I would consider myself an intermediate PC enthusiast, and will include a section for other enthusiasts to give a full idea of how poor his service was. Here is what I will say for those that are not as technically inclined:
Imagine you're in your car and you go to roll the window down, but it won't roll down. You've fixed your car before when something broke, and you're somewhat familiar with the window crank, so you take a look. You conclude that, without proper tools, you can't fix it yourself, so you take it to a mechanic. You describe the problem, what started it and exhaustively detail everything you tried, even going so far as to prepare a comprehensive document with all the relevant information. After thanking the mechanic, you go home. He sends you a photo in the morning of your car with the window rolled down. Hooray! The problem must be solved. You can't check it right away, so you drive home and later that night upon taking a closer look at it, you realize that all he did was break your window.
To add insult to injury, when you picked up your car he asked if you knew about the faulty blinker on your right mirror. Hang on, you included a list of known issues in the text file you sent! Furthermore, the file very explicitly stated "please don't break my window!" and now It's obvious he didn't read it, nor did he listen to anything you said regarding your car; he just broke the window the moment you left and tried to charge you MORE than an actual repair from professionals. But your window is out of the way now, isn't that what you wanted?
Hard to imagine such a fraud being so well reviewed, right? Well stay far away from Derrick's PC repairs because, unfortunately, that's pretty much what this is.
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For my fellow enthusiasts or anyone else who cares to know more, here's what actually happened:
My custom Windows 10 PC froze at the motherboard boot screen a few days ago. I exhausted all of the user-level troubleshooting options I had at my disposal other than fully wiping the OS drive (SSD) because I didn't want to lose the data if it wasn't necessary. Reseating components, different RAM sticks in different slots, various peripheral changes, resetting CMOS, nothing was working. I figured I was out of at-home options so I started looking for someone who had the tools I lacked. I wrote a comprehensive text file with everything: all my specs, system info/history, incident report, every troubleshooting attempt and their result, known issues, and personal notes--in other words, a PC repair guy's wet dream.
Derrick had good reviews, so I brought my PC over to his office space and explained what happened. It didn't even feel like he was paying attention. I explained that I didn't think it was the SSD since the problem started when the computer got jostled slightly, and SSDs get knocked around during shipping and in laptops all the time--they're more secure than the motherboard itself. But still, he insisted his main concern was the SSD. "Well, if you HAVE to reset anything, reset the SSD, but IDEALLY DON'T." I said to which he responded "I got you."
The text file stated "Don't reset or delete anything without asking me please", so I figured it would be fine. The next morning I wake up to a text from Derrick with some photos of my computer up and running... on Windows 11... and an empty SSD...
I'm not a reactionary person, and the data wasn't imperative to my business, so I inquired.
"Did you try accessing the drive from another system?" No.
"I detailed everything in the text file, did you read it?" Yes, but he then relayed incorrect information about it, so no.
"What else did you try before you cleared it?" Nothing, his first step was to delete 200GB of data. He didn't even try using a different SSD first to diagnose the problem, just assumed that was the cause and chose the nuclear option.
I cannot understate the level of ineptitude displayed here, it's genuinely baffling to me as someone who uses a computer for a living.
And if that wasn't enough for you, the SSD wasn't the problem and my PC continued having the exact same problem once I rebooted it after setting my system back up. He tried to charge me $90+ for deleting files and installing the wrong OS in a computer with a faulty component without trying to find the faulty component. A diagnostic fee with no diagnosis. Yes, he technically got it in a working state for about 12 hours, but when you get your tech fixed by a professional you should have higher standards than "working" even if it will work for a little while. We wouldn't trust a doctor who insisted you needed surgery without rigorous testing, and we shouldn't trust "professionals" who delete hundreds of GB of data without checking to see if it can be recovered first, either.
I never write reviews, but I felt a moral obligation. If I can prevent even one person from taking their machine here, this review will have been worth writing. read more
