Doctor Dave — Local services in Lawrence

I know there are a lot of good reviews for Doctor Dave & that's why I went to him. But this was my experience – I’ll let you decide whether it was good or bad service. I had an appointment with Dave because I had bought a new laptop & had installed the software from the old computer, but was having some problems getting things to look & work the same as on the old computer. I showed up on time at 1pm. He was just a minute late, but there was another person who showed up at the same time as I did who apparently had a 2pm appointment to drop off recycled computers. Dave went ahead & helped him, while I waited about 7 more minutes. By the time we got upstairs to his office & sat down, it was about 2:10pm. I started to explain that I thought the graphics settings needed adjusting because the icons on two of my software programs were way too small to read. He said “well, it’s all a matter of perspective”. I told him, “no – these are super tiny. This has nothing to do with perspective”. I continued to try to explain the other different problems I was having, but he was super hyped up, talking really fast & kept interrupting me. Finally I said “you’re not listening to me” and he finally let me speak. By this time, I had my laptop turned on & he looked & said “the icons look fine to me”. I opened my two software programs & showed him the tiny icons & he said “Oh! Those are small. I think I know what’s wrong”. He closed & opened the programs a few times, googled a few questions & did some “looking around” on my computer. Then he said “I thought so. The problem is that you’re running old software on a new computer & you’ll have to replace the software”. I expressed disappointment & said I really couldn't afford to replace all my software. Then he downloaded an external pdf reader so I could preview my pdfs in Explorer (which was one of my problems) & that took all of 5 minutes. Then, without my asking him to, he googled how to upgrade my old software & did some shopping for me (which I could have done myself just fine) & he showed me how much the new software would cost. And that was it. At least 4 times during this, he said to me "you don't do well with change, do you?" in a very belittling tone of voice. In my humble opinion, I think his "bedside manner" could use less arrogance & dismissive sarcasm and more compassion & humanity. He charged me $120 plus tax (total $131.16) for what he claims was an hour of computer service, but he wasn't even there for an hour. The total time we were in his office was about 45 minutes and he shopped for my new software for about 20 minutes of that time. "Running old software on a new computer" seems like an answer that shouldn't take a lot of time or computer tech know-how. Maybe I’m wrong, but it’s my humble opinion that if he was an “expert” with computers, he would have known what was wrong over the phone or at least as soon as he saw the icons, it wouldn’t have taken 45 minutes to figure it out, and he wouldn’t have charge me for a full hour when all he did to help was a 5-minute download. I know a lot of people think he's great, but personally, I won't be going back & will not be recommending him to anyone. Update: It's been a couple days since I took my laptop to Dave. A friend who knows computers heard about my problems. He told me to change the resolution on my display from the recommended 2560x1440 to 1920x1080 - and guess what? ALL of my problems are solved. The icons are large enough for me to see, all of my apps & software programs work just fine, and I do NOT have to buy all new software. Everyone says Dave is great at computer repair & an expert. Then how did he not know to change the resolution on my display??? I'm sorry, but after getting this fixed so easily by a friend, I will never trust Dave again. 2nd UPDATE: Dave, all of the music metaphors in your reply are dripping of sarcastic mockery. This isn't an apology - it's an insult and just proves you are as arrogant as I...

He's not a fan of those with very little computer literacy. Although I was very polite and accommodating to him when he came over to work on my computer, he was immediately abrupt with me, if not downright rude. He DID fix the problem with my computer(and I am very happy about this), but was otherwise pretty disinterested in keeping things civil and cordial. Just to be specific, I had some bugs in my iTunes, the result of my computer being second-hand, and rather haphazardly organized by its former owner (files in all sorts of different places), and it made for a rather long shift for Dave. And to put it plainly, he basically of took his frustrations out on me. After walking on eggshells for more than 2 hours, and accommodating him in every way I possibly could, he finally left. As he brushed right by me with hardly a word of thanks (for my patronage), or even a simple goodbye, I asked him one more quick question as he walked to his car. He looked up, replied "Yes", and then without another word, drove away. Again, to be clear, he was this way with me from the moment he arrived at my house, before he even first sat down to look at the problem (so I'm thinking he might have been having a bad day, anyway). Now I've read some of the other reviews posted here, and am glad he was such a great help to so many other people. However, my suggestion to anyone who is as much a novice as I was at the time, would be this: either learn your way around a computer before you make that call, or be ready to hire someone else,...

Doctor Dave is our go-to whenever we have computer problems. We've worked with both Dave and Matt, and both of them are GREAT! We operate a Point of Sale system at our store and it runs on Desktop computers... during the height of the Holiday shopping season last December it crashed, and on a Sunday. We called Dave hoping he'd be able to come the next day, but he came that same day, on a Sunday! He really saved us and we were able to operate as normal once the POS was up and running again. All of us were and are so grateful for Doctor Dave. One last thing, Matt was here a few weeks ago to help us with a smaller issue and he was able to take care of it in less than hour. I really appreciated that he asked if there was anything else he could help us with since he still had time on the clock. We found a few things and our hour of time with Doctor Dave was very well spent! Dave and Matt are patient, kind and easy to talk to. Even though I do not "speak computer" they are good listeners and are able to figure out what I'm describing and can fix the issues. I highly recommend...