Yes! Suck my pun! PC Of Mind! PC! Sounds like peace! And they repair computers! Yes! Ahhh!…read more Quite. Pun a side, PC Of Mind are a small business with two stores, one in Pencoed and the other here in Llantwit Major which is the one I used. Offering a friendly personal service, they sorted old Bertha when she got the blue screen of death after the rain somehow seeped into my specially designed laptop bag (a carrier bag in my rucksack). They charged me £40, I don't know if that's cheap or not as I've only had to use one of these places once (God bless the sturdy Dell) but apparently they had to do a lot of work and it got me my Bertha back for at least another eighteen months. PC Of Mind operates a helpline, but it seems the ethos of the company is to offer a face-to-face approach wherever possible, which is handy is you're a noob.

I have used this company on a number of occasions . The first time was some years ago when I had…read morebooked my laptop into a well known national store which was 20 miles away only to find this company charged only £2.00 extra for the work I wanted done. Well worth it for fuel and time saved. I' ve never looked back! Fast, friendly, efficient and value for money - what more could you ask for!

i have shopped at pennycress since they opened.i would recommend…read morethem to anybody.when i had an intermittent fault on my laptop they took the time to be patient and eventually fixed it using there skills.they even offered if it could not be fixed to give me a brand new one free.they have always been fair with there charges.and helped me with advice when i needed it.my son also buys from mike and matrin. i would not go anywhere else.thank you lads keep up the good work bill brown

This fab computer repair service has no callout charge and comes to your home or office to fix your…read moremachine, so there's no need to unplug anything or cart your kit around - and they cover the whole of South Wales including Cardiff, Pontypridd, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Merthyr and Cowbridge. They offer a 'no fix - no fee' deal, and instead of charging hourly rates they quote for the whole job so you know upfront how much it's going to cost. They can help with most computer-related issues including PC and Apple Mac repairs, virus & Spyware removal, Wireless Network / Internet Setup, Broadband Setup & Support, PC & Laptop Servicing & Maintenance, Data Recovery, Network Server Support, Data Backup Solutions, Linux Support, and so on. If you phone them or enquire via their online form they will give you a free, no obligation quotation.

My brother, the computer geek scientist (love you bro!), has an affinity with this store. Not I…read more No, that's a downright lie. I love it too. Perhaps I'm a little bit more tech-savvy than your average female arts student (oh, I really need to get out of the habit of saying that I'm a student, seeing as I graduated two years ago). EDIT: Perhaps I'm a little bit more tech-savvy than your average yelper, but I find that conversations about computers with the staff in Maplins are extremely interesting, easy and informative. Unlike store such as Comet, PC World and Currys, these guys know what they're on about, aren't desperately trying to sell you warranties and software, and explain things in a very clear and professional manner. Having had a problem with my laptop I went in to ask for advice and they spent 30 minutes helping me with no cost, and in the end I didn't have to buy anything to sort out the problem, yet all the while I felt like a valued customer. Well done Maplins. Excellent service.

I want to sing songs about Maplins. I want to dance and shake it to the songs I sing about Maplins…read more I want to write sonnets about the place. Craft solid marble statues in its honour and then shoot any pigeon that dares lay a feather on its resplendent beauty. Maplins should be where every good tech nerd goes to die, wrapped in bandages made from wires cut to different, but equally necessary lengths. Their headstones should be made from melted and re-formed solder and their epitaphs should be nothing more than the voltage that finally took their lives and carried them to geek-Valhalla. And if Maplins is such a religious experience, this store is the Mecca. A massive store filled with all the seemingly arbitrary-but-actually-completely-necessary bits and bobs that keep the turbines spinning and keeps the voltage flowing. The staff are eternally helpful, to old pros and beginners alike and the prices are exceptionally reasonable given the monopoly Maplins seems to hold on this market.

I'm glad I don't inhabit Sim Tech World, and instead lead a rustic existence, but I have had reason…read moreof late to thank my lucky stars that shops like Sim Tech World exist. Like so many before me, I managed to drop my iPhone several times before the screen ultimately smashed. It was of course, only a matter of time before this was inevitably going to happen... but did I think to take out insurance to protect myself in this eventuality? Well, yes I did... But whether I got round to actually doing it is an entirely different matter! So, with the exorbitant cost of getting Apple to fix it for me, I began a quest that lasted well over a month to find a indie mobile phone shop like Sim Tech World that would do it cheaper. It ultimately cost a staggering £80.00 to get the screen replaced, but I had, in the meantime, damaged the LCD screen, making the job more expensive, (well, it was actually my neighbours cat jumping directly onto the broken screen in an attempt to catch a moth that put paid to the LCD screen in reality...) I didn't end up using Sim Tech World, but it certainly made me aware of their existence. They are seemingly a tight little business, that specialises in mobiles and home computing, including PC and Apple laptops, games consoles etc, as well as digital cameras; essentially all of your portable electronics that you can bring into the shop for attention, (thy don't do home visits). They also call themselves an 'entertainment exchange', which, as the name suggests, means that they sell second user kit as well.

