Gamegeeks — Local services in Garden Grove

I needed an emergency repair on my Switch for water damage. I spilled about a 1/4 of a cup of tea all over myself and it, then my switch would no longer turn on. I was only in the area for a short time (I don’t live in SoCal anymore but was visiting family) and was leaving very soon. I called to confirm they were open and could take my switch, over the phone they said it might be possible to repair it the same day. I rushed down there as soon as they opened (I was there by 11:20) to drop it off. I asked about the timeline and the gentleman told me it would be a couple days because water damage takes time and held up a basket of at least a dozen switches that were already waiting. I told him if that was the case I would not be able to leave it as I was leaving town the following day. He told me he would have his technician look at it as soon as they got in. The day went by and I heard from them at 4:45pm that my switch was all done and ready to be picked up. I asked how late there were open and they said they were closing early so at 5pm. Since I was more than 15 minutes away they offered to stay open until 5:30pm for me. I headed there as soon as I could and arrived about 5:20. When I arrived there were several other customers dropping off game systems for repairs but they helped me quickly. It was $128 for my switch repair, which they told me had a lot of water in it. I offered a credit card but the older gentleman asked me for cash. I don’t usually carry much cash these days but had $80 since I was traveling. They took that and put the rest on my credit card. The older gentleman and the young man I assumed was the technician both made a point of telling me that they usually charge and $35 dollar rush fee but they were waiving that for me. They did not tell me exactly what they did to my switch as far as the repair went, but they said there is a guarantee on their work and they put a small gold sticker on the back corner of the housing with the date on it. All in all, that sticker is the only record I have of the repair or transaction other than the charge slip receipt, and if I had paid all cash I don’t know if I would have even gotten one. I didn’t press for details of the repair or ask a lot of questions about the guarantee since I won’t be in the area to take advantage of it if something goes wrong. They were moving on to other customers before they were done with my transaction. They got my switch working again, which I’m very happy and grateful for, it just went a little strangely as far as other device repairs that...

Ok place, first I’ll talk about my experience then the store.

So they half fixed my 2ds xl. It wasn’t working, I brought it in thinking it was only a problem with the wifi card/motherboard connection. They said it was a problem with the lower screen/motherboard. They tried to fix it, got it to power on, but couldn’t get it to work without freezing. Left it there again to see of they could fix that issue. I came back in to pick it up, thought i was going to keep it half fixed but I think they might have switched the parts back because now it won’t boot up whatsoever, which, when I was testing it initially, it seemed to boot up consistently, but now nothing. They might have switched the parts back, but not 100% sure, just know its not booting up at all now and before, when I had come in to test it the first time, it was. Then he tried to buy it off me because now it doesn’t work at all.

The space is a little hard to look at, feels like a gamestop but alittle dirtier and disorganized, but they seem to have some cool stuff(and I say seem because I have no idea the actual condition of the items besides my observations), especially if your looking for older gaming. I’m not sure if I entirely trust the full staff, but they seem like they wanted to help and tried, which is more you can say about most.

Wish I could have gotten my dsxl fixed, but to be fair there have been many problems with my specific model of 2dsxl. What they should do more in the future is test the devices more thoroughly so people don’t have to spend time coming back and forth from the store. It only took me a couple minutes to realize the ds wasn’t fully fixed, be wary if you have anything bigger like a ps4. Also make sure to ask questions, like if I had asked “ Is replacing this component this going to effect the system in any possible way” it might have saved me alot of...

I have been to many game stores in my life, but I have never seen a more passionate gamer and owner than I did today. I took my cousin, who has special needs, to the store because he wanted Final Fantasy V for the Game Boy Advance. It turns out my cousin had been there before, and the owner immediately recognized him.

They had a conversation about how there are so many great games on the Game Boy Advance—a kind of conversation that’s often lost in translation between my cousin and our family, including me. We don’t always connect well or fully understand his excitement about gaming.

The owner pulled out a special collection of Game Boy games he had, carefully laying out each cartridge for my cousin, whose eyes lit up at every single one. All the while, the owner kept the conversation going, even as he answered phone calls and managed the store. It was such a special moment to see how much passion they both shared for gaming. It’s rare these days to see anyone so excited about anything in life.

My cousin decided on Kirby and Kingdom Hearts, which together can cost upward of $100 on eBay. But the owner, seeing how excited my cousin was, sold them both for just $50 and even gave him free cartridge cases.

The owner is Vietnamese, as is my cousin. Noticing that my cousin doesn’t speak Vietnamese very well, the owner told him that if he came back and spoke to him in Vietnamese next time, he’d give him even better discounts. Believe it or not, my cousin went home that day and started watching YouTube videos to learn Vietnamese.

My cousin is going through a stressful time with both school and therapy, but today he looked at me and said, “I’m really happy today.”

Thank you, GameGeeks, for providing such a heartfelt and passionate experience. I really would have never thought going to a game store could make someone...