If your repair job goes smoothly, I imagine that Hometown Tech is a perfectly acceptable business…read more If there's any wrinkles or delays, good luck finding out about it until after you've spent 4 weeks waiting for your initial assessment.
I was told 'at most 2-3 weeks, probably less' to get an assessment on repairing a laptop fan error. Narrow margin in the worst case, but I can deal with 3 weeks before getting my data back. One business day before the three weeks were up, I called to figure out what was happening- the only point of contact that I had was a new hire at the front desk, who could only tell me that my file was empty, but assured me that the assessment could have started, and that she'd direct the tech to call me. The tech never called.
On Monday, I called at 2 PM. This was foolish, as the 10 AM to 6 PM hours on the google listing actually mean 'you can only reach people at 10 AM', so the automated voice messaging system told me to check the google listing for the business hours that they update daily.
Tuesday, three weeks and a day in. I called at 10 AM, and was put in contact with the manager, who apologized for the delay. They'd had a family emergency and were gone for a week, and the 2-3 week backlog had gotten worse- fair enough. They told me my assessment was more difficult than expected, but she'd call the owner and primary tech in and the assessment would be done Thursday.
Thursday, I hear nothing.
Friday I call to pick up my laptop and cancel the job. I am fed up with the experience, with having to pull teeth to get any idea what's happening, and getting wrong information when I get information. I get an appointment for noon. Shortly before noon, I get a call from the owner who says they're putting it back together, hopefully in time for the appointment, and they expect the fan error to be fixed when they do.
They don't have it finished, and it turns out the reason the assessment took so long was a key came off and part of the case snapped while they were disassembling the laptop, and they were trying to find a replacement. As accomodation and to mollify me they let me backstage and let me do some basic data recovery with their gear while the tech reassembled the laptop. +1 star I guess??
Unfortunately, once the laptop is reassembled the fan error is not fixed, and it's clear that it's not the kind of mechanical blockage that should be a quick cheap fix. At the end of the day my $50 assessment fee and four weeks of waiting got me 'unknown fan error that'll be too expensive to actually be worth fixing.' Worth the $50, but not worth the 4 weeks with no idea what is happening.
Why is the business structured so the only point of contact clients have is unable to tell whether the assessment has started? Why does the manager being gone for a week mean a full extra week of delay? Why was I not called when it was clear they wouldn't make the estimate? Why was I not called when the breakage occurred? Why was I not called Thursday when it was clear they wouldn't make THAT estimate either?
Why did I have to actively call at 10 AM every time to ever find anything out about the status of my case?
It is partly my fault for accepting the initially stated delay, and it is partially faultless for the manager's troubles. Nonetheless, I fully regret coming here and will not be doing so again.
