Aptos Computer Services — Attraction in Capitola

TLDR: PC assembly. Quoted $300, asked for $500 at pickup. Extra maintenance I wasn’t consulted on before proceeding. Ended up settling at $375, still way too steep. My extra fans weren’t installed, my WiFi card not installed, and plastic wrap still on the inside of the tempered glass when I went to install the components myself. I didn’t want to take the time to build my new PC by myself. Work takes up a bunch of time and it was worth the man hours to just pay to have it done.

I was quoted $300 for a PC build in which 50% of parts were to be removed from my old PC, and 50% new components. I thought the price was kinda high as is, but they’ve done work for me before and I was happy w the service in the past.

I go to pick up my computer and the owners son quotes me $500 and says they found an issue w my m.2, but they were able to resolve it. He said there was additional work that had to be done and quoted 4 total man hours for $500. Told him I was told $300 or less depending on water cooling and he told me he “wouldn’t be able to honor that, can you do $375?” Experience was heading south at this point, but whatever, we’ll deal with it.

I checked inside the case and noticed my fans from my old PC weren’t migrated and installed. I just had one new cooling fan that came with the case. I asked him “If this were your PC, would you recommend putting more fans in it?” He responded “yea, I probably would.” So I said “then why aren’t my old fans installed in here?” He backpedaled and said should be fine as is… I’m not the type of guy to give people a hard time if I can help it and I just kinda wanted to leave so I paid $375 and left.

Once I got home and turned the PC on, I realize my WiFi card wasn’t even installed so I can’t even connect to the internet (can’t run Ethernet to my room in my living situation). I specifically told the owner when I dropped it off “the ROG STRIX B550-A doesn’t come WiFi equipped, so I need the WiFi card installed.” I even offered to buy a new one off them but he assured me “if you have any WiFi card from the last 5 years or so you’re fine.”

Again.. owner seems like a solid dude. I have had good service provided by him every time I’ve gone. This review is about this experience and the service provided by his son and soon to be owner.

I paid $375 to avoid the hassle and I just spent an hour installing my other fans and WiFi card myself (plastic wrap was still on the inside of tempered glass). Owner told me his son is taking over soon so I guess they lost my future business. I’m just kinda bummed about the whole experience. It was such a half hearted effort out of his son. I’ll just handle computer maintenance myself going forward. In response to Jessie’s reply below: I also told your father about the Bios update needed for the CPU when I dropped it off and he said “there’s always updates for those when they’re new out of the box and we update every BIOS to the latest version with every install.”

I prepped him with everything I wanted. Briefed him on BIOS, WiFi card, component transfer, everything. Ask him about it. He’ll tell you I did. He’ll probably even take some level of responsibility for the lack of communication. And giving an estimate of $300 after I explained everything I needed in detail then asking $500 and thinking that’s going above and beyond for the client is...

This was my first visit to Aptos Computer, and I'm definitely going to use them in the future for all my computer repair/upgrade issues. I brought in a 17 year old HP computer with a non-functional boot drive. I initially brought in only the suspect SSD drive. Eric, the owner, said I needed to bring in the whole computer so I did. Although I have other computers, this drive had engineering programs I installed years ago, and important data created by these programs. I stated that I wanted to retain the Windows 7 OS, as I was not sure all of these programs would run on windows 10. Jesse evaluated the drive, and thought the programs and data could be transferred to a new SSD. He told me what drive I needed, and looked up the SKU at Best Buy where I purchased it. Jesse successfully transferred all the programs and data to a new installation of Windows 7 on the replacement drive. As he was doing this he ran into a number of problems with the rest of the computer including a failing power supply (causing unpredictable, intermittent crashing), a dead CMOS battery, the need to reset the BIOS, a failing fan, and huge amounts of dust. He replaced these failing components, zipped-tied the wiring and generally got the computer in tip-top shape. Prior to bringing it to Aptos Computer, I spent hours trying to get the faulty boot drive working and finally gave up - realizing I couldn't fix it. I read some great reviews on Aptos Computer, and decided to give them a try. I am so glad I did! I feel very fortunate to have discovered them and will recommend them to all my friends. The computer and all of the programs and data are now fully functional. I was given a very fair price and a detailed list of the labor performed and the parts replaced. Following the successful repair of the 17 year old desktop, I brought a 10 year old HP Laptop to Aptos Computer Services. I had been using this laptop for customer visits (I'm an engineering consultant) because it has a 17 in. screen. The laptop had become extremely slow, and buggy with misc. error messages etc. Jesse installed a 1 TB SSD (cloned from the original HDD) and upgraded the RAM from 8GB to 16TB. He diagnosed a WiFi problem, performed a tune-up and installed driver updates. The laptop now works better than new, and I am...

Adding my vote for Aptos Computer Services!!! After frying my laptop with a cup of hot tea, I called over there and had the pleasure of speaking to Jesse. From that moment forward, I literally felt like I had won the lottery in terms of how phenomenal he was. He not only managed to salvage the data off my old computer and get it transferred to a new laptop, he also helped me find the perfect refurbished MacBook after a very unpleasant experience with another business in the county. Then he helped me step nearly a decade forward in technology, patiently listening as I explained all my concerns (if I upgrade this, I will end up having to upgrade these other 10 things, etc). He not only talked me through my concerns but offered me options, told me where I could get various things, even printed off product pages for Best Buy so I could walk in there with some confidence and know what I needed to purchase. LOL He managed to address every issue this technology challenged gal had and everything he did was with the utmost integrity. I seriously could go on and on about how fantastic it was to work with him. (ps they are located where the locksmith used to be for those who get around by "landmark" like I do). It is rare to find a business with customer service skills that are this high and who operate with so much integrity and concern for their customers. I feel very grateful to...