Apple Repair of Tampa Bay

Reviews

• Fred van den Broecke

  Oct, 10 2018
  ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
  I called around town to replace a graphics card on a 27" Imac and he gave me a better price than everyone else first over the phone, then going to his house (that reeked of cigarettes) and confirmed it again over the phone when he got the price of the card.
  Finally, the card arrives 10 days later and he asks to proceed. At this point, I confirm the price and he says that the contract I've signed is based on an hourly rate and that it would take 2 hours to replace the card. Why couldn't he tell me that from the beginning is still a mystery to me. I would've gone somewhere else.
  
  At this point I had no other choice then to move forward with the repair considering I gave him a deposit that I would never get back should I choose to go somewhere else and that he had my computer.
  On pick-up I tell him about the verbal agreement we had, of which he obviously had no recollection.... like I'm just making stuff up !
  
  I pay (no choice there) and once home I realize that he had left some serious whipping marks and white specs of dust (maybe cigarette ash) on the back side of the glass screen.
  I text him and his reply was not apologetic at all and said he could clean while I wait. It takes me a good 45mn to get to his house, so no, I'm not going back there. He also does site visits but didn't offer to come to my house, just to explain how I could it myself if I wanted to.
  Things like that should be verified before delivery.
  
  Recap:
  - bait and switch on the price despite that he will deny it
  - long turnaround time
  - not clean service
  - house is a mess outside and inside and stinks, certainly not suitable for full price service
  - ended up paying a bit more than what Screwbox had quoted me upfront with a 2 day turnaround time, a clean and convenient storefront and no bad surprises.
  
  I run a small business too and when I give a price to someone, I stick to it unless we agreed that it might NEED to be revised, not because I fell like it that day.
  I'm not doubting of Bert's technical capabilities but the whole experience was not to my liking at all and I will NOT recommend him to anyone that puts a price on someone word.
  
  ----------------------------
  
  8/25/16 edit
  You chose to respond in a non apologetic way and make it sound like everything is ok on your end, so I feel compelled to respond, although this is not a pace for it. You can always call me.
  
  Another case of he said, she said in response to my "unfair" review.
  Unfair ? what are we, 5 years old ? You run a business, so act like it.
  Unprofessional service calls for fact-driven reviews, not unfair ones.
  
  If anything was unfair, it's your way of handling my call. You offer to clean the screen while I wait, after driving another 45mn to your place, again ??!!! I don't think so. Why didn't you pay attention to the fact that it wasn't clean when you gave it back to me ? It was more than obvious that it wasn't just a smudge once I set it on my desk. You were ok taking my money, so if nothing else, you could've offered to come to my house and clean it. I run a business too and if I mess up, I'll eat the cost, not send text messages to my clients and refuse to take responsibility for it.
  Despite the fact that I signed a contract, you should not have charged me more than what we agreed on; no one forced you to do so, you run the show.
  
  I am sure you're a capable tech and am glad that you help a bunch people that leave nice reviews, but not me, not this time.
  
  I'm not hard to please: I come to you with a problem, you say you can fix it, I trust you, we agree on a price, you fix it, I pay, we're both satisfied. Simple, no ?
  The only true part in that statement is the fixing part, the rest goes out the window. Stand your grounds if you want, but it won't change the fact that what I have written here and previously is what happened, even if your judgement is"cloudy"...
  Good luck to you.

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