Billings Tech Guys — Attraction in Billings

I had a bad experience here about six months ago. I wasn’t going to post anything about it until a friend said they had a similar problem.

My old laptop was struggling - the battery wasn’t working so it had to stay plugged in all the time, and it would randomly shut down altogether. I really liked it though, so I didn’t want to replace it if it wasn’t necessary. One day the screen blinked off and never came back.

I took it in here (based largely on the good Yelp reviews) and went to pick it up the next day. There was a note saying the screen had gone bad and needed to be replaced - for more than half the original cost of the whole computer.

I study AI. Although I’m a software person, I’m not completely ignorant of hardware, and this set off a few red flags. I had described the power issues leading up to the shutdown and none of those were addressed in the diagnostic. I asked about the diagnostic process and no one there could tell me what had actually been done.

I started stepping them through a very basic troubleshooting procedure and they still couldn’t answer any questions. Did you examine the power source and connections? Dunno. Did you connect the computer to an external monitor to see if it ran then? No, but we can try. Nope still doesn’t even boot up. Well, then maybe it’s not a problem with the screen, maybe it’s a problem with the electrical system LIKE I SAID YESTERDAY.

The icing on the cake was the attitude from the girl behind the counter like I was ruining her day by insisting they do their job correctly. She finally called they guy who did the work and asked him (I kid you not) “did you do you do this job right? Okay, that’s what I told her”

Turns to me, “He says he did it right.”

Oh, well, if he says so, it must be true.

She then told me she’d be charging me extra for having to look at it twice. Now, I’m not one to lose my temper, but I was certainly having to take deep breaths to stay calm.

At this point, one of the guys stepped in and offered to look at the connections. 20 minutes and a few snide comments about how dusty the inside of my (5yo sealed-shell) laptop was, he told me the power connection to the motherboard was degraded beyond repair, and replacing it would be more than the laptop was worth. He put the harddrive in a static insulating bag and that was it.

So they were capable of doing the job right, they just hadn’t bothered.

After telling a friend about this absurd experience, he called, and the manager admitted I shouldn’t have been charged but made no offer to refund my fee.

TLDR: they took one glance at my computer, didn’t listen to anything I said about the problem, dashed off a superficial diagnosis without taking 30 seconds to do a confirmation test, and charged me $55 for 10 seconds of “work” - counting on me to be too ignorant to realize I’d been scammed.

Then treated me like I was being...

Requested to get my laptop looked at and back within 2 days due to my location. This was not a problem per Brandon, unless there was hardware needed, which was understandable. The diagnosis was going to be done Thursday afternoon to see what was wrong, by Friday at 12, I still hadn't heard from anyone. Called in, the girl said that she didn't know what was going on with it, but she would have the tech call me as he was out on the sales floor. At 2:30 when I still hadn't heard anything, I called back in and let the same girl know I still hadn't heard from anyone and at this point, just don't do any work on it as I didn't see how they were going to get it fixed, when they didn't even do the diagnostic in 24 hrs. She very pleasantly let me know "okay, I'll let them know!" Then picking it up on Saturday, I was first told it was going to be $49.xx (mind you I still never heard from anyone anything about my computer), when I said that I called in and said not to work on it, he removed the charge. I asked if this was considered good customer service and his reply (again, super nice and friendly) was that she was an admin and didn't know anything about fixing the computers and that he is sorry I wasn't happy with my experience. I emailed twice trying to figure out where the miscommunication happened and never heard from anyone. They were kind enough to email me about a training they were having in their store though! Two stars are for how friendly they were, while giving poor customer service. It seems from the reviews they do good work, so if you can wait for your device, this may be the group for you.

7-20-22 Thank you for the response. I'm unsure why you need a phone call when I explained in an email exactly what happened and never received a response or call from that...

Where do I begin? Clearly there is a lack of integrity as well as work ethic. This is an over arching issue which spans several years of trying to give Billings Tech the benefit of a doubt, continuing to send computers, as well as other technical services they offer, in order to support Billings local businesses. I simply cannot offer a good review here. The first issue came when I called to inquire about upgrading an older Mac Pro with a newer graphics card. I am quite savvy at the "how to's" of fixing not only MAC's but also Windows machines (25+ years). I simply did not have the time which was why I sent this machine to Billings Tech. I did advise them of the time frame I was looking at and why. I made it very clear to them that if they didn't think they could do it in a timely manner please let me know. They assured me they would diagnose whether it was feasible and that should not take more than a few days. On contrary it took them over 3 weeks. Since the parts were purchased online, having a deadline for returns I missed that deadline, thanks to Billings Tech. Next issue; I sent a Windows machine in for a clean up and diagnostic on the hard drive because it was having issues on booting up. After paying almost $1000 on a new hard drive & the transferring of my data, found that once the machine was home, it was no better off than when it left. The machine still displays issues on boot up. They essentially "guessed" at the problem, chose the easy fix, not to mention the most expensive "fix" and sent me on my way. I guess gone are the days of finding anyone with real diagnostic, critical thinking skills. It's definitely not to be found at...