Often, if the drive itself is healthy. Recovery from a physically failed drive is limited and never guaranteed, and you'll get an honest read before you spend money on it.

Yes. Files, settings, email, bookmarks, printers, and updates, so the new machine works the way the old one did.

No. We diagnose first. Sometimes it's placement or settings; sometimes it's adding a mesh node or moving the router. The recommendation is whatever actually solves it for the least money.

The wiring side, no. Swapping a 120-volt switch or hardwiring a doorbell or thermostat is licensed electrical work. Battery and plug-in smart devices are another matter: speakers, retrofit locks that replace the thumb-turn, plug-in cameras, and battery video doorbells all get set up, connected, and configured.

You buy the hardware. We'll recommend specific options that fit what you need and what you want to spend, and if you'd rather we pick it up, it's billed at what we paid, including any shipping. Either way you hear the actual price before anything is ordered, and there's no markup on it.

Both, plus iPad and tablet screen and battery work.

No. We don't do wall-mounting, bracket installation, or running cable inside walls. That crosses into contractor and electrical work. We handle everything from the mount outward: connecting and configuring the TV, receiver, soundbar, streaming boxes, and remotes, tuning the picture and sound, and repairing the TV itself.

Often, yes. That's board-level TV repair: power boards, backlight, HDMI ports, and similar. Drop it off or book an in-person visit and we'll diagnose it. See Device & Electronics Repair.

Yes, that's the core of it. Inputs, HDMI-ARC/eARC, optical, soundbar and subwoofer setup, and getting the right source to come up with the right button.

Yes. Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast, and smart-TV apps signed in and organized, plus universal-remote programming and replacing lost or broken remotes so there's one that everyone can use.

Yes, where the wiring is already in place. Plenty of houses around here were wired for whole-home audio back when the source was a CD changer in a closet and you controlled it from a keypad in the wall. That wiring is usually still perfectly good; what's obsolete is the hardware hanging off it and the way you have to operate it. We replace the dead receiver, matrix amp, or distribution gear with current equipment, get streaming services running on it, and move control to phones and tablets instead of wall panels and a drawer full of old remotes. Rooms can be brought back one at a time or all at once.

What we don't do is the wiring side: pulling new cable inside walls, mounting speakers or displays, or anything that needs an electrician. If a project needs new infrastructure rather than new electronics, that's a licensed contractor's job and we'll say so.

Yes. Troubleshooting, tuning, repair, and showing a volunteer how to run the system you already have: feedback and wireless-mic problems, mixer settings, projector image and connection issues. Same booking and the same published rates as any other job. We don't mount projectors or speakers or run cabling.

Book a drop-off on the booking page, or send the details first so we can check parts availability before you make the trip.

Yes. Board-level repair reaches faults that assembly-swapping can't. You'll get a straight fix-versus-replace answer either way.

Laptops (screens, keyboards, batteries, board faults), phones and tablets (batteries and screens), gaming consoles, appliance control boards, generators and small engines (the electrical side as standard, mechanical engine work case-by-case), and pinball and arcade machines. Real jobs are in the Repair Portfolio. If you're not sure yours is in scope, ask and we'll tell you honestly.

Yes. Battery and screen replacement are the two we do most, and between them they cover the majority of what fails on a phone that's otherwise fine: a battery that no longer lasts the day, a battery swollen far enough to push the back cover off the frame, a cracked or dead screen. It's a drop-off job with the usual $50 diagnostic.

Send the make and model when you get in touch, because parts availability for your specific model is usually what decides it. Water damage and board-level phone faults are a separate conversation and get looked at case by case. There's a full write-up of one of these jobs in the portfolio: a Moto G 5G swollen battery replacement.

If a phone or tablet has started separating at the screen or back, rocks on a flat surface, or runs unusually hot, stop charging it and get in touch; a swelling battery is the one failure worth treating as urgent.

Yes, all three. Flippers and coils, switch matrices, displays, power supplies, ticket and payout mechanisms, and board-level work on CPU and driver boards, including the alkaline battery corrosion that eventually takes out a classic machine's logic board. Scope is solid-state, 1977 and newer; we don't take electromechanical score-reel games.

Most of this happens on-site, since the machine doesn't travel easily, and a private owner books an in-person visit at the published rates. A loose board can be dropped off for bench work instead. See Pinball & Arcade Repair for what's covered, or the three-fault Pinbot teardown in the Repair Portfolio for what the work actually looks like.

Route operators with equipment placed on location work differently: that's quoted per engagement rather than at the hourly rate, and starts at Amusement Route Service.

The electronic control board, yes: diagnosis and board-level repair. Sealed systems and mechanical appliance work, no.

Yes. This is built for owners who aren't on-site. We coordinate access with your cleaner, manager, or lockbox and report what we find before doing any work.

Yes. Book a one-time pre-season visit and we'll check the WiFi, smart locks, streaming devices, and batteries before guests find the problem.

Almost all of this work is booked on demand: you call when something breaks, or before the season starts, and you pay the published rates for that visit. There's no subscription to sign up for, and nothing you have to commit to in advance to get help.

That said, if your property or your schedule would genuinely work better with something arranged ahead of time, we're happy to talk about it. Send us the details and we'll work out what actually fits.

You send the make, model, and symptoms, and we tell you whether it's a good fit before you ship anything. We walk you through safe packing. Once it arrives, we diagnose it and send a firm estimate before any work begins, then repair and return it.

Double-box it, insure the shipment, and pad the front panel and corners well. You'll get specific guidance for your piece with the quote.

Solid-state only: guitar, bass, and keyboard amps. We don't take tube amps at this time.

The $50 diagnostic applies to a mail-in piece like any other drop-off, billed on your final invoice rather than when the unit arrives; from there the restoration itself depends on the piece and what it needs, and you get a firm estimate before any work begins. You cover shipping both directions.

Yes. Local drop-off and pickup follow the same terms as every other repair: no transport charge if you bring it to Leavenworth yourself, or $20 to have us collect it and return it in the Wenatchee Valley corridor ($40 outlying areas). The $50 diagnostic applies either way. A full restoration is quoted for your approval before any work begins, rather than running at the hourly rate.

Yes. On-demand field service for route equipment (pinball, arcade, dart, pool) placed in North Central Washington by operators based west of the Cascades, and contract laptop and iPad repair for schools. Both are quoted for your approval before work begins rather than running at the published hourly rate, because the scope and the travel vary too much to publish a number. See For Businesses.

Yes, on a one-off and as-needed basis: networks, printers, servers, websites, and device repair. No retainer required, and you book an in-person visit at the same published rates as anyone else.

Loren Curtis, who lives in Leavenworth. He has been fixing things for as long as he has been building software: broken laptop screens, pinball machines that won’t boot, TVs, projectors, phones, stereos, small engines. That software career runs three decades, from engineer to leading engineering teams to running a software company, including time at Microsoft, where he was named as an inventor on two patents. Around town, he has taught computer science and cybersecurity at Cascade High School for more than five years, coached youth soccer, helped found the Leavenworth Firefighter Challenge, served as an EMT, and spent five years as a volunteer firefighter with Chelan County Fire District 3.

Yes. General liability insurance is in place.

Yes. Before and after photos, plus notes on what was done. Examples are in the Repair Portfolio.