When you look at the parts used in making a USB stick, they are cheaper than the labour of a repair; on top of this, most modern flash-based designs have nothing to separate or disassemble. What matters with a USB stick is getting the data off it, and how that is done depends on something which can't be seen by simply looking at it from the outside.
A repair utility wants to create a working USB drive, and the fastest way to achieve that is frequently to wipe the drive clean. A recovery wants your data back from the failed USB drive. These goals directly conflict at the worst possible time.
USB drives cost less than even ten minutes of an engineer's time. So no engineers spend their time repairing them and sending them back out working. If someone is offering to repair a USB drive for you, then they are not describing a service worth investing in.
The value that you're really buying is one read: the data pulled off (one time), placed on something else, and then the original either sent back or destroyed, as you prefer. The stick is a write-off from the moment it failed; the only thing that's left for consideration is whether we can get to the information that was stored on it.
That perspective is important because it establishes correct expectations. In other words, success means your files, not a functioning stick.
Discrete construction. A small board where the controller and memory chips are separate. If the controller fails, the memory chips can be removed and read using a programmer. This is a well-understood process.
Monolithic construction. The controller and flash are moulded into one die together, without anything to be separated. Reading these will require finding test points on the die and manually connecting to them under magnification.
You cannot tell from the model. How the parts were constructed can vary between production runs of the exact same model. We open and inspect them free of charge and determine how they were built prior to providing a quote.
Physical damage is usually survivable. Damage caused by snapped connectors or being washed in a washing machine recovers more often than most would think possible. Do not turn it back on to test.
Generally recoverable. Shearing a connector is typically a board-level issue with the flash behind it being fine.
More recoverable than you might expect. We recommend that you do not turn it on and do not try to dry this item out using heat. Please send it to us as it is.
It appears that either there was an issue with the controller or the unit was a counterfeit item (that never held the advertised capacity). The diagnostic will tell which case applies.
The cost of recovery starts from £250 +VAT. The discrete build is at the lower price point while the monolithic build costs more. Once the free diagnostic has been completed, the cost is fixed.