I contacted this Dublin based company ipodrepair.ie by following this link

www.gsmsolutionsltd.com/services/ipod_repairs.html

I described the problem and asked sombody to contact me with an estimate to repair.

They phoned me back and told me that they couln't give a quote to repair it without doing an evaluation. She said the process was to send them the iPod, they would do an evaluation on it and let me know how much it would be to fix then I could decide whether or not to proceed.

The rep said it sounded like a hard drive problem but couldn't be sure. I asked for a worst case scenario and she said if its a new hard drive it would be about €70 but would not commit to a cost without an evaluation! (but never mentioned the €25 evaluation fee!!!).

On Sat morning I received a call from them telling me it would be €120 plus VAT to fix (said he would leave it at €140).

He then told me that they charge a €25 euro" EVALUATION FEE / SECURITY DEPOSIT" before they will return the iPod. This was the first time that this was mentioned !!! They site clearly statss " NO OBLIGATION QUOTE".No where on their site does it mention this stupid fee!!!

So now they have my iPod and its either €140 to get it repaired, €25 to get it back as it or leave them have it! !!!

How the hell can they do this ?!!!