The Computer Stop LLC — Attraction in Dormont

When my personal computer's screen went black earlier this year, I naturally wanted to see if it could be repaired before investing in a new one. After reading the glowing reviews of The Computer Stop, it seemed clear to me that Ryan was the best person in town to take a device such as mine and receive the knowledge, guidance, and insight on how to proceed, regardless of whether or not a successful repair was made.

While Ryan's in-person customer service, passion, and enthusiasm matched the reviews I read, several of his basic business practices have quite frankly been disgraceful, hence the poor review. Listed below are some of my concerns:

1. He isn't present during his business's posted hours of operation. As of this writing, The Computer Stop is open 11:00am-7:00pm on weekdays. After recently driving through rush hour traffic after work and feeling grateful that I arrived at his front door at 6:30pm with 30 minutes to spare, I was confused to find the door locked and the lights off. It seems to me that he could either leave a note on the door, update his hours of operation, or develop some other system that would better inform clients of his whereabouts so they don't waste their time.

2. He isn't communicative. Despite carefully listing three different ways to reach him in his voicemail message (four, if you count text), my personal experience is that it takes several attempts to reach him through any means. It once took me five separate phone calls in order to receive a basic update on the status of my device after it had been in his possession for well over a month.

3. He doesn't follow-through. When it was clear that my device would be unable to be repaired, he promised me in writing that he would refund me the $80 I spent to purchase a part that at the time he deemed necessary to make a repair but that he instead ended up using "for another project". More than two weeks after promising to refund me "by tomorrow or the next day", he has yet to do so. This is despite a follow-up attempt on my end that, given how hard it is to get in touch with him, unsurprisingly went unanswered.

Given my experience, it seems that, in a city home to over 300,000 residents along with a growing technology footprint, you could find someone equally competent and passionate about computer repair services, with the added bonus of good business practices. I'll update if anything changes, but at this time I don't anticipate getting...

Ryan did a great job being fast and responsive with communication, built me exactly the computer I wanted, and put lots of time into fixing it when something happened.

I started my search for a gaming computer by contacting a closer place, but they kept telling me they could do what I wanted but then not following up. So I emailed The Computer Stop and they responded the next day. I followed up with a phone call to discuss what I wanted in more detail, and they put together a list of parts that was pretty much a perfect match for what I was looking for. The price was completely reasonable, a little more than what it would have cost for me to build it myself and a good deal less than it would have cost to get something equivalent from any of the big online gaming PC companies.

As soon as I confirmed the parts list we went through with buying the parts. There was a problem with my payment but Ryan stayed on the phone with me and then communicated by text for hours helping me solve it. After I finally got the computer, it worked great for a few days, then suddenly started crashing. Once again, Ryan spent hours on the phone with me trying to solve the problem remotely. When it turned out he couldn't solve the problem remotely, I brought the computer in and he had it working a few days later, keeping me updated the whole way, and didn't charge anything for the repairs in the end.

It's been about a month since then and I've had no problems since. The computer's great, the price was good, and both Ryan's responsiveness and speed with building the computer and helpfulness whenever I had problems are exactly what I want from a place that builds a...

This will be a long review, so for a TL;DR: Ryan provided me with immediate FREE support over text, including additional tests I could run to troubleshoot my PC, what programs he uses to test this stuff, and ultimately correctly diagnosed my problem without demanding a dime. He encouraged me to ask any questions, and happily answered them all in a timely fashion. Now for the story. There I was, just finished building my new gaming PC, and I felt pure bliss playing video games for the two weeks that followed. Suddenly, my PC started to crash when running games. Like the whole computer just turned off, no error codes. I spent hours reading on forums, trying to diagnose the problem. Everything I tried failed, but I felt I was getting closer to the root of the problem. I wanted to get a professional opinion, so I tried contacting a couple of places in Pittsburgh but no one would see me for over a week. I texted the number on the voicemail from The Computer Stop and I'm not joking, he diagnosed my issue after the first text. I could've saved myself 12+ hours of reading forum posts by just texting Ryan what my initial tests showed. And he didn't charge me a penny. He told me my GPU was failing with confidence, so I pulled the trigger on buying another $400 piece for my PC. Lo and behold, I'm once again back in gaming grace, and it wouldn't have been possible without Ryan's help. Thanks Ryan, and I wish I could give you something more than this 11/10 review because honestly, I can't thank you enough. If I run into any problems again, I know for a fact I'll be back...