I bought a custom made computer from ***** located in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In under 3 months I had it back in the shop for repairs.
The 1st time some cable were dangling outside my tower, and several cable weren’t connected either. And I needed a new tower, since they ruined it.
The 2nd time the motherboard crashed.
The 3rd time, the hard drive died.
Every time I got my computer back, cables were dis-connected, software not installed properly, and my $130.00 case was scratched to hell.
They said they would call me when my computer was repaired and ready for pick-up. But they never called. It was alway “me” calling them, and I get.. “oh, you’re computer is ready now”.
It was the worst customer I have ever seen! I went there to buy a computer because I heard good things about them.
I’ve never had so many problems with a BRAND new computer.
I rely on my computer for my job, and I expressed that I needed the repairs to be done ASAP. They assured me that it would be. I came back the day they said it would be my computer would be ready, I get there, and my computer was under the work desk, meaning it wasn’t even looked at yet. That happened every time I dropped my computer for repairs.
This article appears in Aug 21-27, 2008.
To David,The cables and some wires were outside the tower, when they put my tower back together. The wires were dangling at the bottom of the tower.The motherboard was dead, I couldn’t do a safe boot. When I brought it in, the computer store said the same thing, the motherboard was defected and that I needed a new one.The hard drive went, again when I brought it in, they said I needed a new one. They had to re-install XP, but unknown to me, they put 2 partitions in on my C drive.. WTF? This is the best part, when they installed a new hard drive, the put in the WRONG one. They put in a smaller hard drive than the one I had in there before.On every repair, cables not connected, as in cables to my fans, or read-out gauges, or they took off adaptors in the back (I have one for my monitor). So when I got my pc home, I couldn’t even plug in my monitor.My point is, here I had computer 3 months old, and I had to have it repaired twice. That is unreal.I know you may think it was some kind of hardware issue. All the hardware was compatible.. motherboard, RAM, processor, sound card, video card.
Nancy,you’ve been in my professional opinion “had”. but then you know that. the best thing you can do is to avoid having any further work done there, cut your losses and move on, if it’s a business machine, that’s a pretty basic piece of work and should run flawlessly for the requirements asked of it should be relatively few even if business machines do acceptable gaming and multimedia these days.a comment regarding Greenlyph, i have to admit if i find myself in need of a part instead of heading to supplier in dartmouth, i drop in for the odd piece if in stock, I write it off anyway..however I have been given advice there that runs contrary to every concept of computer science by one individual whom did not know I knew better…still, perhaps he was new staff. they are however an OEM shop meaning some grey market no name manufactured stuff in some cases, name brand in others. know what you want and you will be served well there. they are oriented to the student market though, and student price point so again, you get what you pay for. i have returned or negotiated return of about 25 percent of product there over the past year or year and a half so they are not as high in my book as they once were, still, they have their market and they WILL see you done right by. I still refer to them and without compensation for everyday builds.
for Nancy, i’m pretty sure I know whom you purchased from, and you’re right. get your service done elsewhere even at cost. as regards compatability, if you turn back settings in bios enough, just about everything can be made to run together, but not necessarily well. to get that stability you may be giving up the performance margin that your unit should have given you.for a business user, there is no real savings from a custom build unit over a dell machine unless there are a significant number of machines constructed. for business, when you need that machine up now, the price of the dell warranty can be justified. that being said, I wouldn’t touch them, and certainly build my own, even if they are one off builds for specific purpose.
