On the Fly Computer Guy

Review: Hi my name is [redacted], I recently brought my sons phone to on the fly computer guy to have the screen replaced, today would be day 12 and when we brought it there on September 27 witch is a Saturday, the gentlemen there told me that we would have it back on Monday, no call back, didn't hear a word from them so I decided to call them on Thursday, I kept getting the Springfield office, they told me the part hadn't come in yet according to there records, I said this was supposed to take until Monday afternoon, why would you tell me that if you didn't have the part, the guy then hung up on me, finally I did get a hold of the Vernon CT office, I was put on hold, and then hung up on while on hold, I went there and asked for the phone, and a refund ,the gentlemen there said he could give me the phone but I would have to come back to see the manager for a refund the phone was then given to me in a box in pieces, I asked why would you take a phone apart before you get the part, this is common he said, so I took the phone and tried to bring it somewhere else but no one would work on it because it had already been taken apart by someone other then there own technician, so I had no choice then to bring it back to this place and its been 12 days now and they clamed they still don't have the part, mind you, this is something they repair all the time! I just think its horrible that they wont just fix the phone and give it back, would appreciate your help, Thank You [redacted]Desired Settlement: I think they should fix the phone for nothing and Pay for the service on the phone that we haven't been able to use for what will be at least two weeks if not longer from the look of it

Business

Response:

[redacted] did indeed bring his [redacted] in for repair to our Vernon, CT store on 9/27. He is correct in stating that we repair [redacted]s on a regular basis. We do take them apart to verify the damage and parts needed for each repair. Usually the turn around on an [redacted] is same day/next day, and we usually have the parts in stock. However, there are several different [redacted] screens available depending on color, [redacted] model/generation, and the wireless carrier. Unfortunately the screen needed for his phone was already on order as we had run out and we had not received them as of that time. The technician assumed we had them in already or in stock in another one of our stores. We offered to use a different color screen to get the phone repaired quicker. The repair of the phone was completed and the [redacted] picked up the phone on 10/9. The staff at the store offered a discount to the customer, which he seemed pleased with, for the extended time and inconvenience.

I had an emergency situation with my laptop while my IT manager was out of town so I took my laptop to on the fly computer guy for help. I do not know anything about computers so I had their tech call my IT manager for advice.
My manager gave them explicate instruction on what to do and how to handle the situation and they failed to do as he requested causing me to lose ALL of my emails. My IT guy told them to remove the old drive and install a new one so my files would be 100% safe but they felt they knew better and ignored his advice. They claim they back up your files but apparently they are not very good at this.
A+ my Aunt Fannie, these people are hacks plain and simple. If your data is important in any way I would not trust On the Fly Guy with it. They put me in a horrible situation that I will never fully recover from. Stay away! Far Away!

Review: I dropped off an [redacted] for a flat-rate screen repair ($90). After 2 weeks (longer than the promised turn-around time) On The Fly contacted me to inform me that they required a part in order to complete the repair and informed me of the price of the part. I agreed to this. However, they did not inform me of any additional labor costs. They then billed me for $100 of labor charges (resulting in a bill much greater than the value of the [redacted]). I attempted to contact the manager regarding this disparity, but it took 5 phone calls over 3 weeks before he finally returned my messages. He first informed me that all of their phone calls were recorded (illegal in CT without consent of both parties) and then told me that he did not have time to look further into the matter, would not listen to the recording of the call, and offered me only a slight discount off the labor charge which I had never agreed to.Desired Settlement: Full refund of the labor charge which had never been agreed to.

Business

Response:

[redacted] brought in a black [redacted] touch on 12/18/13 at 1:09PM.

