Always Thinking Computers — Local services in Albany

Probably the worst customer service I’ve experienced in my life. The owner hung up on me 4 times, even though I remained respectful, never raised my voice, and barely said more than a few sentences. There’s no chance I’ll ever take my business here.

For the full version, it's story time! Here’s what happened.

I called to ask if they had a power adapter that would work for my laptop. When I told them what laptop I have, he said he did not have a 120W adapter, but directed me to one I could purchase from Amazon. I realized that he kept mentioning a 120W adapter, but I thought my original was a 90W, so I began to ask about that, but he cut me off, saying he had a customer at the counter, recommended I buy that one, wished me a good day, and hung up. The entire conversation took 2 – 3 minutes.

Okay, no big deal. A little unprofessional, but I appreciated the help, and understood he needed to talk to a walk-in customer. I took some time to look up the adapter he recommended, and compare it to my original, and sure enough, it looked different, as well as having a different Watt and Amp output. I waited about 10 minutes from my first call, so he could help his customer, and called back to figure out why the discrepancy.

The 2nd call only lasted a few seconds. As soon as he realized it was me again, before I could even ask anything, he stated that he had already helped me all he could, and didn’t “have any more time to discuss this,” and promptly hung up.

This time I was quite shocked that anyone would treat a potential customer that way, but was mostly irritated because I was still left wondering if they had an adapter they could sell me that would work (since I assumed he was incorrect about what adapter I needed, and I was trying to buy locally because I needed one ASAP).

I promptly called back a 3rd time, and this time before he could cut me off or hang up, I quickly blurted out, “It’s me again, and I just need to know if you have a 90W adapter, because the one on Amazon you directed me to is not the same as my original.” He responded that no, they only had 65W adapters, and then click; hung up again.

And this point I was appalled, but I had my answer—they couldn’t help me. I resolved to write a negative review but realized I didn’t know who I had been talking to, and figured I should give the owner a chance to take corrective action before posting about it.

I called back a 4th time, and immediately asked if I could talk to the owner. Well, what do you know? That’s who I’d been speaking with all along. I said I just wanted to let him know I was going to write a negative review on Yelp and Google. He then launched into a minute long monologue tirade. He said to go ahead, he’d respond with what really happened (I’m looking forward to that), and that I was the one harassing him. He said that he’d helped me the first time, and told me he didn’t have a 90W adapter (he hadn’t told me that until the 3rd call) and that even though my laptop came with a 90W adapter, the manufacturer actually recommends a 120W and it will work fine (this was the first time I’d heard this, and appreciated knowing it), and that he has 3 degrees and 10 years’ experience fixing computers, and so on, until he ended by hanging up again (for the 4th time).

In conclusion, the entire way the owner behaved was quite stunning. I was fully ready to drive across town and purchase a ~$25 adapter if they had one, so I think that I should have been worth at least a few minutes of his time. Not to mention, taking care of customers is how you build clientele, even if you don’t make a sale. Instead, I was left with the impression that the owner is very high-stress and unstable, and I would not recommend their...

So, this is what we know.

Background.

My MIL aged over 70 just lost her husband of almost 60 years

She has been going through the ringer with the VA and doctors and insurances and basically everything.

She is old school manners-wise and will not yell or scream at anyone.

So her computer stopped working correctly. She can't access the websites on the VA and Insurance sites that she needs to.

Both of her kids and their spouses have tried to help over the phone as much as we can.

But she is elder, and we are not on hand to see the issues or experts in the field.

So she came to this location to ask for advice and help.

She walked into an empty front room, called out for anyone and was yelled at from a male that he was in the back.

He indicated to her to just yell her questions.

Not everyone has a loud outdoor voice or a loud personality that makes yelling from room to room easy.

She was raised, and kept a home, where people were polite and spoke to each other in the same room, not hollering down a hallway at each other.

So already she is in an uncomfortable situation.

