Kevin's Computer & Photo — Attraction in Pittsburgh

Worst experience ever. Completely unprofessional, zero respect for customers, endless waiting, overcharging without reason, and absolutely careless attitude. I wasted weeks, my money, and my peace of mind here.

I came to this shop after seeing good reviews, but my experience was horrible. My laptop had stopped working, so I gave it here for repair thinking I’d get good service. They said diagnosis was free and they’d get back in a few days. A week passed, nothing. I called, and they said they had a backlog. I asked for a timeline, but they kept giving vague answers. Every single day, I had to call them myself. They’d promise a callback “by evening” or “by tomorrow,” and that call never came. Two weeks passed, still no update.

After more than two weeks, I finally get a message that my laptop is “fixed.” I go there, and they tell me they just did a normal battery discharge and it started working again. They had no clue what had gone wrong. The hinge was broken, so they did a temporary fix which still looked the same. And then I was handed a bill for 149 dollars. They said it was for “labor” and “priority work.” Priority? It took them three weeks to even respond.

I told them the charges made no sense since nothing was replaced, and I was never informed about any costs beforehand. As a student, that amount hit hard. But they just kept repeating that they “spent a lot of time on it.” No proper explanation.

I took the laptop home, and that same night it stopped working again. I called them the next day, they told me to bring it back. So I did, still hoping they’d handle it properly. But no, the same story again. Another two weeks of waiting, no updates, same excuses. They had already taken my money, and still had no answer about when it would be checked.

Finally, I decided to get my laptop back. When I went there, the lady asked the owner, and he said he was too busy, maybe he’d check in the evening or next day. My patience was gone. I told them to just return my laptop. As I was leaving, the lady came running out, saying the owner “felt bad” and would check it right away. He checked it for 15 minutes and said the motherboard was dead. He even said maybe it worked before “by fluke.”

I was speechless. I took my laptop home, watched a few repair videos, and tried a power drain process myself. And surprise!! My laptop started working perfectly fine. No dead motherboard, nothing wrong at all. It was running like normal. I can even share those videos with them so it might help them diagnose better next time.

That’s when I realized I had been completely cheated. They made me wait for weeks, charged me for nothing, gave a wrong reason, and almost made me believe I needed a new laptop. The carelessness and arrogance are beyond words. Even after charging so much, they didn’t have the decency to check it properly or communicate clearly.

My money was basically donated here. That hurts because that was my month’s living expense. As a student with no income, this felt like being robbed in broad daylight.

Do yourself a favor and stay far away from this shop. They don’t care about your time, your money, or your problem. Maybe if the owner knows you personally, you’ll get good treatment, but for everyone else, especially students, avoid this place. I went with the intention of supporting local, but it’s best to say avoid local.

Update: I wasn’t planning to reply, but your response with personal remarks made it necessary. I’ve kept my tone respectful, yet your reply shows defensiveness instead of accountability. Calling a genuine experience “fiction” only proves my point. Part of growing up is owning your mistakes, not attacking customers. If needed, I can share the same repair videos with you so it helps next time. Respect works both ways — something clearly...

DOUBLES the price / Mean& condescending attitude.

I went to fix a computer last year and thought this comment could prevent other customers from being mistreated, especially if you are a college student or Asian.

First of all, the owner literally DOUBLES the price after he fixes the computer. Our computer got water in it. The first day we went there, we asked for a quote, he said it would be about $100 for a basic cleaning of the inside, which is a reasonable price. But if the hard drive broke, it could cost much more. We accept it. The next day, someone else called us and said the computer was ready, the hard drive was good, he did the basic cleanings and the computer worked fine, and said the price would be $220. I told the person yesterday Kevin gave me a quote of $100, this person put Kevin through the line, and he responded with very rude attitude, saying: "I never said that". RIDICULOUS. From what I read in the comment, he even fixes small things for free for others but doubles the price for us? Was it because he thinks Asians are rich and easy to make money from? Just a guess.

Second of all, very mean attitude. He's very condescending to customers, especially to us. After he found out we were college students, he started whining about how stupid college students were that we broke the computer by spilling water on it and then starting the computer again. We told him it was not us, someone else did it to our computer and he's still whining about it, indicating that we are stupid. Not sure where his anger comes from. There is also another old nice lady who's picking up her computer. Her computer does not have a camera so she said her husband bought one on Amazon. Kevin's reaction after she said so is: "this is TRASH." Dude...

It seems like he needs to feel superior by belittling others who do not have the same knowledge in an area as he does. With the fact that a lot of other comments said he's nice, but he DOUBLES the price and talks down to us, it's hard not to think he hates Asians or college students. I regret that we didn't change another store because the computer needs to be urgently taken care of and this is the closest store to us.

To Kevin: if you think your customers are stupid, please just close your store so you don't have to face them. Have some empathy and conscience for students, you were young once, and you were a student once, or does your anger come from never getting a chance to...

5 stars for service, 2 stars for communication, so maybe 3.5 average.

10/6 - I brought my computer in with some difficult to diagnose issues, they said they'd take a look and get back to me in a week.

10/18 - 12 days later, I hadn't heard from them so I called and they said they're swamped and haven't gotten around to it so give them another week.

10/26 - tech calls me and says he took a look, we have a very productive discussion. He says he's out of ideas (which I understand and appreciate), and that he'll have the boss man take a look.

11/3 - no update yet so I call, they say they haven't got around to it and to check back in a week.

11/10 - I call them and it was a little vague but I got the impression they haven't touched it since 10/26, so I say I'd like to pick it up the next day.

11/11 - I pick up the computer and they are polite and don't charge me since they couldn't replicate my problems.

So all in all this took over 5 weeks to get my computer back that I use to work from home (I had a spare laptop in the meantime, but it was a bit of a burden). They knew at the beginning they had a backlog, so they absolutely should not have said it'll take around 1 week.

If they had such a backlog that they knew it would take several weeks, or if when they heard my issues and saw my machine they realized this is not the kind of job they want to take, then they had several opportunities to gracefully refuse service or pull the plug or be honest about the timeframe, but they didn't, they just kept saying "1 more week," and I think I was about as patient as I could've been.

I get the impression that they are somewhat disorganized and afraid to say "no," but also the fact that they're so busy, plus my conversation with the tech, plus all these other reviews tells me they are skilled technicians. So, 3 stars for now.

I will give them another chance next time I have tech issues since this could've been a fluke (I know they had a tech on vacation for weeks 4 and 5 of our interaction, which can't be easy) so I'll edit my rating and review if...