After learning that my son tried ""reinstalling windows"" to fix a virus infection he had gotten on our family computer I went into a state panicked. This kid knows just about as much about computers as I do - next to nothing. Sure enough, when I looked at the computer later that day the internet wasnt working and it would only boot up half of the time. I called Office Depot Tech Depot to get some help with my situation.
It was difficult, first, to get them to answer the phone and second, to talk to me patiently and explain the situation in language I could understand. I felt overwhelmed with technobabble that I did not understand and felt that I was being talked down to about the situation.
Im sorry im not a computer expert - I was explaining the situation the best I knew how - the internet wasnt working and it was having trouble starting at all! I arranged for one of their technicians to come to the house to check it out.
Long story short, the guy who came to assess the situation was very knowledgeable but was late and made fun of my son for having tried to reinstall windows. Not something you'd expect from such a large company that supposedly hired qualified, intelligent and helpful technicians.
The technician was able to switch everything back with some kind of disc, after about two hours. But, not only was he rude, but I was charged an incredulous amount of money for something the tech described as ""a quick fix"".
After he left I got online to check reviews for the company only to learn that plenty of people have had similar run ins with this type of service (I learned I should be thankful the guy even showed up at all, actually). Upon further reading, I found a company called Secure Remote Support which offers the same types of service as Tech Depot and called them out of curiosity to see what they would have charged for the same repairs. I was blown away when they quoted a fraction of the price of the company i'd just paid big bucks to. (You live you learn, right?)
I'm glad I've got my computer working. Sure, It cost a lot and I had to deal with the attitude of a smart mouth kid, but my computer WAS fixed. Office Depot TechDepot has been a reliable company for a few things but I assure you, never again will I turn to them for computer repairs unless it's a last resort. Since this incident, I've called on Secure Remote Support twice (Once for spyware removal, and once to recover some data I'd lost when the other tech reinstalled everything) and they always deliver top quality service. They even offered me a promotion on optimization that I took advantage of. I like going to a company that values their customers and takes pride in the work they do, and Im glad I've finally found that company.
Pros: on time
Cons: too expensive, uneducated
more