Simplified Computers — Local services in Champaign

Initially took a laptop I purchased (from this store) in for repair - the hinge had become disconnected and was exposing internal components. They put it back together and charged me a reasonable, fair price. The worker initially said that it would be a temporary fix, and a more permanent solution would be replacing the entire back case. After fixing it, however, they told me that it was perfectly fine and should work as good as new.

Shortly after, the laptop lost all functionality and would not turn on. This was a result of the display cable being pinched, apparently, which I can only attribute to the half-cooked repair that was done. I took the computer back into the store, and left it there for a diagnosis.

I received a call shortly after. It would cost $690 to fix all of the things that were wrong with the laptop - LCD screen, display cable, keyboard, etc. I had absolutely no issue with any of these components prior to their spotty repair.

They told me they would recommend buying a new laptop for this price. My impression was that they did not want to go through the effort of repairing something they broke.

I returned to the store several times over a few month period to try and recover my laptop and hard drive. I was told multiple times by the person working that they could not find it/needed a technician present.

Finally, I received a call saying that I needed to come and get it otherwise they would dispose of it. I went into the store and was brought my laptop completely disassembled. I was told I needed to pay $110 diagnostic fee. Basically, they took it apart, realized it did not work, refused to work on it, and wanted $110 for their efforts.

In short, I believe that Simplified Computers was responsible for the long-term damage that rendered my laptop useless through a lazy, low-effort repair. To add insult to injury, I had to pay $110 for them to tell me that they essentially broke it and was now useless, and was given the laptop completely disassembled.

I would discourage anybody from using this store, and would highly encourage locals to consider...

I realized the place had changed ownership when I brought my laptop into Simplified Computers for repair last week. I described the problem which was not being able to input my password during the startup screen. I could put the cursor in the field but could not type anything – the keyboard did not work. The only way to get it to work was to reboot and then the keyboard functioned after the second bootup. When I decided to take it to Simplified Computers, I tried to remove the password so they could access the computer and ended up locking myself out. Upon dropping off my laptop and relaying this information they told me it might take a couple days.

I was surprised to hear back from them the same day saying it had been repaired. When I returned the following day, the technician gave me the invoice for the diagnostics and computer repair. He said they had restarted my computer many times to make sure it was functioning after removing the password login function.

Imagine my surprise when I opened a document to work on at home and I couldn’t input anything with the keyboard until I had rebooted the computer. They hadn’t even addressed the original problem! I called the day after to tell them about the continuing keyboard problem and they said it couldn’t be looked at over the weekend. So, I brought the computer in this past Wednesday. I was told that they had seen issues like the keyboard not working before, which made me wonder if other people’s computers had been fixed. Why did they not check for this before they returned my computer? The tech said they would run a diagnostic for me, charging me again, and at that point I decided that rather than being charged twice as much for me having to call them twice, show up at their store possibly four times, and then maybe get the problem fixed, I would rather take it to another place that will actually fix the...

We have, in the past, had a long-standing, good working arrangement with Simplified Computers. As I understand it, they have a new owner now; the familiar faces that I've seen there before are gone. Nevertheless, when one of the computers that we use at work stopped powering on, I took it to Simplified, expecting the kind of service that I've had in the past.

I was extremely disappointed.

Three weeks went by; I had heard absolutely nothing from them. We'd decided to replace the computer entirely instead, so I went to find out what was going on. Upon arrival, I was told that they had diagnosed it, were waiting on a part that needed to be ordered... and hadn't bothered to tell me any of this. What was the problem with the computer? I don't know. I STILL don't know, even though I was told, when I walked in, that it had been diagnosed. Nevertheless, they insisted that I pay them $110 for a diagnosis that they had not bothered to share with me, not asked me if I wanted to pursue the indicated work-- nothing. No contact at all. I was unhappy; no manager made any attempt to resolve the situation in any way, leaving the situation of a clerk who couldn't do anything about it.

This was a complete and utter waste of my time and my employer's money. Our company, and I, as a consumer, will not deal with them again.

This once-great company has fallen into a hole. Oh, but they did get a new storefront! Presumably they'll rely on that instead of actual good customer service...