Hackers Ink — Local services in Ellicott City

Short story: Called us in twice to pick up the computer but it wasn't fixed, blamed everything including the owner for the problems they didn't fix, left us with a computer that was still broken, horrific customer service.

As far as I can tell the main goal of the owners is to play card games and they only grudgingly fix computers to pay the rent. Our computer wouldn't boot up, so we brought it to them. First they said it was the processor then they said the problem was the motherboard. Then they said it was fixed and I went in to pick it up. It wouldn't boot up. It was also not completely put back together. Then they said it was the video card and I left it with them another 2 weeks.

They called me and told me it was fixed and I came in. It wouldn't boot up. This time around, they cycled me through 3 different techies and kept me there for over an hour because they were too busy getting ready for a card tournament (during published business hours) to pay attention to the computer that they asked me to come pick up a second time. During this time I found out that they neither replaced the motherboard or the video card they claimed were broken. The problems they blamed this time around included the video card, motherboard, disk drive, the operating system, and viruses. I put my foot down with the last 2 because I know how the system was running before it broke and we are armed to the teeth with virus software. When it did start up, one of the techs started pointing to various pieces of (government issued) software that I had installed saying "see that program, it doesn't belong there, it's a virus."

They then decided the power supply was really the problem and "fixed" this by disconnecting the video card and the disk drive. They were in a rush to get me out the door because I was getting in the way of their card games and did not offer to fix the power supply. At this point I decided to pay them and leave rather than risk any more harm to my computer. What was previously a computer than ran well and probably needed some new parts now barely runs at all (super slow, lots of errors) and does not have the video capability to run the software I need for work.

As I was leaving, I heard them tell someone on the phone that even though they said they were open Saturday, they would not be fixing computers that weekend because they would be too busy playing cards. I wish they would have given me the same warning when I dropped my computer off, I would have seen that red flag and gone elsewhere.

Every time I was there, they had many employees but you had to wait to be helped because they were busy playing card games. One time I heard them tell a customer they couldn't get a receipt because they were out of printer ink for every printer. Another time they told a customer that they never called him back because they don't check their voice mail. This place is in serious need of both adult supervision and competent computer techies and they have neither. Avoid it...

My experience with Hackers Ink and Jonas was AMAZING! The guys there were professional, personable, friendly, and knew what they were doing! I felt 100% comfortable with them and wouldn't hesitate to bring my computer to them again. I highly recommend Hackers Inc.

Taking a computer to get fixed often feels like taking your car into the dealership, you never know what they're going to throw at you and how much it will cost! Usually an arm and a leg at which point you may as well just buy a new computer. My laptop is 7 years old and just has a virus and was processing slowly as any would at that age. I was putting off taking it to the Geek Squad or even the Computer Guru guys up the street as the estimate might as well be a new system. My wife bought me the Groupon and the very next time I took it by. I was welcomed by Jonas who took all down all my info and was very pleasant. He told me there was at least 13 others computers ahead of mine but it would be ready by the lastest, the following day. I got a cal later that night that it was ready. When I came back, Jonas explained everything that was going on with the computer and in a way that I could understand. He didn't pressure me into buying the latest upgrades or even making me feel inadequate for having an old system. He even suggested better, cleaner gaming sites and had installed a new, free virus protection program. Jonas was very professional and personable. They even had me turn on the system and check it out before I left! Unfortunately later that week I had an issues with the system running firefox and then freezing. I was able to call the guys and spoke with Jonas again. He said it was under their warranty and without hesitation he told me to bring it back at no extra cost to have them check it out. As soon as I got there, Jonas took a look and within ten minutes has my internet all worked out and running faster than before. He even showed me what to look for and explained in layman's terms what was going on. I felt secure and comfortable with my computer when I left. I since had had no issues and highly recommend...

Edited reply: please read my exchange wirh the owner. Decide for yourself if you want to go to a busines that will treat you like this. It is interestung to see that the owner (Eric Smith) doesn't deny that he posts reviews of his own company to inflate his Google review numbers.

Though he claims I posted reviews twice, he knows full well that there are two Thomas Wellocks involved in this case, my son and I have the same name. Eric and his staff interacted with both of us, and we are both entitled to review the experience on Google. Thanks Eric for proving my point about how you treat your customers by calling them liars, even when you are wrong about the basic facts. The extra money he speaks of was requested because he broke the camera with a poor glue job on a cracked screen repair. Our phone camera is worse off now than when we gave it to him to fix.

Heads up!! The owner of Hackers--Eric Smith--seems to be posting reviews here for his own business (see Eric's enthusiastic review below). We can probably conclude that the other positive reviews here are posted by "friends." When the staff at the Ellicott City location refused to fix the camera they broke, I asked for the name of the owner. They refused to give it to me and hung up. It can easily be found online and at the Better Business Bureau. So I am not sure why they refused to supply it. As you can see, we did not use the camera they broke for this picture.

Update: Took this complaint to the Better Business Bureau. As you might expect, I got no satisfaction from Eric Smith other than to be told that the claim was a "lie" and a "fraud"--this from a guy who rates his own...