We were out of replacement screens for his particular model and were

waiting for an order of them to arrive, which had already been placed before he

dropped off his [redacted]. We do not promise return times on any repairs, and

definitely when we are waiting for parts to arrive that we may not know the

exact arrival time on. [redacted] stopped in to check the status on

12/23/13 at 2:58PM. He was informed that we were still waiting for the

parts and were hoping they would be in that Thursday. The parts order

arrived on 12/26/13. We immediately installed the new parts and realized

they were not sitting proper on the [redacted] as the back case had been

warped/twisted and was no longer flat from when the screen was cracked. We

called and left a voicemail on [redacted] phone number ending in [redacted] on

12/27/13 at 4:49PM. He stopped in on 12/28/13 at 2:08PM looking for a

status update and informed us he had not received the message about the back

cover. [redacted] stated he would call back on 12/30/13 to order the back

cover for his [redacted]. Customer called and ordered back cover at a cost of

$30 on 12/31/13 at 12:42PM. The back cover arrived on 1/10. We

migrated the internal parts and the new screen to the new back housing,

realized that the power cable was also damaged. We had to solder on a new

power cable and reassemble the [redacted]. The soldering, reassembly, and

testing were done at 1/14/14. We called the customer on 1/14 at 6:02PM to

let him know the [redacted] was all set. We also, before even calling him,

discounted the labor for the replacement of the back housing and the soldering

of the power cable by 20% as a courtesy. The customer did not pickup the

[redacted] until 2/7/14 at 11:11AM. The cost of the screen repair is for his

model [redacted] $90 flat rate, including parts and labor, and this is the most

common of repairs. This is JUST for the screen repair, nothing else.

Anything else that needs to be done to the [redacted] will result in additional

labor and parts charges. This is explained to all customers, and was

explained to [redacted] by the staff in our store, although he states that is

not the case. However, to back up this policy, each of our locations has

a posting behind the counter that clearly states [redacted] digitizer glass repairs

are $90 flat, and does not include any other parts or labor. [redacted] is aware of this sign, and admits

to not having seen it. He did call us

several times and spoke to various staff, all of whom were empowered to resolve

any customer satisfaction issues within company policy. In the

end, [redacted] was charged for the flat rate glass repair, $30 for the back

cover, and labor discounted 20% off for the back housing and power button cable

repair. He was not charged for the power

button cable itself. As we have

discussed with [redacted], we have already given him one free part, and a

courtesy discount off the additional labor cost incurred above and beyond the

flat rate glass repair. We will not give

any further discounts or refunds on those labor charges which we claim were

explained to him, and which are clearly posted in each store.

Consumer

Response:

Review: [redacted]

I am rejecting this response because:

Review: The service tech came to my office and looked at my PC and said it is a piece of junk. He said he would smash it with a hammer.

I told him to get out of my office. I do not appreciate being insulted. He was rude. I had 2 of my employees in the office at the time which heard the whole thing. Desired Settlement: I am now being harrassed by a collection agency for the service fee of this person coming to my office and telling me he would smash my PC. I am not paying to be insulted.

Business

Response:

Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2013/04/19) */

Mr. [redacted] is unfortunately taking parts of a conversation out of context.

Mr. [redacted]'s company scheduled an appointment on 12/11/12 for 12/17/12 "Looking to have a defrag and check disk done on machine. Would like recommendations on new products."

Our technician was running late, due to his previous service call, and we called Mr. [redacted]'s company twice to let them know we were running late. They kept the appointment and told us to still come.

Upon arrival, the customer became very confrontational regarding the technician being late. We stated that the previous call took longer then expected and we needed to stay there until completion, just as we would do for him, and apologized.

The customer stated the computer was very slow. We immediately noticed the computer was quite outdated, and was running a newer version of Norton 360 and didn't have the memory/RAM or processing speed necessary to run it, which attributed to its extreme slowness.

We stated computers this age usually get replaced and recycled, especially when using it as a server. The computer was approx. 8 years old. He asked what we meant by recycling and we stated that we have computers at the shop that we recycle, and we usually "smash them up with a hammer"... hence the comment. We never told the customer we would smash his computer.

