Cary Grove Computers — Local services in Cary

I'd like to say I wanted to leave a glowing review, but I simply can't do that in good conscience. For repairs they seem great but do not upgrade your computer here.

I brought in my laptop for an upgrade with all the necessary parts provided: NVME SSD, HDD, and RAM. I was due to fly back to my home country in a week's time and needed this laptop as it was my only means of accessing a PC. I was also reliant on the transport of family since I was unable to access a car during my visit. I let Chad know this who was friendly and keen to help me get the upgrade done. He promised a quick turn around in a few days. Confident, I left.

I return in a few days and suddenly they tell me my SSD clone failed (no real explanation as to why), my HDD one went smoothly, they installed Windows 11 without my permission, and my RAM was dead on arrival (DOA) and couldn't be installed. The RAM isn't their fault, but what I don't understand is why they didn't call to tell me any of this. Especially as I was meant to be a priority. I tried asking questions, mainly about the failed clone and also changing the main Windows user directory name (NOT the account name, the root username directory of your computer as this is incredibly hard to change after OS installation), but didn't feel they understood what I was asking, but I was low-key freaking out a bit. Felt spoken down to by their technician who told me how to change the account name as if I was a child and didn't understand I was talking about the root user directory. So my PC account was stuck as 'Valued Customer'. Yikes.

With no time to return the RAM for a replacement, what ensued was sheer stress, a mess of my system, and a mad dash for new compatible RAM at local stores before I left the States.

Chad was kind and seemed genuinely concerned about the mess, telling me they only stocked parts on order and were unable to let me pay for new RAM in-store. But he offered to replace the RAM with a new stick for 'free' should I find one before they shut for the weekend. This gave me roughly a little over two hours to find the needed part. By luck I did, a Crucial DDR4 3200MHz, for double the price I initially paid for my first part. I brought it back, their technician Kyle said they would have it installed on Monday, the day before my flight left.

Roll on Monday. Kyle phoned and immediately hung up on hearing my husband answer, making me call back since I recognised the number off my given invoice. No voicemail or anything. Very unprofessional and I have the chat log to prove the strange behaviour. Go back into store, and they couldn't install the RAM. Wasn't compatible. Despite it being the same RAM as the last, just a different brand. I was told there were different types of RAM when asked. I bought an 'A' when I needed a 'V'. Nowhere is this listed on both of the RAM descriptions that I bought.

Adding more confusion to the mix, they told me they installed another bit of RAM that WAS compatible in their store. Despite telling me that they didn't have the parts in stock? Disgruntled, I took my laptop away to clean hands of this whole mess, feeling like they'd done a butcher's job on my system.

Worse? I used command prompt to check the RAM they installed: a Kingston 2400MHz. Slower speed than the initial 3200MHz that I provided. Oh, and they kept my newly bought, unopened Crucial RAM for the pleasure. That to me is not installing RAM for free. That's giving me slower, likely used PC parts while pocketing the faster, new one and hiding the fact.

I had to make a clean install of Windows 11 when I got home to get rid of the ridiculous 'Valued Customer' account name and spent days getting my system back in order.

I made a whole thread on a trusted PC Help Forum about the whole debacle, with some users voicing their concern at the practices used at this store. Chad was kind and genuinely wanted to help, but my experience and contact with Kyle leave much to be desired. I won't be back and unless it's a repair, I would advise others to stay well away. For me, it's another...

Employees were pretty friendly seem like they care about what they do. Although I would not recommend bringing your desktop here to be worked on. I brought my computer in for a booting issue and let them know that it wasn’t reading my hard drive either. I hadn’t heard anything from them in over 24 hours of dropping it off so I gave them a call and they said it would be $125 for the service and wiping all my data or $175 and saving my data. The $50 I paid to “save” my data just meant they put my data in a file folder instead and wiped my computer. So not only did they lack to keep me updated with everything I paid $50 for me to have to redownload all my data regardless. The iceing on the cake also is the fact that they put a ticket sticker on my glass case that is a pain to get off. I definitely think they take advantage of this situation cause this issue is not a long process to fix. I would not recommend going...

Chad was so kind and helpful! I have a 2020 MacBook Pro which had a broken display screen. I called around to a bunch of places to get quotes including the Apple store and Chads was by far the best! I went with him, and he was so friendly and willing to work with my time crunch ( I had to get it fixed in 7 days because I was moving out of the country at the end of the week) the piece he ordered to fix my computer unfortunately came in damaged and because of my time crunch I was not able to wait for him to re order a new one. Chad was so kind and understanding, he apologized for the piece arriving damaged and did not charge me anything! I know if the piece had come in undamaged my laptop would be good as new, and if I wasn’t leaving the country I would have left it with him. I would highly recommend Chad to anyone and will definitely use him again when I’m back...