I’ve worked computers and network administration since 1975, own a small but reputable company and so read this with interest. there are in halifax only a few pc places I would personally let work on anything I owned, (well, only me really..) but just so you know, here is how the thing works..I don’t do a lot of home user entry level stuff unless it is for special requirement or we are interested in your use (music, engineering, graphic design,) we do mostly small business market, so generally if you are entry level or thereabouts we refer you to a couple of other shops or tell you hey, buy a dell. we support our units two years and handle not only any warranty service, but manufacturer contact on your behalf for replacements too. most shops in Halifax are OEM which means out the door, and you are on your own and you have manufacturer warranty on your components and that’s it.so, here it is:cables outside the tower, unless the thing is not screwed together correctly, not possible. period. cables not connected, unless you mean a hard drive not plugged in or a floppy harness left hanging into air, your pc has many connections that are either for a different type mboard or other auxiliary units not included in your machine..normal. they should be cleared away or tied off but they are present. mboard crashed. depends upon what you mean, mboards crash regularly, typically it is a bios misconfiguration and with any new machine settings will have to be adjusted for best performance. mboards are VERY reliable now, they do not in my experience “fry” or incurr serious harm. if you have a truly crashing board, i would suspect your power supply is inadequate or your ram in insufficient, I wonder if you are running VISTA, today I assume on a new machine, so.hard drives do not die. in 35 years plus in the field, I have actually had I recall five or six dead drives, they expire of old age depending upon use in 3 to five years typically but some soldier on much longer if used gently which almost none are. die, afraid not.scratches on casing, well you are probably correct there, no excuse for that really. but casings on and off eventually cause deformation and handling dings. it’s a box, i rest my feet on mine, if its a showpiece then special care should have been taken. you may or may not be right there.software not loaded. most stores don’t load or support software unless customer requested. my current rate is 129.00/hr minimum. if you want to pay me to listen to the ipod while watching a blue load line travel across your monitor I will do that, but I think it a waste of your cash. after a load of an operating system for new unit delivery, even reloading windows runs a hundred, and you have to load the updates yourself…if you want me to update your op sys, even vista will take another hours, xp, significantly longer. it’s your money. unless you have a shop that supports the software in question especially, (we do on some software) at best they will load at cost for you. if it something to do with hardware installed by the shop, then they should do that unless it was an after purchase add on then you are into OEM world and you are on your own.the store sound like hacks, but your note of complaint is so vague I find it hard to feel you are in the right on all of it. now the problem with dell, is that you are paying royally for the service you will get (i’m dell certified too..) and you have the joy of taking all your issue through a call center in India.for all my experience in halifax, we get a lot of work caused by other shops on customers units, one in particular whom is one of the larger outfits in town and across the harbour. you get what you pay for. but anyone being told by a shop that they have replaced something because it “died”; well, me and that techie are going to have a chat. bottom line, most of the shops here screw em together and pop them out the door, once the customer starts loading their software, unless it is a hardware issue, you are on your own. our techs are minimally MCSE and MCP certified by Microsoft, all are A+’d some are Linux specialist and we are working on certifying on Apple presently. We have Novel administrators and even a Cisco guy. We never hire directly from university and absolutely never directly from a community college. the profit margin on moving a low end unit out the door is almost zip. the money comes later in support of the unit. we limit our clients and we retain them, we do not search out new client particularly and will do something special for an end user if it is of interest but generally, its a buyer beware market. pc’s are not handed down from the mount, they are literally a bag of parts that can be built in an hour, as such they are a tool, no more.
Greenlyph on Queen St is amazing with computers and their customer service.Sometimes they’re not always the best price, but I go there for everything because I know i wont need to bring it back.
Yup I would have to agree. Greenlyph is the place where I bought my puter and take it there for service. Hands down 1 of the best places in the city.
The tech guys weren’t new.All my components were “brand names”, and not some generic stuff.I will never buy anything from them ever again!!!!!! Nor should anyone else.They are the “only” computer company with that name… and located in Bayers Lake.
MacEast in Dartmouth. Barry and his business are awesome. Apple warranties are great, customer service (for me) has always been stellar (both Apple’s and Barry’s). I punish computers with the work I do. I use PCs too (before the flaming starts). David…far, far too verbose for the Internet. Short, sweet, to the point.
verbose?the woman needed an explanation and she has it. limits are set by the entry limits granted by the webmaster. for those with reading comprehension difficulties with text, try comics, or the same idea in manga if that is your thing. sorry to have stressed you out dude. it does not alter fact.
er um david… You mean this thread is available in comic book format..??… I am so DOWN with that…Where’s the link…?? Thanks.
Reading comprehension is not the issue. This is an Internet forum – most Internet reading is condensed to the a minimum, otherwise TLDR and your message is missed.A list of shops with good customer service practices (including your own that you’re plugging) and a suggestion to contact the BBB or the store/franchise’s senior management would have sufficed.And I prefer Ms. Dude, thank you.