I’m going to play devil’s advocate here on the part of the repair business since “scam” gets thrown around way too much anymore. A “scam” would be charging $275 and NOT fixing the issue. Or getting the diagnosis completely wrong and demanding more money to set it right.
First, though the pad is a ground pad, it exists for a reason as part of the HDMI spec, and it’s to spread out current. So it is not true that “it’s not even really needed”. Sure the connector will function without it, but it should still be connected.
And retaining $75 for trying to diagnose the issue isn’t unreasonable. The time it takes to take apart a PS5 is still the repair tech’s time. He had to tear apart the PS5 to get to the mainboard and HDMI port, then he removed the HDMI port and saw there was a missing solder pad. The console owner paid $175 in advance, and probably signed a contract acknowledging he may be charged more and was given a quote. That he would need to reroute the missing solder pad is additional cost beyond what he initially quoted.
So $275 to tear apart the PS5 to get to the mainboard and remove the HDMI port. That’s time and incidentals going into this. Plus time to reassemble the PS5 and test the console to make sure the repair worked. How much is that time worth? You can’t act like the repair business isn’t out anything merely trying to diagnose the issue.
And to everyone like “OMG, why don’t you name and shame the shop that tried to SCAM this PS5 owner?” One simple reason… DEFAMATION LAWSUIT. What the repair shop is demanding isn’t unreasonable given what’s needed to repair the PS5.
