It is scary to write a review about this man who is so hostile, he sends the same inaccurate form letter as a 'response' to anyone who tells the truth about how he does 'business.' He is abusive. Not only does he not care if he kills a customer, he actually would prefer to; he started smoking in his store after insulting me, and I told him I was allergic. He asked me what the chances were that I would buy something from him -- he said he didn't care if I was allergic because I asked about a Mac, about which he had asked 'Do you want a toy, or a computer?' At least I now am validated seeing all the awful reviews which he fully deserves. He is actually a terrifying person. I can't think of anyone I've ever met anywhere doing anything for any reason who is worse in any way. Since he'd made it clear his store was an unsafe place in which I could die with him happily doing the damage, I wrote him ... and that was unsafe, also. Of course, I expected there was some reasonable part of him that could and would and would even want to hear. I was wrong. There isn't. He does not have that. He insulted and threatened me in e-mail, saying that I sounded like a foreigner. Interesting, since his name sounds rather 'foreign' as well ... and obviously, where I'm from has nothing to do with anything whatsoever. He also bragged to me about how much money he'd made, and asked me how much I had made, meaning that my words meant nothing unless I had made a lot of money. I'm not interested in the question of how he stays in business (He sure does advertise a lot, though!), but rather in why he is allowed to; everything he does is so amazingly terrible, it would seem he should be put out of business by the government. He should not be allowed to have a public-facing storefront, door, sign, window, or anything else. It is not alright to bait people, offering a service or product or product-related service that will not be provided. This man asks why people who have never done business with his 'business' are allowed to review it; why is he allowed to open a door to his abusive ways, which do not include allowing potential customers to make it to his strange view of 'customer status?' His is a closed door, not an open one. It seems he actually has this business just as a way to hurt people. Nothing he does has anything to do with helping anyone, unless you consider his purposeful triggering of people to be a way to achieve some kind of healing ... but that is most certainly not his intention. His intention -- which is most certainly unconscious, as he is most certainly unconscious and by no means any kind of 'guru' -- is to hurt. He wants to abuse, upset, disrupt, perturb, yell, scream, insult, throw off, frighten, scare, terrify, put down, mess with, and otherwise undermine anyone who walks through that door, calls, or writes him. He could be very successful if he'd just honestly say he's someone who can make you feel really bad for a long time in all kinds of ways for anyone who is into that -- there are restaurants where people go to be insulted by the waitstaff, but they go there knowing that in advance. This is not a computer store. This is not a computer parts store. This is not a computer service store. The only kind of 'service' this man provides is ripping people to shreds. If you want to be disrespected, go here. Otherwise, it is not recommended -- unless you work for the city or state, and want to check up on him, so you can shut him down! He most certainly deserves it! In case the above is not clear enough, this man is a menace who has no business being in any kind of customer service business! He is threatening, malicious, mean and dangerous. He wants to hurt, not help. It's interesting that he defends himself -- and that he is defensive -- by saying he gets laudatory messages, as if some or even many people liking him makes any difference whatsoever to the people he disregards, threatens, and otherwise abuses. In fact, this just makes it worse. If it's true that so many people do like him and that he has helped them, then why can't he be decent to the people he decides to treat so very badly? If he really has customers who send him holiday cards and bottles of wine, then why is he such a vile person? Shouldn't that serve to make him more human, rather than less? If he is able to be decent, why does he so often choose not to be? Why does he decide to go the other way? How many people or business on Yelp or any other review platform get such consistently bad reviews? Who else stirs this up in the public that he is pretending to serve? This is more like a trap than a business. He targets people looking for a solution and proceeds to shred them. He is immoral, unethical, belligerent, combative, and strives to rip people apart in any way he can. This business is not BBB (Better Business Bureau)-accredited for a reason. ( https://www.bbb.org/us/nm/santa-fe/profile/computer-dealers/the-computer-guru-0806-17949 ) Awful. read more

