After reading so many good, but old, reviews I decided that I would take my Mac mini down to see what was wrong with the internal hard drive, thinking that the connection may have gotten loose after I installed it. So I made my appointment for the earliest possible day, about 2 weeks in the future. So that day I dropped off the machine with instructions to find out what the problem was and recover the drive if it could be easily done. Having spent a number of years as the technical director of a Hollywood advertising agency I deeply understand the technical aspects of computers and systems that we were using, so I'm novice at the issues and fixes. I dropped it off on a Tuesday or Wednesday and when I could not get a message returned I drove down there to find out what was going on. The tech said that the drive was damaged and I asked if he was able to recover any files, and he said that he had archived what he could. I told him that I would bring in a replacement drive and he recommended that I get an SSD. I decided there might be nice to have a very fast drive, although in my experience SSD's can fail as often it's hard disks. I ordered one and it arrived over the weekend and I drove down and dropped it off to have it installed. He told me that he would have it done by the end of the week. That Friday I tried to call but again received no call back from message. So once again I drove down there and he informed me that he was busy restoring the data at the time and that I could pick it up next week. I asked what was taking so long and he said the restore was we're going very slow. I didn't ask him any particulars but did ask that he not install the new APFS, the new Macintosh file system, because of certain incompatibilities with SSD drives and install instead the old Apple extended file system. After returning from a weekend trip I tried calling on Wednesday but again got no return call from my message. By this point I was getting pretty tired of their cutesy little message and having nobody ever return my phone calls. So again I drove there. The answers I was getting were vague. He said it would be ready Friday. Friday I called again to see if it was ready, but of course nobody ever answers there and nobody ever returns a message. So once again I drove down there to pick up my machine. He told me that it would be done at the end of the day. At this point I had lost what faith in I had mac daddy and just told him I wanted the machine right now. He restated that it would be ready at the end of the day. About 4:00 that afternoon I got a phone call from Bodie the owner. He said it would be ready in an hour. I went down there and he asked me if I wanted to try to recover the old drive. As I had a fairly recent copy of most of the files I told him no as I didn't think I ever get any work done to my satisfaction anyhow. When asked about the poor communication, Bodie said that he had been away. When I asked why he never checked his message while he was away, he said 'I never do that when I'm away'. Obviously he didn't instruct any of the employees to return phone calls either. When I got home the internal drive didn't appear on the desktop so I had to go in and make some changes and then restore all my documents and applications. It was at that point that I realized that instead of installing Apple extended file system he had installed APFS. Too late to reformat, after I'd restored everything to a decent functioning state.
All in all it was a very frustrating experience, which was made all the worst by the terrible communications. I figure if the owner of the business goes away should at least instruct his employees on how to carry on business. I also mentioned the fact that his phone message, which is extremely annoyingly cute jokey and long, still mentions that they would be closed for the memorial Day holidays, which were already long past. Last time I checked their message he still hadn't changed it. It's sad how once good businesses turn lazy and sloppy. read more
