EDIT FOR THEIR REPLY ON GOOGLE REVIEWS: I paid by Zelle, not credit card, so calling this a…read more"chargeback" makes no sense. Yes, I initially left the 5-star review before I had verified the work, my mistake for trusting them. They offered the partial refund once I proved the work was not done, then they gave me a check that had a stop payment placed on it, so it could not actually be cashed. Proof of THEIR shady behavior: (https://imgur.com/a/m8y8N0I)
Thanks to their lying reply, I set a reminder to repost this review every 2 months in every fb group I already posted it to. They will lose more than they charged me without a doubt now.
ORIGINAL:
They placed a stop payment on a refund check they gave me after I proved they did not complete the invoiced work. Very unprofessional, and low quality "business". They can only handle basic work at best
I paid $762.68 for work that included a motherboard BIOS update, Windows 11 Pro installation, data backup, hard-drive repartitioning, rush service, and an onsite service call. The main objective was to move my computer from Legacy/MBR to UEFI/GPT with Secure Boot enabled.
After the work was supposedly completed, Windows AND Powershell still showed:
* BIOS Mode: Legacy
* Secure Boot State: Unsupported
* My actual Windows boot/system SSD was still MBR, not GPT
* The motherboard still reported the same old BIOS version from 2021
Juan Carlos's explanation was that they had used a "custom firmware" and that Windows simply would not display the changes correctly. However, both Windows System Information and PowerShell independently confirmed that the machine was still booting in Legacy BIOS mode from an MBR system drive. So it was clearly not a display issue. They later offered to redo the work the "standard" way, which only reinforced that the promised end result had not been delivered the first time.
The computer was also returned without my six-monitor setup functioning properly. Before the work, I specifically told Juan Carlos not to update the graphics driver because I knew it could break the setup. The driver was updated anyway (he confirmed it the day of delivery), and the monitors did not work correctly when the computer was returned, despite being told that everything had been tested. Juan Carlos could not figure out the solution himself; I ultimately provided the fix. When I asked for a refund he then acted as though I should be grateful because he had spent additional time getting the computer to work, even though the problem resulted from a driver update I explicitly asked him not to perform (which I also gave him the fix for).
They repeatedly say they will return your computer in the same functioning condition, but that was clearly not true since Juan Carlos said the extra time he spent was "out of scope" once the topic of a refund came up.
The most unacceptable part came after I agreed to their partial-refund offer (of only $100, even though the incomplete line items were much more). They gave me a refund check, but a stop payment was placed on the check, so it could not actually be cashed. Giving a customer a refund check and then preventing the payment from clearing is beyond unprofessional.
Google reviewers should also look at this company's Yelp reviews. The Yelp reviews are much more consistent with the true experience than the overwhelmingly positive picture shown on Google (which is really from simple jobs it looks like).
Between the incomplete technical work, the questionable "custom firmware" explanation (which is just a lie that I caught Juan Carlos in), the unapproved driver update, the computer being returned without all monitors working, the dismissive attitude, and a refund check with a stop payment placed on it, this was one of the worst service experiences I have ever had.
Regarding the money, they can keep the $700. I've posted the full story on multiple review sites and in multiple local Facebook groups (even in Spring), so their little stop payment stunt will cost them far more in lost business than simply honoring the refund would have.