MelroseMAC — Local services in Los Angeles

When I initially bought the Black Magic HD-LINK for $648.90 from Sandi Sandi she said take the unit and if it doesn't work out just bring it back and I will give you your money back. I have been doing business with Sandi for over ten years. First at Big Mac in West LA with her mom and aunt, then with her uncle Jack Sandi, then with e-clips, followed by her small company in Sunset and finally Melrose Mac. I have bought tens of thousand of dollars worth of hardware from her over the years. So I was quite shocked when she didn't credit my American Express card. I purchased the Black Magic Box for a specific project and delivered the unit to my rental client in the morning. Later that day I got a frantic call from the client that they were having problems "getting picture." I went over to the client's facility and checked the signal path; the Black Magic converter was hooked up to the SDI (hd serial digital) output from my Sony HD-Cam SRW-5500 and that all the switches were in the correct order and I even had a new laptop that I used to download the software to change the settings on the Black Magic Box. I spent nearly two hours at the client's facility; downloading drivers, changing settings but to no avail. The same evening I called another video equipment rental facility and sub-rented their AJA box which worked, plug and play in ten minutes. The client was obviously happy after hours of pain staking attempts to get a signal to their plasma screen from the Black Magic. Black Magic has a reputation of less than perfect equipment and spotty customer service and technical support. So it was obvious that the Black Magic Box was the problem and I commenced to return the product to the retailer.

When I brought the unit back the following day and I explained to the employee, that it didn't work as prescribed. I had the product in hand and asked to return the item for a full refund. He mentioned that there is a restock fee since the box was opened. I explained that the unit didn't work for what I needed and I spent plenty of time trying to get it to work. They guy asked if I had called the Black Magic Tech Support or emailed them. I mentioned that there was no time for that and I just wanted to get my money back; Sandi did say that she would wait to hear from me before charging my card. He asked about the project and implied that since the project was over that I was now looking to return the Black Magic box for a full refund, effectively getting a free rental on the Melrose Mac's dime. I told him you don't get it - "it doesn't work and I want to get my money back in so many words." I asked to speak to Sandi and she said there would be a restock fee of 15%, I retracted that "you said you would take care of me, these were your own words, you now want to charge me a restock fee. She recanted and said "fine no restock fee". He printed out a copy of the receipt and wrote void with an x and a line for my signature I signed the invoice and he took the product from the counter and stuck it on the shelf behind him. During the course of our conversation he asked what I had hooked up the unit to. I had mentioned a VTR (video tape recorder) and he remarked that he thought it was hooked to a black magic hd card and then apologized for selling the unit to me since that wouldn't have been his first choice, but rather the Aja box would have suited my needs better.

After several attempt in having the money credited back to my account by Amex, I have made zero progress. I did look at Melrose Mac's invoice which was provided to Amex and later sent to me. After inspecting their copy I noticed that... I spoke to AMEX for the fifth time that the charge for $648.90 be permanently removed, since the merchandise was returned and the charge was put forth without my credit card approximately 1-2 weeks after i had returned the Black Magic HD-link. This is after the fact of trying to personally work out the reimbursement of the overage. I recently spoke with someone at Melrose Mac and they spoke of the incident...

I was having computer issues and ended up coming here instead of the Apple store because they had the soonest available appointment. However, when I got there, I realized the diagnostic test would take 3 days, so the help I needed wouldn't be immediate anyway. Moreover, I had already googled and troubleshooted (troubleshot?) all I could with my computer, so I feel like I generally understood what the issue was already, and I really just wanted to know if there was any way I could still salvage any of the files on my laptop. However, I feel like the only way I could get anyone to assess anything about my computer was to pay $75 for the diagnostic test, because the person at the counter basically just wants to get through the people waiting to be seen so their team can look at the computers on their own time. I was not provided with any insight on what could be going on on the spot unless I asked specific questions, and my device was hardly touched beyond being turned on and stripped of its case. I tried to explain what had happened, but I felt like my explanations were not being engaged with because, again, they just wanted to take it in for their team to look at, which is frustrating because it means you can't really explain directly to the people performing the diagnostic test what you have/haven't already done to fix the issue, or what the issue even is.

As a result, I waited 3 days and paid $75 for an email hinting that I had been the one to wipe my hard drive / attempt to wipe my hard drive, which is obviously not true and could have easily been clarified with a simple in-person conversation that could have taken 15 minutes, not 3 days. They also couldn't tell me if my files were recoverable and only sent me the link to another organization that specialized in that work, which again, does not take 3 days to do. I don't want to blame any of the workers, because the customer service itself wasn't the issue, and I imagine building a business off of troubleshooting problems with computers & phones makes for a very emotional and frustrated clientele, so I didn't want to be a problem customer and make a huge deal out of everything — but at the end of the day, I don't think their process was best for me and what I needed, and I wish I had known that before I wasted $75. Based on my experience, if you have a simple question or a quick issue you just want to talk through with someone, you'll want to go...

This is the only time I have ever been so dissatisfied in a company's customer service that I have written a review. I hope that this makes just one person avoid the immense headache and money drain of having to deal with this company.

Hands down worst customer service I have ever encountered. Took my computer here for data recovery after a hard drive crash. I was charged $50 for a diagnostics test and told I would receive a call back within 2 business days. After the diagnostics I was told they would know whether recovery of my data would cost $200 or $400, based on the condition of my failed hard drive.

Four days later, I took the liberty of calling back myself to check on the progress, at which point I was told that my data could all be recovered for $200 (tier 1 data recovery). I went ahead with it, happy to only be paying $200 instead of $400. After another 2 weeks I was sent an email letting me know that my computer was ready for pickup. The email also included however, a list of about 200 files that had not been recovered. Now it may just be me, but when I’m told that all of my data can be recovered, I expect ALL of my data to be recovered. To avoid turning this into a novel, I’ll sum up the rest (which has now taken up over 1 month of my time) by saying that after being told that I could spend another $200 to get the tier 2 data recovery done and actually get ALL my files back, I went ahead with it once again, desperate at this point. The catch, however, is that although all of my files were recovered, those 200 that weren’t recovered the first time were now damaged. I of course, was not told that this was a possibility until after the fact. Now one month later, and $400 in the hole, I am getting my computer back and I have never encountered a group of people so ill suited to work in customer service in...