Dartmouth Computer Genius — Local services in Dartmouth

I had a horrible experience here. I brought them a memory card from my Sony camera. It contains over 2000 photographs from five countries including war zones with machine guns, etc. It was very important data to me. I could not see the files on the card so I brought it to them and before I brought it to them, I read online that no data recovery company should work on the card itself, But they should image the card and work on the image of the data. That way they cannot possibly screw up the original data. There’s also a place to click an SD card with a little lever on the card so that it cannot be over written. Which I did.

When I brought them the card, they charge me a diagnostic fee. I told him how important the data was to me, and that they should not work directly on the card. They told me that they understood and would not do so. About a week later they called me and told me they could not recover data and gave me information on another data recovery place With a special code I guess for a kickback.

Instead, I took it to another data recovery expert. And they assured me that there was nothing wrong with the card and that they could have recovered any files from it, but they could see that the previous company had over written the card and reformatted the card during the period when they had it. Basically, computer, genius wiped off the contents of my card, even though they had told me that they would not work directly on the card.

This is a devastating loss for me personally And represents months of lost work in thousands of dollars of lost images. So I called the owner to tell him what happened so that he could improve his business and maybe not cause thousands of dollars of damage to other peoples data. All they need to do is not work directly on the card. I thought it was a professional courtesy to call the owner to help him improve his business, and that it would be better than leaving a bad review online.

I was told by one of the techs that he was busy so I left my name and phone number for him to call me back. Much to my surprise he called me back minutes later screaming at me on the phone. I said “Why are you yelling at me“? And he replied “because you want to loan me money“. I said “no I don’t”. I called to talk to you about a problem at your store. To which she started yelling again. He was completely unprofessional and hung up on me. he never asked what the problem was nor would he let me tell them. I had been very polite to the tech I had spoken to. And I’m a polite person in general. I just felt that when something so bad is done by a business they should know about it. I asked to speak to the owner, because the mistake that was made is a mistake of processing policy at the store. It’s the owners responsibility.

I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced as dysfunctional a business or as rude a business owner.. But I estimate the loss in my data to be worth about $10,000.

I did not want to post a bad review on Google, so I called him directly so I could explain to him the problem so that he could improve his process to avoid doing this in the future. But it looks like they will continue to do this.

There is just no excuse for treating...

DO NOT TRUST THESE PEOPLE I had a laptop fall and break at the hinge, all internals still working. I had previously brought it to another computer repair place (with integrity) and they had searched for the parts I needed for nearly a month, and would update me on their search regularly, as well as offering to "kinda" repair it with some sort of adhesive or something if I preferred. When they eventually told me they couldn't find the parts they asked me one last time if I wanted to try to repair it without the part, and I said I'd keep looking around, took my computer, and left. The owner didn't ask me for a dime. I subsequently brought it here to Computer Genius, and was told by an employee that these parts were generally easy to find and it shouldn't be a big deal, and told me I needed to leave a 65 dollar deposit, so I did, assuming I'd get that money back if they did nothing. When I asked about the purpose of the deposit they said it was for parts and their work. I didn't sign a thing and nowhere was the word nonrefundable on a sign or in conversation. The very next morning I got a call saying that there were none of the parts I needed on the market (even on Ebay) and that the brand of laptop I had almost never has replacement parts on the market (a direct contradiction to what I was told the day prior). Then I was told that I absolutely could not get the deposit back, because they had already "spent time" looking to see if the part was available online, a task I doubt they spent more than 10 minutes on. This whole thing seems illegal especially as NO WORK AT ALL was done to my laptop. TLDR; these people want to take advantage of you, go elsewhere for computer...

I purchased a laptop on scamazon. The laptop top was not booting up at 1st and when it did the keyboard did not work. Without using the name i 1st took it to big box store who wanted to sell me all kinds of crap to grand total of 500.00 to fix it. I had no intention of fixing anything and knew this bi box store was trying to scam me. I wanted 2nd opinion as to what was actually wrong with it so I could return it. I brought it here, I paid a extremely reasonable diagnostic fee. I didn't give any information about why I wanted them to look at it other then it would not boot up.They told me I just purchased it and gave me the advice to return it and that the PC was 6 to 8 years old and was on its last leg. They did not try to sell me anything and thanked me for coming in. I went back today feeling obligated because of there honestty and purchased laptop from them because they are honest,nice people and have integrity.. BTW...