This Yelp, I'm ashamed to say, is a long time coming. I am a writer who specializes in writing…read moreabout political subjects in both a fictional and non fictional capacity. I have an editor and partner with whom I frequently lock horns, and during a heated argument I yanked the power cord out of my laptop to pack up and leave, as there was no reconciling our positions over an issue I scarcely even remember right now. It took place in the fall of last year.
What I didn't realize, during my tantrum, was that in yanking ing out the power cord I simultaneously fried the motherboard of my Samsung laptop and at first sought repair from the nearest place I could find. A little Indian run shop near the Hicksville LIRR train station. The proprietor held my computer for over 3 weeks without addressing my problem (or even accurately diagnosing it) and I resolved to threaten to call the BBB and the police if he held my computer one day longer. He procured my computer and my deposit was returned. However, I still was no, closer to arriving at a comprehensive diagnosis.
I took it to the Best Buy I'd bought the thing, but the Geek Squad just told me that they couldn't help me because I'd failed to buy their service contract when I purchased it. After taking it to one other place which also said they couldn't service my laptop for one reason or another, I let my fingers do the walking and found Networks by Design in Island Park. Not exactly a stone's throw, but If they could properly diagnose my laptop, the trip would be vindicated.
There I met Kevin Huhn, proprietor of Networks, and I met a man who listened to my concerns (as I had a large body of several works, all time sensitive due to this highly politicized year, including a novel I'd written that addressed gun violence, specifically assault rifles that could be easily converted into automatic-fire weaponry, and whether the public should have access to such a thing any more than they should have access to a pineapple grenade). I've been having money problems and while he said my motherboard was unrepairable we swapped out the data from my computer to an external hard drive I had owned. My money issues have been persistent, but Mr. Huhn, sensitive to my situation, was flexible enough to bend his own policy insofar as holding hardware, as my hardware was slim in profile and occupied, in his opinion, a negligible amount of his warehouse space. He has been very patient with me, as I've attempted to raise the money to pay my bill, his only request being that I merely call in from time to time to let him now how things were fairing for me.
This commercial chivalry, I judge, is a phenomenon that is quickly going the way of the dodo bird. Long. ago when I i was still in college, I had a roommate who's car battery died and he and I pushed his station wagon to the nearest service station for a jump. They said sure, that will be 50 bucks. We were both floored. Any neighbor on the street would have provided that courtesy for free, as long as you had the cables, and sometimes whether or not you had them because they did.
Mr. Huhn flexibility, courtesy, and largess have made me feel secure in knowing my story (amongst other specimens of my literature were in a safe environment, and said courtesy is a rapidly receding phenomenon amongst businesses anywhere on the Island and, apparently, off of it.
I would recommend Networks by design unreservedly as the owner has demonstrated sparkling, superrogatory business ethics and sensitivity to a customer who has been, for nearly a year now, somewhat down and out. I know that he and his staff are also gifted technicians equipped to diagnose and prescribe multiple approaches to reckoning with your hardware/software issues and provides a multitude of services beyond what is listed on his home page. I owe that man and his company and aim to make good on my debt. If only there were more commercial enterprises like his. He should totally franchise out. Everyone in the nation should have access to this level of sensitivity and service, especially during these dark economic times.
