Hi-Tech Electronic Service Center — Local services in New York

I want to share my experience with Hi-Tech, which is similar to some reviewers and in sharp contrast to the all of the 5 star reviews. Feel free to decide for yourself.

I went to Hi Tech to purchase a cassette tape player for a film shoot on Friday, January 22nd, 2021. I called ahead and everyone was really friendly and they had a portable cassette player ready for me when I arrived.

The player is an old GE, probably from the 70s, and when I asked how much the store owner said $60. He said the tape player had been recently checked and refurbished. I asked if he would go lower and he went to $50. Still an insane price for an old tape player that you could find at a garage sale, but I needed it as a working prop in the film soon, so was willing to pay more.

When the owner went to show me that it worked, he didn't have any C batteries, so he told me to go across the street to buy some, which I did. The C batteries, though, were old and had no juice, so the tape player didn't run. He told me he would take the player in the back and have his technician check it.

I had my 18 month old daughter with me so I stepped out to feed her, and when I returned, the owner showed me that the player worked. He played it for 5-10 seconds and it worked, using a jimmyed power cord. I was ready to get out of there, now having spent more than an hour going back and forth between finding C batteries, the player working and not, and my daughter was starting to lose it. I said, "I'll take it and if there's something wrong with it, I can come back." He said "No, no, no." Basically, once I buy it there is no returning it. (I should have left right then!) No returning it to fix it? At a repair shop? After all of this, I still could not tell whether it worked on batteries because he had only showed me that it ran on a jimmeyed power cord. I definitely needed it to run on batteries for the film shoot! I was willing to take it for the exorbitant price if only I could be assured it worked, and was incensed that he would not give me any kind of handshake guarantee or anything like that. Nothing.

You probably see where this is going... when I got home, I ordered batteries and tried out the tape player. It ate the tape and the right nodule in the player will not spin. When I record, it has a clicking sound, and to make matters worse, the Stop/Eject button works only about 1/3 of the time. In other words, it does not play tapes. It is not a working tape player. I can't imagine it was checked by a technician, or if it was the technician was incompetent.

I trusted the owner and Hi-Tech to give me a working order tape player for $50, and learned only that I was a fool for doing so.

When I checked the Yelp reviews before going, I saw 4.5 stars. I think the reviews are manipulated....

I really mean the 1 star review. I had a terrible experience and am now last minute ordering another tape player from ebay that will hopefully work.

I hope this review helps others who are considering buying used equipment from this store. Go elsewhere. The store owner is willing to look me in the eye, say the tape player has been serviced, and sell it to me for an exorbitant price, all the while knowing that the player may or may not work and that he is unwilling to fix it if it happens to be broken. I was naive in putting my trust in them and am...

I heard about this place from a cell phone repair store that couldn't help me. I brought a clock with radio function here that I have had now for 20 years. I arrived at the store at 12:20 PM. The store is small which made me think it would take forever to get the clock fixed. But, I went in and told the clerk that the volume dial on the radio wasn't working after I accidentally dropped it - regardless of how I moved the volume dial up and down, the volume stayed the same. He took my information and told me they would call me when it's ready. (He snatched the Post-Its he used to write my information down from me. I guess he doesn't deal with stress well or he was overwhelmed.) I spoke with Frank who made some comment like "Oh, we don't usually deal with a little $20 clock, we only handle high-end equipment. We will look at it as a courtesy but it will be fixed." He said he would charge like $20 for labor, etc.) I repeated to Frank what I said to the clerk and thankfully I was aware to speak up to him, also asking him, "Well, where can I take it to get it fixed then?" Frank then said he will look at it as a courtesy and see if he can fix it. I didn't think too much of what he said about "seeing if he can fix it." He said the first time that he would be able to, so I remained steadfast on that.

I went to eat something from about 12:50 PM - 1:30 PM and then stood under scaffolding outside the store for about 1 hour (1:47 PM - 2:47 PM) because I wanted to be nearby just in case they called.

It was during this hour that I noticed people brought in regular, everyday items like boomboxes, stereos, etc., to have them repaired. There are Hitachi televisions in the windows that are from the 90's. So, whatever "high-end" means must be unique to him. Just because a certain manufacturer makes something, doesn't mean its high-quality. (At least these days.) In previous decades, things lasted a LONG time and could withstand damage - like my clock!!

I also didn't want to walk around too much in the heat. but I ended up calling at about 2:47 PM and the same clerk told me that it wasn't ready yet. I said to him, "What if I took it somewhere else to get it fixed?" The clerk, with annoyance, said to me that it isn't ready yet and they will call me when it's ready...and that it's open and being worked on. I said OK. I went to eat pizza. (Got in the pizza shop at about 3:15 PM and at about 3:35 PM they called to say the clock was ready.) I went to the store, was told the cost was $25. (No longer $20.) I tested the volume dial and it was fixed.

I don't know if he raised the cost because I called to find out the status even after they told me that they'd call me... because when I called Frank was talking loudly in the background. The reason I called them is I thought from what Frank said to me earlier that he wouldn't take it seriously because it is a "little $20 clock" and they would just push it to the side and forget all about it and wait until the last minute to take care of it or I would have to come back another day to pick it up.

Anyway, I'm glad it was fixed and I needed to get out of there so I didn't care too much at all about the $25. Hope this helps. Otherwise, the store helped me. Hopefully, it can help you with your...

Hi Tech Electronic Service Center on Canal Street in New York City was a great find for me! I have an old SONY combo TV/VCR CRT set (Model KV-20VM30) that developed some kind of problem with the power: while watching TV one night, suddenly the picture shrunk within just a few seconds, and the set went dark. I tried to turn it back on, but the TV would not power up. It was dead. But I liked the set and kept it, hoping to get it fixed one day, although I knew that it made more sense to replace it with a HD flat screen. But I like old technology and wanted to keep this unit, at least partly because it has a built-in VCR that worked well last time I used it, and also for (foolish) sentimental reasons.

Recently I decided to see if Hi Tech would fix this TV when I found the shop through an Internet search. So I called, thinking that they would not even want to bother working on a TV so old (probably about 20 years old). But they said to bring it in, and so I did.

At their shop on Canal Street, I described the problems with the TV, and they said they would look at it to determine what was wrong -- and fix it! I was not only skeptical that they could repair it, but that it could be repaired at a price that was worth the money. I actually resigned myself to losing this TV. But, in fact, Hi Tech delivered! They got this old TV to work again, and at a price that I think was very reasonable and fair. I was amazed!

So I am very happy with the service I received at Hi Tech Electronic Service Center. It's great that repair shops like this one still exist, operating with the high level of competency and expertise they offer for fair prices. It's a rare business these days, one that makes New York the special place it still is (although a difficult place at times!).

I had a very good experience with Hi Tech Service Center and recommend them highly. They do...