Tan Max Computer Services — Local services in Maplewood

Sam the owner is a powder keg. He's all smiles and friendly to get the sale, but when an issue arose from his own actions, he was accusatory, rude and unpleasant, then tried to charge me 20% restocking fee on top of his asking price for a part that he was charging $30 more than online prices.

Had an issue with a PC build, my motherboard had an extra power cable socket for an i9, wasn't listed in the diagram, and the other issue was I had a graphics card that requires extra power; so the power supply I purchased elsewhere had neither power cable, so I called up Sam, asked about the extra power cable (he had no idea the second 4pin cable is for i9 10900k CPU which I didn't need running an i7), and my extra 6pin cable for my graphics card, he said he had just the fix: an overpriced poorly reviewed power supply that he puts in all his PC builds at the store.

He assured me all the cables I needed were included, I was desperately looking for a fix for my build at home, so I came to the store right away, he was all smiles and acted like a close friend, a valued customer.

Then I get home. Open the box, lay out all the cables, and neither cable I was assured was there was included. I should have checked the box before I uninstalled my old PSU, so now I don't have the cables I was promised were there, I have to put my old parts back in and wire up the whole PC.

I called him telling him about the cables, and he asked me to take my disassembled PC to his store for no reason other than he doesn't listen to his customers, he just insisted that somehow the cables would magically appear, like I had no idea how to identify what was in the box.

3 days later after I fixed it myself, I called Sam up to tell him about the missing cables and my need to return the uninstalled PSU and his tone changed immediately.

He accused me of lying. His voice had a condescending mocking tone that was accusatory and dismissive. He told me I would be charged $35 restocking fee, but I would never have bought the item from him if he hadn't assured me that all the cables I needed were included, and they absolutely were not.

We agreed on a 10% restocking fee because no matter how hard I tried to point out to him that he was the reason I bought the wrong part due to his ignorance of what I needed and what was in the box, his tone got more indignant, more aggressive and totally out of line for a business owner whose sole focus should be making satisfied happy customers.

I am not happy having to assassinate Sam here in this review, but his own actions are at fault, he has no self awareness, acts as if he knows everything despite being 100% wrong about my needs and his...

I’ve previously taken my pc here when it bluescreened. he said my motherboard and cpu were fried and replaced them with his own. it was a downgrade but the pc worked and i was happy with that. cost about $300 for the diagnosis and downgraded parts.

so i decided when i was upgrading parts to take it back to him. he tells me that swapping parts from my old case to new case would take around 3-4 hours and i paid $75 upfront. i get a call at 6pm (i dropped it off around 1) saying he couldn’t find the power supply cables and i direct him to the cables in the old case and he tells me ok and tells me he’ll call when it’s done. cool.

i dropped the pc there on friday, called on saturday and forwarded to voicemail. i leave a message like call me please. no response. i go in person sunday and they’re closed. i go there monday and my pc is sitting there unfinished. he says i need a new motherboard and cpu (mind you he never called). the motherboard and cpu are brand new parts fresh out of the box. i can tell he doesn’t know wtf he’s doing with this so i take my stuff and take it to another repairman.

when i brought it in to the second store, the new guy showed me pins on my motherboard that weren’t bent before. this is the brand new motherboard mind you. so this guy bent them. the new repair man transfers everything within 2 days. he was able to bend my motherboards pins back, however my power supply, that was in working condition before, had such badly bent pins from this guy that it was unusable. in total that guy charged me $250 including the new power supply.

i paid $75 for this guy to bend pins all over my motherboard and render my power supply useless. i thought he was knowledgeable; now i...

I have been to Tan Max a few times over the last few years. I went one time to have a new battery installed along with software to protect against viruses. Another time I went to have another issue worked on - everything on the computer screen was moving around. Happy with the service both times.

Most recently, this past week, I took my computer in because there was a cracked screen and another crack below the screen. Sam said that he would take a look at it and give me an estimate on the cost of the repairs. It would have been almost as much as buying a new computer so I purchased a brand new one from Sam and also had him install some things and transfer some data from my old computer.

I was extremely pleased with the work that he did and am happy with the new computer. First rate, professional services at Tan Max. I would not go anywhere else because Sam is always thorough and patient with...