Our story
Started on a staff bench
Rhiannon spent years fixing university machines before opening Wickbench in 2016 in Lancaster. The idea was simple: most laptops that come in “dead” have one failed part, and finding that part is worth more than selling a new machine.
The shop is a counter, a long bench and a shelf of labelled boxes. Every laptop gets a ticket at the counter, a note of how it arrived, and a phone call or text with the price before any part goes in.
We work on the machines people actually own: older laptops of every make, school Chromebooks and the odd desktop tower that carries a family’s photos.
How the counter works
What we keep to on every repair
A price before any work
You hear the full cost, parts and labour, before a screwdriver comes out. Say no and the laptop comes back as it was.
Your files left alone
We open only what testing needs and never copy files, unless getting them back is the job you asked for.
Parts named plainly
We tell you whether a part is the maker’s own or a compatible one, and what that changes about the price.
Guaranteed for six months
If the same fault comes back within six months, bring it in and we put it right at no charge.
The team
Who you’ll meet
Rhiannon Pye
Founder: diagnostic checks, charging and power faults and liquid spills
Sample portrait, fictional profile
Rafi Ocampo
Screen replacements, keyboards and trackpads, batteries and fan cleans
Sample portrait, fictional profile
Lucy Barrow
SSD and memory upgrades, slow or infected machines and data recovery
Sample portrait, fictional profile
Reviews
From the people who collected
Sample reviews written for this demo, not real customers.
- Sample review
Dropped my laptop on the bus and the screen went to coloured lines. They rang the next morning with a price and said the part would take two days to arrive. It did.
Gemma, Bowerham
Screen replacement
- Sample review
The drive in my old desktop had stopped starting. Lucy got my wedding photos off it onto a stick I brought in, and showed me each folder before I paid.
Tariq, Skerton
Data recovery
- Sample review
My dissertation laptop died at forty per cent every afternoon. New battery, and they told me which charging habits had worn the old one out.
Sian, Galgate
Battery replacement
- Sample review
I was ready to buy a new machine. Rhiannon found a loose cable to the screen and it cost me the check fee and twenty minutes of my Thursday.
Douglas, Morecambe
Diagnostic check
Ready when you are
Not sure what’s wrong? Start with a check.
Book a drop-off for the £25 diagnostic check. We find the fault and price the repair, and the check comes off the bill if you go ahead.