This guy is a dick. He may or may not be smart, a computer whiz-kid "guru"... but if he can make a first time, would-be customer walk out within 5 minutes of their first visit, he has problems all the tech brains in the world can't fix. You acted like I was there to rob you of your time the moment I walked in the door. A complete annoyance. Yes, I'm aware buying RAM from you will cost more than wholesale. Yes, I can see that you would prefer to install it yourself, as service work is your bread and butter. Do you have an estimate on what I could expect to pay for your service, beyond the price of the part? "more". Ok. I think I'll just buy ram somewhere else, thank you. " well EXCUSE ME for trying to make a living" Alright man. Eat a dick. Your problem is not that people are stupid, moronic, or trying to keep you from making a living. Your problem is that you have the most reprehensible customer service I've ever encountered in 40 years of life. I'd pay for sub-par but well meaning assistance before I'd pay a dime to any 'guru' with so little care for potential customers' experience. If you were a little better at human relations, maybe you'd not be so frowny and annoyed to hear the door open with potential business, and not needing to squeeze people for money on simple stuff to make a living. You're like a visit to a crappy mechanic. I could feel it in my bones before even visiting the store. Anyone who calls themselves a guru, the best computer place in town BY FAR, is likely the opposite. I found that instinct proved true today. Sorry the world is moving on without you. Sorry I don't need to pay the guru by the hour to unscrew 6 screws and slap in some RAM. I would have happily paid more than what it costs on Amazon to buy RAM from you instead, and pay you to get some advice onoptimizing the computer for creating ultra high resolution graphic art, but we didn't even make it that far because you yelled me out the door. All good, I'll just watch a video or two on my dual boot Arch Linux machine and figure out how a screwdriver works just fine, like most smart people these days. I would have loved to pick your brains about performance optimization and pay you for it, but I guess you didn't want my cash or my crypto today. Fortunately, the information I need is readily available online, for free. Or don't you know that? Or maybe you didn't know that I KNOW YOU KNOW that the manual inserting of RAM is not something I need to pay a big strong guru for. If that's the kind of thing you need to nickel and dime about, then I wonder how much grandmas around here are getting screwed for coming to ask you for help. You need an upgrade far worse than my computer does. The tech term that comes to mind is: "obsolete". You might make some money from desperate grandmas who can't figure out how to upgrade their Gateway to Windows Vista, but I sure as heck do not need what you got. You act like legacy DOS iMac boomertown, good sir. The children of today are on some 4k, liquid cooled, i9, VR ready, encrypted 16TB RAID type shit with streaming crypto nanopayments, homie. And they can pay well for good advice along those lines. Be nicer to people. Edit- I am not deleting the earlier writing about my experience, in case it helps someone. I needed to vent. However, I have been struck all day with the almost spiritual impact of this brief interaction. After reading some other reviews, I am building a picture of a person who is possibly deeply hurting and angry and has built a large psychological structure that overlaps into our shared real world in the guise of a normal business that is a web that invites people in to be destroyed. I pictured a child who once loved computers. As much as a want to rip on him for being a dick, some deeper part of me knows this man could use maybe an excorcism or visit from the mormons. Perhaps his lifestyle is a deep cry for help. I hope that he is simply lonely and sad, only because I imagine that could be helped with work and love from the community and spiritual aptitude, and perhaps he needs help in some way. I hope he receives it in that case. However, if he is truly wholly narcissistic and cruel, then I am at a loss how to interface with that kind of energy besides recommending to stay away from the poison. My feeling about that kind of thing is that a person with good in them can't rationalize with something so dark and unrational without spiritual injury to themselves. That is how abuse occurs. Normal people get sucked in hoping and thinking they can fix something or find the good in something that is inherently sick and unalterable. If you are spiritually bold, go say hi. If you are a priest, visit and pray for this man in case he has a human core capable of reflection and forgiveness. It makes me think of mean things I've done to others. I hope there is something important to be learned from what I encountered today. I've definitely never given such a review. read more

I have been going to the Computer Guru since 2000 and I am entirely happy with the high level of professional, friendly service I have received. He has helped me with my Windows Computers, and then when I switched to Apple, he helped me through that transition. I now have a MacBook Air, an Apple iPAD, an Apple Watch, and The Computer Guru helped me get all of these gadgets working and talking with each other. He helped me learn how to use them, too. I offer the following comments as a result of my long experience with him. I am an intelligent, mature, experienced woman and I am an excellent judge of character: If you want to have a BAD experience with the Computer Guru: Question everything he says, even though you know nothing about computers yourself; cut him off when he suggests necessary upgrades to your old, outdated equipment; plan to spend an hour chatting breezily about every computer problem or question you have ever had, even though he is very busy working on computers belonging to people who have already hired him; act entitled to free information and be hostile to the idea that he likes and needs to be remunerated for his time; act as though you know as much as he does and come into his shop as though you are shopping at Wal-Mart, with the idea of getting as much free information as possible with no intention of necessarily buying anything; and have no respect for his considerable expertise, intelligence and honesty. How to have a GOOD experience with the Computer Guru: Bring your machine in the morning, briefly explain your problem, and let him provide an estimate. If you are smart, you'll leave the computer with him and follow his very sound recommendations and advice. Simply come back at the end of the day to pick up your machine, completely fixed - he can almost always deliver same day service - pay for it and go home in the knowledge that everything is now in order and your problems have been solved. In the unlikely event of any glitches, bring it back, politely point them out, and watch him rectify the issues before your eyes, while you wait. Don't listen to the opinion of those who fell afoul of the Guru's tendency not to suffer fools, badly or otherwise; his desire is to be of service and he has sufficient self-respect that he will not be treated like a doormat. Have you hired him? No? Then remember, he owes you nothing. He values his time and he doesn't like to waste it. He has saved the computers and the data of countless people who went elsewhere first, and understood. I recommend him to all my friends, and they are thrilled with his services also. He is competent, professional, smart, witty, and wise. When it comes to computers, The Computer Guru knows what he's doing, probably better than anyone else in our fair city. We should be glad and grateful that we have him serving us. These bad reviews are mind-bogglingly wrong; they must have been written by very unpleasant and (sorry) ignorant people. Like The Computer Guru, I grew up in a world in which everyone did not act so ENTITLED. read more