Small independent electronic engineers like Sim Tek World thrive on the repair of electronic…read moreequipment that inevitably happens. There expertise can help fix mobile phone faults, problems with ipods, ipads, apple products, xbox 360s, playstations, PC's and laptops. A very useful technical fix is there mobile phone unlocking service. The Sim Tek people aim to fix the phone while you wait rather than the 28 day service most high street stores offer. If you're in a pinch and need something fixed quickly without the extra cost of sending it away to be looked at Sim Tek offer the best service around. The shop itself is very small and over cluttered, which is to be expected of a electronic repair shop the outside advertises all the different services they perform and that leaves little room to let light in, so it's a bit dingy inside.

Well I never thought I'd end up raving about a photocopy shop, but Service Point deserves it…read more My dealings with Service Point have been very varied and have stretched over 10 years or more. They have tolerated my emergency cutting of card on their guillotines and found solutions to most of my paper-based problems. After doing some recent research and getting some pretty hefty quotes I discovered that as far as I can gather Service Point are the cheapest printers of business cards in Cardiff and they look proper quality, great resolution and colour density. They're a discrete shop, easy to miss, but well worth a visit. Not only good value and range of services, but they're friendly and accommodating too.

The Refill Specialists operate under the banner of 'save money, save the planet', and whilst…read moreeco-considerations may induce you to use these services, I'm sure they weren't exactly the key motivating factors that inspired the owners to set up in business. That said, the reality that refilling cartridges does actually save a small amount of plastic from going into our over burdened landfill sites is a good thing! Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure that the inks that printers use across the board are not exactly sourced from organic dyes! The 'save you money' aspect of the deal is pretty crucial to the equation however. With peripheral manufacturers competing on the retail costs of hardware, it's entirely possible to buy really sophisticated equipment for a fraction of the cost it used to be. For example, I went out and bought an Epsom printer with an integral scanner, fax and photocopier for less than £50.00 recently. That's a price war for you! So, the only way that these guys can make the money back that they have lost in selling you equipment at loss making prices is to sell you the consumables at grossly inflated prices. I think that the Epsom cartridge for my printer is about £25.00, but of course, I know where I can buy a comparable product for less than £2.00, (I rang them before buying this model to see if they had the supporting media)... The Refill Specialist also stock a range of office supplies, like paper and CD cases etc, as well as offering their refill service.

Unless you print currency for a living, replacing ink cartridges is a depressingly expensive…read morebusiness, particularly on more mercenary brands like Lexmark. Next time your printer grinds to a blank page-filled halt, however, don't head off to PC World and waste a fistful of cash. It's way better for your wallet to visit this handy little City Road shop - and, if you want to make the process of using reams of deforestation-facilitated paper a moral issue, rather kinder to the environment as well. The refills are sorted almost immediately as you wait, although as the staff disappear momentarily with your old ink cartridge it's not entirely obvious whether you're receiving a pre-filled corresponding model or the exact same one back that has been topped up there and then. Unless you hold a particularly odd attachment to your individual print cartridges that clearly isn't that important, though: the crucial bit is getting the ink flowing again for a few coins as opposed to several notes for a brand new equivalent.

I needed to get a really simple A4 black and white print done and thought I'd give these guys a go…read moreas they're just across the road. It was a little off the cuff so I didn't have the image with me, so I asked if I could email it to them - no problem, I was told. But it was, for me! Little did I know that I'd be charged for sending them an email! Anyway, I asked them to print off one copy, which they did, but it came out on really thin paper and the ink looked a little blotchy. So I asked for it to be done again on thicker paper. This copy came out really well so I was happy, until the price came; £3.10!!! Now, I know £3.10 in the grand scheme of things isn't a lot of money, but I was charged 30p for sending them an email, 20p for the first piece of paper, 30p for the next and the rest for printing it - ridiculous! Who charges for accepting an email? Sorry Cartridge Right, but never again!

This small computer centre in a popular student area in Bristol is well placed and a lifesaver to…read moremany an ailing computer system. Their name suggests just an ink cartridge provider (which they are, and with a very good range too), but they do more than that. They also repair broken computers, run PC health checks and can upgrade your system for very competitive prices. If you're feeling environmentally conscious, you can also recycle old cartridges here. I really like their attitude to their business too; they went independent around 18 months ago from being a franchise and now run a little Bristol based business in order to keep prices low and customers happy. The staff in the shop are always really helpful, even if they have a lot on their hands.