Micro Center — Local services in Madison Heights

Edit: I see the owner replied and mentioned they replaced the RAM outside of the return period - this is not true. It was within the return period and they threatened not to honor the original bundle price when replacing the faulty item.

It's great having a Microcenter nearby for parts, but I recommend you do not take your computer for service here as they did not resolve my issue (faulty RAM) and gaslighted me about it.

After buying new hardware from Microcenter (a full build, including GPU), I spent 3 weeks trying to figure out what was causing my computer to turn itself back on after shutting it down from Windows. When I finally realized it was likely a hardware problem I couldn't resolve - but wasn't sure if it was the PSU or motherboard or something else - I took it back to the store and asked them for help via their "free consultation." They suggested I pay $50 for diagnostics to determine what was wrong. I agreed.

Three hours later I get a text that it's ready for pickup. I came to pick it up ASAP (2 days later) and am told it's ready to go. "So what was the issue?" I ask. "I don't know, take a look at the work order there." "But it doesn't mention the issue at all."

The guy behind the counter takes a look, and says "Hmm, I don't think your tech is in but let me go ask if someone else knows what's going on." He came back and says "Yeah they didn't find any issues with it."

"I'm sorry, that's just not true. It powers itself back on every time I turn it off." He replies: "Well, I'm not sure what to tell you, why don't you take it home and see if it works?" "If they didn't change anything, it's not going to work. It's been like this since I put it together." "Well I don't know what to tell you."

At this point, I'm extremely confused. "Isn't that kind of BS?" I ask. "I mean, I bought all this hardware here, it's broken, I bring it back to you, you charge me $50 to tell me what's broken, and then tell me it's completely fine." Now he gets defensive and says, "I don't know why you're yelling at me, I'm not your tech."

To be clear, I never raised my voice. "I'm not yelling, I just don't understand why you're telling me to take my computer home when it's still broken. Can I just leave it here and you can have the tech call me?" "They can't call you," he says.

I'm taken aback. "They can't call me?" "No, they can't call you." "They have no way of getting in touch with me?" "Well, they can text you." ... WHAT?

Before I can say anything he says, "one second" and goes back to talk to his manager. He comes back and says, "I'll just refund you the diagnostics fee."

For what it's worth, Gigabyte support finally responded to my ticket I opened a week ago and suggested removing the GPU and a stick of RAM. Guess what? With one stick of RAM removed, the issue completely goes away! Now I get to figure out if it's the RAM or the motherboard that's bad, and sort out how to RMA it, since Microcenter's return policy is only 2 weeks.

Don't come here for support.

UPDATE: It was a faulty stick of RAM. Should be basic to diagnose. I was begrudgingly given a replacement, but was told they would not honor the bundle price in the future (so they'd be charging me another $50 to replace the...

So I was told for the rtx 5090 and 5080 luanch they're considering a lottery system for the release date beacuse they don't want people to stand in line for the cards the day before the luanch ij the cold. It's basically going to be a completely difrent system than the 4090. Basically people will be selected at random to get the card and thier having a meeting on wensday to discuss that. That's not fair for the people who are willing to brave the cold and know what they're getting into. To be frank, what I hate about this is that no one has informed us of this and literally waiting in line early would have not increased your odds.So basically, I would have went out there for nothing if I had not obtained this information. So to be frank, if I have not have known about it, I would have just been in line that whole time and walked away empty handed. That's not fair for anybody. I spent all this time saving up for a new GPU and it would have turned out that getting there early would have been in vain. I just planned on once.I got the voucher, I would just head back to the car anyway. So you're just gonna get a barcode to scan based on what i've heard. More than likely waiting in line early will not increase your odds. This is giving me pandemic level vibes, and I don't like it. I might just try to get one online at this point. Because at that point, the odds are will be the same. The lack of transparency won't stop people from waiting in line. On top of that, a lot of people made preparations for this and a first come first. Serve basis is much fairer rather than the luck of the draw. I'm thinking that Best Buy may have a first come first. Serve, perhaps I may get a founder's edition that way? Honestly, i'm just not a fan of it. Then they basically said, I have to select the card I want, whether that's an asus, a msi what model. What if I don't know what I want?And I just want what's available? Why do I have to gamble on a certain model? I just don't like the idea of this honestly. It's up to consumer choice whether they want to wait outside or not. I've talked to some people and they said they're not going to stay out in the cold.So at the end of the day, people know what they want and don't want to do. Back during the pandemic, when the 30 series was out of stock. All the time and people wanted a 3080 everybody waited in line in the cold. Just like this granted, it wasn't launch day, but people came there every day just like this. It's not gonna stop it, to be honest. Plus there's people that are already gonna be waiting outside. They don't know about this lottery system. It's just going to leave people disappointed. Not everybody's gonna check the website, not everybody is gonna listen to those around them. I felt like the voucher system was fine.If it ain't broke, don't fix it. People know what they're getting into when...

I was looking for headphones for gaming, and it was my first time like really looking for headphones, or any good audio equipment at all. So me and my girlfriend are looking around talking about this and that when an employee comes up to and offers to help look for headphones. Typically, I would say nah, but I was really feeling good about somebody helping me. He starts rambling away, first good advice, then after it was just inflating his own ego, repeating the same thing over and over and inching me towards an expensive pair of headphones. I said that's too expensive, then he said oh we can price match. This was it the whole reason I listened to him yap, a price match. This price match got me like $100 off, but before that we went over to this little computer that was for employees to quote and look stuff up. He gets his manager over to confirm the price match, and then he offers a "warranty" or "insurance." These are two different things one covers it for most things and the other covers it for manufacture's fault and he kept going back and forth between if you slam it on the ground, it will be covered by this coverage program. I thought oh dang sounds sweet sign me up and then I am like so even if it breaks at all its covered, and then he says no it's only covered with this "extended warranty" and I said I don't want the extended warranty if that's what you're offering, and then again, he flips back to its covered. At this point I'm confused as heck and then he hands me this paper that explains the coverages and I'm looking over it and it's like 100$ for an extended warranty for a year or two, and personally I've never used or needed an extended warranty before, and felt he was purposely misleading me to think it was insurance. I told him no again, he got super flustered and asked me why I didn't want it, I don't remember what I said but he left me alone eventually. This all was super scammy sounding and I'm guessing they make commission off of the extended warranty sales cause why was he pushing me so hard to get some extended warranty, and the entire time he was just saying, "OH this brand has gotten cheaper over the years, so they aren't really as sturdy, or good, or reliable" which is also just complaining and negative. I mean the store is sweet this is the biggest issue I've had from the hand full of times I went there, but I don't really wanna go back after this. Maybe it was a mix up, but I'm still not confident in their employee's knowledge of their products or their...