Portrait of a monster . . . This is a small and insecure tyrant who feeds off his own self-delusions, and finds himself perpetually hungry for want of greatness in his diet. And like his predecessors, he searches for something to explain his hunger, and to rationalize why a world passes him by without saluting. Where some men leave a mark of their lives as a record of their fragmentary existence on Earth, this man leaves a blot. A dirty, discolored blemish to document a cheap and undistinguished sojourn amongst his betters. He is one of a breed who substitutes volume for substance, sound for significance, and shouting to cover up what is readily apparent - that he is nothing more than an ugly, abrasive asshole whose noise-making is in inverse ration to his competence and character. He is a sour man, a friendless man, a lonely man. A grasping, compulsive, greedy man. This is a man who has lived 64 undistinguished, meaningless, pointless, years, and who can run a four-minute mile so long as he's chasing a fast buck. He suffers from a sickness known as rage; not a virus, not a microbe, not a germ, but a sickness nonetheless, highly contagious, and destructive in its effects. He sees it in the mirror, and upon the countenances of his clients. He lives to be despised. And fate, a hysterically laughing fate, saw to it that he got his wish. read more

I needed help recovering a file, that I temporarily lost track of and within the first minute of walking in to this guys' place, was met with a very scary, mentally and emotionally unstable man, claiming to be a computer guru, who repeatedly swore at me, telling me to "F**K off" and to "get the F*#K out", while pacing and screaming in my face and accusing me of all kinds of nasty, ridiculous and unrelated things. I've never been treated in such a verbally abusive and unprofessional manner by anyone, anywhere!!! Following my running out the door with my computer, while he screamed and swore at me further, he sent me a long email of further insults, that must have taken a couple of hours to write. I went to Capitol Computers following and they took care of my problem quickly, kindly and professionally. They showed me where I had accidentally saved the file that was missing and how to retrieve it either through my time machine or iCloud backups. Go to Capitol Computers if you need any computer help- for your safety and emotional well-being never ever go to Computer Guru!!! read more

SSD Upgrade & Windows 11 Install on Lenovo L340 I brought in my Lenovo IdeaPad L340 (15.6″ model)--a solid but aging machine--and Steven gave it a whole new life. He installed a fresh SSD and upgraded the system to Windows 11, and the results are phenomenal. Boot times are lightning-fast, performance is smooth, and the setup feels like a brand-new laptop. He handled everything with precision: clean install, driver updates, and even a quick check of hardware compatibility. The L340 isn't in production anymore, but thanks to his work, it's running better than ever. I appreciated his clear communication, attention to detail, and respect for my workflow needs. And fast! Brough it in at 10 am, done at 1 pm! Highly recommend for anyone looking to extend the life of their current device with smart upgrades and professional service. read more

The Computer Guru rocks, but that doesn't come close to telling the whole story. Steven Salemi is smart, and a computer expert, but he also grasps the total environment that is a computer and its users. And further, he tells it like it is. Some want to be mollycoddled. I know I do at times. Steven cuts right to it. He provides a BS free zone. He speaks with philosophy, intelligence, and heart. He cares. If your computer can be saved he will save it. If its done he will tell you straight up. He is actually fully motivated and genuinely enthusiastic to get you back up and running and to tell you the real story about where you are at, right from the start. I LOVE his special brand of truth telling. If you are strong, you will not only have your computer back and working fabulously, you will grow! Andrew Hunt read more