There were two other employees there with the customer. One said nothing, but the other stated his wife worked for an I.T. company and essentially was attempting to refute what our technician was stating with what he had been told from his wife.

We didn't get much further in diagnosing the computer, such as checking the health of the hard drive, identifying programs running in the background that shouldn't be, etc. The customer pointed at the door and demanded the tech get out of his office.

We have a one hour minimum. The customer was informed of this when we made the appointment. When we called indicating we were running late, the customer didn't cancel and still had us come out. Therefore, the customer was invoiced for the one hour charge.

Unfortunately, the customer, who we assume hired us to honestly and professionally diagnose and provide solutions to his computer issues, didn't want to hear our professional opinion.

If the customer would like to have us come back out to either clean up, upgrade, or replace his systems, we are more than happy to do so.

Consumer Response /* (3000, 7, 2013/04/25) */

(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT ACCEPT the response from the business.)

When I made the appointment on 12/11/2012 I informed the person that my PC was very old. They did not say they could not correct the situation because of age. They said no problem. Just because I am 69 years old I do not tell people to leave my office any no good reason. The tech did not say they destroy or recycle PCs with a hammer at their office. He is lying. He said that my pc should be smashed with a hammer. The office that made the appointment never mentioned they could not fix the problem. They just said yes they could fix the pc from being slow. I did not wait all afternoon to through him out of my office without doing what I needed. It appears to me they want to make this all sound so sweet on their part that nothing bad or insulting was said to me. I had to call their office the first time to find out where the tech was. He was over a hour late before I called them. They said he was on his way. One hour later they called again and said he was running late again. When he finally arrived he entered me office and looked at the pc which was on and said he would smash it with a hammer if that was his. I do not need somebody insulting me in my office when I am expecting them to be professional and doing work for me. Nobody ever said I could cancel the appointment like was suggested in the response. The tech was not in a good mood when he came in because he could not find the office.. They mention my pc did not have the memory/ram needed without looking at it. I have had work done in the past to upgrade it because of the pestware program I run cannot be installed on any newer units.

Review: I paid "On the fly" $63.79 dollars to diagnose my computer. They returned it in worse shape, and with the RAM missing.

When I dropped my computer off with "On the Fly Computer Guy" the only problem it had was that the battery wouldn't charge. They charged me 1/2 hour of labor to diagnose it and told me the motherboard was bad, and it would cost a lot of money to fix (I don't remember the exact amount). When I opted not to have it fixed, they charged me another 1/2 hour of labor to reassemble the computer. I paid the extra fee even though it seemed like reassembly should have been included in the original quote. The total bill was $63.79. When I got home, I realized the keyboard was no longer working. I was disappointed, but decided not to complain at the time because I wasn't going to get the motherboard fixed anyway. The bigger problem came about a month later. I had decided to sell the computer, and wanted to take the hard drive out first to keep my files and to protect my privacy (I couldn't wipe the drive because of the keyboard issue). When I opened up the back of the computer, I found that the 6gb of [redacted] that had been in the computer was missing, and had been replaced by only 2gb of [redacted]. I contacted the company over a week ago. They will not reimburse any of the fees despite returning my computer in worse shape than when I started. They did offer to "reseat" the keyboard, but under the circumstances, I think it is understandable that I don't want them touching it again (I have since fixed it myself. It turns out they had installed the keyboard cable upside down despite the word "UP" in large letters on the cable indicating how to install it). They continue to give me the runaround about the RAM. They claim they are "looking for it," but it has been over a week with no progress, and based on my phone conversations, I don't think they are looking very hard. They also refuse to acknowledge a difference between [redacted] and [redacted], and they keep talking about it in terms of the "missing 4gb of RAM" instead of the "missing 6gb of [redacted] RAM." However, the ram now in my computer is definietly different than the original. The old RAM was green,and the new one is blue. The new RAM is only 1066mhz, but the old was 1600mhz. The old one was an official [redacted] part, the new one is "hynix." An internet search also seems to indicate that even used [redacted] memory goes for more than the [redacted] brand modules.Desired Settlement: Refund and Replacement: Given the extreme mishandling of my computer, as well as the violation of my trust, I think it would be reasonable to expect that On The Fly Computer Guy refund the $63.79 I gave them to work on my computer, and also reimburse me the cost of 6gb of [redacted] certified replacement RAM for my computer, which costs $99.98 on the [redacted] website.

