Apogee Computer Technologies - By Appointment Only — Local services in Lakewood

Came in to get data extracted from my laptop, I brought it in the middle of last month, they said it would be two weeks but when I called after the two weeks they then told me another two weeks. So I waited the other two weeks and still no word. I called back after an additional week (I wanted to give them a chance to call me) I guess they were having issues trying to extract the data from the laptop. Which I totally understood. My issue with that, is that not one person called me to inform me of anything that was going on. Mind you I’m a student and I need to get this data extracted in order to fix my laptop so I could use it for school.

Now I called once again about two weeks after the last call, and they told me it was ready. So why wasn’t I informed once it was?? Okay cool. I went to pick it up about a week ago. When I went in the owner struggled for about 20 mins looking for my laptop. And when he gave it back to me, he literally wrote on my laptop with PERMANENT MARKER?! Like I never gave them permission to do that, they could’ve easily wrote my name on tape and stuck that to the laptop.

Now he said they finished the job but asked if I had a usb/hard drive to stick the info on it. Okay? No one said that I had to bring my own, so after about an hour of the owner talking my ear off about god knows what. He also, had my waiting while he was on the phone with his telephone provider, trying to fix an issue?!? My time is very important to me, and he literally was wasting me time. He then said I could buy a hard drive from him which was 2 TBs and from what he told me I only needed 1 TB at most. He tried to sell me a hard drive for $129 but that only costs $79 at Walmart/Best Buy. Luckily I knew better and decided to go pick one up myself and I only paid $50 for a 1 TB of the same brand he wanted to sell me. Now I go back and I waste another 30 mins of him showing me some things on the computer, and then he started to download. Now it’s saying it’s gonna be another 3 hours before it’s ready. This was on a Saturday and 2 hours before they closed. And they’re closed on Sundays as well, so I had to wait till Monday before getting the drive. Finally!!! After more than a month long process, I got what I came for!!!

Honestly, the only reason why they got stars is because they did know what they were doing, I’ll give them that. But they’re aren’t mindful of other people’s time, or have any customer service experience. I didn’t appreciate that I had to keep checking in on my laptop because no one was giving me updates. They seem like nice guys but I honestly won’t be coming back here again.

Oh ALSO, the owner basically demanded on two separate occasions that I had to write this review at the location. While I was still there? Like no, I’ll do it when I have time. Not on your time, you already wasted...

NOTE: I have not actually visited his shop. Excellent free advice which not only saves the customer money but also yields higher satisfaction is why I am writing this review. This review will get slightly technical.

I had a long phone conversation with him whereby he gave me specific advice dealing with my dead gaming laptop (Asus ROG Advantage Ed'n) and how it would be a better solution to buy a refurb'd/used/new one than to try to repair one which was already repaired once after dying due to an overheat/short situation - he said they are usually never the same as they once were due to the multiple layers on the motherboard (as an Electronic Engineer, I agreed with this info, having done prior computer/electronics repairs). He was also technically knowledgeable of my laptop.

He estimated I would end up spending at a bare minimum $500 but probably $700 or more, including parts and install testing (two circuit boards and the hassle of buying, putting on heat transfer goop when re-assembling, etc.), and that I would probably find a used/refurb'd/new similar/identical model for maybe $800 (and I did find several) - just move the RAM and M.2 drive over and use the new one with my old load, then sell the other for maybe $200-$400 as a "parts-only" machine, for a resultant lower overall cost with better reliability. This would also save me from having to possibly discard both my home and "office" power supplies if I get a new laptop.

So Kudo's for an honest, knowledgeable business person! This is service one looks for and is...

I'm the unofficial computer repair person of my family but I took my desktop to Jer and team when it broke beyond my repair expertise.

The team diagnosed my issues quickly and informed me that my motherboard was fried as a result of a faulty power supply unit, which made a lot of sense to me given that the PSU had given me issues in the past and simply swapping out the PSU with a new one did not fix it. Given my past experiences with laptops, I had thought a fried motherboard meant that the whole PC was junk but I was really surprised when Jer told me they can repair everything for a sixth of what I originally paid for the machine. I had no idea that so much can be salvaged from a desktop with the fried motherboard.

Since the motherboard replacement presented the opportunity to upgrade the CPU, I asked them to put in a new one and I would pay for the additional cost. My computer needs are far from mainstream as I develop software for a living, which runs CPU-based simulations. Jer and team worked with me to order the state-of-the-art CPU I wanted and installed it on the new motherboard. Now that I have the PC up and running, I am absolutely amazed at the speed of my simulations and had no idea that this level of performance was possible.

Needless to say, I'm coming to these guys for all future computer problems that I can't fix myself. They are true masters...