Complaint Review: MicroCenter Oceanside - Oceanside California

My sister and mother live in Oceanside so I visit frequently, mainly to help out taking care of my mom.  A while back I had a computer problem and brought it with me to Oceanside to have it taken care of there since I was staying for the weekend.  I asked my sister where I could take it and she told me, "Anywhere but MicroCenter!"  I asked her why and she said that the guy who worked there had the most abrasive personality she had ever encountered.  Admittedly he did take care of her issue but she said that she would never deal with him again.  I took her advice and ended up having it repaired in Carlsbad. 

The problem turned out to be a fan of some kind that is in the computer box.  The system kept on freezing which turned out to be an overheating problem.  I stated that it only took Fry's a few days turn around to repair my computer and for some reason Frank Roche wants to argue that in his reply to my original report.  I hope that anybody who thinks about visiting this man's shop can pick up on the 'tone' of his rebuttal. 

WARNING: Do NOT take any business to MiroCenter in Oceanside.  The owner Frank Roche is unreasonable, condescending, and just too plain rude for any nice folks to want to deal with. 

Thank you for your time.

George

There are a few problems with this "fake" report:

1) Fry's generally does no repairs in just a few days, usually its a week or more

2) It has taken this "person" a few months to post this claim of Computer Fraud

3) Since no transaction, no repair, no service at all happened at MicroCenter Oceanside, statements such as "Computer Fraud" could be considered legally actionable as libel.

4) No facts were stated, such as my nearly new Pentium 2 was scoffed at as too old to repair. (actually I cannot recall what type of system he had (or if he even came in the store at all), the Pentium 2 is simply an example of the type of information that would help add creditability to, or detract from his report).

5) He has no proof that he stopped in the store for anything, though many people stop in during a typical week and take a business card and then leave (my card has my name on it).

6) If he had a computer in need of service, and even if he had it repaired at Fry's, it would not be unusual for me to suggest to people that systems older than Pentium 4's may:
     a) Not be repairable due to lack of Pentium 3 and earlier parts availability (I NEVER use a used part unless there is no other option, & even then I really advise against used parts).
     b) Systems that are "repairable" may not be economically wise to repair, after all service rates at most reputable service counters in major population areas often approach 100.00 per hour, add any one hardware part and a hour and a seemingly simple repair can cost 200.00. Would you spend 200.00 fixing a broken system 5 or 6 years old?
     c) While a business case can be made for repair of some older systems, generally a business don't care about the system itself only programs and data, I regularly rescue dead/dying older systems for my commercial customers... sometimes that requires placing a new (or fully rebuilt version of the old system) system "under" the existing data.
     d) Most hard drives with some age (typically after 2 years and almost always after 3 years, and certainly (with occasional rare exceptions)  5 years and older are in some state of failure (Constant ECC failure, seek errors, power up issues, etc) and when an older system presents itself for any problem, I try to access the state of the hard drive (Spinrite fron GRC (www.spinrite.com) so as to advise the owner that even of repaired the underlying hard drive may be in a state of failure and that needs to be considered either as a part of the repair, a cause of the problem, a cause for the repair to "fail" and a possible reason why the repair might take longer than expected and thereby increase the cost of repair. (Hard drives with serious ECC failures and seek errors often cause such a slowdown in system performance that ANY action takes demonstrably longer than normal).
     e) Usually when a repair on a typical (read that as other than HIGH END) system is estimated to be 250.00 or higher I advise the customer (if they bother to stay and chat) that cheap mass produced branded (HP, Dell, Acer etc) systems are usually available from many sources (WalMart, Staples, Office Depot & others) for as little as 400.00 NEW with warranty on the entire system. It really doesn't matter that 2000.00 was paid for the 4 or 5 year old system, the 400 dollar ones have more, better, faster hardware than that old "Best one you could buy at the time" system, and that ought to be taken in consideration when deciding to repair of not.

7) No mention (other than a few year old) was made of the systems age, facts like the Version of Windows it runs, type of Pentium (or AMD) chip, was mentioned. (last week someone brought in a Windows 95 system running on an AMD 450 Mhz cpu with 64 Mb Ram for a repair estimate...and no these types of things keep turning up/

I can only use his own words to describe his actions in reporting this false allegation of Computer Fraud... major jerk.

MicroCenter Oceanside has been in business for nearly 20 years, and under the present owner for 7 years. Outlasting several area independent repair services, and enjoying a core group of repeat customers who constantly refer friends, relatives and acquaintances to MicroCenter Oceanside for trusted fair service and rates. The owner (the afore mentioned Frank Roche) has an extensive background in computer hardware and software. First learning Cobol, Fortran and Basic in 1970, later using "personal computers" before DOS (CP/m on CompUPro with Zilog Z80 CPU), transitioning to USA based Telephonic Technical Support for a company that developed and manufactured consumer retail software (they also sued Microsoft and won!), then to an even larger international software company as Manager, Quality Assurance and Manager Manufacturing process before taking over MicroCenter Oceanside.

MicroCenter Oceanside sees many systems "repaired" several times by other service agencies that are still broken, due to repair of the symptom rather that finding and fixing the root cause.

George I hope you are happy with the service you received at Fry's, I cannot say bad or good things about their service (I have never used it!) I can only say that at each Fry's and perhaps each time you may get a different tech of different degrees of skill and experience (by the way Fry's (and any other large retailer) goal (stated or unstated) is to separate as much of the money from the customer as possible. They have no interest in turning away revenue, and no issues in repairing an older system regardless of its chance of ongoing problems due to age.

Lastly there are those times when a customer presents in such a way that it feels better to not gain them as a customer. We have all heard of the folks that get their oil changed and then sue the mechanic cause the electric window breaks and "he was the last person to work on it so it must be his fault"... So while I do not remember this alleged visitor to the store, it is also possible that he seemed like one of those types.

Thanks to all that read this, and feel free to stop in and talk to a "major jerk" who can accurately diagnose your computer problem and isn't afraid to say "I don't think it is a wise investment to repair a system like this" after all Fry's can't afford to lose any revenue (look at the electric bill for one), but while I cannot either (from a financial standard) I cannot do otherwise from a personal moral standard. Also I believe I will make more money from a customer treated fairly than I can by taking EVERY opportunity to liberat a few dollars from a persons wallet,

Frank "major jerk" Roche (say goodbye George)

Exactly how old is the computer, what exactly did they repair and how much did you end up paying?