The Computer Guy — Attraction in Lubbock

Note: this rating originally went up around April 2017.

I was sure that my review had made it on here but i see that i was wrong my phone messed it up. I originally brought my custom computer here to have it diagnosed for instability problems after i explained that it would freeze up randomly, mostly when playing video games. I built this computer myself and i knew it better than anybody and it had run smoothly for almost 2 years, however once the freezing started i spent hours every few weeks trying to fix a problem that was very intermittent. I did everything i could at home: i tried new hard drives, i tried reinstalling windows, i tried cleaning the whole computer out including the heat sink and fans, i even tried the tedious method of testing each and every single one of the ram sticks and the individual ram slots. I was finally at my wits end with trying to fix it because i didn't have the parts to more precisely diagnose the issue i.e. a new motherboard and some ram which i suspected were the issue. I brought these concerns up when i brought the computer in, however after 3 days at the shop i was told that the machine ran fine with a Prime95 stress test for what i can only assume lasted the entire 3 days only for it to come home and freeze after one minute on the windows 10 environment. I dismissed the first freeze as a small coincidence and allowed it another chance to which it froze again not 20 minutes later and this continued for about an hour just over and over again. So i refuse to believe that it worked for 3 days straight at the shop and the only thing that he mentioned is that a clip on the cpu cooler was loose and that the cable management needed work. I took that seriously and started my own examination of the heat issues and came to believe that i needed more airflow and a new heat sink, so i bought 200$ worth of supplies to get a new case with better airflow and a new non-stock heat sink, and new fans. However this did not fix the issue at all. So i finally gave in and bought a new processor, mobo and ram because i had isolated to either the mobo or the ram. I just couldn't figure out which part was causing the issue, which is why i went there in the first place to have the problem part singled out. So in the end i just went for the brute force technique and basically bought a new computer and it has been working great since then.

TLDR: I fixed my own problem, and i know that i can't expect this problem to be anyone else's because this was a custom build and there is never any assurance that someone else can diagnose these types of problems. Which is why i left a 3 star review and not a 1 star review. My problem was very intermittent and i felt that there was not enough done to the machine to properly diagnose the issues with the mobo and the ram. Prime95 is not the end all of testing stability and reliability with a computer that has inconsistent but persistent freezes...

I am disappointed. I realize that Dell/Alienware computers are not easy to work on and some of the hardware designs are questionable at best. But if you did not want to do the job, you should have been upfront about that. Your long history of positive reviews suggests that you are better than this, so I don’t see why I got treated like this.

I took my laptop here to get fixed in early December 2024 and was quoted about a week time-frame for the repair. Three weeks went by and I heard nothing back.

I called sometime after the holidays to ask about the repair. The owner informed me that he "text messaged" my office line to tell me he needed parts, and when I inevitably did not respond, he "shelved" the project instead of calling me. I never consented to text messaging, and unsolicited "texting" is not an appropriate way for a business to communicate with its customers. In reading some of their prior reviews on here, apparently I am not the only person he did this to (see the review from Deanna Nicole).

Nonetheless, I sent him the parts he needed, but this was to no avail. He last requested that I send him screws (which I later found I included in my laptop bag, but he must have not looked). At this point, I came to the conclusion he simply did not want to do the job. In hindsight, that should have been obvious with the “text messaging” excuse, but I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Three months after dropping it off, I came and got it and took it somewhere else. My bag had cat paw prints on it and was very dirty. Clearly it had been sitting around...

I live less than a mile away from this place. I'm a pretty computer savvy guy and I built my own rig but it was time for an upgrade. The graphics card I ordered came to me DoA. After doing every troubleshooting step imaginable I was down to the card being DoA or a compatibility issue but I didn't have a second computer to test the card on. I walked in simply asking if he could plug my card into a computer and tell me if it gets picture or the card is dead.. He walked from the back looking at me as if I was disturbing him from the beginning. Then as I was talking he interrupted me several times trying to debunk what I was saying and basically telling me I didn't know what I was talking about. Then he shut all conversation down and said for him to plug the card in he wanted 49.99. I went down the road to Jeff Barker Computer Service and was greeted as soon as I walked in. They asked and listened as I told them what was going on. They said sounds like I've done everything and it sounds like a dead card but to be sure come with us to the back and lets try it. They plugged it in and confirmed it. Took 2 minutes. "The Computer Guy" needs to learn some courteousness and awareness. Maybe he could have gained a customer for life if his demeanor was different. But being condescending and rude led me down the street where I'll always go now. DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS GUY TO...