Well the inevitable finally happened some camera gear has been dropped (well knocked) whilst doing some climbing photos. At least it wasn't a lens. The flash has fallen about 10m and broken the hot shoe assembly and swivel assembly, surprisingly it still fired test shots. Will post a heart breaking photo later!
So I took it to a repairer in Brisbane and they quoted $500 - 550 to fix, not including any possible internal damage. But they couldn't even do the repairs, they said it'd need to go to Canon. Unfortunately Canon want $88 to just look at it. The local guy did say Canon could possibly do it cheaper but I'm hesitant to bother posting it to Sydney. Since I may just get the same price or higher back.
Has anyone had similar (extensive) repairs to a similar flash and be willing to pass on how much it cost?
I know it's a bit grey since internal damage could really drive the price up. The other option is I can actually buy the parts online (about $150) that need replacing and do the work myself, I managed to find a service manual for the flash and between myself and dad are capable to deal with the safe disassembly of the unit and swap the parts, I just can't be sure it'd work 100% afterwards....