Interesting--I'm not the only one who managed to unleash the incredible anger & rudeness that's obviously simmering a half-inch below the surface. In the course of asking typical non-techie info-gathering & clarification questions he suddenly got really nasty and HUNG UP (!) on me! A FIRST in my long experience of business calls. I'd heard about that ugly disposition years ago from a (very) personal ex-acquaintance of his but thought I'd give it a try, as that was long ago . . . astonishing for a business owner to be that way. Obviously at least some of the work can get done ok or he wouldn't be in business all these years -- so if that's all that matters, good luck . . . The exact opposite as the other poster's experience: as bad as it gets. read more

Worst human being ever but little did he know I sure did record the entire thing, he called my mother some of the most vile and awful things any person could think of and he did it proudly, how he still is standing in my town is to be continued my uncle is a state senator, and he just herd that recording and his eyes flared like flash light and I was willing to take the stupid credit, he went psycho for no reason. It's a pity how someone who claims to be so smart could be so stupid. You don't treat people like that and if you are then don't open a business. 22 plus years well I hope they were enjoyable wrong native to this town you should have not assumed I was some poor nothing you could abuse. I do have people in higher places then your horse..... read more

I have been a very satisfied customer of Steven Salemi (the "Computer Guru") for 16 years and counting. During this time, I have serviced 7 computers with him, of which I have purchased 6 from his store. He offers much more knowledge and service than one can find especially at large, name brand, retail chain stores. It also helps to know the repair man, so to speak. Much like taking your cars to a reputable repair shop. You get good service and good advice from a person who knows their product, who keeps abreast of the latest technology and the like. If you live and work in Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico, the Computer Guru on Agua Fria Street is the place to go for all of your computer and printer needs. read more

Even just talking about this place puts off bad vibes. I have never met such a rude person in my entire life. He treats people like sh*t and I do not think it is ok. Being rude to people is no way of running a business. It is not even just a slightly rude attitude, it is overly psychotic. I honestly do not think he should be able to continue a business in such an amazing place. I would never in a million years take my computer back to him. Read other reviews on google if you are considering taking your computer to him. I am not one who like to speak bad of others, but sometimes it is necessary to protect others. read more

I read ALL the reviews and I see that they are all BAD reviews about this Salami Guru. He is a total ahole. Does not respect people who do business with him and will narcissisticly put himself on a pedestal while he berates the locals and calls them "STUPID". He might have a thriving business but his ethics are something to be said about. PLEASE DO NOT GO TO THIS BUSINESS ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE A LOCAL AND WANT TO BE SHOUTED AT AND TOLD HOW STUPID YOU ARE. He is a true AHOLE at its finest. read more

Avoid at all costs!! The owner is arrogant and demeaning! I have never met such a horrible person in a professional environment! From the moment I walked in he talked down to me, was demeaning, and belittling. He is full of himself in the most aggressive way. In addition, he excessively charged me for simply adding a simple cable -- $250! So he is greedy in addition to being arrogant. What an incredibly horrible person . . . as you can see by all the other reviews below. read more

The Computer Guru helped me sort out of Apple iPad, my Android Phone, my e-mail, iCLOUD, everything. It was all a mess before I came to him, and it was like he waved a magic wand and everything works perfectly now. I bought TWO Yamaha Vino scooters from him also, and look forward to riding all summer! He seems to know practically everything about everything, and the answers he gives me always make sense and always work! THE VERY BEST. read more

What an asshole of a "guru" Knows next to nothing about computers and has a terrible company taking advantage of even dumber old Santa Feans. Just Google this guy "Steven Salemi" and you will see everyone has a consensus except for the mentally decayed and technologically challenged. HE is an utter loser with no skills and no professionalism. Go to Dotfoil instead! Better yet, just Google the answer to your PC problem like he does! read more

This man is vile and rude. I went in for help and within 2 minutes, literally 2 minutes, he told me to fuck off (3 times), get out, and called me an idiot several times too. His place is a dump. he may be strung out on drugs. I was literally in there 2 minutes and he was ranting and raving at me like a fiend. do not go see this man; save yourself the abuse. read more

My dealings with Steven Salemi have always been positive. The Computer Guru understands my business needs and is able to show me ways to optimize my use of computers in order to make my business operate efficiently. Steven knows computers. I tell him what I need, and he goes to work. The end product is exactly what I need. read more

I needed my computer fixed, very simple issues... But the owner was very rude and unprofessional. Initially I had found the business through Facebook, so after that horrible experience, I reviewed his page, described my experience, and he responded to me with a nasty email. I would NEVER suggest doing business here! read more

My friend visited and was verbally assaulted (screamed at) and gaslighted when simply asking for more information on a computer they were considering purchasing. Owner is clearly threatened by outside conpetition and intentionally witholds information. He is pushy and unstable. Not fit to be a business owner. read more