Lightspeed Computer Services

When I called Lightspeed to set up an appointment Ray told me flat out not to waste my money on such an old machine. He explained that laptops are only set up to last about 2.5 years and this machine is old enough that a major breakdown could seriously be on the horizon and I would be much better off replacing it. He said he would be more than happy to set up an appointment to transfer data or set up anything I needed help with. I appreciate his honesty!

Good

David did a good job cleaning the hard drive, and he gave good advice about what we should do in the future. However, when he combined the two separate drives, he unfortunately lost some of the documents and other files. When I discovered this and contacted him, he came and worked to find what had been lost, but was not able to recover them. Fortunately I had backed them up some months ago, but anything that had been added recently were lost. David apologized profusely, it was very embarrassing for him. He said that this was the first time anything like this had happened. He didn't refund our money---after all, he had cleaned up the computer. But he did give us full credit on our account so that if we have trouble in the future we will not be charged up to and including that amount. He was very professional and pleasant to work with.

Called Ray the morning of 3/26/2013 and explained my computer problem, we made an appointment the same day and he fixed the problem quickly and at a reasonable price. Ray also explained ideas to prevent the problem from occuring in the future and answered many technical questions that I had as well.

Our computer had suddenly died Saturday night. It seemed to start to turn on but wouldn't transmit anything to the monitor. I suspected a motherboard or power supply problem. On Tuesday, I called Lightspeed Computer Services. Ray let me know that costs of some repairs (like replacing the power supply for our slimline desktop) could possibly outweigh the cost of buying a new inexpensive computer. However, the diagnosis and any simple repairs would be covered by the flat fee. This all seemed quite logical and fair. Ray was able to come by our house and look at the computer an hour and a half later. He knew almost immediately that it was a motherboard problem. He tried about ten different things to get it to boot up properly. Nothing worked until the last attempt: he switched the memory into the alternate channels. It worked! Yay! It all took less than 15 minutes and required to new parts. He was prompt, quick, professional, and courteous. The fee was very reasonable. We are so happy to have a working computer again!

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It was a very good experience

He advised me not to have it fixed because the cost would exceed the value of the laptop.

One call to Ray was all it took! He was able to get out almost immediately, figured out the problem and fixed it. He took all the equipment with him that he would need (a new NIC card, cables, etc.), but it turned out that the problem was the old router that was still in use. He removed that, correctly hooked up the new router and all was well. It did not even take him an hour! In addition to fixing the problem, he did a terrific job explaining the issue to mom. She understood what he had done and didn't feel like she'd been swamped with a load of technical jargon. . We were extremely pleased and would recommend him without reserve. Key points: -- he was able to get her on the schedule quickly -- he was able to solve the problem -- he did a great job explaining technical issues in a way that a normal person could understand -- his charges were extremely reasonable.

At first, he asked me whether I really wanted to spend additional money on my netbook in lieu of purchasing a new one and for several reasons, I did. He asked me questions about how I use the computer and what programs I use most frequently and we talked through my options regarding old calendar and email data (saved with a program I am no longer using). In the end, he suggested what I should keep and what I should ditch, got me signed up for a data backup service*, and returned my computer fairly quickly. I am using it to write this report and am quite happy with its performance. *The amount I paid includes the subscription to the backup service.

Very successful. Lightspeed was able to retrieve some personally valuable photos and files. Due to the age of the computer, they warned me that they might not be able to get anything off the hard drive.