Business

Response:

[redacted] – Call #[redacted] / Invoice

# [redacted]

12/15/2014 2:31 PM - Customer dropped off a [redacted] Inspiron laptop complaining it would not

charge and the [redacted] on it intermittently drops.

12/18/2014 10:43 AM - Customer called for an update

12/18/2014 12:25 PM - Technician determined customer needed a new motherboard. Left message

at phone number provided.

12/18/2014 12:52 PM - Customer called back. We provided pricing for motherboard ($195 for used

or $300 for new... on the more expensive side of typical motherboard costs).

Customer was unsure he wanted to spend that kind of money on his computer. We discussed with him refurbished units we

have for sale and the possibility of him trading in his one for credit towards

another. Was going to think about it.

12/20/2014 2:48 PM - Customer informed us he did not want to continue with repair.

12/22/2014 9:37 AM - Customer called, confirmed he wanted it reassembled and asked us to

call when done.

12/22/2014 1:29 PM - Spoke to customer and let him know computer was ready for pickup

12/22/2014 2:34 PM - Customer signed workorder, paid invoice and picked up (see invoice).

2/5/2015 9:58 AM - Customer called (45 days later)

to state keyboard was not working and memory was missing.

2/5/2015 1:19 PM - Spoke to customer. Offered to have him bring back so we can check

keyboard and reinstall if necessary (no charge). Informed him we have no record

of memory chips being removed from computer but we will look just in case. Customer did not want to bring his laptop

back in.

[redacted]We charge $29.99 per half

hour for all in-store repairs to notebooks.

Mr. [redacted] diagnosis and reassembly took an hour, and that is why his

invoice was $63.79 (included tax).

When we work on any customer’s

computer, it is worked on in a specific area, on a specific bench, and all

parts stored in a tote for the duration of the repair. We also utilize labels

that are printed with our call number, the customer’s name, and the date to

mark the items brought in by the customer and any major components we remove to

insure they are not misplaced.

We have a rather robust

repair management system, and have no records of removing any memory modules

from his notebook. Although highly

unlikely, if we had removed them and if they were misplaced they would

typically be 1) labeled with his name, and 2) would show up as extras in

another customer’s repair tote or on another bench, where they clearly did not

belong. Additionally, the customer

states we lost not one memory module, but in fact two separate modules. Furthermore, he did not call us to make note

of the fact that they were evidently missing until 45 days after he had picked

up the system.

Upon him calling us we

offered to check our entire shop to see if we could find either of the memory

modules he claims we lost. None were found.

We can not verify that they were ever in his notebook when it came in

for repair, or that we removed them if they were. We can tell based on his system specs that the

computer was originally configured with 6GB of memory in 2012, but anything

could have happened between then and when it was brought in for repair in

December 2014. We are not saying that

something did happen, just that we can not verify it.

We also offered to check and

reseat his notebook’s keyboard if he liked at no charge. He said he was apprehensive about him bringing

the computer back in, so we therefore offered to do it in front of him while he

waited. He still declined.

We never saw the notebook

again after Mr. [redacted] picked it up in December, or after he called us in

February, so we do not know what condition it was in, what may have happened to

it in the 45 days he had it, etc., but we were happy to look at it for him at

no charge if he desired.

When he picked up the notebook

on 12/22/2014, he signed the workorder indicating he agreed and was satisfied with

the work done, and agreed to the associated charges, and paid his invoice (see

attached).

