TCS Computer Inc

Brought two laptops in on 04/14/22. Of course they could not give me an estimate for repairs until they diagnosed the problem. Fyi, they have a minimum diagnostic fee of $80 and by filling out a service ticket you must agree to an initial fee of up to $180. Went to pick it up on 04/15 and wouldn’t you know it, was conveniently charged the full $180. Diagnosis? It needed a new screen. Since diagnosing amounted to nothing more than connecting the computer to an external monitor and watching it, I considered this charge to be excessive. However, they did tell me there would be no further labor charge if I had them do the work. When I got there I discovered they forgot to replace four mounting screws for the hard drive. This may seem like a small item. But, it is an indication of sloppy workmanship. They replaced the screws and I had them order the new screen. The other laptop had a corrupted external hard drive. They kept it over the weekend to clone the data onto a new internal drive and install it. On 04/18 I went to pickup the second laptop, only to find four more missing screws for the external hard drive enclosure. After searching for an hour they were able to locate some screws that would fit. More sloppy work. For a new 500GB SSD drive, cloning the data and installing it, I was charged $160. I considered this to be somewhat reasonable. Brought it home only to find the new hard drive was also corrupted. Brought it back so they could attempt to repair the operating system. Since they already had my money, further repairs were given a low priority and put on hold. After almost a week later, they had to install an entirely new Linux os on it. Thereby erasing all the data and files. I told them this was not a problem since I had everything backed up. On 4/26 Mazi called to tell me it was ready. He said it would be no problem to pick it up the following day. I arrived at the store at 10:30 a.m. on 4/27 only to find they were closed. Went back home and called them several hours later. I was told that Mazi only worked a half day and the owner, Abi was on a remote call. After two weeks, four trips to their shop and $340 later, I can finally say the two laptops are working well. In all fairness, part of this can be attributed to their unfamiliarity with Linux operating systems. But they knew this up front and it should not be used as an excuse for shoddy repairs. Computer and laptop repair are highly competitive businesses in this area. There are numerous technicians who both work from home and have a physical store front. Before letting TCS do any repairs, I would highly recommend you try to self diagnose the problem first and then shop around. I would suggest looking at Washington Consumers Checkbook magazine, Yelp reviews and Google to research good computer technicians who charge reasonable prices. Unfortunately, I did find TCS in Consumers Checkbook and their glowing reviews did not reflect my experience. In hindsight, I should have just connected the one laptop to an external monitor myself to see if it worked, then replaced the screen. On the other one, I could have just reinstalled the OS and cloned the hard drive. Both of which are well within my skill level.

Smoothly done. On schedule and delivered as expected

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Tech called me to buy virus/spyware and have them install. I refused. I already had antivirus/firewall called Bit Defender on it. Admitted, he had to uninstall software to install their test software. The problem was not fixed when I plugged it in at home. They refused to refund and wanted me to keep bringing it in until they fixed it. I refused since the computer was more broke than when it entered the shop. No confidence in their repair abilities. I took a guess it was the power supply. I installed a new power supply. It is now fixed.

Walked in without an appointment with a laptop pc which had a loose letter 'o' key. As I filled out a Repair Ticket, the owner (name unknown) spent about 5-7 minutes fixing the loose key. Since it was my first visit he briefly told me the computer brands they carry and services they perform.