The man then screams at her to "Talk louder I can't hear you!"

He has yet to even lay eyes on her and is yelling at her as if having a polite indoor voice is a sin against God and man.

Which of course flusters her even more.

Anybody here have elderly people? Then you know what happens when they get flustered. Their thoughts get flustered, they find it hard to speak and find the proper words.

He finally comes out, interrupts her trying to explain the situation, and insults her basic understanding and comprehension.

Of course at this time she is just trying to organize her thoughts and get her words out.

He then proceeds to insult her in a very derogatory terms, telling her to "go back home and take your meds" and screams at her to get out of his store. Saying "I have you on video."

Good, produce it and show everyone how much compassion and understanding is in your customer service.

She is still shaking from this encounter.

This is not a woman who is not pushy or controlling.

This is a women who has dedicated the last 2 decades of her life to the care of a disabled vet that was the center of her whole world and whom she just lost.

And all she was asking was for someone knowledgeable to help her understand an issue with a little bit common empathy and respect.

If your customer service is only good for people of your own like mind and abilities, then your customer service is seriously lacking.

If you approach every person with a harsh, demanding, and impatient attitude because they are not as fast as you in thought or word then you really should not be in public customer service.

Customer service is not only for people of the same demographic or mental abilities as yourself.

Customer service means service to all customers, even the slower ones who have trouble communicating or understanding complex machine requirements.

And insulting someone's mental health with comments like "go home and take your pills" just because they are having difficulty communicating during a stressfull situation is so far below the belt of acceptable social behavior that your mother should be ashamed of the way she raised you.

You have the right to refuse service.

You do not have the right to be insulting to anyone, let alone an aged person, because they have difficulty communicating under duress.

You most certainly do not have the right to take your bad day out on anyone, customer, employee, or service personnel.

If you "have her on tape" then produce the video and prove us wrong...

Otherwise you owe...

The dc jack went out on my dad's laptop so I took it in to get fixed. One thing about the system at this company is that you can't call or drop by the shop too see how the repair is going. And when you look at their automated system online it just says repair in progress. I was told it was going to take a week to fix, for parts to come in and the installation. So when the date I was expecting a call roles by I got confused and wanted to know what was going on. But I couldn't call or drop by because I would be charged an extra 50$ for stopping their "work". After 2 weeks and a half I finally get a call saying that they were having troubles with it but it should be done in the next couple days, just waiting on a new part. So the day comes and they call me and say that I was all set and could pick it up. So it's been 3 weeks and 2 of which I had no clue what was going on. I pick it up they show me it was working I pay 85$ for the fix and that would be fine if they had fixed it. I take it home and plugged it in. It begins to work but I noticed that the outer frame wasn't pushed in all the way. So I click it together and it stops charging again and the power dies. My charger is in rough condition so I thought that might be the problem. I take it back to them and they check it with their charger and nope its the dc jack. The guy starts to tell me he's not going to fix it again its too much work and I can't get a refund. The words he used were "once a computer with a dc jack leaves in working conition it is not refundable." Best he can do is transfer everything from that hardrive to a new computer because its about the same price as a dc jack repair. I go home and think I'll open it up and look at it. (At this point im furious with this company) I open it up find the problem that a so called computer shop couldn't figure out and fix it my self. The problem was that when you click the case down on the laptop it would pull the dc jack out of where it connects to the motherboard due to how they were routing the wires in side the computer. So I figure that he didnt click it down knowing it wouldn't work so I could come pick it up in "working condition" so I wouldnt be able to get a refund. Pretty sleezy if you ask me. It took me 45 minutes to do. And I've never worked with computers. Just took a youtube tutorial to figure it out. So I lost 85$ for a job that would have taken myself a few days for a dc jack to come in the mail and 45 minutes to do. This company will not succeed with the current person in charge and the customer service at hand. I regret ever going there and will advise anyone else to steer clear of...