Undead Electronics — Attraction in Raleigh

I went to this shop because I saw they had great reviews and wanted to support a small business instead of going to best buy. I called them late Wednesday before dropping off my PC, and mentioned that it had crashed and after that the USB ports weren't working, which is what I needed fixed. They set me up with their email and text system (I received messages from them on both), and had my phone number. They did attempt to call me on Thursday and Friday, but they didn't leave a voice mail, text, or email me after I did not pick up. On Monday, I ended up calling them to ask if they had diagnosed the issue, as I thought the missed calls might be scam calls (they did not show up as the business name) and had no other contact from them. The employee told me that he had replaced my SSD card and that I owed them $350. I was surprised as I was never notified what the issue was or how much it cost prior to them doing the work on my computer. I asked if the SSD was related to the USB issue, and he said that he hadn't had a chance to look at the USB issue. I was mainly upset that they did unrelated work on my PC without my consent. I asked why he hadn't left a voicemail and he said he didn't know, but that my mailbox was probably full. When I asked why he hadn't emailed me, he said it was 'tedious' and that he didn't have access to the text system. The employee I spoke to sounded pretty hostile and was making it seem like it was unreasonable for a place to get consent before they do the work. He ended up calling me back later and said that he would just include the USB fix for free with the SSD replacement as it was just something that had come loose and a quick fix. At this point, I had still not been informed what was wrong with the SSD, why they worked on it without my consent, or why it was 350$. I said I would call them back the next day and tried to email and text them in order to have some written documentation of the issue. They did not respond to any written communication. I called again and explained that I was uncomfortable paying for a service I didn't consent to and that I didn't really want to do business with them. I requested that my old SSD was put back and that the USB ports were returned to the way they had been when I took it in. I asked to speak to the owner as I wanted to make sure I understood where the labor charge was coming from. The employee said that he "had me on camera" (?) and that I agreed to the fees already, which is fine, but when I asked if he could send me the footage so I could double check he said he didn't have access to it. He also said that he didn't know when he would have the chance work on my PC again. I finally got my computer back today after a week and a half. When I spoke to the owner, he also never took responsibility, tried to play into a sunk cost fallacy by saying if I just took my pc back i'd be "starting at square one", guilted me by saying he was a small business and that he "had to keep this place open somehow", and never once apologized or said that they had made a mistake. Genuinely, I think if sending an email is too "tedious", maybe the business should close. When I picked my PC up, I paid for the labor and they said that they deep cleaned it. Which is great, but based on their responses to other reviews and their refusal to communicate, work with me or even apologize, I feel as if they just do these surface-level things in order to make any unhappy customers seem like they are being unreasonable. They said they took a loss on the SSD, but they never attempted to work with me on the cost and again, did not inform me they were even going to replace it. I really don't want to be that guy, but I don't know if I would have gotten this treatment if I was an older male. I heard an employee on the phone with another customer when I went to pick my PC up confirming that he had gotten his email, so i'm not sure why they didn't just email me. So I guess now I am out the diagnostic fee, am behind on my schoolwork, haven't had my PC for a week, and it still...

I didn’t have a great experience with this shop. There was a complete lack of communication, to the point where I had to call almost every day for 2 weeks to get any kind of updates. Even after the first few calls they could have stopped me from calling them by just giving me any updates through my text or email, which they had. This to me is unacceptable, as this is a device I use daily and every day without it is a day it takes maybe 3x more time to get things done on my cell phone. As an expensive repair, I was hoping to get more details on how it was doing, timelines, etc. but was let down every time.

I was notified that a screen replacement was needed due to hot liquid damage and before giving me quotes or options, they went ahead and ordered it from their supplier within the one day I did not call and told me it would be several hundred dollars total more than I anticipated it would be. Even at this point, I thought fine, I guess it’ll be ok as long as the service is good, and I would have a new screen on my daily laptop. After waiting a few days with AGAIN no response, I had to call again before I finally got to the owner in the morning, who said the screen arrived the previous afternoon and would be done by that afternoon. After calling around 3PM after absolutely no communication, I was notified by another employee that the wrong screen was sent and that it would be another week before maybe getting the right one and at that point I decided to pull the plug on the entire thing and pick up the laptop that evening.

They refunded the entire fee and were able to do some liquid extraction on my laptop. That was nice of them and why I gave 2 stars. But the fact that they had only called me first ONCE in the entirety of the 2 weeks when they had my laptop was unacceptable for a repair I was told would take maybe 1-2 days. They did not call me to check about material/labor prices before ordering the new screen which was another red flag. The lack of communication was astounding.

I am not writing this review with any malice since everyone at the store was pretty nice to me, but if you have a super urgent repair to do or don’t have the time to follow up constantly with the shop for updates, I would take your business elsewhere for now. I hope they get their communication in order as they have all the resources to do so with an internal system that has customer email and phone number for contact. Until they do so, I won’t be back.

Edit: Changed to 1 star due to owner’s...

I work on computers a bit and usually fix things myself. I was working on my brother's computer and was having issues. I got stuck on it and decided that taking here to get it fixed would save me some time. I gave it to them and never received an estimate of any prices at all. (Yes, I never asked directly for a quote and that's on me, but not informing a customer ahead of time is rather bad customer service). They told me what the issue was and I told them I had a part at home I could use to replace the broken part with. I came in with the part and they told me to come back 2 hours later. I came back 2 hours later and got my computer. However I was charged 170 DOLLARS. Keep in mind that this is just hourly charge as I had my own parts to fix it with. He claimed that it took slightly over 3 hours of work but he was going to charge me for 2 hours. (A nice gesture, sure, but I've worked with computers and a lot of it is clicking a few buttons and then coming back 20-30 mins to click a few more buttons etc etc.) Once I was told the issue I knew that it couldn't have taken more than 45 minutes of actual physical work. If I knew what the issue was (and that's on me for not taking the time to figure it out) I could have fixed it myself in an hour.

I got the computer back and the cable management was alright and there was what sounded like a screw sliding around as I moved the case. Also the network adapter drivers were not updated which was a bit annoying as I now have to spend some time to do that myself

tldr; The computer was fixed and in a timely manner however EXPENSIVE. They charge $80 an hour. The computer was fixed and everything works correctly.

Edit: Realizing that after typing this I was bit too critical of them. While their prices are expensive, they are usually cheaper than bigger stores such as best buy or apple. I have come before about a year ago asking to get something soldered as I didn't have the equipment I needed. He soldered where I requested in about 3 minutes and...