Micro Center — Local services in Charlotte

I'm going to start by review by saying I've been around IT professionals and buildings PC's for about 25 years. After hearing that Microcenter was expanding (finally) to NC, I was beside myself. I've been going to BHC Computer because I love Lee and ATD in Charlotte since I was a small boy when my father worked at PC Labs around the 2000's. After much delay with their grand opening, it finally happened. Thank the Lord! Or at least I thought. The store looks like an unfinished warehouse, almost like a boutique PC Goodwill or something. Floors look horrible in some places. They selection is awesome but missing a lot of big brand names like Sabrent and EVGA power supplies. The custom mechanical keyboard section was horrible as their best offering was a GMMK Pro, which if you know about custom keebs, is sub-pat at best and overpriced. Don't even get me started on the GULAG which is the parking lot. I had to make a 3-point turn in a TOYOTA CAMRY just to park and returning a shopping cart here would be a suicide run through barbed wire just to return it all the way to the store since their are no cart returns which is insane for a place that sells extremely expensive boutique electronics and heavy items which carts are needed for. The communication amongst the staff is not great at all as my brother had to wait about 5 minutes for a CPU at checkout that the manager had to bring up there from the cases even though it wasn't busy. A bunch of monitors on the display wall weren't powered on or turning on so I couldn't check out a $1,000 panel I originally came there for so I ended up leaving empty-handed as the employee I told about the issue said he'd check it out and never returned. Most of the employees are not that qualified to be working here as they don't even know what pixel density is or what's going on in the tech world regarding product releases or news. My last huge gripe is the camera crews. Like BROTHER. I get it's a new store, but when I'm standing in front of a $1,300 monitor, I don't need Steven Spielberg to walk in front of me, block what I'm looking at and shoot the next Saving Private Ryan while I'm trying to shop. These fools are everywhere in here. It's kinda annoying. The store itself overall isn't bad (besides the parking lot) but it's obvious they needed more time before they opened. Which I would've gladly waited longer to avoid most of these issues. This is my honest in-depth review since I am so passionate about the community, hobby and lifestyle. At least I got a free USB and Microcenter mug with the bag I had to buy for my brother because they didn't have shopping bags neither. I should've applied as a manager here to set these...

I want to start off by saying that I love Microcenter and I appreciate their deals, even though I ran into some issues with certain brands malfunctioning and giving me issues. The return and exchange process was great every time and I was able to replace the faulty parts. ( Not microcenter’s fault, purely Asus’s fault for producing poor products). I would also like to mention that the customer service is always superb, and their staff really knows their stuff.

I’m taking off 1 star because I had a pretty comical interaction today at around 12:30 pm while buying some fan cables and hubs for my builds in the PC cable isle ( I run a mid range 3D printing farm and it’s expanding so I’m adding more PCs for my new employees). I was there buying my stuff and trying to find the best price when randomly another “customer” spawned in the isle and started acting weird. At first I didn’t think much of it since he was a younger gentleman that seemed to be in his mid 20s and I assumed that he might’ve been high or something ( I was initially concerned because I used to be an LEO and his body language was off, I won’t add more identifying remarks in case he truly plain clothed LP). I decided to engage with him and see if I can help him since he seemed a bit “off” and he was looking for a 6 pin molex connection ( this doesn’t exist btw and he claimed to have found it on amazon? Lolol). At this point I knew he was a plain clothed LP employee for the store since crackheads don’t generally know enough about these things to produce the words for them but an LP will know enough to make up a fake story if a customer talks to them. At this point I started to play along and offered to look it up on amazon and microcenter for him ( after showing him the amazon search basically indirectly telling him that it doesn’t exist and that his acting is terrible and he should improve his story for the future). I eventually suggested that he go up to the staff and ask them for it ( he should’ve said yes and pretended to do it because it would’ve been more believable, since it would give off the impression that he’s truly looking for the item) he said nah and walked off politely while thanking me ( also he was too professional in the way he did it lol which was even funnier).

I will change my review to a 5 stars if the plain clothed LP improves his acting skills and comes up with a better story that’s more believable. I’m sure I’ll run into him again at some point. Thank you for the comedy relief and great customer service! ( I’m sorry your theft is also high btw that area is a bit more tough than other areas...

I purchased a custom-built PC in Feb 2023 for around $3.3k with around $550 of the purchase price being towards professional building of the PC and a 3-year System Protection Warranty. The computer has severely underperformed since the day I got it, and I made sure to return to the store for diagnosis as soon as I could (I was traveling at the time for work). With every single visit that I had to the Duluth location, I was told that there were no issues with the system (we would go through various tests together at a screen and I would replicate the issues with them firsthand) and that I should try various things when I returned home, but I always felt as if it was a statement to get me out of the door.

Most recently (today-3rd visit) I visited the Charlotte location and with the great reviews I was very optimistic. However, I believe it may have been the worst experience yet. I brought my PC into the location (2 hrs. away) to the knowledge bar (after calling before the night before and being told I would be prioritized) and immediately was told that I would not be seen the same day. Fortunately, a manager was able to step in and confirm they were going to prioritize the PC diagnosis. The team took the system to the back of the store, and we left for a good two and a half to three hours to allow them to test. When we returned, we were told that they were running several diagnostic tests that would take several MORE hours and I asked several more questions regarding the system. Less than 10 minutes of asking questions, the tech brought the system back out to the front and told us there was nothing wrong they could find with the system, which was confusing to us as we were told they were going to test for several hours. I took the PC back home and after the two-hour drive there is no history WHATSOEVER since this morning when I prepped the system for the diagnosis. On top of this, the tech mentioned the card was sagging and made note of other errors from installation of the parts on build, but I was ultimately told this was my issue and not covered in the SYSTEM protection warranty (which after review should cover as they did not discover sag caused GPU issues until the 5000 series (?).

Extremely disappointing as I spent over $3k on a PC and $500-600 on a service plan that is not honored from this company as a whole. To add insult to injury, immediately on arrival I was pitched another protection plan by the knowledge bar consultant that would cost me I believe $140 a year and $60 a...