Micro Center — Attraction in West Chicago Township

TL;DR - Previous good will from positive shopping experiences led me to ignore what should have been a huge red flag when leaving my computer for repairs that led to one of the most miserable customer service experiences I can recall. What they are charging and the acceptable turn around time is 100% unacceptable, and other options should he saught at all costs before considering having work done here.

I recently left my computer for what I thought would have been a simple repair. Previously, techs have walked me through the problem at the counter, and usually quick to recommend a soulution. This time started similar, but ultimately the best option was going to be to have a professional handle this. I was told they were 10 days out on starting repairs and this should have been taken as a HUGE warning rather than just how long things take. But, I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt rather than some basic research that would have saved me a lot of time and money. That's on me for choosing to move forward with the exchange.

Initially, I was satisfied with the communication. I was told I would be receiving regular updates from either a person or their system. I got my first update about a week after I dropped it off, which was great since that was before the 10 day work starting window. The problem was diagnosed and the parts were ordered. I was excited to think this could be handled within a shorter time frame than expected.

I dont know who their supplier is, but MC should seriously reconsider. The only updates I received for 10 days following my part being ordered was that it hadn't arrived. I thought this was odd because I could've gone online and had the part in 3 days. I texted the service line about a possible update and as it turns out, the part had arrived and my computer was being moved into the repair queue. What great timing on my part to text when I did. As irritating as this was, I was at least glad to hear progress.

Jump to later in the week and still no updates. I thought this especially strange as this was a 4 hour job, max. Rather than text again about an update, I wanted to speak to a live person, so I thought I'd give them a call. Turns out neither Google nor the companies own directory has a phone number available for the store. This is absurd. My next step was to go to the store and inquire in person since this was my only option to talk with a live person.

The person I spoke with walked me through the timeline so far and didn't find anything unusual about the process so far. This told me all I needed to know about how MC operates with repairs. I left that day without my computer or anything close to a satisfying explanation. Wouldn't you know it, later that day, I got a message saying my computer was ready.

I went back the next day to pick up my computer and finally put an end to this charade. The person I spoke with that day offered me the same canned responses when i asked about what took so long and why getting a response required pulling teeth. I found out that a part was broken during repairs and needed replacing and told I wasn't being charged as if they were doing me a favor. I had placed a specific request to save the part that was being replaced and the look of shock on the techs face when I asked if it had been saved was priceless. They disappeared for several long minutes and I was surprised as could be that he actually produced the part.

This was such an unsatisfying experience that left me feeling exhausted and completely taken advantage of. It makes my stomach turn to think that if I had done even the barest amount of research into alternatives, I could have found several shops that offered to have the work I needed done in half the time for about 30% less than I was taken for. Based on this experience, I can not recommend getting your computer...

To say my experience was a disappointment is an understatement. I have been a customer of this Micro Center store for years, and really appreciated their sales people's knowledge and ability to discuss what am thinking of upgrades. This January, I purchased a number of components to do a full rebuild of my primary PC. This was my 5th build, so pretty confident in my abilities (when I friend that has done 12 builds is going to be around there is not much we could not trouble shoot together if things went wrong). From this store I purchased board, ram, CPU, CPU fan, and SSD. When I turned everything on I got no video, with or without video card. We start trouble shooting but no matter what no video, we are checking each component, wire, etc. So I brought it in to the store to have their techs look at it because I was stumped. Here is where my issues start:

1. I was told they would look at it within the week. After 5 days and I have not heard anything I am checking in with their online chat person to see what is going on and told it is being looked at. At day 9 (a Monday) I am calling and told they would look at it and I would hear back end of the day. I hear nothing. Call back that Friday, same story they would get back to me by end of the day. Not till that Sunday did anyone start looking at it. First, they said it was my brand new GPU that was the issue (that was a product I bought from another store) they were sure of that. Did not make much sense to me since the issue happened with and without the GPU in the computer. After expressing that concern they said they would keep checking just to make sure. Then they figured out it was the motherboard I had purchased from Micro Center, it was just bad out of the box. They could swap it out for the same one no problem. But that takes until the next Thursday so for those counting days that is 19, when I was originally told 1 week.

2. Fine, I thank them for switching it out thinking at least it is done. I pick up my computer, I had been charged ~$35 for the diagnosis, which is fine I brought it in since I could not trouble shoot the issue (which I had tried a number of different ways) but now they were charging me for a motherboard install and a new motherboard. I was not told switching out a broken motherboard they had sold me a few weeks before (and had spent most of its unboxed life in their store) would be $79. Paying to have them replace their broken part is ridiculous, paying for a new board even more so. It took the tech checking me out a bit to realize why I was shocked when he said he would give me by boxes and the broken board board and was expecting me to pay for it. Then I was told if I wanted to return the broken board he could help me with that assuming it was not past the return date … really the return date I had it for about a week before doing my build and brining it in, it spent the return time waiting for a Micro Center Tech. As for the $79 nothing they could do. At least I have my computer back and have decided that is it for shopping at Micro Center.

3. Fast forward to today, the morning after I picked it up, Saturday February 18 and I can finally get my computer hooked up and start using it. Well turns out that board swap was not so much a swap as installing the cheaper non-wifi version of the board I had. So to say I am livid is an understatement. I called Micro Center to try to sort this out and told best they can do is put me in contact with the same techs that took almost 3 weeks, misdiagnosed the issue the first time, and gave me a cheaper board missing the wifi, to see if they would be willing to do anything. Even worse, they would not even guarantee there would not be another $79 charge for them to put in the right board, that I would have to arrange with the techs.

Micro Center has lost this...

I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt but I just will never use them for repair again.

I had some issues going on with my PC and didn't know for sure what was going on, so decided to give Micro Center a try and get a PC diagnosis. Working in retail myself I understand that the 3-5 days is just an idea on how long it will take depending on the amount of PC's ahead of me and so on. Day 3 I decided to look on their tracker on their website and saw my PC was on the bench waiting to be diagnosed. The next day it was in the same spot so I decided to talk to someone online and see if its actually there and why I haven't heard any type of update. The person I chatted with online assured me that this is normal and I will hear an update within 24hrs of this chat. 24 hours passed and I received a text saying the same thing it did online, your PC is still on the bench waiting to be diagnosed. I can expect to hear from my technician in the next 24 hours. Mind you this is JUST for the diagnosis, I'd have to wait even longer for them to fix what ever came up. 24 hours I decided to go into the store after work at the end of the day. I explained that I haven't heard anything about my PC and at this point its been a week. The person at the desk told me that it says my PC is on the bench and awaiting diagnosis and that's all that shows up for him so its fine. I walked away and decided to come back and ask for my PC back because its taking way too long to hear anything. The employee (who was very nice btw) told me he understands and went to get my PC for me. Long story short it took him and 3 other employees to locate and find where my PC was. Turns out my technician that was assigned to my PC just decided he didn't want to work on it and submitted a request to the manager to not work on it, which the manager didn't approve, so he just took my tag and info off my PC and let it sit there. My PC sat there for a week with no way to tell that it was mine, and no one even took a look at it at all. If it wasn't for me requesting my PC back it would probably be sitting there still to this day. I will never be using the repair and diagnostics services again. The only good that I've had from this Micro Center is just shopping for parts and stuff like that. Save yourself some time and headache and use a different...