Even though a warranty does

not really apply to this repair, as the customer declined any repair, if it had

it would have been our posted 30 day warranty, which would have expired on

1/22/15. Even though he did not call us

until 2/5/15, we were still happy to look at the notebook for him to address

his concerns.

Considering the above and

the timeline of events, we are not going to arbitrarily refund Mr. [redacted] for

the service provided, and for which he signed for. Nor are we inclined to reimburse him for the

memory he states he had or would have to buy in order to sell the

notebook. We were not afforded the

opportunity to inspect the notebook to substantiate that he received it back in

“worse” condition or that the memory in it was installed by us erroneously, or

to correct the supposed issue with the keyboard. In the unlikely event we found after

investigation that we did indeed lose two of his memory modules, we would have

replaced the physical modules, and would not have reimbursed him for the cost

he claims he would have had to spend on new ones.

We would, however, still

offer to inspect the notebook and correct any discrepancies we can validate, even

now, if the customer so desires.

Consumer

Response:

Review: [redacted]

I am rejecting this response because the company still refuses to acknowledge that they either lost or stole my computer memory. The times I called they didn't seem to take my complaint seriously. They have offered to look at my computer, but won't replace my RAM unless they can "find" it in their shop. The missing RAM is the only problem with the computer that I need rectified (I already got the keyboard working myself), so looking at the computer doesn't seem related to my complaint. The fact remains that when I gave them my computer, it had 6gb RAM; now it only has 2gb of slower RAM. Nobody but them has touched the computer.I tried to keep an open mind about this being a mistake, but the fact that they claim they have no record of the RAM being removed, and that if they had removed it they would have tagged it with my name, further makes me suspect that this was a case of employee theft. But they seem to have no interest in admitting that this may have happened, or trying to do anything to rectify it. The keyboard being installed wrong (the side clearly marked "UP" facing down) may have been sloppiness, or it may have been an attempt to keep me from using the computer so I wouldn't notice the missing ram.This brings me to the reason for my delayed complaint. I had no reason to believe the RAM was missing, and because the computer was unusable, I had no way of seeing any change in performance, or a change in the listed RAM on the system info screen. Essentially, the theft was hidden from me, and I didn't discover it until I opened up the back of the computer when I was getting ready to sell it.In terms of the service fee, I can understand the company's reluctance to refund it due to my delayed complaint, and the fact that I had signed off on the work (I still think refunding it would be the right thing to do, but I can see their point of view on it). HOWEVER, it still bothers me that they won't do anything about the missing RAM, and don't seem to take my complaints about it seriously because their "system" would have prevented it from going missing.It is clear that I won't be getting my money or my RAM back. What bothers me more is they don't seem to believe/care that the RAM is missing. I only hope that the company decides to take my complaint seriously enough to really investigate what happened, so that they can prevent this from happening to other customers (assuming the company is not complicit in the theft, which I suppose is a possibility). I also hope that potential customers take note of my complaint, and use caution if they decide to use OnTheFlyComputerGuy despite my experience.

Sincerely,

Business

Response:

We do not take accusations of theft or employee misconduct lightly. We have been in business a long time, and we have internal controls to prevent this and to aid in investigating such accusations. We have on several occasions asked the customer to bring in the computer for inspection, so we can verify his claims. He refuses to do so. We have never seen the computer since it left our shop. We can not validate any of his claims. The memory he claims we lost or stole is of minimal value and would likely not be a target of employee theft. We can not just accept over the phone claims as truths without some level of verification and investigation. Short of that, there is nothing else we can do, especially considering the time that has passed.

Consumer

Response:

Review: [redacted]

I am rejecting this response because: the company wants me to bring in my computer but has failed to explain what that would accomplish. If the company is saying that they will replace the RAM (with specs identical to the original) once they see that it is missing, then sure, I will bring it in. But they haven't offered that. Up until now, the only offer has been to "look at it" and to reinstall the keyboard, which I have already done myself.